Tarzan at The City of Gold (1976)
Episode 1 of Season 1 of Tarzan: Lord of the jungle
Filmation Associates
Yes, I know, not the best angle of Tarzan to see
Technique
The city of gold is the debut episode of the animated series from the famous jungle hero produced by Don Christensen, written by Len Janson and Chuck Menville.
The traditional animated cartoon was made on a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which was the standard resolution for television programming. The animation in most parts was done with rotoscope using as reference a bartender from the same street as the studio HQ. This was done not only to save time and costs, but also it was needed to translate with precision the art style of Burne Hogarth, who was one of the artists behind the Tarzan comic strips from the late 30's to 1947. With that, they managed to give that pacing action needed to bring to life our famous brave hero from the wild jungle.
Another element in hand of the studio was the use of stock footage (that means using some shots or sound effects repeatedly) to fill and connect scenes to preserve consistency, a practice that would persist in other shows until the late 2000's.
Representation
The film is an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's novels (and the first animated production of it), with some small changes with characters and setting. One of the elements that stands out in this version of our loin clothed hero is its focus on the different secret civilizations in the vast jungle that can be distinguished with their personality, principles and design.
Tarzan generally is a different kind of hero: no superpowers or special attributes that stands out from others. His only element of uniqueness is being raised on the jungle by a gorilla named Kala, who would teach him the ways of the wild. Tarzan himself is a representation of someone with leadership and commitment to help others, defying all kinds of challenges and standing strong to nature and human threats as well.
The episode starts with Tarzan rescuing a lady called Thea from a group of gorillas from the Bolgani Clan. Both protagonists would go on a quest to get back home, which is Athne, the City of Ivory. With a series of undesired circumstances, they both get arrested by soldiers from Zandor, the city of gold. In the way, a prisoner soldier named Phobeg would help them escape after Tarzan sparing his life in a combat led by the queen of this city.
The city of gold from its title would be a nice analogy to corruption from power and a negative reaction towards others outside the "bubble". Here, those with power and authority think that they are on the top, and see everyone outside the city as spies.
This represents how being closed to external comments can lead to an erratic thinking process where you are unable to learn new ways to see the world, repelling anyone who thinks different and declaring them as enemies or annoyances. If we go a bit further, the term "spy" can lead to a state of anxiety where one feels insecure of how others perceive him/her/them.
When Tarzan shows his skills and values, that would not put their feet on the ground, but that is enough to make them doubt their principles, even a little bit. But still, they refuse to change their mind once they see something surprising, trying to reduce everything as only a coincidence.
The effects on the people are different, and depends on how the person is. Some would still close themselves into their bubbles, and others would reflect from it and hear and learn from opinions and perspectives beyond their point of view.
This episode is a functional introduction to the worldbuilding and setting, even though there is few concepts shown in it. The reason is because of how effectively portrays Tarzan's principles and surroundings. It explains what is his iconic yell for, being to ask for help from his fellow ape friends, the distinguished perspectives of each character and culture, and how it catches your attention even to the end, letting you think that there are things beyond your horizon to explore in this series.
Reception
The complete series was available in Dailymotion, in a decent quality. But, it is uploaded by different people, and all the episodes seem to be scattered across the website, and also, the series would not appear recovered online or any other media until mid 2010's, which would say that the series got lost and seemingly forgotten, making it harder to find a worthy compilation list of this series.
Still, there are people who remembered the series and shown their appreciation to it, but it is not so talked among animation enthusiasts or historians, even there is no info about the series on the official websites of ERB and Tarzan.
The episode first aired on September 11th of said year (it was saturday), on CBS from 9:30 am to 10:00 am. Being a pretty new concept among audiences, it was well received by the time to the point it would be considered inside the super 7 shows, which would be a honorary title from that time, at least inside the studio.
That would make the series to receive special broadcast times alongside other series and cartoons from Filmation such as The new adventures of Batman and Lone ranger, which would extend their time on screen up to an hour. This series would continue for four seasons and their broadcasting would continue until 1984.
Nowadays, it is not so heard or talked about, it can be attributed to the series not being so outstanding as other saturday morning cartoons for today's standards. But, it is not considered a bad series, still for today, this series is considered the most accurate depiction of Tarzan, and was one of the most clever ones to take advantage over the censorship statements from the time, having more ways to generate genuine action without using direct violence.
As a fun fact, Disney's Legend of Tarzan is longer than Lord of the Jungle for three episodes (39-36)
References for this research
George W. Woolery (1983), Children's television, the first thirty-five years, 1946-1981, Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, pages 282-285, November 20th 2024, https://archive.org/details/childrenstelevis0000wool/page/282/mode/2up
Jim Korkis (2021), The animated Tarzan, November 20th 2024, https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-animated-tarzan/
Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Tarzan Series, November 20th 2024, https://www.edgarriceburroughs.com/series-profiles/the-tarzan-series/
Kip Smith (2018, 1976 first broadcast), Tarzan Lord of the Jungle - s01e01 - Tarzan and the City of Gold, November 20th 2024, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3x4fex
Internet Movie Database, Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle, November 20th 2024, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149533/
TV Tropes, Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle, November 21st 2024, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/TarzanLordOfTheJungle
Skooldays, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, November 21st 2024, https://www.skooldays.com/categories/saturday/sa1746.htm
Tarzan Movie Guide, Tarzan TV, November 21st 2024, https://www.tarzanmovieguide.com/tarzan_tv.htm
Dan Greenfield (2024), THE ARTISTS WHO MADE TARZAN GREAT: A 95th Anniversary Salute, November 21st 2024, https://13thdimension.com/the-artists-who-made-tarzan-great-a-95th-anniversary-salute/
Widescreen, Aspect ratios and camera formats, November 21st 2024, https://widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml