The Emperor's New Groove

Plot synopsis:
Kuzco, a young selfish Inca emperor, rejects the appearances of potential brides and throws an elderly man out the window for "throwing off his groove." After Kuzco fires his conniving advisor, Yzma, for abusing her power, she comes up with a scheme to take the throne with the help of Kronk, her dim-witted but jovial henchman. Later, Kuzco meets Pacha, a kind peasant and village leader, and tells him that he plans to demolish his hilltop family home to build himself a lavish summer home called "Kuzcotopia". Pacha protests, but is dismissed.
Yzma and Kronk later devise a plan to assassinate Kuzco through having him drink poison at a supper, but end up giving him the wrong potion that instead transforms him into a llama. After knocking Kuzco out, Yzma orders Kronk to dispose him and hide the body, but Kronk has a stroke of conscience and saves him. He accidentally drops him on the back of Pacha's cart as Pacha leaves the city. Pacha returns home but does not tell his pregnant wife or children about Kuzco's decision. After awakening in the cart, Kuzco reveals himself as a llama and orders Pacha to take him back to the palace, but Pacha will only do so if Kuzco agrees to spare his family's home. Kuzco haughtily sets off into the jungle alone, only to be chased by jaguars. Pacha rescues Kuzco and he promises him, as they make their way to the palace.
Meanwhile, Yzma takes the throne, but Kronk reveals that he had lost Kuzco. The two then set off to find him. Pacha and Kuzco fail to return to the palace, when Pacha falls through a bridge and Kuzco refuses to help him up, admitting he never meant to keep his promise. However, he soon finds himself in danger too, and they work together to save both of their lives. Without the bridge their journey is delayed, giving Pacha hope that Kuzco will change his mind. They stop at a jungle restaurant at the same time Kronk and Yzma do. Neither party realizes the other is there until Pacha overhears Yzma and Kronk attempting to kill Kuzco. However, Kuzco does not believe Pacha's warning and leaves him. Kuzco only then overhears Yzma's plot and that the kingdom doesn't even miss him. Realizing Pacha was right Kuzco finds he has already left and wanders in the jungle alone. That night, Kronk learns that Pacha must had brought Kuzco to the village.
A repentant Kuzco is soon reunited with Pacha, and they enlist the help of Pacha's family to keep Yzma and Kronk occupied while they make head start. The race to the palace seems to end with Yzma and Kronk falling off a cliff, but they still inexplicably reach the palace first. Yzma orders Kronk to kill the both, but Kronk cannot bring himself to commit murder, which leads Yzma to insult Kronk and his cooking then resign to do it herself. Yzma calls in the guards (who do not recognize Kuzco) while Pacha and Kuzco escape with all the potions in hopes of turning Kuzco back to a human. After several guards are transformed into animals while testing potions and Yzma is transformed into a kitten, Pacha and Kuzco work together try to get the last vial. Yzma steals it, but is surprisingly defeated by Kronk.
Now human again and a more selfless ruler, Kuzco decides to build his summer home elsewhere, and Pacha suggests a neighboring hilltop. In the end, Kuzco is shown living next door to Pacha's in a modest cabin, sharing a swimming pool with Pacha and his family. Yzma, still a kitten, grudgingly joins Kronk's Junior Chipmunk troop.

Tags: cult, entertaining, flashback

Review:
"The Emperor's New Groove" is stylistically a break from Disney tradition - it's closer in tone to the Genie in "Aladdin" or some of their TV shows than most of their movies, making a refreshing change.
the only talking animal has a good excuse for yapping in the voice of David Spade, the only romantic relationship is that between Pacha and his wife (and even there it's more the sign of a happily married couple), and apart from the Emperor's Theme Song Guy ("He's the hippest cat in creation...") - and Sting over the end credits, but we'll forgive that - no one bursts into song.
No wonder it was a disappointment at the box office; not your traditional Disney movie.Then again, "The Rescuers Down Under" was an underrated pleasure as well.The story isn't particularly different - you've got the ruler who has to change externally before he can change internally ("Beauty and the Beast"), Kronk, the good-hearted sidekick of the villain (Yzma) who can't bring himself to kill the hero ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"), and so on - but as is often the case it's not so much what the plot is as how it's handled.
The movie's also a bit more self-reverential than other Disney movies, notably in our hero's narration (plus at one point Yzma and Kronk notice they're leaving a blue trail behind them, which turns out to be the trail they leave on the map to the palace illustrating the race between them and our heroes).The surprising thing is that it even works with character - though the Emperor is enough of a self-absorbed hedonist (to a prospective wife: "Let me guess - you've got a really great personality") to turn off Paris and Nicky Hilton, he and Pacha have a believable relationship throughout the movie, so that by the end we're rooting for him to get turned back into a human.
An adventure, a comedy and a drama all in one, "The Emperor's New Groove" has everything that was notably absent from DreamWorks' own South American-set cartoon "The Road to El Dorado" (charm, interest, no Elton John overdose and so on) and is the funniest movie from the House of Mouse since "Aladdin." It's easier to forgive them for giving the world "Dinosaur" in 2000 as well.Why DOES she have that lever, anyway?.
"For the last time, we did not order a giant trampoline!") improves upon each viewing, and the voice work is uniformly excellent, from David Spade's hilariously bratty emperor to Patrick Warburton's dim boy-toy Kronk to Eartha Kitt's Yzma (an over-the-top screeching Erte-style villainess with an alleged "secret lab" who is also "scary beyond all reason").
It is certainly the most underrated Disney 'toon, and I find that impossible to understand; it's bright, colourful, witty and, most importantly, completely hilarious!The story is a kind of demented fairytale: spoilt young emperor is accidentally turned into a llama by his bitter advisor and teams up with a local peasant to undo this crime and return him to his human form.
The characters are wonderfully drawn and are some of the most memorable in Disney history; Kronk is hilariously naive and simple (Patrick Warburton does a brilliant voice-job here), David Spade is on top form as the cruelly sarcastic Kuzco (Disney's most despicable "hero") and Eartha Kitt's Yzma is a gloriously over-the-top riot - a Disney villainess who tries so hard to be bad and scary that she ends up simply looking a fool who can't even impress a squirrel (if you watch the movie, you'll know what I mean).While the awful - and, crucially, unfunny - "Shrek" wowed the masses and got labelled one of the best comedies ever made, "The Emperor's New Groove", despite glowing reviews, only has something of a cult following, and anyone who didn't ignore it upon its release is glad of it.
On top of this Dreamworks Animation was gearing up to be a serious competitor while Pixar was hogging all of the glory.Such was the success of the Lion King that director Roger Allers was given permission to indulge himself in a vanity piece called Kingdom of the Sun. It was to be an epic, mystical spin on the Prince and the Pauper set in Peru during the time of the Incas as well as a romantic comedy musical with serious weight to the mythology.Honestly, this sounds like the kind of movie that I would have hated.
I can't call it anything other than my absolute favorite Disney animation (Big Hero 6 coming in at a close second) but I'm sort of annoyed that it gets such a bad reputation and that its often forgotten.Released in the US in late 2000 the movie received little fanfare and had a horrible dated marketing campaign that was stuck in the mid- 90s.
(Kuzco is a rarity for a Disney film:  a main character that we're actually NOT supposed to like!)  John Goodman is in Dan Conner mode (his character from TV's "Roseanne") as Pacha, the kind-hearted llama herder.
Who would have thought the writers at Disney would ever come up with  enough courage to do a whole movie that takes the genre and smashes it over the heads of everybody who expected to see an old-fashioned musical?This film is about as funny as a Douglas Adams novel - it's full of self-irony and you get the suspicion that some of it is a bit mean-spirited, but enjoying it means laughing your belly out and you just have to show it to all your friends.
It's stuffed with tongue-in-cheek dialogue (I  L O V E the scene, in which Yzma and Kronk discuss whether to get rid of Kuzco before or after dinner - look for it in the quotes on this site!) and incredibly fast and funny animation with a sense of irreverence that not even Disney's "Hercules" was ready to deliver.
He should probably be awarded a special Oscar for every new film Disney chunks out in memory of that performance with a great cast like this!And one last thing: Kronk definitely is the greatest stupid henchman in recent memory.
Funny, slapstick-y animated Disney yarn about a spoiledbrat young ruler (voiced to snarky perfection by Spade) whoseauthority is undermined by his ruthless, power-hungry adviser (Kitt,purrrfectly announciating vile thoughts) and her dense, yetwell-meaning henchman (Warburton, in all his scene-stealingglory), when she turns him into a llama and dispatching him into ajungle encroaching village where he is befriended by a kindpeasant (Goodman at his jovial best) who teaches the punk somelife lessons.
The Emperor's New Groove is a delightful film, occupying a concise runtime, unstoppable action scenes, and fierce and interesting characters rarely striking a wrong note.The story focuses on Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade), the selfish, manipulating emperor of the Inca Empire.
Emperor's New Groove is the best Disney movie I've ever seen.
With Disney's recent stunning works such as Dinosaur, Atlantis, and yes, The Emperor's New Groove, I have a new outlook.David Spade is the perfect voice for Kuzco.
The audience is thrown from conflict to conflict, each containing their own hilarious twists.Disney has put together yet another superbly animated film, and dubbed it with a name like no other and enlisted a cast so brilliant that it's hard to find any flaws with this movie..
The Emperor's New GrooveVoices of David Spade, John Goodman, Wendie Malick, Eartha Kitt and Patrick WarburtonGenre: Animation/Family/ComedyRated: GThis is one of my most favorite animated Disney movies yet!
The movie is about a young emperor named Kuzco (voiced by David Spade) who is the big time ruler of the land and then one day when he catches Yzma (voiced by Eartha Kitt) sitting in his throne he fires her.So now Yzma is wanting to get revenge on Kuzco, along with Yzma's big and funny sidekick, Kronk (Warburton).
The Emperor's New Groove has two qualities that separate it from the rest of the Disney animated pack: humor that can actually be enjoyed by someone over the age of five and only one musical number and it's at the beginning.
Not everyone loves singing animals so Emperor's is a good movie for those of you who didn't like the squealing songs of Aladdin of The Lion King.The cast is what really makes this movie funny.
Great writing coupled with the talents of David Spade, Eartha Kitt, John Goodman, and Patrick Warburton make this movie a laugh riot.
It is just a clean, entertaining story packed with visual and auditory jokes that demand a repeated viewing (actually our family has probably watched it upwards of 20 times now, as it is a favorite of our daughter's).Anyone who claims that this is the worst movie made by Disney (or any of the actors associated with it) just did not listen closely enough to what the characters say.
I'm 14 and you would think this movie for just be for little kids because its by Disney but its really funny even my parents like it lol and my little brother loves it!
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.
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.
I know that this isn't considered one of the Disney "Classics," but Emperor's New Groove has some of the sharpest humor of any animated film that I know.
I like the way things like school, family and friends are presented in a way that shows being nice can be more fun than being mean.Along the way, there are jokes at many levels -- like some of the older cartoons -- so the kids will laugh at some, and the adults will smile at each other at the "in" jokes for grown-ups.Disney has a long history of putting talent into movies that we wouldn't normally expect to work well together, and making it work.
This movie however,proved me wrong.This movie is about a self-centered,spoiled and seemingly heartless young Emperor named Kuzco.With the snap of his fingers,he can get anything he wants even if it's a summer home.He only worries about himself and his needs and no one's whatsoever.That all might change with Pacha,a generous,thoughtful,and intelligent everyday peasant.He seems like your average peasant with a middle-class family and some farm animals of his own.He and Kuzco have nothing in common and have a bad start(Kuzco demands that Kuzcotopia,his new summerhouse to be built on top of the hill where Pacha and his family live)but they overcome that throughout the story.Yzma,Kuzco's cunning,stubborn and pessimistic adviser was recently fired and she wants revenge.In return,she decides to poison him with a potion with the help of Kronk,her lovable,dim-witted and humorous right-hand man.
Unfortunately,he transforms Kuzco into a llama instead and when he tries to get rid of him,Kronk accidentally drops him on Pacha's cart which Pacha brings all the way to his village without knowing that the emperor is actually in a bag on his cart.With Kuzco far from the palace,leaving Yzma to rule the empire and leaving Kuzco and Pacha to triumph over the obstacles to travel to the palace,what will become of the story?Watch it and view good quality comedy with a pinch of drama and be amazed.I believe this movie is a Disney classic.The magic of Disney returned in this enjoyable story.The characters are well-developed and all three dimensional.Kuzco begins as the spoiled brat who can literally get anything that he wants and throughout the story,he learns the value of friendship and generosity.At first when he turns into a llama,the teenage audience want Kuzco to stay as a llama because of his bad attitude yet later in the story,they're rooting for him to transform back into a human.Pacha may not be the best character but there's no one who can hate him.Pacha already has compassion and generosity from his family life and may seem speechless in some scenes but most of that changes when he meets Kuzco.Pacha is also the one who gets him and Kuzco out of sticky situations in the jungle.In most Disney movies,the villains are serious and seemingly boring but this movie changed that Disney law.Yzma was hilarious as an old and ugly woman who is almost as spoiled as Kuzco.She has clever lines and has impatience which is what makes her humorous.However,Kronk deserves most of the credit for the humor.Kronk is the most lovable character in the whole movie.He delivered his humor with enthusiasm.The squirrel scene cracked me up.I'll rate this movie a 7.9/10 for memorable quotes and a deep friendship built..
Hey, you don't want your kid ends up like Kuzco, do you?Whether or not your a fan of David Spade's or Disney's, this movie is worth seeing!.
Disney scrapped the singing animals for once and just went for outright laughs, and they scored big in this tale of an emperor with an attitude that gets taken down a peg when he gets changed into a llama.Casting Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld) as the Cronk, the lackey to Ertha Kitt's Yzma was sheer genius...if it was possible to receive an academy award for voice work in an animated feature, he'd have it locked up.
When we returned to my parents' house, he called his 40-something sister, urged her to see the movie, and confessed that he nearly cried from laughing so hard.The humor works better if you are familiar with the brands of humor exhibited by David Spade (Kuzco) -- think Tommy Boy or Just Shoot Me -- and Patrick Warburton (Kronk) -- Seinfeld but more conscientious.The Emporer's New Groove is the kind of movie experience that an entire family can enjoy..
He needs the help of llama herder Pacha to regain his throne, who is the one with the village he plans to destroy.This movie is soaked with slapstick comedy and modern-day clichés, from the hip-sounding Kuzco to Pacha's typical Hollywood-acting family, and from David Spade's narration to Kronk's (Yzma's sidekick) big oaf personality.
And ultimately, Emperor's New Groove can't help but feel like a shallow Disney effort.Its still an easy, fun watch, but its a more inferior Disney film and you'll get far more enjoyment from watching the superior aforementioned Shrek and Toy Story 2..
Stranded in the jungle with his new llama body, he entrusts Pacha to protect him and return him to his palace, without having any intentions of changing his holiday home plans.After a hugely troubled production (the title was originally Kingdom in the Sun and the plot involved a peasant look-a-like and a llama herder love-interest), The Emperor's New Groove arrived in 2000 to enjoy slim box-office success, something that Disney would have to get used to.
The decision to swap the old-fashioned love story and moral preachings for a more silly and modern buddy-movie was a wise one, and film benefits especially from the work of Patrick Warburton, the man with possibly the best voice in comedy (he also does the voice of paraplegic Joe in Family Guy).
After test audiences responded poorly, it lost a co-director and was eventually overhauled and salvaged into "New Groove." The movie has all the trappings of a classic Disney fairytale, but only one opening song.The story of selfish young Emperor Kuzco's (David Spade) ego check feels as though it should be a much more dramatic and emotional tale.
Although the stupid henchman thing had been done countless times, there's a refreshing charm to Kronk.The best way to phrase it — "The Emperor's New Groove" is like the cult hit of the hand-drawn animated age.
This is one of those rare Disney films that isn't a musical but manage to hold up on it's own against other movies from Disney.The Emperor's New Groove is a comedy animation movie that tells the story of Emperor Kuzco (Voiced by David Spade) after he is turned into a llama by Yzma (Voiced by Eartha Kitt) with her henchman Kronk (Voiced by Patrick Warburton) must seek help from Pacha (Voiced by John Goodman).
THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE is not the best Disney movie, and maybe not even for a long time, but that's alright.
It may not rise to the classic level such as films like Aladdin (the best disney movie ever), Beauty and the Beast, or even Mulan, but it is a very funny flick that is worth seeing.
In particular the really irritating and crass Ice Age.I thought the voices were great, in particular David Spade and Patrick Warburton, but then I really like their TV and film work anyway.I would recommend this movie for adults and kiddies alike and I gave it a solid 8 out of 10.
Renting this movie, I had my doubts (MANY doubts) about Disney's animated feature The Emperor's New Groove.
While David Spade (as Kuzco) and John Goodman (as Pacha) deliver hilarious and warming performances, Patrick Warburton (as Kronk) and Eartha Kitt (as Yzma) are two of the most enjoyable villains in Disney's pantheon of characters.