As Sora and company travel, they come across a jungle-filled planet. Sora wants to land on it in the hopes of finding his friends, but Donald refuses, as there's no way King Mickey would be in the jungle. In his haste and determination, Sora accidentally causes the Gummi Ship to crash.
Sora lands in a wooden treehouse, where he is ambushed by the leopard Sabor. The leopard nearly overpowers Sora before a wild ape-like man saves him. Grateful, Sora asks him if he has seen Riku and Kairi, briefly hallucinating her. The ape-like man introduces himself as Tarzan, and takes Sora down the Deep Jungle.
Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy crash at a campsite, where they stumble upon a Gummi block. Just then, they are approached by a hunter...
Tarzan takes Sora to the campsite, where the young Keyblade wielder is introduced to gorilla scientist Jane Porter and the hunter, Clayton. Goofy is overjoyed to reunite with Sora, but Donald and Sora are still bitter with each other. As Tarzan is unfamiliar with human culture, Jane asks Sora to collect a series of slides to help them communicate. Among the slides is one of a castle that Sora finds familiar. Dissatisfied, Sora decides to meet the gorillas to get info on Riku and Kairi's whereabouts, so Tarzan leads the group to their hideout on the treetops. There, Tarzan talks to his adoptive parents, Kerchak and Kala, but Kerchak is unwilling to expose his home to danger.
Meanwhile, Clayton goes hunting for gorillas and nearly kills Tarzan's friend Terk before Donald intervenes. A frustrated Clayton then vents his frustration and desire to hunt down every gorilla, summoning Heartless in the process. The Heartless, feeding on Clayton's rage, begin abducting the gorillas, forcing Sora to save them all over the jungle and even battle and defeat Sabor for good.
Eventually, Sora and company corner Clayton, who has now become corrupted and accompanied by the Stealth Sneak. They manage to defeat Clayton, who is crushed by the Heartless. With this, Sora earns Kerchak's trust and enters a grove behind a waterfall, where a Keyhole awaits. As Tarzan expresses grief on how Clayton lost himself and his heart to the Heartless, Sora seals the Keyhole, and Donald and Sora apologize to each other before the three depart for the next world.
Meanwhile, back in Maleficent's base, a few of her minions wonder why the Heartless attacked the mostly peaceful Deep Jungle, and are concerned that Sora has sealed a Keyhole. She explains that Clayton's darkness lured the Heartless there, but is confident that Sora will take ages to find the other Keyholes and is unaware of her real agenda: the Princesses...
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Tarzan laments that Clayton has lost himself to the Heartless, noting how without anyone to turn to, he had fallen.
- Arc Villain: As in the film, Clayton.
- Developer's Foresight: Normally, you're supposed to have beaten this world after Wonderland, so Alice is the Princess of Heart stumbling upon Maleficent's meeting. But if you beat this world before visiting Wonderland, it's Snow White who does that instead.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Hollow Bastion, the villains' base and Kairi's homeworld, appears among Jane's slides.
- Easter Egg: As in the film, there's a teapot and a chipped teacup at the campsite, resembling Mrs. Potts and Chip from Beauty and the Beast. Doubles as an Early-Bird Cameo, as those two would later show up for real in Kingdom Hearts II.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Tarzan, as per the film, is fluent in the gorilla tongue; when he speaks to the gorillas, we hear it as fluent English. His actual grasp on English is still Hulk Speak.
- Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: Tarzan frequently grunts a gorilla word that's rendered as "*&&X%". Jane later figures out it means "heart."
- Foreshadowing: Two for Kairi's heart being inside Sora's.
- When Sora asks for Kairi's whereabouts, he briefly hallucinates her. Immediately afterwards, Tarzan grunts, "*&&X%, friends here." It later turns out "*&&X%" means "heart", so he was trying to say, "Friends in [Sora's] heart", foreshadowing that Kairi's heart is inside Sora's.
- The Early-Bird Cameo of Hollow Bastion, which Sora notes to be familiar. That's because it's her homeworld.
- Gender Flip: In the original film, Sabor's gender is never made clear, but is confirmed by
Word of God to be female. According to Jiminy's Journal, this version is male. - Grind Boots: Well, tree-surfing, but Sora ends up rail-sliding on a giant tree with Tarzan.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first time Sora fights Sabor, she will overpower him even if he manages to defeat her.
- Hollywood Chameleon: The Stealth Sneak.
- Never My Fault: Clayton is trying to hunt the gorillas, but when his actions nearly get him spotted, he claims it was Donald's fault.
- Translation Convention: When Tarzan speaks to the gorillas, we hear it as him speaking fluently in English. Sora and company don't understand it, as Goofy asks if Donald does.
