Animation Review: The Emperor's New Groove

Plot Synopsis:

"In this animated comedy from the folks at Disney, the vain and cocky Emperor Kuzco is a very busy man. Besides maintaining his "groove", and firing his suspicious administrator, Yzma; he's also planning to build a new waterpark just for himself for his birthday. However, this means destroying one of the villages in his kingdom. Meanwhile, Yzma is hatching a plan to get revenge and usurp the throne. But, in a botched assassination courtesy of Yzma's right-hand man, Kronk, Kuzco is magically transformed into a llama. Now, Kuzco finds himself the property of Pacha, a lowly llama herder whose home is ground zero for the water park. Upon discovering the llama's true self, Pacha offers to help resolve the Emperor's problem and regain his throne, only if he promises to move his water park."

Ray's Review:

The Emperor's New Groove has an interesting history which I think is worth taking into account when watching the film.

I'll let this excerpt from IMDB explain:

"This film was originally planned to have been a dramatic, sweeping Disney musical named "Kingdom of the Sun", to be directed by The Lion King (1994) director Roger Allers and Mark Dindal, director of Turner's Cats Don't Dance (1997), with six original songs written by Sting, that was essentially an Incan re-telling of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper." David Spade was the voice of the young emperor Manco, Owen Wilson was Pacha, a young peasant with a striking resemblance to the emperor, and Eartha Kitt was Yzma, the aged royal sorceress. The film involved Manco and Pacha switching places, except that Yzma finds out, turns Manco into a (non-speaking) llama, and makes Pacha do her bidding. Pacha also eventually was to fall in love with Nina (voice of Carla Gugino), the emperor's betrothed. The resulting film tested very poorly, and the production was suspended, even though the film was 50% complete. Allers and Yzma supervising animator Andreas Deja both left the project and moved to Orlando, Florida to work on Lilo & Stitch (2002). During the production hiatus, Dindal, producer Randy Fullmer, story man Chris Williams, and screenwriter David Reynolds completely overhauled the film, eventually throwing out Wilson, the "Prince and the Pauper" angle, the completed footage, and all but one of Sting's songs. The story was rebuilt from the ground up, retaining Spade's and Kitt's characters and creating a new, wackier film that centered around Spade's (talking) llama, Yzma, and two new characters: Pacha, now a middle aged man played by John Goodman and Patrick Warburton's character Kronk."

Taking the troubled production into account it's a miracle how great Groove really is, it's easily the most irreverent and insane Disney film I've ever seen, and certainly the most I have ever laughed aloud at an animated film (outside of Southpark: The Movie). If you appreciate David Spade's sarcastic sense of humour you are in for a treat, if not, then there still might be enough other elements to make it enjoyable, though I think a lot of people out there have commented on his character being too cruel... Personally I think he's hilarious and it's all about the 'character arc' anyway; the story requires him to be an egocentric so that his transformation by the end is believable.

Compared to other Disney films this certainly is the first one to draw comparisons, not to other Disney films, but more to Wyle Coyote and Road Runner. It's simply packed with slapstick humour and physical gags, all of which are very funny. I really appreciated this approach and found it to be a breath of fresh air after all the recent grand (and sometimes pompous) Disney films that came before it. This is certainly not in the vein of Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, this is totally going for laughs, with the smallest possible amount of their usual operatic grandeur.


The characters are all fantastic and even my little 3-year old nephew had their confusingly similar names memorised on first viewing. Kuzco is a never ending barrage of hilarious sarcasm. The idiotic Kronk is a delight (and now has his very own sequel which I hope is good), the scenes where he wrestles with his inner angel and demon are particularly funny. Yzma makes a suitable Nemesis, classic in the vein of other evil Disney woman, yet tons more fun. And John Goodman's Pacha plays the usually tedious role of the "morally sound do-gooder" in an admirably charming manner.

My only peeve with Groove would be the few moments where you sense that they are probably using scenes from the abandoned earlier version of the film ("Kingdom of the Sun") and trying to spice them up with a few inserts or humorous voice overs. I can't say for certain that this is the case, but it certainly feels that way in certain scenes, distracting slightly from the usually consistent tone.

Presentation wise, the DVD looked rich and sharp, with no noticeable compression issues (unlike Brother Bear which I will review later). Groove is packed full of fast motion but never suffers because of it (however I am watching it on a 23' LCD, so on a huge projector compression may become noticeable).

In regards to the sound I found nothing to complain about, it was not quite up to the level of quality set by The Lion king (which would be impossible anyway because that comes in DTS and Groove is only DD5.1 on my Region 4 copy) but it's a nice mix and the dialogue is crystal clear at all times - which in a non-stop talking film like this is essential.

DVD Presentation/Sound: 8/10 (Would give it perfect marks if it had DTS)

Film: 9/10

Closing Notes:

Groove is a different kind of Disney film. It has more of an emphasis on slapstick humour and I personally found it a nice change of pace to the usual Disney style. It's packed full of jokes that will fly over kids heads and make an adult chuckle, yet there is plenty of Road Runner type physical gags to keep the kids laughing too. The animation - while not quite as grand as some other Disney films - is exquisite, but most importantly the characters work and I always enjoy spending the 78mins with them... the time flies by when you are having this much of a good time. As Kuzco says "Bring it on".

Check out my other animated film reviews:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Atlantis: The Lost Empire/Treasure Planet

Tarzan

The Prince of Egypt

The Road to El Dorado

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas