Review #445: 'The Emperor's New Groove' (2000)

Kuzco (David Spade), is a spoilt and heartless 18-year old ruler of the Inca Empire, who is planning to build himself a giant holiday home. He summons Pacha (John Goodman) to tell him that he, his family, and the rest of the village must make way for his lavish plans and find somewhere else to live. Kuzco also fires Yzma (Eartha Kitt), his advisor, and in her fury she plans to poison him and ruling in his absence. Yzma's dim-witted but loveable henchman Kronk (Patrick Warburton) gives Kuzco the wrong poison, and instead turns him into a llama. She trusts Kronk to finish the job, but he doesn't have the heart to let Kuzco die and eventually loses him amongst the villagers. Stranded in the jungle with his new llama body, he entrusts Pacha to protect him and return him to his palace, without having any intentions of changing his holiday home plans.

After a hugely troubled production (the title was originally Kingdom in the Sun and the plot involved a peasant look-a-like and a llama herder love-interest), The Emperor's New Groove arrived in 2000 to enjoy slim box-office success, something that Disney would have to get used to. The decision to swap the old-fashioned love story and moral preachings for a more silly and modern buddy-movie was a wise one, and film benefits especially from the work of Patrick Warburton, the man with possibly the best voice in comedy (he also does the voice of paraplegic Joe in Family Guy). Yet the tale is still an overly-familiar one, with the enlightenment of an ignorant rich kid amongst mixing with the lower-classes failing to find anything original to say.

The character of Kuzco is especially loathsome, but where usually the actor/voice artist would be talented enough to make the character endearing, in the hands of David Space, an actor of such a startling lack of talent, is annoying, and remains annoying throughout. There were times where I felt like shouting at Pacha to just kick him off a cliff. I found the whole experience quite charmless, and in an age of high-definition CGI animation, it is nice to see Disney take a traditional approach. Yet where their early films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942) were drawn with expert beauty and love, Groove just looks lazy and heartless. It's not a total failure, the film is sporadically funny with the aforementioned Kronk getting most of the laughs, and Earth Kitt does some fine work as the twisted Yzma. But it's no wonder Disney would buy Pixar, as judging from this they were lacking from anything resembling inspiration or innovation.


Directed by: Mark Dindal
Voices: David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie