40. The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

The Emperor’s New Groove began life as Kingdom of the Sun, a traditional Disney musical; however, the film suffered from an infamously troubled production – recorded in the fascinating documentary The Sweatbox, if you’re interested in learning more – and after a number of overhauls and rewrites, eventually became the film we know it as today. While we’ll never quite know what Kingdom of the Sun might’ve been, I think I’ll put myself forward to say that I’m glad we got something so completely different; instead of a romantic, fantastical musical, The Emperor’s New Groove is a wacky, wild ride that acts as an homage to classic buddy comedies and slapstick cartoons and is a breath of fresh air after the slow, lifeless mess that was Dinosaur.

The animation is back to 2D – thankfully Disney didn’t do another fully computer animated film for a few years – and it looks great, it’s nothing revolutionary and lacks the technical quality and attention to detail of something like Tarzan, but it serves its purpose very well; that is to say, this film is an old style comedy, having more in common with Looney Tunes than Disney and as a result, the animation is not grandiose and detailed, but rather, loud, dynamic and, well... animated. The energy here is so huge, the characters are always moving, always talking, always doing something, which fits the madcap style of humour; this is also complimented by the more simplistic character designs, which resemble Hercules in that they are more sharp and angular, but are mostly even less detailed, except perhaps for Yzma. The colours are very bold and bright, with a varied colour palette throughout the movie, again, a nice change from the visually unappealing Dinosaur; the use of space and framing in the backgrounds is also great and allows for a lot of good jokes through the use of perspective and composition. Everything about the look of this movie is geared towards its style of comedy, meaning it works in perfect tandem with the characters and story to make as many different jokes as it possibly can with the tools it has.

My Life as a Teenage Llama coming to Disney channel this fall

The plot is deliberately thin – it starts off as the story of a powerful, but selfish emperor who is transformed into a llama by his traitorous advisor and has to find a way to turn himself back to normal, teaming up with a kindly peasant along the way. However, the film doesn’t exactly chart their journey, as once we reach the second act, things mostly stay in the same place for the rest of the film, until the last fifteen minutes, where they jump straight into the climax. In any other film, this would be bad pacing, in The Emperor’s New Groove, it is not only justified, but a necessity. The film eschews the traditional Disney narrative structure, in favour of simply telling jokes; the writers aren’t as interested in charting the heroes’ journey or development as they are in just putting them in funny situations and seeing what happens. In his review, critic Roger Ebert noted that, unlike other Disney films, he found it inappropriate to refer to The Emperor’s New Groove as an “animated feature”: ‘the only word for it is “cartoon.” I mean that as a compliment.’ The film is not about fairy tales or adventure or love stories, it’s about seeing just how many different jokes they can cram into eighty minutes. The thing is, these characters work so well together that you’re happy to just watch them sit in a room and see what happens; the plot is never missed, because the comedy is just so strong.

The film’s sense of humour can kind of be considered as the next step from Aladdin and Hercules, which both had a more modernistic, irreverent attitude towards comedy than their predecessors, but while Aladdin still kept itself rooted in its setting and story and Hercules only really went half-way with its attempts at satirical, anachronistic jokes, The Emperor’s New Groove goes all the way to the point where things are just completely off the rails. Anything is fair game, here, characters use modern terminology, have briefcases and alarm clocks, they work in secret laboratories, go to diners, the film’s attitude is essentially ‘hey, if it’s funny, it doesn’t have to make sense’, if something can be used for a joke, it will be. The film also incorporates aspects of metahumour, referencing and parodying classic Disney and buddy comedy tropes, poking fun at its own lack of story and plot holes and breaking the fourth wall by having Kuzco directly address the audience and comment on the story’s events; the film never takes itself too seriously, it just wants to make you laugh. Some of Kuzco’s dialogue and mannerisms can be a bit too early 2000’s and some of the action scenes go on for a little too long, but for the most part, this approach works very well.

Throw your hands in the air if you’s a true player

With a greater focus on comedy than narrative, a lot of The Emperor’s New Groove is dependent on the characters, as if they weren’t funny, the whole structure of the movie would come tumbling down; thankfully, these characters all serve their roles well and play off one another marvellously. Kuzco is a first for a Disney protagonist, in that he’s actually a real jerk! Narcissistic, selfish and a nuisance to everyone around him, he’s kind of like “The Hooter”, but everybody KNOWS he’s “The Hooter” and isn’t afraid to let him know it; this works as a great role reversal for the typical Disney hero  and only adds to the film’s sense of unique identity. At times, David Spade’s typically smarmy delivery can be a touch too annoying, but again, it is supposed to be, so this never becomes too great a problem, as Kuzco is offset well by the other characters; he also has some good, if a little rushed character development, but again, that’s not really what the movie’s about. Pacha is the straight man, he’s bland and not as funny, but he’s not supposed to be, he’s just a nice guy who constantly has to bail Kuzco out, to his frustration. Pacha is the kind of character who would normally be the protagonist of a Disney movie, he’s kind and helpful, though not a pushover, but doesn’t have much of a personality beyond that; he would make for an uninteresting hero, similar to Aladar or Hercules, but works much better as a sidekick and foil to the more flamboyant Kuzco. Pacha’s family are a little different as well, the kids aren’t the typical Disney kids, being a lot more hyperactive and mischievous, actually acting like real kids without being too bratty and the mother is sensible and kind, but not at the cost of having no personality, as she’s quite wily and tough; they don’t do that much but have a couple of funny moments.

The villains are the ones who really steal the show, as they follow the classic Disney format of a self-absorbed schemer and their incompetent sidekick, but throw out all possibility of actually being threatening, focusing purely on their comedic potential. Yzma is like Cruella DeVille or Madame Medusa done right – an egotistical, deluded woman who is obsessed with her own glamour and beauty, even though she’s actually hideous; her obsession to kill Kuzco is matched only by her complete inability to do so. Yzma’s animation is almost hyperactive, she’s always doing something and she gets herself into a lot of great slapstick scenes, she’s kicked around, attacked by bees, beat with sticks, she’s always getting herself hurt and her haughty, arrogant attitude means it’s always funny to watch her get her comeuppance. Eartha Kitt is clearly having a ball with this performance, she goes from insane, over-the-top cackling, to awkward small talk within the space of a few seconds, Yzma is all over the place and very funny. Kronk gets a lot more attention than most villainous sidekicks and with good reason, because, like his boss, he’s a lot of fun; the way he moves between complete idiocy to sudden bursts of genius is hardly a new joke, but it’s played so well here that it doesn’t feel trite. This is helped greatly by the performance of Patrick Warburton, who seems to be capable of both sounding like a genius and a complete idiot with the exact same delivery. Less involved with the slapstick, Kronk has some of the best stand-alone lines of the movie and a great double-act with the more accident prone Yzma; together, they are the funniest part of the movie.

Of course you realise, this means war

Though not a musical, the film does contain one song, “Perfect World”, a great, latin-infused number sung by Tom Jones; this is a lot of fun and a great intro and outro to the film, with some surprisingly clever and funny lyrics. The score follows this musical style, with a lot of great pieces which compliment the setting and pacing of the film; the montage where Kuzco and Pacha race Yzma and Kronk to the palace in particular has a great piece of music with suits the visuals perfectly. Though music is obviously not as important to the film as it could’ve been if it had remained Kingdom of the Sun, what’s there is good and what was taken out obviously didn’t fit the new direction the film had taken; several of the musical numbers for Kingdom of the Sun had already been recorded and Sting had written a number of songs to go with the film, so it would’ve been easy for Disney to just shove them in because they already had them. With this in mind, I applaud them for resisting the urge and sticking to their vision of The Emperor’s New Groove as an offbeat comedy; musical numbers, particularly those in style of Sting’s music, would have surely slowed the film down, so kudos to Disney for not being lazy.

The Emperor’s New Groove might not be the kind of great, animated epic that’s going to be remembered for years to come, but it deserves its own little place in the annals of Disney history for its unique accomplishments and sensibilities. Do the jokes always work? No. Is the story undeveloped? Yes. Is it a bit lacking in the Disney charm? Maybe, but nonetheless, it achieves what it wanted to achieve and plays around a lot with expectations and film clichés to create a fresh and original product. The Emperor’s New Groove is indeed an eighty minute cartoon, no more or less, but it’s an effortlessly enjoyable one and probably the funniest of Disney’s comedies.


7.5/10

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