Kaa (Disney)

"Trus-ss-st in me."

- Kaa's most famous quote "Oooh, my sinuss! You have just made a ssseriousss misstake, my friend. A very ssstupid... misstake. Look me in the eye when I'm speaking to you. Both eyes if you please. You have just sealed your doom."

- Kaa confronting Bagheera

Kaa is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 19th animated feature film, The Jungle Book and its sequel The Jungle Book 2. He is also a supporting antagonist later anti-hero in its 1994 live action film and the prequel television series Jungle Cubs.

He was voiced by Sterling Holloway in the original film, and by Jim Cummings in the prequel TV series and the 2003 sequel.

History
Kaa is a python who lives in the jungles of India. In both scenes in the film revolve around him attempting to eat Mowgli. Both times, he ends up getting pushed out of the tree he is in, banging his head on the branches and getting a knot in his tail.

This character marks one of several who was altered by Disney from the original short stories for the movie. In the original, Kaa is one of Mowgli's friends and mentors who helps him on multiple occasions, and is more of an anti-hero than a villain. While Kaa wants to eat Mowgli, he wants to do so simply to survive, and hates Shere Khan, who wants to kill the boy simply because of his hatred for mankind. However, due to his fear of the tiger, he never voices this to his face.

Like many fictional snakes, Kaa has the power to hypnotize by staring into his victim's eyes.

The Jungle Book
Kaa first appeared on a large branch where Mowgli and Bagheera are resting on for the night. Upon spotting Mowgli, Kaa attempts to hypnotize him into getting closer to his coils. However, Bagheera manages to brush this off, resulting an annoyed Kaa to hypnotize Bagheera, which bought Mowgli enough time to free himself and push the python off the tree in a humiliating way. Kaa angrily swears to get Mowgli next time.

Kaa eventually gets his second chance to hypnotize Mowgli again, but this attempt was foiled, ironically by Shere Khan, who came looking for the boy. Shere Khan's intereference allowed Mowgli to escape from Kaa's coils, and when Khan leaves without noticing, Mowgli pushes him out from the tree again and escapes. Realizing now that Mowgli is not worth the trouble, Kaa finally gives up and slithers away.

The Jungle Book 2
Kaa plays a smaller role in the 2003 sequel, though his role is as same in the original film. In the sequel, he first appears when Mowgli meets up with Baloo near the beginning of the film. Like before, Kaa attempts to eat Mowgli, but faces many accidents and injuries as he pursues them. Mowgli and Baloo remain unaware of Kaa's presence, and the two walk away unharmed.

Having enough of this, Kaa decides to focus his attention towards a little girl named Shanti. manages to corner and hypnotize the young girl. Before he can eat her, Shanti is saved by Ranjan, who pulls Shanti out of the way, beats up Kaa with a large stick which resulted in him swallowing down a large rock which Shanti was standing in and sends him sliding down a cliff to a coconut tree after Ranjan scares him.

Eventually, Kaa gets confronted by Shere Khan, who demands to know the location of Mowgli. Despite having no idea where Mowgli is, Kaa fearfully lies that Mowgli is in the local swamp to avoid the tiger's wrath, allowing himself to flee. He isn't seen again for the rest of the film, but is mentioned by Shere Khan when he arrives at the swamp where Mowgli is nowhere to be seen and angrily splashes the water after realizing that Kaa lied to him.

Jungle Cubs
Kaa appears as a young python in the animated series Jungle Cubs. In this series it shows that Kaa was originally friends with Baloo, Bagheera, and even Shere Khan. As a young snake, he has yet to master hypnosis, usually failing or hypnotizing the wrong creature by mistake. Kaa is more of the cowardly friend in the group, often being doubtful tagging along with Baloo and their friends on many adventures.

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
A far more menacing incarnation of the character appeared as a suppoting antagonist (later anti-hero) in the 1994 live-action film. In this film, Kaa serves King Louie, killing any intruders to the city when the orangutan clapped his hands 9 times to summon him. Kaa first appeared when he attacked Mowgli inside Monkey City by tackling him into the moat and attempted to drown him, but Mowgli wounded him with a bejeweled dagger, the python is then seen fleeing in a cloud of his blood.

By the time Mowgli returns to the city with the evil Britsh captain William Boone and Kitty, Kaa has fully healed from their prior confrontation. After defeating Boone, Mowgli flees with Kitty when he hears King Louie summoning the snake. Boone starts gathering as much treasure as he can, but suddenly notices that the monkeys have gone silent; Kaa suddenly appears and scares Boone into the moat, where the heavy load of treasure he is carrying weighs him straight to the bottom in a cloud of his own blood. Desperately trying to struggle free, Boone sees the skeletal remains of Kaa's past victims, just seconds before the python finally kills the evil captain.

The Jungle Book (2016)
In the 2016 live action remake of the 1967 film, Kaa, voiced by Scarlett Johannson, appears as the tertiary antagonist. In this incarnation, Kaa is female and very menacing as opposed to her original cartoon counterpart.

Trivia

 * Many fans believe Kaa is a female, but he's really a male.
 * Despite this, Kaa will be portrayed as a female in The Jungle Book (2016) and will be voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Kaa will be also achknowledged as a female in 2017's upcoming Jungle Book: Origins, where she will be voiced by Cate Blanchett, who also portrayed Lady Tremaine in Disney's CInderella (2015) and Irina Spalko in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
 * In the original Jungle Book, Kaa is originally a protagonist & one of the friends of Mowgli. However, this is change in the Disney version, in a belief that he will gain less popularity since snakes in those times when the movie was released were not accepted as protagonist since snakes are highly associated with The Devil in mythology & popular trope of villain.
 * However in Jungle Cubs, the TV series that appeared as a prequel to the original film has portrayed Kaa as based from his original counterpart and is seen to be originally friends with Baloo, Bagheera, Hathi, Louie & even Shere Khan.
 * Despite popular belief, Kaa is not Shere Khan's evil minion, as he does none of the tiger's dirty work, and the two apparently hate each other.
 * In The "Jungle Cubs: Born to Be Wild" DVD, there is a scene, where Kaa tries to eat Mowgli, before Baloo throws Kaa into a big hole. The fighting scene between Kaa and Baloo in the 2016 adaption, may have been inspired from the scene from Jungle Cubs.