The Emperor's New Groove

This article is about the film. For the video game, see The Emperor's New Groove (video game). For the franchise, see The Emperor's New Groove (franchise). For the soundtrack, see The Emperor's New Groove (soundtrack).
The Emperor's New Groove

Theatrical release poster by John Alvin.
Directed by Mark Dindal
Produced by Randy Fullmer
Screenplay by David Reynolds
Jonathan Roberts (uncredited)
Story by
Starring
Music by John Debney
Edited by
  • Tom Finan
  • Pam Ziegenhagen
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates
  • December 15, 2000 (2000-12-15)
Running time
 78 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $100 million[1]
Box office $169.3 million[1]

The Emperor's New Groove is a 2000 American animated buddy comedy film created by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It is the 40th film in Disney's animated features canon. It was directed by Mark Dindal, produced by Randy Fullmer, written by David Reynolds, and stars David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton and Wendie Malick.

The film was altered significantly over its six years of development and production. It began as a musical epic titled Kingdom of the Sun, to have been directed by Dindal and Roger Allers (co-director of The Lion King), and was changed by Disney executives into a light-hearted buddy comedy. The documentary The Sweatbox details the production troubles that the film endured.

The film received generally positive reviews and is considered to be one of the best films of Disney's post-Renaissance era. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "My Funny Friend and Me" performed by Sting, but lost to "Things Have Changed" by Bob Dylan from Wonder Boys. A direct-to-video sequel, Kronk's New Groove, was released in 2005, followed by an animated television series, The Emperor's New School in 2006.

Plot

Kuzco is a selfish Incan emperor. He dismisses the appearances of potential brides and has an old man thrown out the window for "throwing off his groove." On the day before his 18th birthday, Kuzco fires his advisor Yzma for abusing her status and ruling the kingdom behind his back. Shortly after Yzma leaves, the compassionate and good-natured peasant Pacha arrives at the palace with orders to visit Kuzco. After a brief conversation, Kuzco reveals his birthday plans: destroying Pacha's village to make way for a luxurious summer home he calls "Kuzcotopia." Enraged, Pacha attempts to protest, but fails and is dismissed back to his home.

Meanwhile, Yzma schemes in her laboratory. Bitter over her lost job, she invites Kuzco for dinner in order to kill him. During supper, Yzma attempts to poison Kuzco, but her dim-witted but affable henchman Kronk accidentally end up giving him a potion that transforms him into a llama. After knocking Kuzco out, Yzma orders Kronk to dispose of the body, but he faces his conscience and saves the llama. Wondering what to do, Kronk drops the unconscious Kuzco, who ends up landing on Pacha's cart as he leaves. That night, Pacha arrives home, afraid to tell his pregnant wife and two children about Kuzco's plans. 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 changes his plans. Kuzco arrogantly sets off into the jungle alone, before being ambushed by jaguars. Pacha rescues him after going over a waterfall. The next morning, Kuzco falsely promise to spare Pacha's village and the two make their way to the palace.

Convincing the kingdom that Kuzco was killed, Yzma takes the throne. However, Kronk reveals he actually lost Kuzco, so the two set off to find him. Pacha and Kuzco are almost back to the palace when Pacha falls through a bridge and Kuzco refuses to help him up, admitting he never meant to keep his promise, but he soon finds himself in danger as well, and they work together to save both their lives. With the bridge destroyed, the journey will take a longer time, giving Pacha hope that Kuzco will change his mind. Hungry and tired, Pacha and a disguised Kuzco visit a diner. Unbeknownst to them, Yzma and Kronk are there as well. Pacha overhears Yzma and Kronk talking to have Kuzco dead. Throughout the commotion, he tries to warn Kuzco, but Kuzco does not believe him and the two go their separate ways. Kuzco then overhears Yzma's plot to kill him, and that the kingdom doesn't even miss him. When he tries to return to Pacha, he finds that he has already left and unable to find him, then the crestfallen Kuzco wanders in the jungle alone.

Later, Kuzco is soon reunited with Pacha amongst a herd of llamas, where Kuzco apologizes for his actions. With their differences settled, Pacha and Kuzco resume their journey to the palace. However, last night Kronk realized that Pacha he saw in the diner was the same guy who had Kuzco on his cart. After facing obstacles with Pacha's family, Yzma orders Kronk to begin the race to the Imperial palace before Pacha and Kuzco. The race seems to end with Yzma and Kronk falling off a cliff but the pair still inexplicably arrives at the palace first.

Upon arriving at Yzma's lab, she reveals herself and shows them that she has the human potion. Yzma then orders Kronk to kill Pacha and Kuzco, giving a dagger to him. After another conversation with his conscience, he finds he cannot bring himself to commit murder. When Yzma savagely berates him and his cooking for not obeying her orders, he turns on her, and then cuts down a chandelier hanging above Yzma. Having survived the attempt at foiling her plans, a riled Yzma flips a switch that drops Kronk into a trap-door and calls for Imperial guards. Inciting a brawl that ends with the human potion on the ground buried in other potions. Accusing that Pacha and the "llama" had murdered Kuzco, the guards chase after the pair. With no time to try each of Yzma's animal potions, Pacha and Kuzco grab them all and run from the guards.

After several guards are transformed into animals while testing potions and Yzma is transformed into a kitten, Pacha and Kuzco work together to try and get the last vial. Yzma snatches it at the last moment, but is foiled by Kronk's sudden appearance. Now a human again, and a ruler with better morals, Kuzco redeems himself and 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 family in a modest cabin, sharing a swimming pool with Pacha and his family. Yzma, still a kitten, grudgingly joins Kronk's Junior Chipmunk troop, along with Pacha's children.

Cast and characters

Additional voices include Andre Stojka, Jess Harnell and Sherry Lynn.

Production

Kingdom of the Sun

"Kingdom of the Sun was such a heart-breaking experience for me. I put four years of my heart and energy into that one. Though I may have seemed calm for the camera (as I always tried to be for my crew) inside it was a chaotic struggle resulting in annihilation. I was creating an "epic" picture mixing elements of adventure, comedy, romance and mysticism. The head of Disney Features at the time was afraid that we were doing, in his opinion, too many films in the same vein. He was also uncomfortable with the spiritual and cultural (Inca) aspects of it. Hence, he decided to make it a simple slapstick comedy. They kept just enough of my elements (characters and such) that I can never produce my original vision or story elsewhere. Would it have worked out if we had had more time? I would hope so, but one can never know these things."

Roger Allers, reflecting on the troubled history of Kingdom of the Sun[3]

The idea of Kingdom of the Sun was conceived by Roger Allers and Matthew Jacobs,[4] and development on the project began in 1994.[5] Upon pitching the project to then-Disney CEO and chairman Michael Eisner, Allers recalled Eisner saying "it has all of the elements of a classic Disney film",[6] and because of his directorial success on The Lion King that same year, Eisner allowed Allers to have free rein with both the casting and the storyline.[7] By January 1995, Variety reported that Allers was working on "an Inca-themed original story."[8]

In 1996, the production crew traveled to Machu Picchu in Peru, to study Inca artifacts and architecture and the landscape this empire was created in.[9][10]

Kingdom of the Sun was to have been a tale of a greedy, selfish emperor (voiced by David Spade) who finds a peasant (voiced by Owen Wilson) who looks just like him; the emperor swaps places with the peasant for fun, much as in author Mark Twain's archetypal novel The Prince and the Pauper. However, the evil witch Yzma has plans to summon the evil god Supai and capture the sun so that she may retain her youth forever (the sun gives her wrinkles, so she surmises that living in a world of darkness would prevent her from wrinkling). Discovering the switch between the prince and the peasant, Yzma turns the real emperor into a llama and threatens to reveal the pauper's identity unless he obeys her. The emperor-llama learns humility in his new form, and even comes to love a female llama-herder named Mata (voiced by Laura Prepon).[11] Together, the girl and the llama set out to undo the witch's plans. The book Reel Views 2 says the film would have been a "romantic comedy musical in the 'traditional' Disney style".[12]

Following the underwhelming box office performances of Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, studio executives felt the project was growing too ambitious and serious for audiences following test screenings, and needed more comedy.[13] In early 1997, producer Randy Fullmer contacted Mark Dindal, who had just wrapped up work on Cats Don't Dance, and offered him to be co-director on Kingdom of the Sun.[14] Meanwhile, Allers personally called Sting, in the wake of Elton John's success with The Lion King's soundtrack, to compose several songs for the film.[6] He agreed, but on the condition that his filmmaker wife Trudie Styler could "document the process of the production".[15] Along with collaborator David Hartley, Sting had composed eight songs inextricably linked with the original plot and characters.[5] This film, which was eventually entitled The Sweatbox, was made by Xingu Films (their own production company).

In summer 1997, it was announced that Roger Allers and Mark Dindal would serve as the film's directors and Randy Fullmer as producer. David Spade and Eartha Kitt had been confirmed to voice the emperor, Manco, and the villainess, while Carla Gugino was in talks for a role.[16][17] Harvey Fierstein was also cast as Hucua, Yzma's sidekick.[6]

By the summer of 1998, it was apparent that Kingdom of the Sun was not far along enough in production to be released in the summer of 2000 as planned. At this time, one of the Disney executives reportedly walked into Randy Fullmer's office and, placing his thumb and forefinger a quarter-inch apart, stated "your film is this close to being shut down".[18] Fullmer approached Allers, and informed him of the need to finish the film on time for its summer 2000 release as crucial promotional deals with McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and other companies were already established and depended upon meeting that release date. Allers acknowledged that the production was falling behind, but was confident that, with an extension of between six months to a year, he could complete the film. When Fullmer denied Allers's request for an extension, the director decided to leave the project.[18] On September 23, 1998,[5][19] the project was dead with production costs amounting towards $25–30 million[5][7] and twenty-five percent of the film animated.[20]

Production overhaul and script rewrite

Angered that Allers left the project, Michael Eisner gave Fullmer two weeks to salvage the film or production would be shut down.[21] Fullmer and Dindal halted production for six months to retool the project retitling it to Kingdom in the Sun,[14] making it the first Disney animated feature to have an extensive overhaul since Pinocchio.[22] Meanwhile, following Eric Goldberg's pitch for the Rhapsody in Blue segment for Fantasia 2000, the animators were reassigned to work on the segment.[23] In the interim, Chris Williams, who was a storyboard artist during Kingdom of the Sun,[24] came up with the idea of making Pacha an older character as opposed to the teenager that he was in the original story.[25] Following up on the new idea, former late-night comedy writer David Reynolds stated, "I pitched a simple comedy that's basically a buddy road picture with two guys being chased in the style of a Chuck Jones 'toon, but faster paced. Disney said, 'Give it a shot.'"[26] One of the new additions to the revised story was the scene-stealing character of Yzma's sidekick Kronk.[27] Meanwhile, the name Manco was changed to Kuzco following Fullmer's discovery of the Japanese slang term omanco, which translates to vagina.[7] Due in part of the production shutdown, Sting began to develop schedule conflicts with his songwriting duties interfering with his work on his next album he was planning to record in Italy. "I write the music, and then they're supposed to animate it, but there are constantly changes being made. It's constantly in turnaround," the singer/songwriter admitted, but "I'm enjoying it."[6][28] Because of the shutdown, the computer-animated film Dinosaur assumed the summer 2000 release date originally scheduled for Kingdom.[7]

Andreas Deja declined to return to the film observing his more serious version of Yzma was incompatible with the wackier, comedic tone of the film, and moved to Orlando, Florida, to work on Lilo & Stitch. Animator Dale Baer would replace Deja as the supervising animator for Yzma.[29] Fulmer would inform Sting by telephone that his songs, related to specific scenes and characters that were now gone, had to be dropped.[6][30] Bitter about the removal of his songs, the pop musician commented that "At first, I was angry and perturbed. Then I wanted some vengeance." Disney eventually agreed to allow three of the six deleted songs as bonus tracks on the soundtrack album such as Yzma's villain song titled "Snuff Out the Light", the love song titled "One Day She'll Love Me", and a dance number called "Walk the Llama Llama."[31] The plot elements such as the romance between the llama herder Pacha and Manco's betrothed Nina, the sun-capturing villain scheme, similarities to The Prince and the Pauper stories, and Inca mythology were dropped.[32] The character of Hucua was also dropped from the story, though he would make a cameo appearance as the candle holder during the dinner scene in the finished film.[33] Kuzco – who was a supporting character in the original story – eventually became the protagonist.[34]

By summer 1999, cast members Owen Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, and Trudie Styler were dropped from the film.[35] Eartha Kitt and David Spade remained in the cast, Dindal commented, "And then John Goodman and Patrick Warburton [who played Elaine's boyfriend Puddy on the Seinfeld series] came aboard."[36] After Sting's songs for Kingdom of the Sun were dropped from the new storyline, Sting remained on the project, though he was told by the studio that "All we want is a beginning and an end song."[37] The song, "Perfect World", was approached "to open the movie with a big, fun number that established the power of Kuzco and showed how he controlled the world", according to Feature Animation president Thomas Schumacher.[38] The filmmakers had asked Sting to perform the song for the film, though Sting declined telling them that he was too old to sing it and that they should find someone younger and hipper. They instead went with Tom Jones, who was eleven years older than Sting.[39]

In February 2000, the new film was announced as The Emperor's New Groove with its new story centering on a spoiled Inca Emperor – voiced by David Spade – who through various twists and falls ends up learning the meaning of true happiness from a poor peasant, played by John Goodman. The release date was scheduled for December 2000.[40] Despite the phrasing of the title, the film bears no relation to Hans Christian Andersen's classic Danish fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes.[41] However, Eisner worried that the new story was too close in tone to Disney's 1997 film Hercules, which had performed decently yet below expectations at the American box office. Dindal and Fullmer assured him that The Emperor's New Groove, as the film was now called, would have a much smaller cast, making it easier to involve audiences. Towards the end of production, the film's ending originally had Kuzco building his Kuzcotopia amusement park on another hill by destroying a rainforest near Pacha's home, and inviting Pacha and his family to visit. Horrified at the ending, Sting commented that "I wrote them a letter and said, 'You do this, I'm resigning because this is exactly the opposite of what I stand for. I've spent 20 years trying to defend the rights of indigenous people and you're just marching over them to build a theme park. I will not be party to this."[42] The ending was rewritten so that Kuzco constructs a shack similar to Pacha's and spends his vacation among the villagers.[43]

Design and animation

During production on Kingdom of the Sun, Andreas Deja was the initial supervising animator of Yzma, and incorporated supermodeling poses published in magazines in order to capture Yzma's sultry, seductive persona.[44] Nik Ranieri was originally slated as the supervising animator for Yzma's rocky sidekick, Hucua. During the research trip to Peru in 1996, Ranieri acknowledged that "I was researching for a character that looked like a rock so I was stuck drawing rocks for the whole trip. Then when we got back they piled it into this story about ancient Incas."[45] Mark Pudleiner was to be the supervising animator of Kuzco's proposed maiden, Nina.[46] In early 1997, David Pruiksma came on board to animate the llama, Snowball.[47] According to Pruiksma, Snowball was "a silly, vain and egotistical character, rather the dumb blond of the llama set. I really enjoyed developing the character and doing some early test animation on her as well. Before I left the film (and it was ultimately shelved), I created model sheets for not only Snowball, but for the rest of the herd of seven other llamas and for Kuzco as a Llama."[48] When the film was placed on production shutdown, Pruiksma transferred to work on Atlantis: The Lost Empire being developed concurrently and ultimately the llama characters were dropped from the storyline.[47]

Following the production overhaul and the studio's attempts for more cost-efficient animated features, Mark Dindal urged for "a simpler approach that emphasized the characters rather than overwhelming special effects or cinematic techniques."[49] Because of the subsequent departure of Deja, animator Dale Baer inherited the character of Yzma. Using Eartha Kitt's gestures during recording sessions, Baer commented that "She has a natural voice for animation and really got into the role. She would gesture wildly and it was fun just to watch her. She would come into each session almost serious and very professional and suddenly she would go wild and break up laughing."[50] Ranieri was later asked to serve as the supervising animator of Kuzco (as a human and a llama), though he would admit being reluctant at first until he discovered that Kuzco "had a side to him, there was a lot of comedy potential and as a character he went through an arc."[45] Pudleiner was also reassigned to work as an animator of the human version of Kuzco.[51] In addition to drawing inspiration from David Spade during recording sessions, the Kuzco animation team studied llamas at the zoo, visited a llama farm, watched nature documentaries, and even observed the animals up close when they came for a visit to the studio.[49] For the rewritten version of Pacha, animator Bruce W. Smith observed that "Pacha is probably the most human of all the characters," and further added that he "has more human mannerisms and realistic traits, which serve as a contrast to the cartoony llama he hangs out with. He is the earthy guy who brings everything back into focus. Being a big fellow about six-foot-five and weighing about 250 pounds we had to work hard to give him a sense of weight and believability in his movement."[49]

Actual animation began in 1999, involving 400 artists and 300 technicians and production personnel.[45] Outside of the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio building in Burbank, California, animators located at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida and Disney Animation France assisted in the production of The Emperor's New Groove.[12] During the last eighteen months of production, a 120-crew of clean-up artists would take an animation cel drawing from the animation department, and place a new piece of paper over the existing image in order to draw a cleaner, more refined image. "We're basically the final designers," said clean-up supervisor Vera Pacheco, whose crew worked on more than 200,000 drawings for "Groove."[52]

Release

After the release date had shifted to winter 2000, similarities were noted between the film and DreamWorks Animation's The Road to El Dorado.[53] Marc Lument, a visual development artist on El Dorado, claimed "It really was a race, and Katzenberg wanted ours out before theirs". Lument also added that, "We didn't know exactly what they were doing, but we had the impression it was going to be very similar. Whoever came out second would face the impression that they copied the other."[4] Fullmer and Dindal denied the similarities with the latter commenting "This version [The Emperor's New Groove] was well in the works when that movie came out," and further added "Early on, when our movie got to be very comic, all of us felt that you can't be making this farce about a specific group of people unless we are going to poke fun at ourselves. This didn't seem to be a proper choice about Incas or any group of people. It was more of a fable."[54]

The marketing campaign for The Emperor's New Groove was relatively restrained as Disney opted to heavily promote the release of 102 Dalmatians which was released during Thanksgiving.[54][55] Nevertheless, the film was accompanied with six launcher toys of Kuzco, Kuzco as a llama, Pacha, Yzma, Yzma as a cat, and Kronk[56] accompanied with Happy Meals at McDonald's in North America. The European, Asian and Australian toys from 2001 were different from the North American set. Stuffed animals were also made and sold in places like The Disney Store.

Home media

The standard VHS and DVD was released May 1, 2001, as well as a "2-Disc Collector's Edition" which included bonus features such as Sting's music video of "My Funny Friend and Me", a Rascal Flatts music video of "Walk the Llama Llama" from the soundtrack, audio commentary with the filmmakers, a multi-skill level Set Top Game with voice talent from the movie, and a deleted scene among other features.[57] Unlike its theatrical box office performance, the film performed better on home video, becoming the top-selling home video release of 2001.[58] In September 2001, it was reported that 6 million VHS units were sold amounting towards $89 million in revenue. On DVD, it was also reported it had sold twice as many sales. The overall revenue averaged toward $125 million according to Adams Media Research.[59]

Disney re-released a single-disc special edition called "The New Groove Edition" on October 18, 2005. Disney digitally remastered and released The Emperor's New Groove on Blu-ray on June 11, 2013 bundled in a two-movie collection combo pack with its direct-to-video sequel Kronk's New Groove.[60] On its first weekend, it sold 14,000 Blu-ray units grossing $282,000.[61]

Reception

Critical reaction

The film received positive reviews from critics and websites. On Rotten Tomatoes, it receives an 85% "Certified Fresh" approval rating based on 127 reviews with an average of 7.1/10. Its consensus summarized its reception as not being "the most ambitious animated film, but its brisk pace, fresh characters, and big laughs make for a great time for the whole family."[62] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 70 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[63] Many critics and audiences generally consider the film to be one of the better films of Disney's post-Renaissance era and also one of the most comedic.[64]

Writing for Variety, Robert Koehler commented the film "may not match the groovy business of many of the studio's other kidpix, but it will be remembered as the film that established a new attitude in the halls of Disney's animation unit."[65] Roger Ebert, writing his review for Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film 3 (out of 4) stars distinguishing the film as "a goofy slapstick cartoon, with the attention span of Donald Duck" that is separate from what's known as animated features. Ebert would later add that "it doesn't have the technical polish of a film like Tarzan, but is a reminder that the classic cartoon look is a beloved style of its own."[66] Entertainment Weekly critic Lisa Schwarzbaum graded the film a B+, describing it as a "hip, funny, mostly nonmusical, decidedly non-epic family picture, which turns out to be less of a hero's journey than a meeting of sitcom minds."[67]

Published in The Austin Chronicle, Marc Savlov gave the film 2/5 stars noting the film "suffers from a persistent case of narrative backsliding that only serves to make older members of the audience long for the days of the dwarves, beauties, and poisoned apples of Disney-yore, and younger ones squirm in their seats." Savlov continued to express his displeasure in the animation in comparison to the previous year's Tarzan writing it "is also a minor letdown, with none of the ecstatic visual tour de force."[68] Movie reviewer Bob Strauss acknowledged the film is "funny, frantic and colorful enough to keep the small fry diverted for its short but strained 78 minutes", though except for "some nice voice work, a few impressive scale gags and interesting, Inca-inspired design elements, there is very little here for the rest of the family to latch onto." Strauss would target the massive story overhaul during production as the main problem.[69]

Box office

On its opening weekend, The Emperor's New Groove premiered at fourth place grossing about $10 million behind strong competitions such as What Women Want, Dude, Where's My Car?, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.[70] Overall, the film grossed $89,302,687 at the U.S. box office, and an additional $80,025,000 worldwide; totals lower than those for most of the Disney Feature Animation productions released in the 1990s.[1]

Because of its pre-Columbian theme and Latin American flavor, Disney spent $250,000 in its marketing campaign towards the Latino market releasing dual English and Spanish-language theatrical prints in sixteen multiplexes across heavily populated Latino areas in Los Angeles, California in contrast to releasing dubbed or subtitled theatrical prints of their previous animated features in foreign markets.[71] By January 2001, following nineteen days into its theatrical general release, the Spanish-dubbed prints were pulled from multiplexes as Latino Americans opted to watch the English-language prints with its grossing averaging $571,000 in comparison to $96,000 for the former.[72]

Accolades

List of Awards and Nominations
Year Award Category Recipients and nominees Results
2001 Golden Satellite Award Best Animated or Mixed Media The Emperor's New Groove Nominated
Best Original Song "My Funny Friend and Me" Nominated
72nd Golden Globe Awards Best Original Song "My Funny Friend and Me" Nominated
28th Annie Awards Best Animated Feature The Emperor's New Groove Nominated
Individual Achievement in Directing Mark Dindal Nominated
Individual Achievement in Writing Mark Dindal, Chris Williams, David Reynolds Nominated
Individual Achievement in Storyboarding Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall Nominated
Individual Achievement in Production Design Colin Stimpson Nominated
Individual Achievement in Character Animation Dale Baer Won
Individual Achievement in Voice Acting Eartha Kitt Won
Patrick Warburton Nominated
Individual Achievement in Music Sting, David Hartley Won
Individual Achievement in Music Score John Debney Nominated
73rd Academy Awards Best Original Song "My Funny Friend and Me" Nominated
Phoenix Films Critics Society Awards Best Song "My Funny Friend and Me" Won
Best Animated Film The Emperor's New Groove Nominated
Best Family Film The Emperor's New Groove Nominated
Las Vegas Critics Society Awards Best Family Film The Emperor's New Groove Nominated
Best Song "My Funny Friend and Me" Nominated
2002 44th Annual Grammy Awards Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media "My Funny Friend and Me" Nominated

The Sweatbox

Main article: The Sweatbox

The Sweatbox is a documentary that chronicled the tumultuous collaboration of Sting and David Hartley with the Disney studios to compose six songs for Kingdom of the Sun (The films working title).[73] The documentary featured interviews from directors Roger Allers and Mark Dindal, producer Randy Fullmer, Sting (whose wife created the documentary), Disney story artists, and the voice cast being dismayed by the new direction. Disney was not believed to be opposing Trudie Styler's documentary with Disney animation executive Thomas Schumacher, who had seen footage, commenting that "I think it's going to be great!"[74]

The film premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, but has gone virtually unseen by the public ever since. Disney owns the rights, but has never officially released it.[75] In March 2012, a workprint of the documentary was leaked online and was uploaded on the video-sharing website YouTube, by a United Kingdom cartoonist, before it was ultimately pulled.[76] As of April 2015, some scenes from the documentary could be seen from the home media release, including the behind the scenes and the making of My Funny Friend and Me.

Adaptations and sequels

In April 2005, it was announced that DisneyToon Studios was producing a direct-to-video sequel entitled Kronk's New Groove, which was released on December 13, 2005, timed with the premiere of Disney Channel cartoon series, The Emperor's New School.[77] Patrick Warburton, Eartha Kitt, and Wendie Malick reprised their roles for the sequel and series, although J. P. Manoux took over the role of Kuzco (replacing David Spade for the series) and Fred Tatasciore voiced Pacha in season 1. John Goodman subsequently reprised his role for the second and final season of The Emperor's New School.

Kuzco was featured as a guest in Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse television series finale direct-to-video animated film to the series.

Two video games were developed and released concurrent with the film. The first, for the Sony PlayStation, was developed by Disney Interactive and published by Sony Computer Entertainment of America. The second, for the Nintendo Game Boy Color, was developed by Sandbox and published by Ubisoft. Both titles were released in PAL territories the following year. The PlayStation version was re-released for the North American PlayStation Network on July 27, 2010.

The Tokyo DisneySea rollercoaster attraction Raging Spirits took visual inspiration for its Inca ruins theme from the buildings in the film, with a structure based on Kuzco's palace similarly crowning the ruins site.[78]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Emperor's New Groove". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
  2. ↑ during the "funeral" for Kuzco, Yzma says that he was "taken" on the night of his 18th birthday, showing that he is 18 years old in the film.
  3. ↑ Fiamma, Andrea (12 December 2014). "Intervista a Roger Allers, il regista de Il Re Leone". Fumettologica. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 Laporte, Nicole. The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks. Mariner Books. pp. 208–9. ISBN 978-0547520278.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Kuklenski, Valerie (December 13, 2000). "Finding the Groove". Los Angeles Daily News (The Sun Sentinel). Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Styler, Trudie (2002). The Sweatbox (Documentary film). Burbank, California: Xingu Films.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Leigh, Danny (14 February 2001). "Llama drama". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Variety Staff (January 8, 1995). "The Men Behind The 'King'". Variety. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ Moore, Roger (December 15, 2000). "Royal Pain But The Agonizing Pays Off". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  10. ↑ Supplemental Features: The Research Trip
  11. ↑ Cleuzo, Sandro (May 1, 2014). "From the 90's - The Emperor's New Groove Almost Made it Character". Blogger. inspectorcleuzo.blogspot.com. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  12. 1 2 James Berardinelli and Roger Ebert. Reel Views 2. p. 55. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  13. ↑ Hill, Jim (May 25, 2001). "The Long Story Behind the Emperor's New Groove". The Laughing Place. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  14. 1 2 Mark Dindal (November 18, 2000). Mark Dindal's Place in the Sun. Interview with Strike, Joe. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  15. ↑ Harvey, David (September 27, 2002). "Review: 'The Sweatbox'". Variety. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  16. ↑ Variety Staff (July 24, 1997). "Disney's Spade Sting-along". Variety. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  17. ↑ Strauss, Bob (June 27, 1997). "Disney draws out blockbusters into next century" (Fee required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  18. 1 2 Hill, Jim (May 25, 2001). ""The Long Story Behind the Emperor's New Groove" (Part 3)". The Laughing Place. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  19. ↑ Moore, Roger (December 22, 2000). "'The Emperor's New Groove' developed from earlier project". Knight-Ridder (Lubbock Avalanche-Journal). Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  20. ↑ Natale, Richard (February 26, 1999). "Production on Animated Films Gets Drawn Out". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  21. ↑ Hill, Jim (May 25, 2001). "The Long Story Behind the Emperor's New Groove (Part 2)". Retrieved 2015.
  22. ↑ Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. p. 72. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  23. ↑ Solomon, Charles (December 1, 1999). "Rhapsody in Blue: Fantasia 2000's Jewel in the Crown". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2015.
  24. ↑ Canemaker, John (October 21, 1999). Paper Dreams: The Art And Artists Of Disney Storyboards. Hyperion. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0786863075.
  25. ↑ "The Emperor's New Groove - Origins of the Project". Cinema Review. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  26. ↑ Perlman, Cindy (December 25, 2000). "South Sider pens 'New Groove'" (Fee required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved February 8, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  27. ↑ Proctor, Melanie (December 31, 2002). "Groovin' to the emperor's beat" (Fee required). New Straits Times. Retrieved 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  28. ↑ Smith, Stacy Jenel; Beck, Marilyn (November 2, 1998). "Sting juggles Disney chores with album, acting gigs". Los Angeles Daily News (TheFreeLibrary). Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  29. ↑ Hill, Jim (May 19, 2005). "A work-in-progress version of Why For finally finished!". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  30. ↑ Vincent, Mal (December 18, 2000). "WACKY "EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE" IS DEPARTURE FROM TYPICAL DISNEY FARE" (Fee required). Virginian Pilot. Retrieved February 14, 2015 – via HighBeam Research. But someone had to call Sting and tell him that all his songs would be thrown out. "As the producer, it fell to me," Fullmer said. "It wasn't easy. He had taken a full year off to work on the movie's score. He didn't want to compose while he was touring."
  31. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (December 14, 2000). "Sting stung by Disney cartoon". Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  32. ↑ Hill, Jim (May 25, 2001). "The Long Story Behind the Emperor's New Groove (Part 4)". The Laughing Place. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  33. ↑ Audio commentary
  34. ↑ Mooney, Joshua (December 17, 2000). "How Disney got its 'Groove' back Film reworked, revamped repeatedly" (Fee required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved February 8, 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  35. ↑ Backes, Evan (April 1, 2001). "Why Does It Take Ten Years!?!". Animation World Network. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  36. ↑ Feld, Bruce (December 1, 2000). "Into the Groove". Film Journal International. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  37. ↑ Miller, Nancy (December 12, 2000). "STING'S 'NEW' ETHICS Star pushed Disney's 'Emperor' to find a greener 'Groove'". New York Daily News. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
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  43. ↑ Supplemental Features - Deleted and Unused Scenes, Including 'Destruction of Pacha's Village,' 'Pacha's Family' and 'Original Kuscotopia Ending'
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  46. ↑ Pudleiner, Mark (November 25, 2014). "KINGDOM of the SUN - Rough 'Nina' sketches and Animation Test". Blogger. markpudleiner.blogspot.com. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
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  52. ↑ Tolford, Katherine (December 20, 2000). "Clean-up crew keeps the character's essence". Glendale News-Press (Glendale, California). Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  53. ↑ "The Road to El Dorado Preview". Entertainment Weekly. February 11, 2000. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
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  56. ↑ Silverman, Helaine (2002). "Groovin' to ancient Peru: A critical analysis of Disney's The Emperor's New Groove" in Journal of Social Archaeology" (PDF). Sage Publications. pp. 298–322.
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  70. ↑ Natale, Richard (December 18, 2001). "Fans Give Mel Gibson Just What He Wants". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
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  72. ↑ Eller, Claudia; Romney, Lee (January 9, 2001). "In Disney Experiment, Spanish Speakers Prefer English 'Groove'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
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  78. ↑ http://www.mouseinfo.com/forums/tokyo-disney-resort/15952-tds-new-coaster-name-raging-spirits.html
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