Think of all the stereotypes associated with animated Disney films. Got it? Now take that, pick out the happy ending and throw the rest away. This is what the makers of “The Emperor’s New Groove” have done, and they ended up giving Disney a whole new groove as well.
In this story — which has nothing to do with the children’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” by the way — Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) is a heartless jerk who is only concerned with himself. After summoning a peasant, Pacha (John Goodman), to his palace, the emperor informs Pacha that his pleasant village will be demolished to make way for the greedy ruler’s summer home — Kuzcotopia, which comes complete with a water slide. In the meantime, Kuzco’s adviser, Yzma (Eartha Kitt), is planning to kill him and usurp his power. But instead her servant, Kronk, (Patrick Warburton) mixes the poison chosen to kill Kuzco with a different potion and turns Kuzco into — guess what? — a llama.
Through ironic coincidence, llama Kuzco ends up depending on Pacha to return him to the palace and change him back to normal. But Pacha won’t help the poor emperor unless he scraps his plan to destroy the pleasant village. All these things ultimately get resolved in the trademark happy ending, but the actions that lead to the predictable end are refreshingly new and the funniest thing since Election 2000.
First, this isn’t a Disney musical. “Tarzan” took a big step away from the tradition of having songs for no reason, but “New Groove” takes it even further. The only “song” in the movie is sung by Tom Jones, the emperor’s “theme song guy.”
Secondly, there is no romantic interest in the film. Pacha is happily married with kids — who turn out to be insanely funny — but Kuzco has no feminine counterpart. The makers of the film blatantly point out their divergence from the norm in a scene where Kuzco rejects all of his potential brides. Instead of being lovey-dovey, the film wonderfully captures the tension of two guys alone in numerous scenes between Spade and Goodman. Just because this is a movie doesn’t mean that everybody always needs the right thing to say. The sometimes awkward dialogue seems very real … if you believe in talking llamas.
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The third thing that gives “New Groove” a new groove is that it completely indulges itself in absurdity. Disney has always dealt with some mythic or magical elements in its animated films that are impossible in reality, but this film goes just plain bonkers. It is full of physical comedy — think Wile E. Coyote or an animated version of the Three Stooges. It fully adopts the rules of the animated universe: There aren’t any. This allows characters to fall off many high peaks and defy any established laws of physics. The film is about a talking llama, for Pete’s sake.
All four main actors play their parts with calculated perfection, and the animators have amazingly captured the familiar aspects of the actors’ personalities and physical attributes in their animated counterparts. But regardless of the quality of all the characters, Warburton absolutely steals the show.
Warburton is better known for his role as Elaine’s sometimes-boyfriend Puddy on “Seinfeld.” Every line that he or either of his figment advisers says will cause extreme laughter, sometimes so much laughter that the next bits of comedy could be missed in the time that it takes to stop. It may take two or three viewings to catch everything, and they will be well worth it. By the way, there is a scene when a bridge breaks and the viewer sees a shot of falling debris. There are scattered letters in the debris — try to figure out what they say.
There is no doubt that this is the funniest Disney film ever made, and it ranks up there with the funniest films I have ever seen. Missing this movie is absolutely unacceptable, as it marks Disney’s unexpected but unquestioned return as king of the animated movie.
