Not to be confused with Cala Maria from the Cuphead Show.
Cala Maria is one of the bosses on Inkwell Isle Three on the boss level, "High Seas Hi-Jinx!" Her stage is a side-scrolling shooter level.
Boss Theme
Description
Appearance
Cala Maria has a physical appearance reminiscent of a typical humanoid female character. She is a giant, tall, slender mermaid with fairly wide hips and a small waist. She has pale skin, a small button-nose, and two scar-like markings on the bicep of her left arm (though how or why she got them is unknown, but it could be a reminiscent of eel bite marks).
On her head, she has a dead, purple octopus with pale lavender eyelids over X-crossed eyes, with a lighter purple coloring and pale pink suckers under the tentacles. The octopus clearly acts as her hair since the three tentacles in front of Cala's face are flipped back over her head, resembling curly hair-bangs in a pompadour, while the octopus's head vaguely resembles a hair bun. Although it appears to be dead, the octopus's eyes clearly open during Cala's "summoning" animation, revealing simple, black pupils.
Cala has big, pale turquoise eyes with sea-green eyelids and three short, black, triangular eye-lashes each. She also has thin, black eyebrows and rose-pink lips.
As a sign of her mermaid status, Cala wears a sky-blue seashell bra with no shoulder straps, and her lower body is a sea-green, fish-like tail with round scales, connected with a water-ripple-like pattern below the waist line. Although we do not see her full tail in the game, various merchandise has shown that the fluke of her tail is shaped like two small waves split in two with three rounded tips on each side.
However, in her second phase, Cala Maria gets bitten on her midriff and shocked by two eels, resulting in a much more menacing appearance—a gorgon-mermaid hybrid, greatly resembling the famous mythology figure, Medusa.
Her once pale-lavender skin turns to a pale green color. Her fingers become longer and more pointy. Her lips turn an emerald-green color, her tongue becomes forked, and her teeth are now quite sharp. The markings on her arm remain unchanged.
Her eyes become menacingly cat-like with yellow sclera and black, slit-shaped pupils, losing the irises completely.
Her lower body takes on a more forest-green hue and the scales become sharper and more triangular. Her once sky-blue sea-shell bra is now a green bikini top which seems to be made from seaweed.
The most distinctive part of her new form is the octopus on her head, which has now seemingly fused onto her head and has become a marginally different shade of purple. The tentacles each transform into menacing-looking snakes with lavender, segmented underbellies, yellow, cat-like eyes, and small fangs and pink forked tongues in their mouths. Only the snakes acting as her bangs are active, while the rest are asleep.
Personality
Cala Maria is said to be playful, but not to be trifled with.[1] Cala Maria seems to be a flirty and vivacious being. She appears to be trying to seduce Cuphead and Mugman, as seen in her intro where she makes a sweet "yoo-hoo!" sound while fluttering her eyelashes and making a pose. She may be trying to tempt them in closer and catch them off-guard, so she can attack them. A classic move for mythological sirens. Her first phase death message only helps support this. She becomes more cruel after she is forcefully transformed into a gorgon-mermaid, due to electric eels biting her waist and shocking her.
Cala also seems to have a strong connection with fish and aquatic animals, as she can summon them at will to help her, and also use the fish as weapons without them apparently caring much. It seems that she eats pirates, since she belches up their ghosts when she attacks. The shipwrecks in the background of her level and Overworld scene indicate further that she may enjoy snacking on those who venture too close to her lair.
Battle
Intro
Cala Maria in a trailer.
Cala Maria menacingly rises from the ocean, and then flips her octopus hair back while striking a pose and flirtingly calling for Cuphead and Mugman. It sounds like she says, "Yoo-hoo!" In the beta version, she was seen performing the same animation as in her Ghost Pirate attack.
Phase 1
"You are a cutie...I am not sure if I should catch and release!"
—Cala Maria, Phase 1 Death Screen
In this first phase, Cala has a wide of range of attacks at her disposal to corner the players and damage them. It is also important to note that she can only be damaged by shooting at her head at all times. Because of this, her first phase is often hard to beat for many players. Cala has two main attacks:
- When Cala sinks into the sea and pulls out a giant fish to attack, she will get either a Red Fish or Yellow Fish. These fish, once they escape Cala's grasp, will damage the players if they inadvertently run into them.
- Red Fish spits out three bursts of fire fishes in 6-way spread formation, with some fire fishes parryable. In Simple mode, she will shoot two bursts only, a burst of five fire fishes then a burst of four. In Expert mode, the red fish will shoot out four burst of fire fishes that spread in five or six alternatively, with one burst having no parryable fire fishes at all.
- Yellow Fish spits out an electrified dolphin that homes onto the players. The moment the dolphin stops chasing the player(s), it will turn into three dolphins biting each other's tail, forming a ring. In Expert mode, the yellow fish will shoot two homing dolphins, but they last shorter.
- Cala Maria will belch three ghost pirates from her mouth. These ghosts will charge at players once the players are in sight, and they are harder to dodge if accompanied with puffer fish or other sea creatures. In Simple mode, they charge at a slower speed and Cala takes more time in summoning them. In Expert mode, they charge at a faster speed.
Cala can supplement these attacks with sea creatures that she summons to aid her and corner the players as she executes her other attacks:
- Seahorse: The Seahorse sips some seawater before spitting it out, chasing the player and pushing them upward.
- Turtle: The Turtle will move to the left, while firing bombs every now and then. These bombs explode and release shrapnel in eight direction (four in Simple Mode).
- Pufferfish: The Pufferfishes will float upwards, with some of them being pink, thus can be parried. The formations are either looser (Simple) or tighter (Expert) in other difficulties.
After taking enough damage, Cala Maria will gasp in shock as two electric eels appear and bite her flanks, shocking her in the progress. While being electrified, her octopus tentacles turn into "snakes", her fingernails turn into claws, her skin turns to a greenish tint, her seashell bra turns into one made of seaweed, her tongue turns into a forked tongue, her teeth sharpen, and her eyes become yellow with slit pupils, making her resemble a gorgon, or as an example, Medusa, as she laughs mischievously, thus beginning phase 2. Hitpoints = 1235/1125/1200
Phase 2
"You dare to gaze?! How 'bout stone boots so you can swim with the fishes!"
—Cala Maria, Phase 2 Death Screen
In this phase, Cala Maria will not attack the player, but instead, the electric eels will attack on her behalf as she taunts the player. These electric eels constantly appear around her and shoot five-way split bullets at players. Some of the bullets can be parried. If players do not destroy them fast enough, it will become a bullet hell situation as more eels surface and fire. Hitpoints = 40/45/45
While the eels are attacking the players, Cala will occasionally shoot an extremely massive ray at them, turning them to stone into Medusa. Players can avoid petrification by not moving or shooting at all, or avoid the ray before she fires it by going up above her but they have to be fast. Player(s) being petrified needed 22 inputs to set free from it in all settings of the game.
After she takes enough damage, her body will turn to stone and crumble as her head floats into a cavern. In Simple mode, her entire body including the head will turn to stone with a shocked expression and her snakes looking shocked and in pain as well, ending the battle without entering the cavern. Hitpoints = 665/625/900
Phase 3
"Holy mackerel! Is that your best effort?"
—Cala Maria, Phase 3 Death Screen
In this phase, players traverse through a cavern filled with corals as they avoid getting hurt by them and the spike columns that randomly appear. In Expert mode, the scrolling section itself becomes faster in this phase, making it harder to dodge the spike columns, which also appear more often. The snakes will spit out bubbles with skulls inside that move up and down. In this phase, Cala Maria still uses her stone gaze, but this time, instead of shooting a ray, she shoots a large green ghost to turn the players to stone. Also, the stone gaze is now unavoidable even if the player does not move.
Once she takes enough damage, Cala is defeated. During this cutscene, she looks away in sorrow while one snake plays the violin sadly, as the rest return to their neutral (sleeping) state. Hitpoints = 750/900
Sounds
| Description | Audio |
| Overworld | |
| Cala Maria's introduction. | |
| Cala Maria cackling as she disappears into the sea. | |
| Cala Maria's reaction to her fish slipping from her fingers. | |
| Cala Maria summoning a random sea creature for assistance. | |
| The turtle enters. | |
| The seahorse enters. | |
| Cala Maria breathing in and burping up ghost pirates from her mouth. | |
| Cala Maria screaming in pain as she is turned into a gorgon. | |
| Cala Maria cackling as a gorgon. | |
| Cala Maria shooting a petrifying gaze. | |
| Cala Maria's body turning to stone and breaking apart. | |
| Cala Maria firing a petrifying ghost from her eyes. |
Gallery
Unused Content
There is code for an unused blue fish that would have shot a spinner at the player, which would start off with a bubble and the tails appear shortly after. They will start spinning around and travel mainly on a straight line with the ability to slightly shift its path to home in on the player. The most likely reason it got removed was the difficulty of dodging it in addition to the other attacks she uses. The script for the blue fish appears to be finished, meaning it was scrapped later in development.
 |
Before Cala Maria was worked on, some attacks she had included:
- Dive underwater and throw pufferfishes into the water, which create dangerous splashes Cuphead must fly above. She then throws them into the air as they rain down for quite a time. The following move can also be done without the first move.
- Cala Maria's summons were different than they were in-game.
- She could summon swordfishes that jump out of the water and move in an arc.
- The Turtle did not move to the left, and could fire three homing fish rockets. The cannonballs were also fired in seemingly random directions.
- Jump out of the water, land from the left, causing a massive tidal wave Cuphead must fly over. Afterwards, she swims back to the right, and Cuphead has to get to the top-right corner to dodge the attack.
- Dive underwater, and spew starfish out. Another attack that requires Cuphead to be in the top-right corner. This attack causes five starfish to rain down, which move back and forth.
- The ghost scream attack originally fired two-to-three waves in a spread that Cuphead must dodge.
- Cala Maria had a burp attack, where she spat five fishbones towards the player.
- Cala Maria could carry a whale, and the whale would vomit water. The player had to go downwards at first to dodge it, then immediately upwards.
- Cala Maria could move into the middle, and two lobster hands were at both of her sides. Depending on which hand glowed, the player had to move away from the side in where the hand glowed, lest they get pinched. This attack seems to start with the left, then the right, then again for two times.
- The second phase was significantly different. Cala Maria would instead:
- Fire a laser beam that Cuphead had to dodge via going to the bottom-right corner, left to Cala Maria.
- Fire multiple waves of lasers
- Bouncing balls would appear, presumably sparks. They could come in sets of two to three.
- Lastly, the final phase would involve simply her head, but larger than before. It's unknown how that would play out.
Walkthrough
| Regular Mode | Expert Mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Trivia
- She is the only character in all of Cuphead to have burped in her debut.
- Cala Maria was first teased at the E3 2015 trailer. Since then, no gameplay of the boss battle was shown, it is just a gif where we can see the creation process of her idle animation.
- She and Captain Brineybeard are the only nautical bosses in the game.
- Before her name was revealed, fans nicknamed her "Surf Mama".
- When defeated in Simple mode, part of an ear can be seen, but in Regular or Expert no ears are seen when she is shocked that the player(s) defeated her.
- In the E3 2015 demo, the music for Botanic Panic was the same as Cala Maria's battle music in the final version.
- Her name may have multiple inspirations:
- "Calamari" is a type of cooked squid.
- "Calamaria" is a genus of dwarf burrowing snakes.
- The reference to snakes foreshadows her transformation into a Gorgon (a serpent-haired monster) for the second and third phases of the battle.
- Kalamaria is a heavily populated seaside suburb of Thessaloniki, Greece.
- Kalla is Greek for "beautiful" and sometimes prefixed to personal names in Greece and other Balkan cultures, most famously in the case of Tsar Kaloyan ("beautiful John") of Bulgaria.
- Cala Maria's name may also be a nod to the famous 20th century opera singer Maria Callas.
- Her first death screen mentions "catch and release". This refers to how fishermen do not keep the fish they catch when they're in a competition or having fun.
- Her second phase death screen mentions the words "stone boots". This is a reference to cement shoes, a method of execution in which criminals, such as the mafia, killed their victims by weighing them down with cement and throwing them into a large body of water, thereby drowning them. It also doubles as a reference to the common saying "Sleeping with the fishes".
- In the good ending, her size is roughly equal to that of Cuphead and Mugman, which is quite odd, as she appears to be gigantic during her boss fight. This could imply that she has the ability to change her size at will, or it could be a simple oversight.
- When she summons a sea creature to help her, the eyes on Cala Maria's octopus wig will be open instead of having eyes with X's in them, possibly meaning that the octopus is pretending to be dead or unconscious.
- During her first phase, when the ghosts are burped up, Cala Maria will make a sound very reminiscent of a fog horn.
- The animation she uses to belch up the ghosts appears to be from her old, unused intro animation.
- In her 3rd phase, her death screen seems to depict her with a neck, even though that was a part of her body which turned to stone and crumbled. This could be an animation error, however, it is more likely the second and third phases use the same death screen mugshot.
- The phrase on her third death screen is a double meaning: "Holy mackerel" is a slang phrase meaning "Holy cow", and a mackerel is a type of fish.
- Cala Maria, along with Captain Brineybeard and Ribby and Croaks, are the only bosses to have a custom death animation on Simple mode.
- When defeating her in Regular mode, her snake hair can be seen connected to her body, stating that the octopus is physically connected to her as hair, which goes against some artists believing that the octopus is a wig.
- However, it is possible that the octopus is initially not attached to her, but becomes part of her body when she changes forms.
- Her 1st phase death screen depicts her making the "Off with the head" gesture, which could mean that she was merely trying to seduce Cuphead and Mugman so she could catch them off-guard and kill them, which is a subtle reference to the deceptive nature of Merpeople in ancient mythology.
- This also foreshadows her being decapitated in the third phase.
- It also references how some mermaids (such as sirens and merrow) would draw sailors to them with their beauty, then leave them to perish at sea.
- "Yoo-hoo!" is a commonly used cliche in old cartoons in which an attractive woman uses that phrase to flirtingly call out to a man who is interested in her. This line was also made famous by Minnie Mouse.
- Cala Maria's "Yoo-hoo!" line, as well as her other laughs and grunts are voiced by little-known actress Denise Hatton.
- The idea of a seashell bra or any other lewd apparel was normally not allowed in the sort of cartoons that the Cuphead game was modeled after.
- Taking the setting into consideration, however, it is possible that the game is set before the Hays Code was enforced.
- In her death screen during second and third phase, she has lavender skin from the first phase as opposed to green in-game. This could be an animation error.
- As soon as the electric eels bite Cala Maria's hips to electrify her before going to the second phase, there is a coloring error, as Cala Maria's pink lips briefly turn red before turning green when she becomes a Gorgon-like monster.
- Coincidentally, her level name is incredibly similar to that of a level in the game Crash Bandicoot: Twinsanity, named High Sea Hi-Jinks.
- Prior to update 1.1.3, none of the fire fishes nor the electric bullets could be parried. This was probably done to make it easier to get parries for a perfect score.
- She is the only airplane boss that has the ability to petrify the players in any of the phases.
- The laugh that plays when a poltergeist attacks the player is the same laugh that plays in Pyramid Peril when Djimmi The Great releases his skull in his first phase.
- Despite being a Mermaid (human-fish), she is seen on land in the good ending. It is unknown how she is able to do this.
- The fact that she belches up ghost states that she eats ships and people. Once dead, she vomits up the ghost to make up room for more prey.
- Although she doesn't physically reveal the tail in the game, Cala does indeed have a tail. This was evident in various concept arts, and was ultimately revealed in the Funko Pop figures and Mystery Minis (as well as various other merchandise). It appears as a three pronged fin.
- Season 2 of The Cuphead Show makes Cala Maria an antagonist as well as Brineybeard’s love interest. She lurks in a sea that contains shipwrecks and petrified pirates.
- when standing by her overworld map symbol. She can be herd singing. Possibly a reference to sirens, whom were mermaids.
Inspirations and similarities
Cala Maria is an homage to some of the most famous, fun-loving female characters from classic animation, including the iconic Betty Boop and Popeye's leading lady Olive Oyl. Additional references included Disney's 1938 Silly Symphony short Moth and the Flame and the mermaid boss from Fantastic Parodius aka Fantastic Journey.[2] Her overall attitude during her second phase was inspired by Madame Medusa from The Rescuers
- Her first phase form is based on Eliza, the second boss from Gokujou Parodius. In her early design sketches, Cala Maria wore a ship on her head, similar to Eliza. However, this was scrapped due to being difficult to animate.
- Cala Maria's second form is based on the infamous Gorgon Medusa from Greek mythology.
- Specifically, this phase is based on the version of Medusa from Sexy Parodius of the Gradius series.
- When transforming into her third phase, her body turns to stone and her arms fall off, making it resemble the famous statue, Venus de Milo.
- Her floating head form in the final phase is a reference to Medusa being decapitated by Perseus in Greek mythology, which has also been referenced in other video games featuring Medusa, such as the Medusa Head, a recurring enemy and boss in the Castlevania series as well as Lar, the final boss from Chariot: Three Wonders.
- The fact that this is an air battle against might be inspired by the battle with Medusa in chapter 9 of Kid Icarus: Uprising.
- The setting of her fight is similar to the Silly Symphony, King Neptune. In the short, a mermaid is held hostage by pirates and the sea creatures, along with Neptune himself and the other mermaids, try and save her. In her fight, she is a mermaid who is trying to defend her contract and soul from Cuphead and Mugman. Sea creatures come to help her out, and while there are no other mermaids in the fight, the eels fighting for her in Phase 2 can be seen as stand-ins.
- Her skin color is similar to that of Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove.
- Her electrocution is similar to the former's death, as when she is killed, her skeleton is also seen. Additionally, the eels helping her may be referencing Flotsam and Jetsam, two eels who act as Ursula's henchmen.
- She has a similar name and color pallete to Celia Mae from the Disney Pixar film Monsters Inc., another gorgon-based character who has snakes for hair.