Kaa (Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle)

See also, Kaa (fictional character)

Kaa is a giant female python [1] voiced by Cate Blanchett in the 2018 Netflix film 'Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle'. Kaa is both the narrator of the film and one of it's protagonists.

Biography

Background

Kaa in the opening narration informs us that she's ancient, though the jungle is far older than she is. She can see the past and the future. Bagheera, in this story she is telling, tells Mowgli in regards to Kaa "you don't want to meet Kaa." and implies that Kaa's diet primarily consists of the lawless monkey folk who "can't stand the sight of her."

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle

The film opens up with our narrator introducing herself with a deep stare in her eyes. Opening camera shots indicate that the death of Mowgli's parents is being viewed by Kaa who slithers along the ground, stopping under some brush and remaining still as Shere Khan commits his transgression against the Jungle's sacred law. Her body is visible slithering and coiling as we as the camera rises into view of a 'mancub'- a baby. Mowgli not long before Bagheera shows up and takes the child to be raised by a pack of wolves. Every event in the narrative is a visual representation of the story being told by Kaa to an unknown audience and as she's implied are events she witnessed. Her only intervention in the narrative, when she stopped being an observer and became an active role in the events around her, was saving Mowgli from the Monkey People and Shere Khan who came among them to claim Mowgli as a prize. Mowgli not understanding why she rescued him went out on his own to find her and ask her why she saved him. He also asks Kaa if she can see the past and the future. Kaa gives a rather long response while holding Mowgli in her coils and slithering about around him. She tells him that he is the hope for a peace between the Jungle and the World of Man and that one day all the animals of the jungle shall heed his voice. She then let's him go and informs him that she'll be watching as the Wolf Pack begins a traditional fight for the pack leader. She would have watched as Mowgli tried to put an end to the fighting using Fire- a tool of man. An action that would get him banished. After Mowgli was captured by Lockheed in the Village Kaa observed Mowgli's life there from the edge of the jungle where she also observed his final battle with Shere Khan.

Quotes

Technically every line in the film is a quote from Kaa as she is the narrator, the story teller. As such this section is for lines specifically stated by her in her own story.

• "Sometimes fear is the intelligent response."

Source Citations

1. Netflix's 'Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle'