Echoes of Chuck Jones madness, sharply barbed one-liners and some intrinsically thought out action sequences highlight this hugely entertaining, hilarious cartoon

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2004)

THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE (2000) *** (Voices of: David Spade, John Goodman, Earth Kitt, Patrick Warburton, Wendie
Malick, Eli Russell Linnetz, Kellyann Kelso, Robert Bergen, John
Fiedler). Funny, slapstick-y animated Disney yarn about a spoiled
brat young ruler (voiced to snarky perfection by Spade) whose
authority is undermined by his ruthless, power-hungry adviser (Kitt,
purrrfectly announciating vile thoughts) and her dense, yet
well-meaning henchman (Warburton, in all his scene-stealing
glory), when she turns him into a llama and dispatching him into a
jungle encroaching village where he is befriended by a kind
peasant (Goodman at his jovial best) who teaches the punk some
life lessons. Echoes of Chuck Jones madness, sharply barbed
one-liners and some intrinsically thought out action sequences
highlight this hugely entertaining, hilarious cartoon of choice
direction by Mark Dindal and surprisingly nearly song-free (two
tracks are written by Sting  one performed by Tom Jones  who
originally was commissioned to score some dozen tracks when
the project switched gears from becoming a full-fledged musical).