Kerchak and Kala's baby is a minor character in Disney's 1999 animated feature film Tarzan. He was the son of Kerchak and Kala.
Quick Answers
What role does Kerchak and Kala's baby play in Tarzan's story?
What happens to Kerchak and Kala's baby in the film Tarzan?
How is Kerchak and Kala's baby introduced in Tarzan?
What is the significance of Kerchak and Kala's baby in Tarzan?
How does Kerchak interact with his baby in Tarzan?
Appearances
Tarzan
The gorilla is first seen during the song "Two Worlds" and the beginning of the film, where he crawls from his mother and Kerchak's arms. He sees a chameleon. The gorilla almost falls out of the nest, but his father stops him. He then plays with his father by climbing up his back and sliding off. He runs to his mother Kala and rubs her nose with his and then tosses him into the air.
One night, as Kerchak, Kala, and the other gorillas sleep, the gorilla notices a red frog hopping by and wanders away from his parents, chasing the frog deep into the jungle, unaware that the ferocious leopardess, Sabor, is out hunting. When the hungry leopard spots the gorilla, she roars ferociously and begins to chase him. The gorilla tries to race back to his parents, but Sabor catches him and devours him off-screen.
Kerchak and Kala hear their son's screams as he is being eaten alive and race to try to save him, but Kerchak realizes it is too late, so they have no choice but to give up. Heartbroken, Kala sobs on Kerchak's shoulder at the loss of their child.
Sometime after, as Kerchak moves the troop to another home, Kala hears a human baby crying, leading her to a treehouse, where she finds the baby under a little blue blanket in the corner whose parents (laying dead on the floor under a plank of wood) were also killed by Sabor. Though Sabor is still inside the treehouse and gives chase, Kala manages to save the baby and escape Sabor. When Kala brings the baby to her family and asks Kerchak if she can keep him, Kerchak, after many disagreements finally agrees, while claiming that he will not replace the baby they lost previously.
Kala names the baby boy Tarzan. Even though Tarzan and Kala's biological son never meet, in a sense, they are technically adoptive brothers. His death, along with the deaths of Tarzan's parents, are avenged by Tarzan when Sabor is finally killed.
Trivia
- In the original novel, the character is the son of Kala and Tublat. He died when Kala tried to flee from Kerchak, in one of his fits of rage; Kala accidentally dropped him while escaping. She carried his corpse with her, until she came across Tarzan. Taking in the human baby, she left the remains of her own child in Tarzan's crib.
- The playful curiosity is what eventually led to his death, and it was actually foreshadowed the first time we meet him. First, he notices and curiously reaches for a chameleon, nearly falling out of his nest high in the trees in the process, but luckily Kerchak was there to intervene and catch him. Unfortunately, the babies curiosity gets the best of him for a second time when he notices a frog and is able to chase it deep into the jungle with no intervention from anyone this time, leading to the infant's deadly encounter with Sabor.
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