Review
"The Emperors New Groove" is stylistically a break from Disney tradition its closer in tone to the Genie in "Aladdin" or some of their TV shows than most of their movies making a refreshing change. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking that this isnt a Disney movie at all... the only talking animal has a good excuse for yapping in the voice of David Spade the only romantic relationship is that between Pacha and his wife (and even there its more the sign of a happily married couple) and apart from the Emperors Theme Song Guy ("Hes the hippest cat in creation...") and Sting over the end credits but well forgive that no one bursts into song. Plus the emphasis is more on Warner Brostype energetic humour than usual. No wonder it was a disappointment at the box office not your traditional Disney movie.
Then again "The Rescuers Down Under" was an underrated pleasure as well.
The story isnt particularly different youve got the ruler who has to change externally before he can change internally ("Beauty and the Beast") Kronk the goodhearted sidekick of the villain (Yzma) who cant bring himself to kill the hero ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") and so on but as is often the case its not so much what the plot is as how its handled. Although the movie suffers from "Isthat..." syndrome its too hard not to see Finch from "Just Shoot Me!" every time Kuzco speaks (strangely enough even though Pachas wife has the voice of Wendie Malick from the same show I never pictured Nina Van Horn... which isnt the case with "Fillmore!" where Miss Malick voices Principal Folsom. Go figure) the movies speed energy and high humour rate make it easy to forgive with Kuzco and the bad guys sidekick as standouts. The movies also a bit more selfreverential than other Disney movies notably in our heros narration (plus at one point Yzma and Kronk notice theyre leaving a blue trail behind them which turns out to be the trail they leave on the map to the palace illustrating the race between them and our heroes).
The surprising thing is that it even works with character though the Emperor is enough of a selfabsorbed hedonist (to a prospective wife "Let me guess youve got a really great personality") to turn off Paris and Nicky Hilton he and Pacha have a believable relationship throughout the movie so that by the end were rooting for him to get turned back into a human. Too bad Marc Shaimans score was thrown out (hed have been a natural as opposed to John Debney) but no sense whining over what might have been. An adventure a comedy and a drama all in one "The Emperors New Groove" has everything that was notably absent from DreamWorks own South Americanset cartoon "The Road to El Dorado" (charm interest no Elton John overdose and so on) and is the funniest movie from the House of Mouse since "Aladdin." Its easier to forgive them for giving the world "Dinosaur" in 2000 as well.
Why DOES she have that lever anyway