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Click above to purchase "The Emperor's New Groove " at
amazon.com
The Emperor's New Groove
review by Eric Dahl
Rated G
Studio: Disney
Running Time: 77 minutes
With the voices of David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha
Kitt and Patrick Warburton
Written by David Renyolds
Directed by Mark Dindal
Retail Price: $29.99
Features: 3 "Behind the Scenes" Featurettes: The
Research Trip, The Character Voices, and Creating
Computer-Generated Images, Deleted Scene "The Destruction of
Pacha's Village", Sting Music Video "My Funny Friend and
Me", Rascal Flatts Music Video "Learn To 'Walk The Llama
Llama'", Interactive Game "The Emperor's Got Game", Audio
Commentary with director Mark Dindal, producer Randy Fulmer,
and assorted Disney artists
Specs: 1.66:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, Digital to
Digital Transfer, English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DTS
5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, English Subtitles, Chapter
Search (28 Chapters), THX-Certified
In the year 2000, Walt Disney Pictures released it's
annual animated feature. It was released to (mostly) great
reviews which praised the movie for it's great sense of
humor and perfect voice casting.
This movie was "The Emperor's New Groove".
Originally a serious period epic named "Kingdom of the
Sun", the film was given a complete overhaul and change of
tone, turning the serious period epic into a light-hearted
comedy which was dubbed "The Emperor's New Groove".
"The Emperor's New Groove" is the story of Kuzco (David
Spade), a practically heartless teenaged South American
emperor, who after firing his personal advisor, Yzma (Eartha
Kitt), is the object of her limitless anger. A mishap
involving Yzma's not-so-bright cohort Kronk (Patrick
Warburton) in which extract of llama is mistaken for poison,
concludes in Kuzco being turned into a llama instead of
killing him. The rest of the movie is about the relationship
between Kuzco and Pacha (John Goodman), a simple peasant
who's home is endangered by Kuzco's summer home plans, how
Pacha leads Kuzco back to his palace so that he can turn
back into a human and stop Yzma from taking over his empire,
and how Kuzco eventually grows a heart (so to speak).
Taking a sharp veer from it's previous habit of taking a
serious story and adding some humor into it, Disney here, as
mentioned before, has made a full-blown comedy, and I must
say, it works wonderfully. This is Disney's funniest movie
in years. A lot of why the movie works so well is due to the
perfect voice casting. David Spade as Kuzco, John Goodman as
Pacha, Eartha Kitt as Yzma, and especially Patrick Warburton
as Kronk really bring their characters alive with vivid and
hilarious performances.
Even if you don't like Disney's animated features that
much, by all means, give this one a shot. It's probably
Disney's best since "The Lion King" and it's funniest since
"Aladdin".
The anamorphically enhanced 1.66:1 transfer is probably
one of the best that I've ever seen. Colors are bright,
vivid, and beautiful, and the picture is sharp, sharp,
sharp. I didn't notice any pixellation or artifacting at
all. The picture has almost has a 3-D look: the picture
seems to jump out at you. This transfer looks AMAZING.
The film has both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks.
The surrounds aren't put to much use other than ambient
noises or the films playfully energetic score. The front
soundstage is great with perfect sounding dialogue coming
from the center channel. The .1 bass channel is used
primarily for the music score, but it does get a little
workout with the effects from the movie. All around, a
pretty good mix.
First, the "Behind the Scenes" featurettes. These don't
really go in-depth at all, other than the "Character Voices"
one, and are just short little insights on their respective
subjects.
Character Voices: This featurette shows interviews with
the main cast about their take on their characters, and also
with the animators and how they integrated some of each
actor in their respective characters. This featurette was a
little over five minutes long.
Research trip: This featurette was about how the
animators took a 10-day South American trip to do research
on the culture and syles of artwork that eventually made
their way into the finished movie. It would've been nicer if
this featurette was a little longer and more in-depth. This
featurette was one minute and twenty-five seconds long.
Special Effects: This featurette was about how CGI
animation was integrated with traditional animation to make
the movie. This was probably the most interesting of all the
featurettes, as we are shown scenes from the movie that had
computer animation in them, which I, personally, didn't even
notice. (According to the animator hosting this segment, if
you didn't notice, he did his job right.) This feature was
two minutes and twenty seconds long.
Second, Sting's music video for his song "My Funny Friend
and Me". This feature's description sort of is misleading.
The feature has Sting talking about his ideas behind the
song and his motivations for writing songs for a Disney
movie with the beforementioned song playing in the
backgorund. A nice feature, but not entirely accurately
described.
Third, the Rascal Flatts "Walk the Llama Llama" music
video. This is a silly little kids sing and dance along. A
pretty annoying feature, but your kids will probably like
it.
Fourth, a single deleted scene of the mock destruction of
Pacha's village is included. As the director says in the
introduction, the scene is a little dark and doesn't mix
well with the overall lighthearted tone of the movie. I
agree, but it was good of them to include it on the DVD.
Fifth, "The Emperor's Got Game". This is probably the
highlight of the features. It's a little interactive trivia
game where, by answering simple questions about the movie,
you are supposed to get Kusco, the llama version, back to
his palace before Yzma can. After that feat is accomplished,
you are taken to Yzma's lab, given a choice of three colored
vials, and are supposed to figure out the correct order to
put them in in order to turn Kuzsco back into a human. It's
not really difficult, considering there are only 6 possible
choices. The real reason for playing this game is that the
game is hosted by movie characters Yzma and Kronk, who are
(surprisingly) voiced by the actors that did their voices in
the movie: Patrick Warburton and Eartha Kitt. The exchanges
that they have, hosting this game, rival the hilarity of
some of the dialogue in the movie, which makes this extra a
must-play.
Sixth, and finally, the commentary: The commentary is
mostly the director, Mark Dindal, and the producer, Randy
Fulmer, talking, but occasionally a Disney artist will "pop
in" and comment on the proceedings. It's interesting and
insightful, and there is some juicy and occasionally very
funny trivia embedded in the talk. This is certainly not one
of the most fufilling or hilarious commentaries I've ever
heard, but it's definitely worth a listen.
I didn't know where else to put this, but at the end of
the features seemed like a good place. A really cool feature
that is employed when the French 5.1 track is used is that
the opening credits that state "Walt Disney Pictures
Presents" and "The Emperor's New Groove" are all changed to
French. I have no idea how they did this, perhaps through
seamless branching, but this is definitely worth a look.
With a flawless transfer, a good soundtrack, some decent
supplements, and a hilarious movie, this disc is pretty much
a must have. There is, however, a 2-disc special edition
entitled "The Ultimate Groove" available which has a second
disc devoted to supplements. If lots of extras just aren't
your thing, go with this version, but if you want even more
icing on the cake, I would recommend purchasing "The
Ultimate Groove", which, although it retails for about ten
dollars more than this version, I'm sure is worth the extra
money.
 (4/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (5/5)
(4/5)
 (3/5)
 (3.5/5, NOT an average)
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