Member review

Made in 2000, The Emperor's New Groove has a lot going for it! From the delightful sketchy animation to the abundance of comedy, this is a movie for all the family!

Self-absorbed Emperor Kuzco has big plans for his birthday... plans involving smashing the town of compassionate peasant Pacha to build a summer pool! Meanwhile, he fires his ancient advisor, Yzma and her clueless assistant, Kronk. Yzma wants revenge and attempts to poison Kuzco. But due to a mistake and a spiked drink, Kuzco gets transformed into a llama! Can he escape the evil Yzma? Will Pacha help? Or will Kuzco stay a grass-eating, cart-pulling llama... or worse?

My favourite character would have to be Kronk, Yzma's right-hand-man. I also enjoyed how Yzma is portrayed. As the venomous villain of The Emperor’s New Groove, Yzma is “scary beyond all reason”! Her plans tend to be excessive... and don’t always work as expected. If you’re looking for a comedic villain, Yzma won’t disappoint!

Kuzco the emperor was the protagonist and also acted as the narrator, making comments to the audience, which reminded me of George in George of The Jungle. His human form does not appear much in this movie, it mainly revolves around what happens when he gets turned into a llama.

This movie was supposed to be more of a musical, with Sting doing the soundtracks and songs, but it later got completely rewritten and all Sting's songs [except one, “My Funny Friend And Me” which you can hear at the end of the movie] got removed. Despite this, music still remains in this film and plays a major part in setting the mood.

This movie has many a powerful moral, but the ones that stood out to me were that you should always show kindness, even if you don't receive anything in return and that you should never give up on anyone.

I think this would be an epic Friday night family film and for most ages, I would say about 5-70 sort of age, pretty much universal. I'm rating it... 5/5! It might not be the best, but it certainly deserves a generous rating! It had gone through many stages, from a “Lion King-style” musical to the comedic animation it is today, and has turned out a hit with a thumbs-up from me! Viewers will enjoy many twists and turns throughout the movie, moments when you are fooled and an ending which ties everything together... which I won't mentioned!

When it comes to this film, expect the unexpected... but I'll leave you to find out the rest...