Kaa (Disney)

"Trust in me."

- Kaa's most famous quote. "Oooh, my sinus! You have just made a serious mistake, my friend. A very stupid... mistake. 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 full-length animated feature film The Jungle Book, and its sequel The Jungle Book 2. He is also an anti-hero in its 1994 live action film and the prequel television series Jungle Cubs.

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

Personality
Kaa is sly, crafty, seductive, unscrupulous, and intelligent, speaking with a soft, often entrancing tone to either lure his victims into a weary and dreamlike state or manipulate them into bestowing their trust, thus allowing him to devour them unexpectedly. He furthers this by the use of his iconic ability to hypnotize his prey with his eyes, rendering them enchanted and under his command. A powerful and dangerous ability, Kaa is a feared member of the jungle, as evidenced by his interaction with the often composed and fearless Bagheera. However, such fear does not resonate with the unofficial ruler of the jungle, Shere Khan the tiger, who Kaa holds a disliking for, believing the act of killing for pleasure, as opposed to survival, to be extremely treacherous and dishonorable. The two beasts are often at odds, though Shere Khan views Kaa as an "eyes and ears" of the jungle, relying on him to assist his quest in finding Mowgli at one point in the film, though Kaa was manipulative, so he was able to steer even Khan in the wrong direction, further showcasing his intelligence.

While not as cruel, traitorous, and bloodthirsty as Shere Khan, Kaa is still a fairly villainous and materialistic character. His first attempt to devour Mowgli was a casual means to eat and survive, but over time, his goal to eat the man-cub was mainly driven out of spite, evidenced by his lines "Just you wait 'till I get you in my coils!". Furthermore, he is perfectly willing to kill those who get in the way of his meals, as seen when he sadistically tormented, and nearly killed, Bagheera.

Though calculating, dangerous, and cunning, Kaa is not without his faults, as he can be clumsy and easily sidetracked from his primary objective: to kill and eat Mowgli. This results in his interactions with the man-cub to often end in humiliation to some degree.

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 on tagging along with Baloo and their friends on many adventures.

The Jungle Book (1967)
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 interference 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 wanting to eat Mowgli. 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. He 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.

Movies and Television

 * House of Mouse - Kaa appears several times in the television show, being threatened by Shere Khan and trying to eat Mowgli.
 * He appears as one of the many villains in the TV movie Mickey's House of Villains, even getting a solo part in the song, "It's Our House Now!".
 * Who Framed Roger Rabbit - A snake closely resembling Kaa appears at the end of the film, though the movie takes place before The Jungle Book was released.

Video game appearances

 * Kaa appears as a villain in The Jungle Book Groove Party.
 * Kaa appears as an add-on accessory to a costume weapon in Disney Universe.

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
A far more menacing incarnation of the character appeared as a supporting antagonist (later anti-hero) in the 1994 live-action film. In this film, Kaa serves King Louie and the Bandar Log, killing any intruders to the city when the orangutan clapped his hands nine 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 British 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 for good.

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 far more menacing than her original cartoon counterpart.
 * See: Kaa (The Jungle Book 2016)

Disney Parks

 * In Disneyland, Kaa appears in Mickey and the Magical Map and Fantasmic!.
 * In Walt Disney World, Kaa appears in Celebrate the Magic.
 * At Tokyo Disney, he is part of the Jubilation parade.
 * At Disneyland Paris, he appears in Disney Dreams!.
 * In Hong Kong Disneyland, he appears in Flights of Fantasy and Villains Night Out!

Trivia

 * Many fans believe Kaa is a female, but he is really a male.
 * Despite this, Kaa was portrayed as a female in The Jungle Book (2016) and is voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Kaa will be also acknowledged 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 and 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 and 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 and 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 adaptation, may have been inspired from the scene from Jungle Cubs.
 * Kaa seems to have gained a large number of fans following over the years, and his habits of hypnotizing and entrapping victims have fueled many internet fantasies and fetishes.
 * This includes several Internet crossovers with other Disney characters, other fictional characters, and occasionally real people.