Beware The Groove
January 30, 2021 3:08 PM   Subscribe

This oral history of The Emperor's New Groove delves into the fascinating story of the turbulent production that became one of Disney's most delightful and off-brand animated movies.
posted by merriment (28 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I read this earlier today and thought about posting it here. It's quite the wild ride. I totally want to see the documentary that has been locked away. I've only seen this movie once, but it was definitely a bit off-brand for Disney. Ditto Hercules, which was basically the Disney animation department making fun of the Disney marketing machine.

I do subscribe to D+ so maybe I should give it a rewatch.
posted by hippybear at 3:12 PM on January 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


I (easily) found The Sweatbox on YouTube a few weeks ago. I recommend it!

.... And now I think I need to see that groovy llama again. I love this movie so much.
posted by meese at 4:21 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


"Yea, I'm a llama again!!! Wait..."
posted by Windopaene at 4:23 PM on January 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


The whole article is really juicy, but the part that put it over the top for me was Patrick Warburton dishing about his prior experience working with Eartha Kitt. Worth the price of admission all on its own!
posted by merriment at 4:25 PM on January 30, 2021 [8 favorites]


He does leave that story pointedly unfinished, doesn’t he?

Also, this:
This is the honest-to-God truth: The first and only draft of The Emperor’s New Groove was handed in two weeks after the movie was in theaters.
posted by migurski at 4:54 PM on January 30, 2021 [7 favorites]


Weird how this movie has been showing up in articles recently. I never saw the movie but i randomly watched some of that "making of" documentary about it on youtube a couple months ago and now suddenly it's like some cult classic.
posted by Liquidwolf at 5:31 PM on January 30, 2021


Not for the first time, I wonder to myself what sort of amazing movies we'd have if it weren't for fucking fuddy-duddy movie executives.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:42 PM on January 30, 2021 [4 favorites]


Love ENG, excited to go check this out.

Liquidwolf it totally IS a cult classic, but it also just passed the 20th anniversary of its release a month ago so perhaps that's a reason for the uptick in media mentions.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:02 PM on January 30, 2021 [4 favorites]


Yeah, weird. *scratches head* /Kronk.
posted by SPrintF at 6:57 PM on January 30, 2021 [5 favorites]



Yeah, weird. *scratches head* /Kronk.


Yep, weird to me.

Wretch729 you should watch that documentary on YouTube if you haven't.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:07 PM on January 30, 2021


Honestly, this is a situation where the interference of those fucking fuddy-duddy movie executives seems to have led to a great improvement. The original version, Kingdom of the Sun? Everything about it sounds overdone and appropriative, and all around dull.

And don't get me started on Yzma being motivated by fear of aging, rather than the pure, glorious monomaniacal villainy we get.
posted by meese at 7:16 PM on January 30, 2021 [14 favorites]


ENG was a college staple for me and I still think it’s hilarious. My kids also love it. It’s got a thoroughly late 90s/early 2000s humor sensibility that’s more Animaniacs & Strong Bad than anything Disney would approach again for a long time.
posted by sleeping bear at 7:53 PM on January 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


The first time I watched it, I didn’t really get too much of a kick out of it, I guess I just wasn’t in a good frame of mind for it then. Watched it again recently and it was great. The kitchen scene is an absolute masterpiece.
posted by azpenguin at 7:55 PM on January 30, 2021 [4 favorites]


Honestly, this is a situation where the interference of those fucking fuddy-duddy movie executives seems to have led to a great improvement.

That's a fair point, but I was thinking more in terms of the multiple mentions of how unlikely the ENG movie was, despite how beloved it became. In other words, what if we had a movie-making culture where creators were allowed more freedom and we got to see the results on the screen more often? Instead, Disney seems to have turned their back on that path in apparent embarrassment, and reverted to remaking the same old type of "proven" movie. I think there's room for both in the world.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:12 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


There's not room for both in Disney's pocketbook. Only proven moneymakers or get out.

Obviously, having room for both is the most desirable, but executives don't tend to give one good god damn about anything but abject profit.
posted by deadaluspark at 8:19 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


Yes, which was the point of my original comment.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:35 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


Also, having now watched The Sweatbox, I feel like my previous opinion of Sting as a pretentious ass has been canonically and irrevocably confirmed.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:59 PM on January 30, 2021


There's not room for both in Disney's pocketbook.

Pre-COVID I'd have argued against you strongly. Disney is one of the most profitable companies on the planet and everyone knows that company profits are really employee wages not properly disbursed.
posted by hippybear at 9:02 PM on January 30, 2021 [2 favorites]


Is = was... the theme park closing has hit them hard. as has the movie theater closings. basically Disney was great unless there was a pandemic, and now...
posted by hippybear at 9:03 PM on January 30, 2021


Sting aside, I really like David Hartley, the pianist who was working with him.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:05 PM on January 30, 2021


I heard somewhere that Sting thought he was too old to do the main song, so he was replace by... Tom Jones.

Full disclosure: our cat's name is ... Yzma
posted by No Robots at 9:25 PM on January 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


why do we even HAVE that lever
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:51 PM on January 30, 2021 [16 favorites]


I thought immediately of this passage by the Self Made Critic over at The Brunching Shuttlecocks back in the day:

Here's what the story used to be. Some Incan or Mayan legend about a young prince who shoots a rope around the sun. It was gonna be called Kingdom of the Sun. It had six original songs by Sting; only one was actually used in this new version of the movie. Some of them currently play over the closing credits, which is sort of lame for Sting.

But here's the magic. Somewhere along the way, the director said "Nope. I don't want to make another dull 'meaningful' dramatic musical. Screw it. We're downing a bottle a Jim Beam and re-writing this baby."

posted by MarchHare at 12:05 AM on January 31, 2021 [4 favorites]


I will always wonder why Disney decided that what they really wanted to do was make a Warner Brothers cartoon. I'm not complaining at all.

Meanwhile, squeak squeaka squeak squeak, e.g., "You owe me a new acorn."
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:11 AM on January 31, 2021 [8 favorites]


Disney decided that what they really wanted to do was make a Warner Brothers cartoon.
this is far and away the best description of this movie I have ever encountered in my life
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:19 AM on January 31, 2021 [11 favorites]


Maybe I should give this film a watch. I remember being around 30 years old when it came out, and the marketing vibe I got from it was that Disney was doing a "Poochie" (Simpsons reference) to their material to become "relevant and hip" and it just rubbed me the wrong way.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:00 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]


SoberHighland: go and watch. You will have no regrets.
posted by SPrintF at 12:44 PM on January 31, 2021 [1 favorite]


I gave it a rewatch with my husbear and it was fun for both of us. Saying it had an Animaniacs vibe to it was pretty correct, really. We've been watching that of late, too (both old and new, although we ran out of new *sigh*).
posted by hippybear at 9:09 PM on January 31, 2021


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