Kaa - The Jungle Book (1967)

The Jungle Book (1967)

In the 1967 Disney animation The Jungle Book, Kaa, voiced by Sterling Holloway (and later, by Jim Cummings after Holloway's death), is markedly different from his original counterpart. Rather than being a mentor, he serves as the secondary antagonist and comic relief who twice attempts to trap Mowgli in his coils in order to devour him throughout the film. He does this through the use of hypnotic eyes as opposed to the original version, in which he uses a serpentine dance to control his prey. His attempts to eat Mowgli always end in a comical failure. He is also quite cowardly, attempting to curry favor with Shere Khan whenever he is around.

Near to the beginning of the film, Bagheera and Mowgli stop to rest on a high branch of a tree. While Bagheera dozes, Kaa slithers down from the foliage towards the boy. Mowgli appears more irritated than scared, telling the snake to go away and leave him alone. Bagheera wrongly believes the mancub to be talking to him and tells him to go to sleep. Kaa inspired by this then turns to Mowgli and begins to send spirals of blue, yellow and turquoise through his eyes, trying to hypnotize him. Mowgli is soon reflecting these spirals and is swaying his head in tandem with Kaa's who all the while is seductively singing to a entranced and intrigued Mowgli to 'go to sleep'. After Mowgli's initial efforts to repress Kaa's seductive spirals, Mowgli soon has his pupils disappear as Kaa continues to entrance and hypnotize him. As Mowgli is being hypnotized, Kaa begins to coil up the helpless mancub up with his soft, thick tail which further enhances his enchantment of the boy who is now beginning to struggle as he sleepily tries to keep his eyes open. Mowgli soon has his eyes droop with drowsiness that the spirals and seductive song are inducing but has them re-open with the realisation of the danger he is in. However Kaa's spirals are too strong and Mowgli is soon wrapped up to the chest with coils. As Mowgli makes one last attempt to call to Bagheera to save him he can only croak out his name as he is half hypnotized and still concentrating on Kaa's bobbing head, spirals and soft song, and as he does so, Kaa tightens his final coil around Mowgli's neck making him gulp loudly. After Bagheera hears Kaa mention that Mowgli will not be there in the morning he spins around to see Mowgli hanging limply in Kaa's coils, his bare feet dangling and an oblivious grin on his face. Bagheera intervenes by smacking Kaa over the head. Angered by this, Kaa turns on Bagheera only to be shoved a out of the tree by a confused, yet awake, Mowgli. As he is leaving his tail gets stuck because of a knot.

Kaa reappears later on in the film when Mowgli runs away from Baloo, who is trying to return the boy to his own kind. Mowgli comes to rest at the base of a large tree before a long dark tail comes down and pulls him up into the canopy. Up on a branch, Mowgli is trying to release himself from Kaa's coils. Kaa attempts to hypnotise Mowgli again but Mowgli is still trying to escape his clutches. Eventually, Mowgli succeeds in untangling himself and begins walking off down the branch but is stopped by Kaa, fastening a coil over his eyes. Mowgli, bewildered, tries to pry the coil off. He succeeds only to be met with Kaa's spinning hypnotic eyes. Mowgli quickly falls under the spell as Kaa begins to sing; "Trust in Me", he induces Mowgli into a relaxed, sleepwalking state, walking down his body (which take the shape of a flight of stairs) with a big smiling grin on his face, before coming to rest on a hammock of Kaa's coils. Soon, kaa throws Mowgli up into the air, balancing the boy upside down on the tip of his tail. Mowgli's body goes rigid and he begins to snore. Kaa berates the mancub before sliding him into his thick, brown coils. Yet again with only his bare feet and head poking out. This attempt to eat Mowgli is also foiled, ironically by Shere Khan, who is not convinced by Kaa's bluff, even after searching Kaa's coils and not feeling Mowgli inside; the distraction caused by Khan allowed Mowgli to regain consciousness and escape.

Holloway decided to play Kaa with a lisp, a condition which composers Sherman Brothers brought into the character's song in The Jungle Book, "Trust in Me".

This particular version of the character also inspired Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan in his performance as the title character in Don 2. Khan cited the villainous sensuality of the character as an inspiration.