Hello & welcome back to The Sterling Holloway Spotlight. After the entry, where I had to look at Amos, from one of the worst shorts of all time, I am happy to look at a character that probably wouldn't mind eating Amos. As I look at Kaa from The Jungle Book. Per usual, this'll be broken down into First Appearance, Role, Personality, Favorite Moment, and finally Is The Character Still Around? With that out of the way, let's begin.
First Appearance
Kaa appears early on in the film, when he comes across Mowgli and Bagheera and has the man cub wrapped up in his coils wanting to devour him. Baggy doesn't realize what is going on and that is what I think makes this scene work and we will touch upon later.
Role
He's the secondary antagonist and in that regard, Kaa does not get the credit, he deserves. He's usually overshadowed by Shere Khan but in my opinion is the most despicable character that Sterling ever played. Sure, he has a lot of comedic moments but his hypnosis trick shows that he can be a force to reckon with.
Personality
Sure, he's bumbling and funny but there's more to him then that. He's sly, slick, tricky and not one to be trusted. Honestly, the comedic angle of Kaa is played so much up that it overshadows his evilness. Which is a shame because he's a good villain. And unlike Cheshire, where's there's some debate, there's no denying that Kaa is evil. Re watching The Jungle Book for this film reminded me of how much of a threat he can be because as we will see, when we talk about his later appearances, they forget that. Honestly, why Shere Khan is the bigger threat, Kaa deserves the same respect.
Favorite Moment
Y'know, this is the one time, where my favorite moment changed. Because originally, it was Trust In Me but there was a line from Kaa that was so perfect that it knocked that out of the running.
"It's like you said. You can't trust ANYONE!"
He says this line to Mowgli after the man cub says that he can trust anyone in the jungle and this is a like an evil and twisted reminder after the man cub calls out Kaa for lying to him. I was thinking, "No duh, he's evil!"
Is The Character Still Around?
Yeah, he's still and he's currently voiced by Jim Cummings.
He appeared in Jungle Cubs. Which was the basically The Jungle Book version of let's take our characters and make them younger something akin to Muppet Babies. I remember liking it.
Though, if I'm to be honest, it was a little odd seeing him as friends with Baloo, Louie, & Bagheera, when anyone who watched the film and watched the series would know that he grew up to be an enemy. This is addressed in the Jungle Cubs: Born To Be Wild DVD. Which is just a bunch of episodes from the show with a wrap around story featuring the characters as adults. Because in the first sequence, he tries to eat Mowgli. Still, a little odd. May have to review this show down the road.
He also had many appearances on House of Mouse including the not so good, Mickey's House of Villains. Just read DisneyOtoko's review of that to see everything with it.
He also returned in The Jungle Book 2, where he used his hypnotizing trick on Shanti, the girl from the end of the first (and only canon Jungle Book) film but it was ruined one scene, when Mowgli's little brother from his adoptive family beats him with a stick.
Okay, I'm going to say something right here, right now about this. In the original, as I've stated Kaa could be a serious threat and yes, he had his comedic moments to be sure but and this is important, his pain was usually self inflicted. And that's what made those moments, funny because he did it to himself. This, however is kinda pathetic. It's not as funny as seeing Kaa get beat up by a little kid. It's kinda sad, actually. And it kinda throws out the chance of him being a threat. Look, I may have overstated how big of a threat he can be but Kaa is not one to be taken lightly and oh, let's not forget the forced Hidden Mickey reference with Kaa.
Funny, right! Laugh, at his pain. No, it wasn't. Let's move on from this. Kaa also appeared as a sticker in a film that most people like that I don't. You can see a Kaa sticker in a scene of Toy Story 3.
Kaa is also in the Disneyland and Tokyo Disney version as the snake that Mickey has to fight.
And recently, Kaa slithered his way onto stage along with the rest of The Jungle Book at The Goodman Theater in Chicago.
Thomas Derrah (left) plays Kaa the Python opposite Larry Yando as Shere Khan the Tiger in Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman's new musical adaption of "The Jungle Book" having its world premiere this summer at Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
I'm curious as to how, that's going to work out because I imagine that this is a tough feat to pull off convincingly.
All in all, I like Kaa and I feel that he is a great villain, who's evilness has been overshadowed by his comedic moments. Which is a shame but no matter, though I just do feel that villains can be funny & threatening. And Kaa delivers on that. Join me next week, for a different type of Sterling Holloway Spotlight, where I take a look at how Sterling takes over voicing for a character in Lady and The Tramp as he provides the singing voice for...
Jock's Song.
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