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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt
Director: Mark Dindal
Running Time: 78 mins
The Emperor’s New Groove is an American film about a selfish emperor who is turned into a llama by a woman after his power, and must find a way back onto the throne with the help of a llama herder.
A fantastically wacky adventure, The Emperor’s New Groove is just the kind of Disney movie you can watch again and again and again. It’s not necessarily the studio’s most iconic or most exciting film, but it is a thoroughly entertaining watch thanks to great animation, comedy and in particular voice performances.
In fact, let’s start on that point, because of all Disney’s best animated films, The Emperor’s New Groove might just have the best voice performances of all. David Spade is hilarious as Emperor Cuzco, John Goodman is effortlessly lovable as Pacha, Eartha Kitt is brilliantly evil as Yzma, and Patrick Warburton is just amazing as Kronk.
All four of the main characters are hilariously cartoonish caricatures that all come together to make this wacky adventure as deliriously funny as possible. Spade and Goodman have a brilliant back-and-forth that makes their relationship on their journey to try and restore the emperor to the throne, while they’re both fantastically funny in and of their own right.
But it’s arguably the villains of the story that really stand out, with Eartha Kitt the perfect voice for a fun and enjoyably evil Disney villain, and Patrick Warburton the cream of the crop as her lovably dim-witted sidekick in crime.
With four fantastic voice performances at the centre of it all, The Emperor’s New Groove is a fantastically entertaining and energetic affair, and perhaps the best example of how the best actors and the best characters can make a film like this work so well.
But we absolutely mustn’t forget the work of the film’s writers, who make The Emperor’s New Groove a short but brilliantly sharp animated comedy, with the ultimate level of rewatchability.
It’s simple on the surface, an easy adventure tale with a little bit of action and fantasy thrown in there too. However, it’s the film’s charisma and energy that really make it sing, proving one of the most entertaining Disney movies out there.
Overall, I had a heap of fun with The Emperor’s New Groove. Fantastically funny, brilliantly energetic and complete with some of Disney’s very best voice performances, it’s a hugely entertaining watch, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.7.
