The Baboons were minor antagonists from the Disney's 1999 animated film, Tarzan.
Background[]
The baboons are completely neutral beings, who are both fierce but noble. They are typically wild animals, who generally keep to themselves and have a desire to breed and colonize. When they mistook Jane for an infanticidal predator, they justifiably tried to eliminate her at all costs to ensure their babies' safety and take back whatever was taken from them, regardless of whether or not they took it first. In fairness, they had never seen a female human, so she must have alarmed them.
However, despite their fierceness, they are also aware of their own safety, as they were just as shocked as Tarzan and Jane when they crashed into a branch and when they all were heading to the bare edge of the tree they were on. They also can set aside their differences and help another species, not just to save themselves but because they genuinely care about the gorillas.
In the TV show, when they were attacking Tarzan and Jane's treehouse they ran off when they heard Tarzan's signature yell suggesting that they fear Tarzan.
Role in the film[]
They are first seen at the beginning of the film resting in trees and watching Kala as she runs across the jungle after hearing baby Tarzan's crying.
Later in the film, Jane Porter meets a baby baboon and tries to sketch him; however, the Baboon likes the drawing so much that it steals it, and when Jane tries to recover it, she is attacked by the entire troop of Baboons, who are angry with her for upsetting their young one. She runs as fast as she can as the baboons chase her down, and rips her dress in the process. Tarzan follows her and rescues her from the baboons. As Jane is running, she jumps off of a cliff but Tarzan grabs her skirt before she falls. She looks down and sees that she is flying and looks up at Tarzan. But they still chase them down and Jane loses one of her boots and umbrella during the chase. The baboons chase Tarzan and Jane and one eventually jumps on Jane trying to bite down on her head. She knocks it off but gets her umbrella caught on a vine. The baboons jump on Jane and Tarzan grabs her foot as she falls. Tarzan swings Jane onto a tree, where the baboons are closing in. They all fall into a huge hollow branch of a tree. The tree breaks and falls to the ground. Tarzan and Jane manage to land on another tree and the baboons flee. But in order to fully calm them down, Tarzan speaks with their leader (in ape language) and gives the drawing back to them, making the baby baboon happy again.
Jane later recounted the encounter with the baboons with her father and Clayton.
Later, the Baboons are among the wild animals summoned by Tarzan to fight against Clayton and his men. The baby baboon signals them to attack the thug that tries to attack Jane. This implies that they are not really evil, but rather extremely short-tempered and vicious, as are Baboons in real life.
The Legend of Tarzan[]
In the episode "Tarzan and the Lost Cub", the Baboons chase Terk and Tantor to Tarzan and Jane's Treehouse after a leopard cub they were babysitting messes with the Baby Baboon until they ran off after hearing Tarzan's yell.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Interestingly, the alpha male of the troop has traits common to both baboons and mandrills (for example, the brightly colored face), just like Rafiki.
- Professor Porter defined the baboons as Theropithecus baboonus. While this scientific name never existed in real life, the genus is real, and is today represented by the gelada (Theropithecus gelada) of the Ethiopian Highlands. (However, Theropithecus diverged from the genus Papio -- the true baboons -- around 4 million years ago.)
