Synopsis:
Egomaniac Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his bitter ex-royal advisor, Yzma. He must now enlist the help of a reluctant peasant, Pacha, to help him get back to his palace and reclaim what is his.
I can't help but feel
that The Emperor's New Groove is one of the forgotten classics
from the one of Disney's renaissance period. Starting with the Little
Mermaid in 1989 and Peeking with the Lion King until
finally dropping into a lull soon after the new millennium. Although
it is commonly considered that the Renaissance Age ended with Tarzan
I can't help but feel that The Emperor’s New Groove was kind
of a transitional piece and so should somehow get a special mention
as part of the Disney Animated Classics of that period. After this I
feel the company took a slight character change and began to focus
more on other venues, such as the Disney Channel and so on. The
feature film route took a slight nosedive after this, tending to
cater more and more heavily to a child audience, as opposed to trying
to draw in the child in all of us. But all good things must come to
an end, and what better way than with an overly ego-maniacal Inca
monarch that gets turned into a lama.
As I said this
particular flick tends to go forgotten which is a real shame because
I think it held up real promise. The real reason that it tends to be
forgotten I think is the lack of scale to the piece. It feels
slightly less ambitious than Disney's previous efforts and so becomes
a film that leads Disney comfortably into a new era. All in all it's
a much safer film, I suppose all the characters and script are so
heavily based in comedy that there was never going to be that truly
ruthless villain as there was with Scar in The Lion King, or
the Huns in Mulan. This would
probably be the only let down for me, because where I don't feel the
film caters to children alone, it's certainly makes you feel that
times are changing and there are moments where I feel jokes are made
too obvious so that children can pick up on them. Before the key to
the humour was how the character moved, the timing of the action, the
clever dialogue. This tends to be sacrificed a bit for cheap laughs,
making you not sure of when something that is genuinely funny is
happening.
Contradictory
to that last statement, this is still Disney, and you can see through
and through that this is still a solidly funny film and picking up on
the genuinely funny moments isnt too difficult. All the characters
have so MUCH character that you just fall in love with them. Kuzco,
although inherently selfish, the way he carries himself is what makes
him a treat to watch,. Not to mention his interactions with the
lovable Peasant in Pacha carry the film along brilliantly. The show
stealer’s however are the villains themselves. They are hilarious.
Particularly Kronk, the muscle-bound lacky of Yzma, Kuzco's bitter
ex- Royal Advisor. You can tell he was made to be the comedy value,
and you could quite worryingly imagine how he could be portrayed as
simple and dimwitted, a clumsy kind of funny. Which he is, but the
magic of this character is how he goes about his job with such
flamboyance, and no real hostility towards his abusive master. He's a
bad guy but innocent at the same time and Patrick Warbuton's delivery
is just impeccable. The rest of the film's timing is perfect and
you'll be having such fun it'll be over before you know it.
The
animation still holds that charm that I fell in love with during my
first decade on this earth. The difference is that's it's much
cleaner. It also takes a kind of experimental, music-video, aesthetic
approach at times. This isn't a bad thing, it's a good thing. It
shows that Disney wasn't afraid to go out of their comfort zone and
produce something fairly jazzy, and rightly so, this is the new
groove after all. Unfortunately this is what makes it slightly lose
it's cinematic edge but it's still so strong throughout that you can
easily forgive it.
Overview:
An
undeservedly forgotten film which everyone simply must see see.
Although it loses that big movie feel, it's still hilarious and
you'll find yourself lost in this fast paced adventure with some of
Disney's most lovable characters.
Rating:
★★★★
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