I think I can say without much fear of contradiction that Disney’s latest animation – ‘the Emperors New Groove’ – will not go down as one of their Greatest!
That’s not to say it’s a BAD Film, just that it’s not up to the standards you come to expect from Disney. Now you could say that I night be a bit ‘long in the tooth’ to judge – but having just returned from a Preview screening this evening, the Families and Children in the cinema were not exactly whooping and hollering in delight.
Saturday Night Live’s David Spade narrates and voices the main character, young Emperor Kuzco. This seems mainly a vehicle for Mr Spade (so good in TV’s ‘Just Shoot Me’) to wisecrack his way through the 78 minutes of action. But his material is not funny enough to hold it together and much of it would be wasted on the younger members of the audience.
I feel that Disney’s problem is that they try to do too much at present. Think back a few years and they would release one big Animation a year. The Golden Days of ‘Snow White’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Aristocats’ and more – even more recently with the ‘Lion King’, great soundtrack and great fun for all ages. Nowadays you seem to get a Disney release every other month – October it was ‘Dinosaur’, Christmas saw ‘102 Dalmations’ released and now two months on and ‘Emperor’ is upon us.
So back to the tale of an 18 year old Emperor who cares nothing about anything. Just gets his own way and wants to ‘rule the land’. He has Yzma as his Advisor – a sub-‘Cruella de Ville’ character (voiced by Eartha Kitt). He goes too far when he sacks her and she lays plans to poison him. Things go wrong and instead of killing the Emperor, the drug turns him into a Llama!
The rest of the film covers his escape to the village he was going to demolish and his gradual befriending of Pacha (John Goodman). Pacha helps him escape the clutches of Yzma and her big-but-dim henchman Kronk. Kuzco tries to doublecross Pacha, but finally realises that it’s better to be good than bad – THE END.
Well, not quite, but the thing meanders along at a reasonable pace, although there is not the interaction between characters and cartoon animals that usually sets Disney films alight and apart. Brief interludes in the jungle and with some squirrels are good fun for the kids, but there is not enough of that, ultimately to make this film a winner.