Genius wrapped in a goofy-looking box

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2008)

"The Emperor's New Groove" obviously falls into one of two categories for most people: "I Loved It", or "I Hated It". There's a large segment of society that loves the simplicity and innocence of the Disney formula: Beautiful visuals, moralistic value-reaffirmation, and escapism. The millions of people that flock to their movies and to their theme parks are craving this type of entertainment.
To these people, "Emperor's New Groove" didn't fit the mold. It was, bluntly, a Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry/Woody Woodpecker full-length comedy movie dressed up from the outside like a Disney film. The trailers were hacked-up from the movie's previous incarnation as the epic drama "Kingdom Of The Sun", so they could be forgiven for not knowing that they would be seeing a 78 minute movie with the same level of entertainment as Wile E. Coyote getting an Anvil dropped on his head, or Daffy Duck being shot until his beak falls off by Elmer Fudd. They left the theaters somewhat justified in their disappointment and dislike of the film.
But some of us... those of us that grew up on Television, on Saturday Morning Cartoons, on Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, The Road Runner, JabberJaw, The Banana Splits... this was the movie from Disney that we'd all been waiting for. This was FUNNY. Not "hmmmm, that was humorous and a good lesson to boot!", but "HAW HAW HAW KUZCO GOT A MOUTH FULL OF BEES!!!". Humor for humor's sake. Laughter for laughter's sake. The characters were just that... CHARACTERS. We weren't expected to identify with any of them, we were just expected to laugh at (and with) them.
How this movie made it past Disney Corporate in it's final form, I'll never know. I know that Disney had already sunk millions into "Kingdom", and wanted to get something, ANYTHING from their investment, and turned to Mark Dindal, who made the criminally underrated "Cats Don't Dance". The end result is unlike any other non-Pixar Disney movie ever: irreverent, hilarious, engaging.