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The Movie: The makers of "The Emperor's New Groove" were reportedly making a movie with a different tone and feel when Disney came in and wasn't pleased with the final product, forcing some re-working of the movie. The final product, more comedy than any other genre, is occasionally very funny - but it takes a while to get going and sometimes feels fractured. I suppose the one piece of the puzzle that depends on whether or not one will enjoy it is - do you enjoy the humor of David Spade? Personally, I think Spade's hilarious and he's as his best as the Emperor Kuzco, a spoiled brat who delights in getting his way all day. He fires his advisor, an old witch named Yzma(Eartha Kitt) and she ends up trying to kill him. In her attempt, though, she accidentially turns him into a Llama. Yzma is assisted by Kronk(Patrick Warburton, who was always hilarious as Puddy in "Seinfeld"), but Kronk fails in trying to get rid of the Llama. Kuzco ends up on the cart of Pacha(John Goodman), the peasant whose home he threatened to take down and replace with a Summer home called "Kuzcotopia". Although Kuzco in Llama form is still a jerk, Pacha agrees to help him navigate the jungle after Kuzco finds himself in the middle of some trouble. The two march onwards across the country, trying to get Kuzco turned back into a human, while Pacha hopes to convince him not to turn his village into a Summer home. There's two great things about "The Emperor's New Groove"; Spade and Warburton. Thankfully, the filmmakers didn't try to block the "edge" from coming into this family film, which often allows Spade to turn his sarcasm volume up to 11. Warburton is hilarious with the exact opposite approach; his flat way of reading lines turns out to be often incredibly funny. Like his character on "Seinfeld", he simply doesn't care. Kitt and Goodman provide solid supporting performances, but their characters seem often there to set-up some of the funnier lines from Spade and Warburton. There's only a few minor things that I didn't like as much about "Emperor"; there are some minutes here and there that drag as a few jokes fall a bit flat. The animation isn't quite as impressive as some of the other recent Disney films, but I suppose it works for the relaxed story. Although the film has done quite well, I'm not sure if the younger members of the audience might get all of the jokes. Still, it's a light, enjoyable work that's sometimes very funny. I would have liked to have seen what the original version of the film was all about (it was titled "Kingdom of the Sun"), but hopefully we'll see some of the original version in the deleted scenes section of the eventual DVD release.
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