Kaa is the secondary antagonist of Disney's The Jungle Book franchise. He is a massive Indian python who seeks to capture and eat animals like Bagheera and human children, especially Mowgli, and later Shanti.
In the original film, he was voiced by the late Sterling Holloway, who also voiced the Cheshire Cat in Disney's Alice in Wonderland. In the prequel TV series and the 2003 sequel, he was voiced by Jim Cummings, who also notably voices the Disney villain Peg Leg Pete.
Background[]
Kaa was loosely based on the character of the same name from Rudyard Kipling's book The Jungle Book. While the book character was considered a mentor to Mowgli, akin to Baloo and Bagheera, the film character is portrayed as a dangerous villain. This was most likely due to the developers' belief that the public of the time would not accept a snake as a heroic character.
Personality[]
Kaa is a sly and seductive Indian Rock Python, speaking with a soft, often entrancing tone to either lure his victims into a weary, 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. Such fear, however, 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 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 the manipulative Kaa was able to steer even Khan in the wrong direction, further showcasing his intelligence.
While not as cruel or bloodthirsty like Shere Khan, Kaa is still a fairly villainous character. While he did attempt to devour Mowgli when he first encountered the man-cub, this was merely an opportunistic means to eat and survive, as real life pythons have been known to occasionally prey on humans. Kaa appears to have a history of devouring humans, describing them as "delicious" and "succulent". Nevertheless, Kaa seems to insist on giving his victims a merciful end as he hypnotizes them into a state of bliss or sleep before eating them. Kaa has even admitted to himself that he is sympathetic towards Mowgli to a certain extent, even while remembering his own intentions to make a meal out of the boy.
Though 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.
Physical appearence[]
Kaa is a python that has grown to be extremely large in length. He was animated by Frank Thomas in his entrance appearance where he first met Mowgli and nearly ate him. Later on in the film, he was animated by Milt Kahl whose design for Kaa may be more iconic, being that his scene was longer and included his trademark song and Shere Khan's talk with the snake.
Abilities[]
Hypnosis/Mind Control: Kaa's most infamous power is his unique ability to hypnotize anyone through eye contact and make others follow his commands. Kaa's eyes fill with concentric circles of blue, yellow and purple when using hypnosis, which is reflected in his victim's eyes.
Appearances[]
The Jungle Book[]
Kaa comes across Mowgli and Bagheera in the branches of a large tree that the pair has chosen to spend the night in. As Bagheera is nearly asleep, he is unaware of Kaa as he investigates Mowgli. Annoyed, Mowgli angrily tells Kaa to leave him alone. Bagheera sleepily orders Mowgli to go to sleep, as he has assumed Mowgli was speaking to him. Kaa decides to take advantage of the situation, and hypnotizes Mowgli, wrapping the boy in his coils, with the intent of devouring him. During the hypnosis and coiling, Mowgli tries to call for help but is silenced when Kaa wraps and tightens Mowgli's neck with his tail and then squeezes the boy with all his coils, from legs to neck. But Mowgli's struggles awaken Bagheera, and he is able to rescue Mowgli by hitting Kaa in the face just before Mowgli is eaten. However, Kaa is angered by the interference and begins to hypnotize Bagheera. By now, the coils around Mowgli unravel and he has awakened, and he shoves Kaa's massive coils off the branch, resulting in Kaa falling to the ground in a heap. While Mowgli awakens Bagheera by slapping him, Kaa begins to slither off, swearing revenge. However, his slithering is inhibited by a knot in his tail, which Mowgli laughs at.
Kaa later reappears coming across the now bitter Mowgli, who is lost in the jungle. He tries to hypnotize Mowgli again, who has learned from his last encounter and is wary of the snake. Mowgli tries to leave, with the response that he doesn't trust anyone. However, Kaa uses the boy's desire to stay in the jungle as a means of gaining his trust, promising to let him stay in the jungle forever. Kaa is able to hypnotize Mowgli again and sleepwalk him into his coils while singing the song "Trust in Me".
Before Kaa can devour Mowgli, Shere Khan stops by after hearing Kaa's singing. As Shere Khan is looking for Mowgli, Kaa is forced to hide the boy. Kaa is able to trick Shere Khan into believing that Mowgli is nowhere in the area, despite Shere Khan choosing to inspect Kaa's coils. Shere Khan walks off to continue the search, leaving Kaa safe to admit his disgust for the tiger. When Kaa shivers after seeing the tiger walk off, his coils unravel like before and Mowgli awakens. Kaa takes a moment to pity the helpless Mowgli but reverts once he remembers his own intentions. At that point, Mowgli is able to push Kaa's coils to the ground. On the ground, Mowgli confronts Kaa and accuses the python of lying, which he wasn't. Kaa, assuring Mowgli that he indeed can't trust anyone, moves in to attack, but is once again stopped by a knot in his tail. Seeing Mowgli run off, Kaa apparently gives up trying to catch him as he slithers off again.
The Jungle Book 2[]
Kaa returned once again as the secondary antagonist but plays a relatively smaller role in the sequel than he did in the 1967 film. One night, Kaa 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.
Kaa angrily states that he never wants to see another Man-Cub again, but changes his mind after he comes across Shanti. Kaa manages to corner and hypnotizes 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 on and sends him sliding down a cliff to a coconut tree after Ranjan scares him. He is then encountered by Shere Khan in his search for Mowgli; Khan believes that Kaa knows about Mowgli's whereabouts (after hearing him say "man-cub"), but truthfully, Kaa has no idea where Mowgli is; but Shere Khan won't believe him and continues to threaten the python. To stop angering Khan, Kaa fearfully lies to the tiger that Mowgli is at the swamp, allowing him 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 saying "That snake lied to me!".
Trivia[]
- In the original book by Rudyard Kipling, Kaa was one of Mowgli's friends and his wisest mentor. Throughout the book, Kaa was quite loyal to Mowgli and very protective of him, but in the film and following appearances, Kaa is a dangerous threat to Mowgli's life.
- Despite popular belief, Kaa is not a henchman to Shere Khan, being the fact that he does none of his evil biddings and the two appear to dislike each other. In fact, Kaa even sympathizes with Mowgli for a moment after he finds out Shere Khan intends to kill him for immoral purposes (while Kaa does technically have the right to eat Mowgli, since he is just a simple predator who needs to eat others to survive).
- In the books, Kaa and Mowgli have a deeper relationship. Initially, Kaa cared nothing about Mowgli and only saved him from the bandar-log because Bagheera lied to him that they insulted the python. However, once he meets Mowgli for the first time, the latter shows his gratitude for saving him. Kaa is surprised by his fearless attitude and begins to respect him for that. Later on, Kaa and Mowgli develop a brother-like relationship.
- Originally, Kaa was not going to be a villain in the 1967 animated film. Wolfgang Reitherman suggested that they should give that role to Tabaqui (Shere Khan's henchman from the books). However, Walt Disney turned down that idea as he wanted to refrain from using canine villains so shortly after releasing The Sword in the Stone.
- The scene where Kaa coils around Mowgli and pulls him up to his tree is reminiscent of a moment in the books, where Kaa traps Mowgli in his coils due to not recognizing him as a grown man, mistaking him for a prey and pulling him closer (though he releases him once he realized his error).
- This implies that although Kaa is good friends with Mowgli, he is still willing to eat other humans whom he doesn't know personally.
- In the books and movies, Kaa is depicted as being an Indian Rock Python (Python molurus), a species that usually grows to 3 meters (9.8 feet). Kaa, however, is closer to 9 meters (30 feet long), much larger than normal for his species. The only snakes capable of reaching such sizes, in reality, are African Rock Pythons and Reticulated Pythons, both of which can grow to such lengths and weigh from 200-500 lb.
- In the book, Kaa was able to hypnotize via dancing. Whereas in the Disney films, he does so via colorful spirals in his eyes. But in the book, humans are able to resist to Kaa's hypnosis while in the films his hypnotic powers appear to work on anyone who looks directly into his eyes.
- Kaa means "possession" in Hindi.
- Kaa is the second character who was originally voiced by Sterling Holloway and later taken over by Hal Smith and then Jim Cummings. Holloway also voiced Winnie the Pooh, another Disney character played by Jim Cummings.
- Although Kaa is colored golden yellow in the original film and all of his other animated appearances, in The Jungle Book 2 however, he was a shade of green.
- Even though Kaa is thought of as a villain, he is not actually malevolent as, like real life predators, Kaa simply desires to eat Mowgli for survival rather than selfish goals. So basically, he's doing what nature intended for him to do. Therefore Kaa is technically more accurately defined as a neutral character.
- Even though Kaa wants to eat Mowgli in the films, real life pythons do not usually view humans as a part of their food chain or prey in any way and usually do not attack humans unless threatened or provoked. Moreover, real Indian Rock Pythons are too small to eat a human; only the closely related Reticulated Python, African Rock Python, and the Green Anaconda are known to have eaten humans.