A grudgingly enjoyable experience

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2000)

I gotta say upfront that I despise Disney. Oh, not the Disney of my childhood (20-25 years ago), which brought me fascinating, sometimes cutting edge animation movies such as Jungle Book. No, I mean Michael Eisner's Disney, the soulless marketing machine that has leeched away its creativity in its quest to boost the stock price.
So my wife and I attended "New Groove" reluctantly, and only because it was the sole movie at the 24-theatre multiplex that was on at the right time and wasn't sold out. I rated it a 6, and have no problem stating that "New Groove" is the most original movie from Disney since, perhaps, pre-Little Mermaid days.
Good things: Voices (David Spade was perfectly whiney, the guy who played Puddy on Seinfeld was great as the oaf assistant, and Eartha Kitt was a purrrrrfectly evil villian), NO INSIPID SONGS, no cutesy sidekick characters for alleged comic relief, and maybe best of all, NEW GROUND was broken. For once we watched a movie headed into who knows what direction (of sure, the overall plot was predictable, but the details were interesting), and we saw things that were oddly inexplicable but endearing (this emperor like to dance, hence The Groove).
Bad things: The inexplicable but endearing stuff was never fully utilized (what, no raves at the palace?), the movie dragged at times during the llama emperor's journey, and, ultimately, you didn't really care about any of these characters. You just wanted to have fun.
So a grudging tip of the hat to Disney. Judging from the lack of commercial and marketing support you guys don't know exactly how to present "New Groove," and maybe that is why it is your best animated film in a decade.