Disney Movie Challenge: The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

Disney Movie Challenge

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

The third Disney release to come out in 2000 after Fantasia 2000 and Dinosaur. This is another one that had a long complicated development. Development started in 1994 right after The Lion King and was originally titled Kingdom of the Sun, Owen Wilson was involved and the story was more similar to The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. The movie was a more serious film and had a lot of characters and multiple storylines. Since Disney didn’t have much success with more serious films like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame they ordered it retooled with more comedy and straightforward plot. Eventually almost the entire movie was redone with only David Spade and Eartha Kitt sticking around.

 

The movie is about Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) who is so self centered he can’t relate to anyone.  After firing Yzma (Eartha Kitt) she vows to kill him, but her bumbling assistant Kronk (Patrick Warburton) ends up giving Kuzco the wrong poison and instead of killing him it just turns him into a Llama.  Kronk is ordered to dispose of Kuzco but he can’t do it and Kuzco ends up in the cart of a village named Pacha (John Goodman).  Kuzco had previously dismissed Pacha and told him he plans to destroy his house to build a new summer house.  Pacha faces a dilemma of helping Kuzco or letting him fend for himself in the dangerous woods as a llama.  Pacha does the right thing and brings Kuzco back to the castle and along the way Kuzco begins to realize the error of his ways.  

This is a silly movie with lots of gags, fourth wall breaking, and pop culture references.  There isn’t a whole lot of substance to this movie.  Since it’s a Disney film you know from the beginning that the Emperor will learn his lesson and do the right thing it’s just waiting for that “Aha Moment”.  John Goodman, Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton give great performances.  But if you are like me and not a fan of David Spade this movie will irritate you.  I find his voice annoying and bugged me the whole movie.  It is Patrick Warburton who steals the film in my opinion and can see why they chose his character to focus on in the sequel.  There are some funny scenes with Pacha’s wife and his kids that I thought worked really well. 

Since the film was being developed right after The Lion King and having a big pop singer sing all the songs seemed to work they enlisted Sting to write songs for the film.  Sting ultimately wrote 6 songs based on the original plot of the story and when the plot changed they had to cut most of his songs.  They ended up using only 2 songs he wrote: “Perfect World” which was performed by Tom Jones and “My Funny Friend and Me” which Sting performed and played over the end credits.  “My Funny Friend and Me” ended up getting nominated for Best Song at the Oscars.  But the tonal shift of the film explains why the song sounds too serious for the silly movie that came before it.

Overall: While Pixar was proving that animated films can appeal to both adults and kids Disney seems to have taken a step back and made a movie that only kids would like. A few funny gags that kids might like but no depth to the story. Patrick Warburton is the main stand out in this one. Kind of wish they had more of Pacha's family also because when the movie focused on them it was more interesting.

Random Facts

Trudie Styler (Sting’s wife) made a documentary called “The Sweatbox” about the making of this movie.  While it was screened a the Toronto International Film Festival Disney (who owns the rights) have kept it under wraps. There was a version leaked online in 2012.

One of the endings had Kuzco deciding not to build his summer home on top of the village but to tear down the jungle to build it. Sting who is an environmentalist said he would completely pull all of his songs out of the film if they did that. Eventually that was changed.

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

I thought that after Mulan there wouldn't be any more live action remakes to see but then I remembered this one.  I imagine someone at Disney wanted their own Harry Potter, saw National Treasure and said get me John Turteltaub and Nicolas Cage and lets turn this old Mickey Mouse short into an action adventure movie.  Basically what I am saying is the fact that this movie exists is just bizarre.  

The movie is about Merlin's assistant Balthazar (Nicolas Cage) whose eternal quest is to find the chosen one.  After centuries looking, he finally finds him and it turns out it's an awkward kid, Dave (Jay Baruchel), from New York City.  After freeing the main villain Horvath (Alfred Molina) Balthazar must teach Dave how to be a sorcerer before it's too late.  Dave also is trying to start a romantic relationship with a girl and the whole being a sorcerer's apprentice is not helping.  Of course there is a scene where he must clean a room and tries his hand at magic and it doesn't go well.  

As silly as this movie is it does have some fun action scenes.  Nicolas Cage looks to be having fun doing weird Nicolas Cage things but it's Alfred Molina hamming it up as the villain that looks like he is having the most fun with the ridiculous premise.  Jay Baruchel is fine as Dave.  The scene with the brooms doing the cleaning seems forced but a nice nod to the source material.  

Overall: The best I can say is the movie isn't as bad as it sounds.  It's nothing special but the cast seems to be having fun.  And obviously Turteltaub knows how to take over the top concepts and somehow make them work. Just don't go in expecting a smart film sit back and enjoy the madness.  

Disney Movie Challenge: Dinosaur (2000)

 

 Disney Movie Challenge

Dinosaur (2000)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

Dinosaur is a project that was long in development.  Originally conceived in 1986 on the set of Robocop between special effects artist Phil Tippett and director Paul Verhoeven.   They originally planned to do a stop motion movie with puppets and miniatures.   The movie was to have no speaking dinosaurs and end with all the dinosaurs dying in a meteor strike.  The development was long and costly. After Disney learned that Jurassic Park would be released using CGI they reassessed their plan. Verhoeven and Tippett eventually left the film and a variety of directors (including David W. Allen who just made Puppet Master II) were brought in to work on it before the movie ultimately ended up going to the animation department to become the first Disney Computer Animated Film.  There were also a lot of changes to avoid being compared to other movies that came before. For example, Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The Land Before Time, and Armageddon (they scrapped a meteor scene in space because it was too similar to Armageddon).

The plot is kind of bizarre but pretty straight forward.  An orphaned iguanodon, Aladar, is raised by a family of lemurs.  When their island is destroyed by a meteor shower they escape and join a herd of random other dinosaurs as they look for the fertile nesting grounds.  Leading the herd is no-nonsense Kron who takes no interest in anyone who can’t keep up.  Aladar takes sympathy on a few of the slow elderly dinosaurs that Kron leaves behind.  Being chased by carnotaurus’, Aladar and his group seek refuge in a cave. After getting trapped they find a shortcut to the nesting grounds.  Aladar then runs back to Kron to tell him the way he is going is impossible to cross.  Kron reluctant to admit he is wrong fights Aladar but then a carnotaurus shows up and the group must now fight the predator.  

While officially Disney’s first computer animated it felt behind the times.  Pixar had already released Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2, and Dreamworks had released Antz. The one thing that Dinosaur did differently was they superimposed the computer animation on real world photos.  They used tropical locals like Hawaii and Tahiti for the jungle sequences.  Unfortunately I think using real world backgrounds highlights how fake the computer animation looks.  I know that comparing it to current animation is not fair but I really feel like even in 2000 it had already started to age.   

The biggest problem with the movie are the characters.  First thing is it’s hard to get over the initial idea that a pack of lemurs will raise an iguanodon.  Once you get past that mental hurdle the rest of the movie does a poor job of character development.  Aladar is pretty one note. Once we meet him he is already a good guy and always does the right thing.  There is some attempt at a romance with one of the female iguanodons in the herd but that feels forced.  Kron is self centered the whole movie and doesn’t change.  There is one character, Bruton, that does have a small arc and learns that sometimes it’s better to help others, but he doesn’t play a big role in the film.  

The voice cast is pretty good with what they are given to do.  Alfre Woodard and Ossie Davis are great as the parents of the lemurs.  They both give a calm confidence and you really feel the  love they have for other characters.  Samuel Wright, who was the voice of Sebastian in The Little Mermaid, provides the voice of Kron in this one.  He completely nails the role even if it’s just one note.  D.B Sweeney as the voice of Aladar and while nothing spectacular does a fine job as showing his kind and thoughtfulness.  

Overall: A boring film that doesn’t make you care about the characters.  In an effort to avoid similarities to other films they kind of made a bland film.  Animation might have looked passable in 2000 but now doesn’t look good at all. There were some scenes in a cave that were so dark you could hardly make out what was going on. 

Random Facts

Second Disney Animated Film to be rated PG. First was The Black Cauldron.

Said to have the largest number of deaths in any Disney Animated film.  

Originally was going to have a mosasaurus but was removed from the finished film. 

Controversial decisions to have the dinosaurs talk. Iguanodons have duck bills. So when it was decided they would talk they had to change them to lips. 

Wasn't considered Disney Canon till 2008. Still not considered Disney Canon in Europe (The Wild is considered Canon there but not in the U.S.)

First film that James Newton Howard scored for Disney. He would go on to score many of the films in the coming decades.

Disney Movie Challenge: Fantasia 2000 (1999)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Fantasia 2000 (1999)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

When Walt Disney made the first Fantasia in 1941 his goal was to make a new one every year with a rotating list of segments.  Unfortunately the technology pushing film lost more money than it made and the idea of a yearly Fantasia was scrapped.  Disney did revisit the idea of putting animation to music with Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948) but it wasn't until 1999 that they made a true sequel.  

Fantasia 2000 consisted of 7 new musical segments and 1 segment from the original film.  Similar to the original film the film featured both abstract segments and story segments.  The film starts with a shortened version of the Deems Taylor introduction that the first one started with. We quickly move into the first segment of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.  Each of the next segments are introduced by a celebrity.  After Symphony No. 5, Steve Martin and Itzhak Perlman introduce Pines of Rome, Quincy Jones introduces Rhapsody in Blue, Bette Middler introduces Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102, James Earl Jones introduces The Carnival of the Animals, Penn and Teller introduce the one returning segment The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, James Levine (the conductor) introduces Pomp and Circumstance, and lastly Angela Lansbury introduces the Firebird Suite.  

The biggest ambition of Fantasia was the Fantasound, which was one of the first surround sound systems.  In keeping with Fantasia showing off new technology Fantasia 2000 was made to be shown on IMAX screens.  While IMAX had been around for a while in 1999 it was mostly in museums and showed educational films.  Fantasia 2000 was one of the first big budget feature films to be shown on IMAX screens.  Disney has signed a deal with IMAX that gave IMAX the first run of the film for 4 months as long as IMAX theaters didn’t show any other films.  Since many IMAX theaters were in museums, they felt obligated to show some educational films so there were only a limited number of IMAX theaters that agreed to Disney’s demands.   

As far as the individual segments for the most part they are fine.  I had seen this before and the only one I really remembered and still one of my favorites was Rhapsody in Blue.   I wasn’t really familiar with George Gershwin’s music so this was a nice introduction.  The segment also had a distinctive look which was based on Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures of the time.  It is the most contemporary musical piece and maybe that is why I  connected with it more than the others.  The Carnival of the Animals was a short fun segment about a flamingo with a yo-yo.  While I think it’s the shortest of the segments it really made nice use of musical cues and matching it up with the animation.  Pines of Rome is an odd one about a family of humpback whales that fly.  Piano Concerto No. 2 told the story of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” through music.  Apparently the ending of the short story by Hans Christian Anderson is a bit of a downer and didn’t fit the music so the animators changed it to fit the music better.  Not much stands out about the rest.  The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was a nice throwback to the original.  They did a good job restoring the segment and fits right in with the more modern animation.  

Overall: As with any anthology movie it’s a mixed bag.  For me the best was Rhapsody in Blue as it was a nice change of pace from the more classical music of the other pieces.  There really isn’t any segment that is bad but none that are really that memorable either.  

Random Facts:

Jeffrey Katzenberg had no interest in producing the film, so the film was made behind his back.  Roy E. Disney was the driving force behind the project and he reported directly to Michael Eisner cutting out Katzenberg. 

This was one of the first DVD’s I ever bought.  My mom was a big fan of Fantasia so got it as a gift for her.  Thought the coolest thing was you can just jump to whatever segment you wanted without having to spend time fast forwarding a tape. 

 

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Tarzan and Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Tarzan and Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005)

Tarzan is one of the most confusing trilogies ever.  Tarzan II is really the third movie in the trilogy but takes place mostly before the first one.  

Tarzan and Jane was released as a direct to video film but consisted of 3 unaired episodes of the short lived The Legend of Tarzan animated show on Disney.  Similar to Cinderella 2 the movie is an anthology film.  This time the wrap-around story is about Jane trying to come up with a gift for Tarzan on their anniversary.  The first story tells about Jane’s friends coming to visit from England and trying to make Tarzan fit into their idea of what society is.  This story has some fun action but also one of Jane’s friends is constantly fawning over Tarzan’s physique and makes it oddly sexual.  The next story has Tarzan getting tricked to look for diamonds in a volcano, and the last one has some pilot that is trying to steal something from Jane.  All of the plots are convoluted.  Mostly because none of these characters have any reason to be in the jungle.  Also, for a sequel to a movie about a man raised by apes, these stories are noticeably absent of apes (aside from Terk).  

Tarzan II is more of a midquel to Tarzan, similar to Bambi II and Fox and the Hound 2.  The film shows Tarzan as a child trying to adapt to living with apes and not really knowing who he is. He realizes that he isn’t an ape and doesn’t fit it.  He runs away from home and finds himself on Dark Mountain where he encounters a monster called Zugor (George Carlin). Also trapped on the mountain is a gorilla family consisting of a mother (Estelle Harris) and her two grown and incompetant sons (Brad Garrett and Ron Perlman).   Tarzan befriends Zugor who really isn’t a monster just a gorilla who wants to be alone so he scares everyone. In the end Tarzan learns to just be himself and finds courage to take on the bad guys.  It’s a typical morality tale about not trying to be anyone else and everyone has special talents.  The best thing about this one is that it features the return of Glenn Close and Lance Henrikson as Tarzan’s adoptive parents.  

The biggest problem for me with both films is that all the characters seemed really annoying, especially Terk.  Everyone’s voice just really got on my nerves.  Maybe it was just me but really bothered me.  Neither of the movies had much of a compelling plot.  It was obvious Tarzan II was better funded.  It got bigger names and was more cohesive.  It did seem weird to have George Carlin in a family film but then I remembered he was also in Cars.  

Overall: Probably two of the least interesting direct to video sequels I have seen.  Both reuse Phil Collins songs and while I guess Tarzan II has a new Phil Collins song I can't say I know what it is.

Disney Movie Challenge: Tarzan (1999)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Tarzan (1999)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

When I think of movies from 1999 I think of The Matrix, Fight Club, and The Sixth Sense.  1999 was one of my favorite years for films (check out my previous post about 1999 FIlms). What I don’t think of when I think of 1999 films is Tarzan.  It’s a movie that never really seemed to make a mark in the zeitgeist and I never felt I needed to see it.  I was also under the impression that while Tarzan is considered part of the Disney Renaissance it was one of the lesser films of the era.  While it doesn’t quite live up to the early Renaissance films it’s not a bad film. 

Tarzan is based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel about a man raised by apes. The movie starts with a ship sinking and Tarzan and his mother and father escaping to the jungle.  There they build a giant tree house. At the same time a baby gorilla is killed by a leopard and when Tarzan’s parents are killed by the same leopard the mother of the baby gorilla adopts Tarzan as one of her own.  He grows up learning the ways of the apes and slowly gets accepted as part of the family.  That is except for the leader of the group Kerchak who fears Tarzan will bring disaster to the group.  When new human explorers come to study the apes Kerchak’s worst fears come true.  While Tarzan falls in love with Jane, one of the group Clayton only sees the apes as something for him to capture and bring back to England.  

One of the things that happened at Disney prior to production started was the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg played an important role in ushering in the Renaissance but he ruffled a lot of feathers while he was at Disney. Michael Eisner had promised Katzenberg a promotion but when the opportunity came he was passed over. Katzenberg then left Disney and started his own Studio with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen called Dreamworks SKG. Tarzan was one of the first films that Katzenberg had no hand in developing. In its desire to do something different and move away from the Katzenberg era, Disney ditched the Broadway Musical format that defined most of the Renaissance era. Still wanting to capture the magic of The Lion King they hired Phil Collins to write and perform songs during the film. The biggest difference was instead of having the characters sing the songs they just played the Phil Collins version over the action.  This worked to various degrees.  At times it accentuated the scenes other times it just felt like it overpowered the scene and felt like a music video.

Tarzan also marked the first film to use a new program developed by Disney called Deep Canvas.  Deep Canvas used 3D backgrounds that the 2D characters can move through.  This created an added depth to the scenes.  It also made the scenes where Tarzan are swinging through the jungle or sliding down trees look fantastic. While it’s reported that only about 10 minutes of the film were shot using Deep Canvas the whole film has eye popping animation.  

The story itself is pretty generic.  At the time it was the 48th time Tarzan was turned into a motion picture (although the first time as an animated film) so most people know the story.  The love story between Tarzan and Jane just never really felt real.  A lot of the characters were just kind of annoying, especially his friends, a gorilla named Terk (Rosie O'Donnell) and an elephant named Tantor (Wayne Knight).   The two standouts were Glenn Close as Tarzan's adoptive mother Kala and Lance Henriksen as leader of the gorillas Kerchak.  Close and Henriksen brought the emotional depth needed to care about the characters.  

Overall: Doesn’t really hold up as one of the best Disney Films.  The animation looks amazing but most of the characters are annoying, While the songs were memorable at times the movie felt more like a compilation of Phil Collins videos than a coherent movie.  And for some reason it really bothered me that there was a blatant disregard for physics in the movie. I get it's an animated movie and it shouldn't have mattered but it bothered me more than usual in this one.

Random Facts

My kid confused The Jungle Book with Tarzan. Told him one is about a kid raised by wolves in the jungle and one is about a kid raised by apes in the jungle.

Jeffrey Katzenberg originally pitched the idea of a Tarzan movie to be made at the TV animation department.  But director Kevin who previously directed A Goofy Movie at the Disney Television Studios decided it would be too complicated to make on the smaller budget.  After Katzenberg left, Eisner himself pitched the idea to Lima and said it could be made at the motion picture studios.  

Brendan Fraser auditioned twice for the role of Tarzan, but ended up doing George of the Jungle instead which was pretty much the same character. 

Tony Goldwyn who voiced Tarzan couldn’t do the “Tarzan Yell”.  The yell heard in the film was done by Brian Blessed who played the villain William Clayton.  

The idea for Tarzan to slide down the trees was inspired by Tony Hawk.  

Terk was originally going to be a boy, but they loved Rosie O'Donnell so much they changed the character to a girl.  

Woody Allen was originally going to play Tantor but Katzenberg convinced him to do Antz at Dreamworks and he left the project.