The film that “Kingdom of the Sun” became.
When Disney’sThe Emperor’s New Groove was released on December 15th, 2000, it debuted at number four, behindWhat Women Want, Dude, Where’s My Car? andHow the Grinch Stole Christmas. By the time it ended its theatrical run, it had the lowest box-office for a Disney animated feature since the 1980s.
A lot has changed in the twenty-five years since the film debuted. Today,The Emperor’s New Groove has a following unlike any other Disney animated feature, with fans firing off quotes from the film, cosplaying as the characters, and purchasing the myriad pieces of merchandise now available (that weren’t when the film debuted).
The film tells the tale of Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade), who rules over a fictional South American kingdom. He is mistakenly transformed into a llama by his scheming advisor, Yzma (Eartha Kitt, who we lost in 2008), whom Kuzko had fired, and her dim-witted sidekick, Kronk (Patrick Warburton).
Pacha (John Goodman), the kind-hearted peasant, agrees to help llama Kuzco return to his human form, even though Pacha’s home will be displaced by the new resort, “Kuzcotopia.” Along the way, Kuzco’s selfishness ebbs as he learns the value of friendship.
In honor of the 25th anniversary ofThe Emperor’s New Groove, what follows is insight from several of the artists who worked on the film.
The film had been saddled with stories of its troubled production, as the fast-paced, irreverent comedy began life much differently in 1994, asKingdom of the Sun, an epic, and more traditional animated film inspired by the novelsThe Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope andThe Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, all set against Incan culture.
However, The Emperor’s New Groove went through six years of story challenges and “overhauls” that have been discussed over the years, particularly in the 2002 documentary,The Sweatbox, directed by John Paul-Davidson and Trudie Styler (the wife of Sting, who wrote the songs for the film). In an interview just before the film’s release, Randy Fullmer, producer ofThe Emperor’s New Groove, (who sadly passed away in 2023) talked about how the major shift in the film happened:
“One day, literally, we had an argument about whether it was right to put a wheel in the movie. The Spanish were the ones who brought over the wheel [to South America], and since the Spanish hadn’t arrived yet, could we really have a cart with a wheel on it? At the end of the day, we realized that we were heading in the wrong direction.”
Mark Dindal, who had directed 1997’sCat’s Don’t Dance for Turner Feature Animation and would go on to directChicken Little (2005) for Disney, was the sole director on The Emperor’s New Groove, after Roger Allers left the project, also discussed the film’s evolution in a 2000 interview:
“It never quite clicked. Each time we tried to work out a problem, [Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios] Peter Schneider and [Disney Studios President] Thomas Schumacher would ask us to think outside the box-think, broader strokes, not just little changes. Finally, we came to a point where we decided to think beyond where we were.”
The main character inThe Emperor’s New Groove, the Emperor Kuzco, is portrayed as selfish and spoiled at the start of the film and evolves into a more sympathetic character throughout. This unique personality presented a challenge when bringing the character to the screen, according to Kuzco’s supervising animator, Nik Ranieri.
“We did struggle over likeability,” said Ranieri in 2000. “A few scenes were cut early on because many felt that Kuzco was too nasty. The idea being that the more nasty he is at the beginning, the more of a personality change that he goes through.”
The scene-stealing character inThe Emperor’s New Groove is Kronk. With Warburton’s hysterical vocal performance, coupled with stellar character animation from Tony Bancroft, Kronk, with his obsession with cooking the perfect dinner (particularly his spinach puffs) and creating and humming his ownMission Impossible-like theme song, has rightly become a favorite among fans. In an interview just before the release of the film, Bancroft reflected on Kronk’s back story that made him so memorable:
“He wasn’t given very good advice when someone told him to pursue a career as a villain’s sidekick,” laughed Bancroft. “He’s a really good-hearted guy, definitely more brawn than brain, but still a good guy.”
Then, there’s Kronk’s boss, Yzma. In 2000, the late, great animator Dale Baer (who passed away in 2021) discussed how Eartha Kitt inspired him to craft this villainous performance:
“She’s incredible. Not just watching her recording sessions but listening to them; you get a very distinctive picture in your mind. It just made coming up with ideas for her scenes that much more fun. She put so much into the performance that you wanted to do it justice.”
What has allowedThe Emperor’s New Groove to find its groove among fans is how different it is from other Disney animated films released during the Studio’s Renaissance era. Bruce Smith, supervising animator for Pacha, discussed this in 2000: “The humor is way beyond anything that Disney has done. This film is like something from the Zucker brothers, likeAirplane, with its non-sequiturs,” Smith said, adding, “We loved the cartoon aspect of it all.”
It’s this humor, uniquely added to the characters that audiences would come to care about, that has allowed The Emperor’s New Groove, with its message of compassion and the power of friendship, to stand out for twenty-five years.
“I like the challenge of getting emotion out of the characters that are done without realism in mind,” noted Dindal. “There’s a dimension to the characters, and all the animators apply the traditional rules to them. But, when you take something that’s far out in the imagination and still get a heartfelt moment, it’s an interesting combination.”
Micah Hirsh, a good friend of mine who hosts a podcast devoted to covering ‘Emperor’s New Groove’-related media and semi-relevant subject matter (“The Emperor’s New Podcast”), helmed a fan-made documentary that is best described as a “spiritual successor” to ‘The Sweatbox’, titled ‘Beware the Groove: The Making of a Cult Classic’ (2023). It’s currently available to watch on YouTube.
In the early ’00s I was on an anti-Disney kick – I was, like many a teenager, iconoclastic. But my sister said she heard the movie was funny. I reluctantly decided to give it a watch, and found myself laughing. Consistently. My anti-Disney kick was put on hold.
Interestingly, this was one of the first DVDs I ever owned. At the time, one of the selling points of DVDs over VHS was the ability to skip to a scene instantly. I never use that feature anymore, I just play movies/shows from beginning to end as intended. But back then it was really nifty to be able to skip right to a favorite punchline or farcical scene, which I did quite a bit with ENG.
Genuinely miss Disney’s “left field” features era (Emperor’s…, Lilo & Stitch, Home on the Range).
With a few exceptions, it seems audiences really do prefer the “tried and true”, at least as animated movies go.
I recall Spade seemed to be embarrassed of his role in “Emperor’s” at the time of release, and refused to do any publicity. I was surprised he even allowed his name to be in the closing credits. Only in the years afterward, did he appear to embrace the project, or at least acknowledge its existence. I’ve long been a fan of his, but have never understood his attitude toward this movie. It sure beats his other films from the same period,8 Heads in a Duffel Bag orLost & Found.
I was immediately sold on this movie when I saw a print ad with an illustration of a llama, an animal historically underrepresented in animation. Had Disney animated any llamas since “Saludos Amigos”? Maybe as background characters in “Duck Tales” or “Talespin”? I don’t know. Anyway, with a llama in the leading role, I had a queasy feeling that there would be spitting, and there is; but thankfully it only happens once, as a consequence of gargling, so at least it’s hygienic.
According to a book that I’ve cited here in the past, namely DRAWN TO GREATNESS: DISNEY’S ANIMATION RENAISSANCE by Michael Lyons (2021), your all-purpose go-to guide for info on this period in animation history, it was CEO Michael Eisner who approved the shift to a more comedic tone, as well as Kuzco’s exaggerated nastiness at the onset of the story. Say what you will about Eisner’s creative interference in general, in this case his judgment was sound. The scene in the mountain diner, to name but one, reaches a level of zaniness worthy of the Marx Brothers, or the Looney Tunes in their prime.
Fun facts: Wendie Malick, who voiced Pacha’s wife in the movie, went on to voice Yzma herself in the Disney Channel series “The Emperor’s New School” (in which Pacha and his family did not appear as regular characters). At this time both she and David Spade were in the cast of the sitcom “Just Shoot Me”. The only member of the film’s original cast to reprise his role for the TV series was Patrick Warburton, and a good thing he did, too. It really wouldn’t have been Kronk without him.
I really wish I had appreciated it more when I went to see it in the theaters but I was still hung up on thinking it should’ve been the serious epic film I had heard it was going to be. When an animator told me it had switched to comedy, I watched it with a chip on my shoulder.
Had I but known that my chances for seeing Disney 2D features on the big screen would soon be coming to an end, I would’ve been much more grateful.
BUT, my children loved it!
Perfect movie.
NOW, if only Disney released the original version, as rough animation + storyboard + voices + music, I would be a very happy buyer.
A rather unique animated feature film from Disney with a rather hilarious plot hole joke where the villains somehow made it to the lab before the heroes and they don’t even know how they got there first.
At least 6 more minutes(of more comedy of course) would elevate this film to the even higher heavens and with more confident and more prominent marketing, make this film be as big as say, Aladdin or Tarzan.
And this was released on the 34th.anniversary of the passing of Walt Disney himself!
Steve C.
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book,Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition toAnimation Scoop andCartoon Research, he has contributed toRemind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network andDisney Magazine. He also writes a blog,Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books,Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web siteWords From Lyons at:www.wordsfromlyons.com
