The Velociraptors are dinosaurs from Pellucidar and recurring antagonists in The Legend of Tarzan.
Appearances[]
The Legend of Tarzan[]
In the episode "Tarzan and the Hidden World", Tarzan shows to Jane and his father a hidden land beneath Africa called Pellucidar where dinosaurs are still living, followed by Samuel T. Philander. Shortly after their arrival, two Velociraptors emerge from bushes and attack them. Tarzan attempts to fight them, but the dinosaurs are too ferocious so he flees in order to lead them away from his friends. While Tarzan is swinging on vines pursued by the Velociraptors, one of them manages to cut his vine, making him fall on a Triceratops. Seeing the giant beast, the two Velociraptors quickly retreat.
The Velociraptors reappear in the episode "Tarzan and the Beast from Below" as the main antagonists of the episode. Long after the expedition in Pellucidar, a Velociraptor finds the rope with which the group came and climbs it. Arriving in the jungle, he meets Terk and attacks her, but she manages to flee away. At night, he attacks Tantor and Archimedes Q. Porter at the camp, provoking a glue explosion. Fortunately, they too manage to flee away. The following day, the Velociraptor encounters a leopard and kills him, then he goes to the treehouse. He climbs the tree and arrives in front of Terk, who takes refuge in the house. However, the Velociraptor easily breaks down the door and attacks Terk and Jane. Before he devours them, Tarzan arrives and confronts him. He manages to push the dinosaurs at the bottom of the tree, but the latter survives to the fall and leaves. Later, Tarzan and the others prepare a net trap, but Terk is accidentally caught in the net. Then, the Velociraptor arrives and fights against Tarzan while Terk flee away. Tarzan tries to lure the dinosaur to Pellucidar, but he doesn't follow him and leaves. He encounters Terk who unintentionally traps him in the net, then Tarzan binds him with a vine. Soon after, Tarzan brings the Velociraptor back to Pellucidar, however the reptile frees himself and makes Tarzan fall with him. Terk descends in order to help his friend, but the Velociraptor is joined by many congeners and they surround the two. Tarzan battles them valiantly with a stick, and finally Terk succeeds to convince the pack to not eat them. Terk and Tarzan then leave Pellucidar and begin to block the entry, but the Velociraptor climbs the rope once again and gets his head out of the entry, scaring away Terk. Before he gets out entirely, Tarzan and Tantor manage to block the entry for good.
Trivia[]
- They are much larger than real-life Velociraptors and lack the feathery coating we know all raptors possessed.
- It is possible that these Velociraptors were inspired by the raptors in Steven Spielberg's 1993 blockbuster film Jurassic Park, which were also heavily inaccurate and lacked feathers.
- In real life, Velociraptors were native to what is now northern China, not Africa.
