Best Disney in many years!

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2000)

I have been rather unhappy with Disney's offerings since Little Mermaid and Beaty and the Beast, although Lion King was decent too. The others since have left me cold, so luckily my love for animation was satisfied by the Aardman shorts & Chicken Run, the Pixar trilogy (Bug's Life & Toy Stories) amd Antz. But here, out of the blue with no previews in the movie theaters I frequent, comes this wonderful movie!
Once again, Disney has used a classic tale, of a powerful but cruel and self centered individual being thrown into a scary situation with one of his lowliest underlings, and coming out a much improved person for the experience (the examples are many, but A Christmas Carol is a good example of the genre.) In this film, the powerful one is the Emperor (Kuzco - voiced by David Spade) of a Mayan/Aztec type rural kingdom. The underling is the peasant (Pacha - voiced by John Goodman) who herds the Emperor's llamas. The scary situation is the Emperor's scheming advisor (Yzma - voiced by Eartha Kitt), an almost Cruela DeVil type withered and scary old crone who fancies herself as vastly more attractive than she is, and her body building / gourmet cooking / dimwitted- yet- strangely- resourceful boy-toy / chair carrier / bodyguard (Kronk - voiced by Patrick Warburton ...don't know him? he does the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the TV show version of the Toy Story spinoffs...same kind of voice as Tim Allen in the same role.) The neat thing about the voice talent is that the characters are made to look pretty much like the actors (Eartha must have a really good sense of humor!)
Anyway, it is no spoiler to say that the Emperor gets turned into a llama (she was trying to kill him with a magic potion, to be administered by Kronk, who screws up the dosage hence the odd result) and the advisor takes over the kingdom. She tasks Kronk with taking the llama out into the country and killing it, but he fails her (similar to the huntsman in Snow White, but funny this time.) When she gets word that the llama is on the loose, not dead, she takes matters into her own hands (Snow White again) and sets off in search of the talking critter with Kronk carrying her chair around with her in it...this makes for lots of funny scenes.
Ant that is what this film is about (besides the moral-of-the-story aspect). It is simply a great time for all ages. The colorful scenery and nonstop slapstick is good for the kids, while the constant stream of sight gags, topical references, satire and parody delight the adults. This film has a much wittier script than most Disneys, and get this...it's a cartoon, not a musical. The characters do not sing songs at every drop of a hat. Only the Emperor gets an opening song to tell us what a great guy he thinks he is. This characteristic also sets the film apart from other Disneys.
I was interested to see that the credits list very little in the way of computer animation. Also, the work seems to have taken place in Disney's tiny animation facility in their park in Florida (seems that another recent one was made entirely there) instead of in California. There is also a Paris Unit listed, so I wonder if the Disneyland-France has a similar animation facility?
This film is a delight, and can easily stand multiple viewings.