Sabor is the overarching antagonist in the 1999 Disney animated film, Tarzan and its 2005 midquel, Tarzan II and the posthumous overarching antagonist of its tv series The Legend Of Tarzan. She was introduced as the main enemy of the film's first act however after her defeat she is replaced by Clayton in the second act.
Appearances[]
Tarzan[]
In the opening song, "Two Worlds", Sabor's vivid eyes are seen as the leopard growls, and soon later when Kerchak and Kala are resting, their young baby is playing far off. Sabor chases him and kills him off-screen, leaving Kala horrified and she cries into Kerchak's arms. Later on, as the family is passing by the tree house that Tarzan's parents built, Kala hears a baby's cry and rushes to Tarzan's old tree house to investigate, finding it trashed and his parents' lifeless bodies, much to her horror. She finds the baby and cuddles him when Sabor suddenly leaps from a beam and attacks. As Kala escapes with on a lowering rowboat, she gets her foot caught on the ropes lowering the boat, and is hoisted up into the air, left dangling from the top of the tree house.
Sabor later appears in about the middle of the film, ambushing and attacking the gorillas. Kerchak tries to fight her, but he is no match for the leopard's speed and agility, and receives a wound to the chest. Before she can deliver the fatal blow, however, Tarzan comes in swinging on a vine, kicking the leopard backward. During the fight, Sabor scratches Tarzan's chest almost into his heart and also slashes off the tip of Tarzan's spear. The spear tip falls onto a flimsy covering of a pit and Tarzan heads after it and eventually grabs it. Sabor leaps down on the ape-man and they plunge into the pit, and the leopard is incidentally impaled with the head of Tarzan's shattered spear as the ape-man raises it against Sabor, finally killing the leopard. Tarzan then calls out the famous ape-man cry, as he lifts up Sabor's corpse, having avenged both his parents and Kala and Kerchak's baby.
The Legend of Tarzan[]
Sheeta, the discarded original Burroughs designation, was later used in The Legend of Tarzan show as the name for one of two black panthers that attack together (the name of the other was Nuru). Black Panthers are actually a color variety of leopards and they do exist in African jungles, although they seem to be rare. In a few episodes, Sabor has been mentioned. In some episodes of the series, Tarzan battles an unnamed leopard resembling Sabor. In "Tarzan and the Flying Ace", when Tarzan meets Jane's former childhood friend Robert Canler, Tarzan says that when he looks into Robert's eyes, he feels as if Sabor is looking back at him.
Tarzan II[]
Sabor made a brief appearance in Tarzan II, who chases a young Tarzan into a valley. she nearly kills Tarzan, but the sudden cry of the Zugor frightens the leopard off.
Video games[]
Kingdom Hearts[]
In Kingdom Hearts, Sabor serves as both a recurring enemy and a mini-boss for Deep Jungle. She can be encountered in four different areas, each time trying to kill Sora and his friends until the final encounter as a mini-boss. The battle occurs within a bamboo thicket, resulting in her defeat as the leopard stares into the sky for a brief moment before seeing the light and collapsing, meeting her end and leaving Sora with one of the leopard’s knocked out fangs.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Although Sabor's gender is never revealed in the film, the original Sabor in the Tarzan novels was female. In fact, Sabor was a name for all lionesses (Numa being the name for the male lions). In the Disney movie, Sabor was made into a leopard because lions don't actually live in the jungle. (Leopards are also the main and only natural predators to gorillas). Also, in Kingdom Hearts, Jiminy Cricket referred Sabor as a "he", which means Sabor is male. Sabor is a feline villain, much like Shere Khan and Scar. But unlike the first two, Sabor doesn't talk and shows no sentience. Like Scar, she did kill the main character's parents (Mufasa by Scar and Tarzan's parents by him/her).
- In the first film, Sabor was introduced as the main antagonist, but he/she was ultimately killed off to make way for the true main villain to take over.