Production
Company: Walt Disney Pictures
Producer:
Randy
Fullmer
Director:
Mark Dindal
Screenplay:
David Reynolds
Executive
Producer: Don
Hahn
Associate
Producer: Patty Hicks
Production
Manager: Tod Marsden
Casting:
Ruth
Lambert
Editor:
Tom Finan
Character
Designs: Joe Mossier
Effects
Supervisor: Colbert Fenelly
Songs:
Sting & David Hartley
Score:
John Debney
Cast:
(Supervising Animator/Voice)
Kuzko:
Nick Ranieri
/ David Spade
Pacha:
Bruce Smith / John Goodman
Yzma:
Dale Baer / Eartha Kitt
Kronk:
Tony Bancroft
/ Patrick Warburton
Chicha:
Doug Frankel / Wendie Malick
Tipo:
James Lopez
/ Eli Russel Linnetz
Chaca:
Brian Ferguson
/ Kellyann Kelso
Bucky:
Brian Ferguson
/ Robert Bergan
Theme
Song Guy: Sandro Lucio Cleuzo / Tom Jones
Awards:
Domestic
Release Date: December 15th, 2000
Plot:
The Emperor's New Groove is an outrageous and ultimately heartwarming comedy set against the backdrop of a mythical South American land. The story follows the adventures of an unlikely duo: arrogant Emperor Kuzco and Pacha, a humble peasant with a heart of gold.
In honor of his 18th birthday, Emperor Kuzco has decided to build himself a palatial summer getaway, his "kingdom in the sun", which he plans to build on the very mountaintop where Pacha's family has lived for generations. Pacha begs Kuzco to spare his village, but his pleas have no effect on the selfish emperor.
In another self-glorifying stroke of power, Kuzco fires his over-the-hill advisor, Yzma. In retaliation, Yzma and her rather inept henchman, Kronk (Patrick Warburton), plan to poison Kuzco and take over the empire. The plot thickens when Kronk grabs the wrong poison and manages only to turn Kuzco into a llama. Kuzco is then knocked unconscious, thrown in a sack and dumped on a peasant's cart headed out of town. Ironically, the cart is pulled by Pacha.
After recovering from the shock that he has inadvertently brought the emperor home in the body of a llama, Pacha sees and opportunity: He will help Kuzco return to the city and find the antidote to restore his human form, but only if Kuzco agrees to spare his village. Meanwhile, Yzma and Kronk search high and low for the "dangerous talking llama", to do away with him once and for all.
This madcap adventure gets even madder as our two antiheroes join forces to defeat the power-hungry Yzma.
Comments:
The Emperor's New Groove is the first original story to get the greenlight at Disney animation since The Lion King. Originally, the film was called Children of the Sun, and then changed to Kingdom of the Sun. By that time it followed a different storyline:
Kuzko was originally called
Manco. He was a prince who beared the mark of the sun on his arm. Manco
would meet a llama herder named Pacha, who would be identical to him except
for the mark. The two would agree to trade places. Yzma, the evil sorceress
would discover the switch and would turn Manco into a llama so she could
take over the kingdom knowing the imposter would be powerless to stop her.
 |
Roger Allers and Mark Dindal, who were originally going to direct the movie together, had two different ideas of wich way the story should be told. Allers said it was either his way or nothing. Peter Schneider took him up on nothing, so they reboarded to Dindal's version. And so, Kingdom of the Sun became Kingdom in the Sun. The project had been having problems for months in the beginning of the 99, due to unconvincing story reels, and the lack of direction. Finally, Mark Dindal directed the film alone, and the story took shape, now with the final change of title: The Emperor's New Groove. Andreas Deja, the original supervising animator on Yzma, left the project after working on it for about a year and a half to join the second feature from Disney's Florida Studios, Lilo and Stitch. She is very vain, probably campy and that´s something I have never done. I can´t wait to get started! said the animator when he just joined the project. This character can't handle wrinkles. It's my goal to make her as memorable as Cruella DeVil. Once all the problems where solved, he returned as a guide, without leaving Lilo and Stitch. |
Ruben Aquino was the animator of Pacha. It's set in pre-Colombian Peru, where he's a llama herder, poor kid, laughed Aquino. It's a Prince And The Pauper-like like story. He looks just like the prince and there's a princess who doesn't really care for the prince, but finds that, when Pacha takes the prince's place, she starts to like this prince guy. Pacha has a heart of gold, he's a good guy, whereas the prince is sort of a self-absorbed spoiled brat. Said according to the first storyline.
The Emperor's New Groove, was being produced primarily at Disney's California studio, with Ruben as part of a 'satellite unit' in Florida. Now, Bruce Smith is the supervising animator on Pacha.
Sting has been working on the project for more than a year. We are exchanging ideas all the time and generating new possibilities. I write the music, and then they're supposed to animate it, but there are constantly changes being made. It's constantly in turnaround. It's enough to make a person crazy, Sting admits, but that's OK, because I'm crazy anyway. I'm enjoying it. One of the reasons he was chosen was his interest in Latin American issues. It's possible, because the story happens in the old Inca empire. I accepted because the challenge was writing music for children. It was something I have never done before, a real shame for a father of six. So, I was puzzled to see if I could do it or not. It's been a hard task... Sting has suffered the problems the movie has had, but they tried to work the new story line around his songs. Some of the songs Sting had allready created which did not fit with the new story were throught (the infamous Llama Llama among them). Actually, by now there's only one song in the movie, performed by Tom Jones.
Marc Shaiman was to compose the score for the movie. You know, aside from knowing I'll be working on it, I have no idea what's going on with it. Sting wrote the songs, and I assume I will work with him and/or make use of his melodies as well as my own - but I haven't seen anything yet.