The
third Filmation Tarzan episode is titled “Tarzan and the Golden Lion.”
You
may recognize that name if you are a fan of the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books.
Tarzan, in that story, befriends a golden cub, and raises it to adulthood. The
lion then becomes something like a family pet, always loyal to Tarzan and his
son and wife. The character of the “golden lion” recurs throughout the book
series, following his first appearance in the ninth book. In the stories, he is known as Jad-bal-ja.
The
Filmation episode that shares the book’s name is basically a two-part show.
The
first part of the episode features N’Kima and Tarzan encountering the cub, and
raising it to adulthood as a trusted friend. We see Tarzan teaching the lion in
a kind of training montage. Apparently, years pass as it grows to maturity.
The
second portion of the episode involves a group of gorilla-men who have taken
N’Kima’s monkey friends as slaves.
Tarzan follows them to their kingdom to free them, and finds that these ape
men are also enslaving a race of meek humanoids. These (speaking...) apes are known as the Bolmangani.
Tarzan
teaches the primitives to fight, and that they are “slaves” to their
fears. When Tarzan is captured, one of
the humanoid children leads a campaign against the ape-men, and the golden lion
also arrives with reinforcements from the jungle.
I
have to confess, I really loved this episode, especially the portion about the
golden cub, Jad-bal-ja, at the beginning. The mother lion has died, and Tarzan notes that “Death
is no stranger to the jungle.” He then
shows mercy and compassion for the lion, and there are lovely shots of him
playing with the cub, training, it and, more importantly, living with the lion,
and treating him as a friend.
The
second part of the episode is as dogmatically moralistic as any Filmation show
you can think of, with Tarzan lecturing the primitives about standing up for
themselves.
It’s a good message (“sometimes we must face our fears to do what
is necessary,”) and the end is exciting, with the golden cub showing up
with a stampede to stop the ape men.
Oh man, I so remember this episode! Classic.
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