Articles by Antoni Matteo Garcia

Hello, once again! Antoni, here, with another piece of fan art. As you can see in my picture, it’s Basuli from The Legend of Tarzan, Simba from The Lion King and, of course, Tarzan himself or as I would like to call them, The Wild Jungle Brothers. Their commanding presence, strong bond as brothers, well-built muscles, extraordinary combat prowess, and superhuman athletic abilities are enough to leave any poacher, marauder, destroyer, and/or traitor quaking at the sight! So, don’t mess with these badass, muscular warrior bros.   There is no doubt that I love both Disney’s The Lion King, plus its sequel, bits and pieces of The Lion Guard, and a bit of Lion King 1 1/2, and Tarzan, as well as the television show following the movie, The Legend of Tarzan. When it comes to jungle-themed animated installments, a crossover between these two actually seems wonderfully plausible. They are both set in Africa, albeit in different countries, and they balance action with a bit of romance, friendship, and humor. Plus, having a crossover between Basuli, Tarzan, and Simba seems like the stuff of legends because of their overall heroism and the fact that they are super strong Alpha males in their own special ways.   To make this fun, for those of you reading and taking a gander at my piece of fan art, I would like to invite you to comment some captions for Basuli, Simba, and Tarzan respectively. The floor is yours and I hope you have fun with commenting your captions.   Ever since I was a nine-year-old boy, I was really psyched to see that there was a television continuation of Disney’s Tarzan in the form of The Legend of Tarzan. Even when I was in Hong Kong in a bookstore, I read the original tale by Edgar Rice Burroughs and was actually fascinated that there were actually humans that came to Tarzan’s side of the jungle headed by Chief Mbonga and his son, Kulonga, who ended up killing Kala with his poisoned bow and arrow. This action then leads Tarzan to avenge his foster mother’s death by hanging Kulonga in a tree and stabbing him in the heart with his hunting knife. Eventually, my curiosity was further aroused when I saw a teaser containing an actual African native in the show, something that the 1999 film did not really show. As I watched the show itself, I found out that the African native’s name was Basuli, who is a member of the Waziri tribe.   It was from Basuli’s debut episodes, “Tarzan and the Poisoned River Parts 1 and 2”, did I start developing a secret crush on not only him but Tarzan too. If you were in my place and a nine-year-old boy, I am sure you would’ve been ashamed at telling your parents that, but for a girl, it would be no problem. Anyways, as he made further appearances in “Tarzan and the Fountain” and “Tarzan and the Eagle’s Feather”, I grew to love the brotherly relationship these two have. So much so, that I am convinced that Tarzan’s biological parents should have gone to the Waziri tribe’s area, though they would have ended up being brutally murdered by Sabor the leopardess, and it would be up to Chief Keewazi to raise the orphan boy as his own alongside his biological son, Basuli, thus having both boys be brothers.   There are definitely highlights from Basuli and Tarzan in the TV show, and those were: the pair of them wrestling each other before Chief Keewazi stops the commotion and introduces Tarzan to the Waziri village, the double roar Basuli and Tarzan gave to the greedy mine owner Ian McTeague, which was their shining moment of all time, and the whole race for the eagle’s feather for Basuli to marry the lovely Naoh. It was a major shame that Basuli was only featured in a total of four episodes because I truly love him as a character and I wish more of him would have been fleshed out. Sure, Tarzan’s, Terk’s, and Tantor’s relationship is basically on the best friends level, but with Tarzan and Basuli there is truly something deeper akin to brotherhood because of how they compete with each other, have certain fights, and, of course, their superhuman physical capabilities, which made that one scene in “Tarzan and the Eagle’s Feather” where Basuli and Tarzan were running, gliding, vine-swinging, and tree-surfing before they find themselves in a strong river stand out to me so much. Special acknowledgment also has to go to Phil LaMarr, who did an amazing job at capturing Basuli’s proud and mighty nature, as well as having an irresistible vocal presence, which, in turn, was applicable in giving Basuli his signature swagger.   Even though Tarzan and Simba are from completely different installments, fanfic authors and fan artists find it great to have these two characters interacting with each other. Whether it’s them being good friends or almost akin to brothers or even having Tarzan live in Simba’s area, there are a lot of possibilities of how their relationship can be handled. There was a really good piece of fanfiction called Tarzan of the Lions that I really enjoyed reading during my time as a nineteen-year-old in film school. Unfortunately, the fanfic got deleted by the author himself, as he wanted to focus on writing more original stories or fanfics that are not totally beat per beat with original movies. I forgot who wrote it but it’s safe to say that it’s Tarzan meets The Lion King with the first half having The Lion King’s musical number and the second half being more Tarzan-focused. In that story, Mufasa served as Kerchak, an OC by the name of Uzuri served as Kala, although I would’ve wanted Sarabi to take on the Kala part and have Simba and Tarzan be brothers, Scar is an amalgamation of Tublat and Sabor, and Timon and Pumbaa are still themselves but with hints of…