"Mazel Tov"

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2000)

It looks like Disney finally gave up the pretentious tone of their last films. "The circle of life" might indeed sound a bit over the top. This time, despite a slightly moralising theme, the crazy plot is nothing more than a great pretext for wacky situations. Unlike the last films where all the sets were almost screaming "look how artsy this is! look how great our stuff is! look at what I can do!" here, some great looking sets are present with a discretion that goes to their honour. When Pacha leaves the palace at the beginning of the film and walks back to his village, his route is delightful to the eye, without annoying violins ruining it by desperately trying to point it out.
Disney also seems to have given up the "song every seven minutes" policy. There's only one song in the film, and that's quite enough. More would brake the groove. The voices are excellent. David Spade has the fake crying and whining that makes him so delightfully annoying in Just Shoot Me. And Patrick Warburton has his serious and brainless tone of voice in the most inappropriate moments. ("He left without paying his check.") This is just to name a couple.
Much like Scream, or Austin Powers, in a completely different theme though, the film makes fun of itself. The characters don't expect us to believe the absurd Hollywood-like coincidences of their adventure, and seem to be quite aware of the fact they're only characters of a film. And, in any case, how serious can a Jewish New York diner in the middle of a pre-Columbian South American jungle be? Especially when the waitress expresses her happiness with a "blasÃ©" "Mazel Tov"? How come, in the end of every action film, the "bad guys" so often seem to get in the way of the "good guys" in the most unlikely of ways? "Who cares?" seems to be the general attitude of The Emperor's New Groove.
The four main characters follow a seemingly endless series of misadventures, all more unlikely and more hilarious than the other. They spoof other films and parody a lot of situations. There are no tasteless jokes, as there were in The Lion King. They play with stereotypes and attitudes. They achieve a lot by not taking themselves too seriously.
That's just the kind of humour I like. I couldn't stop laughing. I saw it twice in a row.
And why does Ysma have that lever anyway?