The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma, and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha, the gentle llama herder.

Director:

Mark Dindal

Writers:

Chris Williams (story), Mark Dindal (story),

Stars:

David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 24 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Spade	...	Emperor Kuzco / Narrator (voice)
John Goodman	...	Pacha (voice)
Eartha Kitt	...	Yzma (voice)
Patrick Warburton	...	Kronk, Yzma's Sidekick (voice)
Wendie Malick	...	Chicha, Pacha's Wife (voice)
Kellyann Kelso	...	Chaca, Pacha's Daughter (voice)
Stephen J. Anderson	...	(voice)
Eli Russell Linnetz	...	Tipo, Pacha's Son (voice)
Bob Bergen	...	Bucky the Squirrel (voice)
Rodger Bumpass	...	(voice)
Tom Jones	...	Theme Song Guy (voice)
Robert Clotworthy	...	(voice)
Jennifer Darling	...	(voice)
Patti Deutsch	...	Waitress (voice)
John Fiedler	...	Old Man (voice)

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

llama | emperor | potion | jumprope | old man | 

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Taglines:

What a 'c'hunk

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Disney

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 December 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kingdom in the Sun

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,235,883 (UK) (16 February 2001)

Gross:

ESP 250,669,396 (Spain) (29 June 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Patrick Warburton improvised when Kronk hummed his own theme song when he was carrying Kuzco in the bag to the waterfall. Disney legal department had Warburton to sign all rights to the humming composition over to them.

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Goofs

When Yzma is explaining a cruel irony to Kronk, a pink iris appears in her right eye, only to disappear two seconds later.

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Quotes

Old Man: Oh, it's not the first time I was tossed out of a window, and it won't be the last. What can I say? I'm a rebel.

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Connections

Referenced in House of Mouse: House of Scrooge (2002)

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Soundtracks

"Girl from Ipanema"
Written by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, and Norman Gimbel

User Reviews

"Bring it on."

"The Emperor's New Groove" is stylistically a break from Disney tradition - it's 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 isn't 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 it's more the sign of a happily married couple), and apart from the Emperor's Theme Song Guy ("He's the hippest cat in creation...") - and Sting over the end credits, but we'll forgive that - no one bursts into song. Plus the emphasis is more on Warner Bros-type 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 isn't particularly different - you've got the ruler who has to change externally before he can change internally ("Beauty and the Beast"), Kronk, the good-hearted sidekick of the villain (Yzma) who can't bring himself to kill the hero ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"), and so on - but as is often the case it's not so much what the plot is as how it's handled. Although the movie suffers from "Is-that...?" syndrome - it's too hard not to see Finch from "Just Shoot Me!" every time Kuzco speaks (strangely enough, even though Pacha's wife has the voice of Wendie Malick from the same show, I never pictured Nina Van Horn... which isn't the case with "Fillmore!", where Miss Malick voices Principal Folsom. Go figure) - the movie's speed, energy and high humour rate make it easy to forgive, with Kuzco and the bad guy's sidekick as standouts. The movie's also a bit more self-reverential than other Disney movies, notably in our hero's narration (plus at one point Yzma and Kronk notice they're 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 self-absorbed hedonist (to a prospective wife: "Let me guess - you've 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 we're rooting for him to get turned back into a human. Too bad Marc Shaiman's score was thrown out (he'd 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 Emperor's New Groove" has everything that was notably absent from DreamWorks' own South American-set 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." It's easier to forgive them for giving the world "Dinosaur" in 2000 as well.

Why DOES she have that lever, anyway?