Here's an interesting note...in the old Tarzan comics he had a small monkey companion named N'kima. N'kima was there mostly for humorous purposes, but he also proved handy as a lookout to watch for danger (never far away in a Tarzan story). N'kima was quite small and cute, very paranoid and panicky, and added a good deal of interest to the stories.

Hollywood then decided to change N'kima into an immature chimpanzee called Cheetah. This was idiotic. Who would name a chimpanzee "Cheetah"? It makes about as much sense as naming him "Tiger" or "Panther", after all.

I suspect the decision was based on 2 things:

1. They had a trained chimp handy already at the studio, but not a trained monkey.

2. They figured the American public was too stupid to remember or relate to a name as complicated as N'kima, but would be very comfortable with a word they already knew...Cheetah...and wouldn't care that it was the name of a large cat.

Pitiable, that's what it is...

- LH