Kaa (Disney)



Kaa is the secondary antagonist of The Jungle Book and its sequel The Jungle Book 2, a supporting antagonist later anti-hero in its 1994 live action film, one of the main protagonists of its television series Jungle Cubs and a recurring character in several other Jungle Book related sources, such as Disney's House of Mouse. He is Shere Khan's on-and-off henchman.

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 hates Shere Khan, who wants to kill the boy because he exists. However due to his fear of the tiger, he never voices this to his face.

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

In the upcoming 2016 adaptation, Kaa will be portrayed as female and will be voiced by Scarlett Johanson.

Trivia

 * Kaa was voiced by Sterling Holloway in the first film. In Jungle Cubs, House of Mouse, and the sequel, Kaa is voiced by Jim Cummings, who also voiced Winnie the Pooh, another character formally voiced by Sterling.
 * 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 Jungle Book, has protrayed Kaa as based from his original counterpart & 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 don't like each other.