Sabor

### Animators

Dominique Monfrey, Marc Eoche-Duval, Juanjo Guarnido, Zoltan Maros, Gontran Hoarau, Gizella Maros, Benoit Meurzec, Phirum Sou, Marc Tosolini and Xavier Villez

### Status

Deceased

**Sabor** is the central antagonist of the 1999 film Tarzan.

## Background

### Personality

Sabor is a dangerous, mysterious, aggressive, ferocious, destructive, and powerful leopard who is well known throughout the jungle. Notably, she is the only animal character in the film (other than the baboons) who never speaks, instead communicating with snarls and roars. In addition to being a stealthy predator, she was also extremely defiant and never backed down from a fight.

Sabor is one of the most lethal fighters in Disney to date: exceptionally deadly in battle and ruthless as a carnivore. While still a young adult, she killed and devoured the infant son of Kerchak and Kala, slaughtered both of Tarzan's parents, and fought Kala over the infant Tarzan, although Kala managed to escape with the baby. Approximately twenty years later, Sabor has not only lived a remarkably long life for a leopard but is still an incredibly lethal fighter. Not only did she defeat Kerchak, displaying incredible speed and agility, which gave the advantage over the gorilla's brute strength, but she came even closer to killing Tarzan than Clayton ever did, and it was only through accuracy was Tarzan able to kill the lunging leopard with the spear tip.

### Physical Appearance

Sabor is a large leopard with a slender, strongly built form that allows quick movement when hunting down prey. Clad in bright yellow fur with dark rosettes, she always displays a fierce expression with long, razor-sharp fangs and large green eyes.

## Film 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 treehouse that Tarzan's parents built, Kala hears a baby's cry and rushes to Tarzan's old treehouse to investigate, finding it trashed and his parents' lifeless bodies next to Sabor's bloodied pawprints, much to her horror. She finds the baby and cuddles him when Sabor suddenly leaps from a beam and attacks them both. As Kala escapes with Tarzan on a lowering rowboat, Sabor gets her foot caught on the ropes lowering the boat, and is hoisted up into the air, left dangling from the top of the treehouse.

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. However, before she can deliver the fatal blow, 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 her, finally killing the leopard. Tarzan then calls out the famous ape-man cry as he lifts up Sabor's corpse, avenging both his parents and Kala and Kerchak's baby.

### Tarzan II

Sabor made a brief appearance in Tarzan II, chasing a young Tarzan into a valley. Sabor nearly kills him at the edge of Dark Mountain, but the sudden cry of the Zugor frightens the leopard off.

## Television Appearances

### 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 colour 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.

## Disney Parks

### Disneyland Resort

Sabor is seen in Tarzan's Treehouse attraction. Guests walk up multiple steps until they come upon a small hut with everything wrecked, ripped, and broken. Sabor can be seen in the middle of it, with her mouth wide open in a crazed way.

### Shanghai Disneyland

Sabor is featured in Tarzan: Call of the Jungle, which reinterprets the film (and her final battle with Tarzan) as a ballet dancer.