Kala

―Tarzan to Kala

**Kala** is one of the major characters in Disney's 1999 animated Tarzan film. She is the adoptive mother of **Tarzan** and is the gorilla mate of **Kerchak.** Kala adopted Tarzan after her and Kerchak's baby died because of the fierce leopard, **Sabor**, who had also killed the parents of young Tarzan from their treehouse.

## Background

### Personality

Kala is a very mother-like person to her adoptive son, Tarzan, so much, although she knows that Tarzan will never be able to replace the son/daughter that she lost.

Kala is usually seen to be calm and gentle, though at the beginning of the film Kala showed some aggression to Sabor, when he tried to kill baby Tarzan. When her mate, Kerchak, still lived, Kala and Kerchak would usually disagree with each other, thinking they know what's best for their troop. But despite this, she and Kerchak love each other.

### Physical Appearance

Kala looks like an average female gorilla with slightly dark fur, along with a pair of brown eyes.

She also has light tan skin, which is visible in her toes, the sole of her feet, her palms on the hand, face, and her stomach.

## Appearances

### Tarzan 1999

In the first original movie, Kala is shown to be a member of the gorilla troop, with her mate Kerchak, who is the leader of the pack.

At the beginning, it is shown that Kala and Kerchak have a baby gorilla, which they loved so much, (Two Worlds). Although, their baby was killed by Sabor when he went exploring in the middle of the night without his parents. The moment Kala saw her child being murdered by the leopard, she immediately felt hurt. Kala then sobs in her mate's comforting arms that night.

The next day, while the troop was going somewhere, Kala heard a baby's cry. At first, she was confused, not knowing what that sound could be, but upon following its source, she was able to find a treehouse. It was the treehouse that Tarzan's parents had built. Kala entered the treehouse, and saw some items that she was not familiar with, she then spots the source of the cries, and sees the dead corpses of baby Tarzan's parents, along with some blood marks.

Kala then feels sympathy for Tarzan, as he is now alone, and just then, Sabor leaps in to try and kill Tarzan, too. Kala shows aggression to fight Sabor off. After Kala escapes from Sabor, Kala goes back to their camp, where everybody was looking for her, including Kerchak, who was not happy when he saw Kala with a human baby.

Kala and Kerchak end up arguing about whether keeping Tarzan or leaving him back in the treehouse, in which Kala won by keeping Tarzan as her adoptive son. She then names the baby, Tarzan. Although she knows that Tarzan will never be able to replace the child she lost, she still decided to care for Tarzan (You'll Be in My Heart).

As Tarzan grew up, he felt different from all the other gorillas. One day, while Terk, Kala's niece, and some of her friends played, they unintentionally caused Tarzan to cause an elephant stampede by asking for an elephant's hair. When Kerchak saw the cause of the stampede, which was Tarzan, he was furious, but Kala began to defend Tarzan, by saying he was just a kid, but Kerchak tells her that Tarzan will never be one of the gorillas, causing Tarzan to run away, disappointed.

When Kala was able to find Tarzan sobbing in the lake and putting mud all over his face, Kala tells her son that they are not that different from each other, like their eyes, hands, feet, and so on. This causes Tarzan to feel better and he decided that he would want to be the best gorilla of all time (Son of Man).

Tarzan, now a grown adult, began to slowly prove himself worthy of being a gorilla, as when he was able to kill the fierce leopard that killed his parents, Sabor. While Tarzan was fighting Sabor, Kala felt worried for her son's safety, but soon felt relieved upon seeing that her son had survived and defeated the enemy.

Later on in the movie, Kala and Terk find out that Tarzan had been hanging out with some human explorers. While the rest of the gorillas trashed the camp, Kala, alongside Kerchak, led Tarzan away from the camp. Kerchak then reprimands Tarzan for not protecting the family and wanting to stay with humans instead. In which, Kala tells Tarzan to just listen to Kerchak for once, but Tarzan disagrees and continues to visit Jane and her father. Although, Tarzan would always go back to the camp everyday, Kala would do nothing and just watch Tarzan go worriedly.

One day, Kala is surprised to see that Tarzan brought some visitors (Jane, Archimedes, and Clayton) to their nest while Terk and Tantor led Kerchak away for a little while. She then begins to trust Jane as she watches her play with some baby gorillas, with Tarzan helping Jane speak gorilla. But when Kerchak arrives, enraged, Kala did not expect Tarzan to hold Kerchak down, which leads to Tarzan running away because he thought that he was not a good gorilla. Upon spotting her son, Kala then shows Tarzan the treehouse where she had found him, and tells Tarzan that she supports his decision, whatever it may be.

Tarzan chooses to go to London with Jane, whom he has come to love, and he sadly says goodbye to Kala, reassuring her that she will always be his mother. After he leaves, Kala, along with the other gorillas, is captured by Clayton, who had secretly intended to capture the gorillas to sell. However, Tarzan soon arrives, and with assistance from Jane, Mr. Porter, Terk, Tantor, along with a group of animals, rescue Kala and the gorillas and defeat Clayton. Unfortunately, Kerchak is shot by Clayton during the fight and is fatally wounded. As he dies, Kerchak apologizes and accepts Tarzan as his successor. Tarzan chooses to stay in the jungle, alongside his gorilla family. Jane and her father also stay and are accepted by Kala and the other gorillas. The final scene shows Kala receiving flowers from Jane and Tarzan.

### Tarzan II

The midquel, *Tarzan II*, goes in-depth into Tarzan's childhood. One night, at bedtime, before and after explaining to Tarzan about how different certain families can be, she ticklishly plays with his toes.

An accident leads Kala to assume that Tarzan had died, much to her devastation. Later on, she learns that Tarzan has survived but has run away, as he had overheard some gorillas talking about how glad they were that he was gone and thought that they did not need an outcast like him anymore. Kala goes on a journey to find him.

She finds Tarzan at the home of Mama Gunda, another female ape. Kala is able to convince Tarzan to come home, but she is attacked by Gunda's son, Kago. Thankfully, Tarzan is able to rescue her, which helps Tarzan to realize that he is part of the family, Kala then happily returns home with Tarzan.

### Tarzan & Jane

Kala has no storyline or lines to say in the sequel movie. She only appears once when Jane came back home to the treehouse and found Tarzan had a surprise for her.

### The Legend of Tarzan

n the series, *The Legend of Tarzan*, Kala serves as an advisor to Tarzan.

A sympathetic ear when Tarzan needs someone wise to talk to, Kala acts as the voice of the apes, always reminding Tarzan of his unique obligations to the family. Despite Kerchak's death, she is highly respected for her wisdom. She is also Jane's closest confidant. The two share a warm, strong bond, and Jane regards her mother-in-law as her only kindred spirit in the jungle.

From Kala's point of view, Jane is the human daughter she never had.