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.