In
“Tarzan and the Graveyard of the Elephants” a greedy king named Aga -- of the
distant city Navordia -- captures Tarzan to learn of the secret location of the
legendary graveyard of the elephants.
Tarzan
refuses to divulge the information, and bears witness to a city obscenely rich
with ivory.
The evil king then makes Tarzan fight a “great beast:” a woolly mammoth
called Bentor. Tarzan recognizes the beast as an “animal who belongs to an earlier time,” and seeks the help of
lions, apes and elephants to protect the graveyard.
King
Aga responds violently, burning the jungle to terrify the animals and make them
retreat. Tarzan will not back down, however. He fights the mammoth and defeats
the evil king. His elephants reclaim the
tusks stolen to decorate the city, and return them to the graveyard, which
remains “the greatest secret in the
jungle.”
The
graveyard of the elephants, a key element in the early Weismuller Tarzan films,
recurs in this episode of Filmation’s Legend of Tarzan series. As before, Tarzan is a zealous protector of
the graveyard’s location, and proves once more that he is a friend of the
animal kingdom.
Much
of the story’s theme is transmitted through the visuals.
Aga’s city is a decadent, terrible place, where elephant tusks – ivory –
are everywhere. There are ivory towers at the entrance, and dotting the roads.
Aga wears tusks on his helmet. We see
that the motif of the city is over-used, and unnecessary. They are a sign of extravagant wealth, a
decoration or affection.
The
wrong they represent is undone in the episode’s denouement, as the elephants
storm the city and show the (missing) respect for the dead. They take the tusks from the city, one at a time, and transport them...home.
It’s
fascinating too, that the monster of the episode is a Mammoth, another creature
with tusks that many people associate with elephants. Aga worships it as a God,
but Tarzan sees it for what it is: an angry animal. He talks respectfully to Bentor, and does not
kill him or harm him. He collapses a bridge so the animal can no longer
terrorize the innocent. In other words, Tarzan even shows his enemies respect, a characteristic which makes him a true hero (and role model).
Next
Week: “Tarzan’s Return to the City of Gold.”
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