Emperors New Groove

I know this probably isn't a review that you'd be expecting to see on here but i watched this film last week because of my sudden, strange want to see Disney films that i hadn't before, and i felt i had to review it after seeing it.

The Emperors New Groove is the story of the Emperor Kuzco who plans to build a summer home on top of a hill which unfortunately is the home of peasant Pacha, who lives and simple and busy life but still stands by a set of morals despite having to live a peasant life. The plot is changed when the evil adviser to Kuzco decides to plot against him and turns him into a llama with the help of her minion Kronk. From this point onwards the plot escalates into a tale of morals and comparison between it's two main characters.

As much as i enjoyed The Emperors New Groove, which i did, i felt it was a film you can watch without too much ease and enjoy either way, i did feel that it did not meet the mark that most Disney films seem to. Though the film set out to be a comedy with morals it failed by it's own definition slightly with a lack of humour, most of the humour coming from the character Kronk but still making it infrequent and a very simple story about morals which was not expanded on much at all, basically saying that no matter how different you are you can always be friends, this was shown but not to an extent that it shaped the film, what this film really needed was a montage like so much over Disney films of the relationship between Kuzco and Pacha, but seeing as this film lacked music that was nowhere to be seen.

With a lack of music, romance, and with infrequent humour the plot cannot go anywhere except make a few good jokes along the way, and unfortunately because of the lack of romance, music etc. it unravelled the plot to be simple and just look like a journey back to a palace (which is what most of the plot is) whereas something like Shrek has a very simple plot but the audience never find it to be simple or tedious because of it's frequent humour, romance, music and much more.

Another problem i found with this film was they based a film mainly around the Emperor Kuzco but the character himself was never given any of the decent jokes and there is so much spent showing the audience that he is an annoying, spoilt emperor that it is slightly unclear of a change in him as a person, thus weakening the point of basing this plot around morals and by taking away the romance etc. it's really weakening Disney's shield of this being a success as a film.

The film did end up seeming like it was just a massive chance for the character of Kronk to make some good jokes and i couldn't help but think that it was just a test film for Disney so they could work out how to make better films by making one average one, neverthless i did enjoy the character of Kronk to a very large extent, unlike Kuzco he was well written and was given a lot of jokes, and because of this it is in Kronk that most of the attention is given and it ends up that Kronk is the character that keeps fighting so that Disney has some very thin shield helping them defend from the inevitable word 'flop'.

I would respect Disney more if this was just a test film wherein they would ideaolise the character of Kronk and work out how well a Disney film can do without it's main genre's but unfortunately that is very unlikely and it does just seem like a disregard to their usual standards of Disney classic.

The main problem with this film is that it doesn't provide enough to the audience, it will keep audiences amused but never wanting more after the film has finished except of the character Kronk.


Rating: ***/*****
Why watch it: Kronk, and if you need a film which you don't need to pay much attention to
What does it need: A Montage!!!!!!
share on: facebook