Monday, December 10, 2007

The Emperor Premieres...


On this day, seven years ago "Kingdom of the Sun" premiered. Wait, that's not right... I'm sorry. On this day seven years ago, the unfunny, incoherent mess that came from too many Suits messing with Roger Allers' film premiered. Sun, or as its other-worldly inept clone would be called "The Emperor's New Groove" would go on to disappointing box office and continue to plant the brilliant idea in Suits heads that audiences didn't want to see hand drawn animation anymore... what they want is 3D. Yeah, that's the ticket. It couldn't have anything to do with the turds WDFA was turning out... nooooooo.

Sigh.

19 comments:

Brian said...

I actually thought this movie was really funny, the kind of humor that is poplar now.

V.M.L. said...

Its too bad the Suits wanted too many changes to the movie. Then again, the plot sounded too much like ALLADIN, but without the genie. Still, I'm very curious about how it would have been like if it was "Kingdom of the Sun." I'd like to at least see some concept art.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was funny when I saw it in theater. But now my tastes have changed.

Anonymous said...

The Emperor's New Groove is actually one of my favourite Disney movies. Yes it is a complete mess but I find it totally hilarious and my sister and me can recite lots of dialogue and we have a running gag referring to the little squirrel and its balloon.
So it is definitely no Beauty and the Beast or Lion King, but not as bad as Home on the range, or Chicken Little, which I find despicable.

Anonymous said...

Unfunny? I'm sorry, but this is the funniest movie I've ever saw! I saw it 5 times in the cinema and after that a dozen times on dvd with friends, who all love this movie!!! It's the only movie I know quotes from by heart...
Kuzco rules :)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Emperor's New Groove is hilarious... it's no Lion King or Beauty and the Beast but I never thought it was trying to be. I love it.

Anonymous said...

nonononono!!!!The Emperor's new groove is great!!!
It is so funny and hilarious but never vulgar!!!
It is one of the best Disney movie of the last years, very different from Beauty and the Best but not less good!!

Anonymous said...

Disneytom said:

"Unfunny? I'm sorry, but this is the funniest movie I've ever saw!"

I guess you haven't seen many movies then?

Horrible. I agree with Honor. This film is an embarrassing mess.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was okay, not as funny as I expected but still above average. I'd give it a 6 overall, which isn't half bad considering Disney's output since 2000.

disneynorth said...

I thought this movie was funny too. And I have seen 99% of Disney animated movies (missed a couple over the last few years...). Sure it wasn't groundbreaking like other movies in the past, but do all Disney movies need to be outstanding?? I would put this inline with movies like Fox and the Hound, Sword in the Stone and Robin Hood.

The story was good. The gags were great (some classic cartoon gags, which I love seeing). Kronk was a great character... dare I say one of my fav Disney Characters.

I honestly don't see what was wrong with this movie.

Anonymous said...

The Emperor's New Groove is arguably the funniest film Disney's ever down. The movie is almost wall-to-wall jokes, and an astounding number of them connect. What really makes them work though is director Mark Dindal's brilliant sense of timing and the gloriously cartoony animation by the whole animation staff. Toss in some great character designs by Joe Moshier,lovely art direction by Colin Stimpson, and some wonderful vocal performances, and you've got a great film.

Anonymous said...

Well, sorry to say it.. but the box office would disagree with you. It didn't make money until DVD and you don't see many characters in the parks, do you? Disney considers it a mild failure to a great disappointment.

Entirely forgettable.

What were we talking about? Oh, yeah. That movie. Yuck!

RayChase said...

Entirely forgettable...really..

Yes the movie didnt do good box office yet they made a TV show The Emperors New School as well as a DVD sequel Kronks New Groove.. humm I wonder why?

As I recall the movie made about $80 mil domestic or so. There was zero promotion so its a mircale it made that. I was in the Disney Store the day it opened and there was nothing. Not even a poster acknowledging the movie had opened.

I was pleasantly surprised by the film. My wife was dreading going to see and we both enjoyed it and laughed out loud quite a lot. If you dont like David Spade you wont like the film thats for sure. The movie was more Warner Bros than Disney but for me it was a refreshing change.

Anonymous said...

The movie was a mish-mash of funny bits and downright crap. It tried to do Warner Bros. humor in a Disney film. Disney should never try to do Warner humor, it should do what it does best. The only time they've been able to make a film that had that Warner quality was with Stitch and Runaway Brain. They pulled it off with Stitch, not somuchso with Runaway Brain and utterly failed with Emperor. They could have figured this out if the creatives, as Honor calls them were in charge. Too many of Ei$ner's goons giving mandatory input on this pic doomed it from being the classic that Kingdom of the Sun was going to be. I was priviledged enough to see some of the artwork for that and here Roger's pitch. It would have been up there with Lion King, but Katzenberg was gone and no one believed in the projects with him not there. Too bad. Another missed opportunity that Ei$ner and his cronies had to keep WDFA firing on all cylinders gone. I have great hopes that WDAS under Lasseter won't suffer the same indignities. Here's to a bright animation future at Disney and no more Emperor's New Grooves. Please.

bsmith13 said...

Meh. It's not my favorite; not even in my top 50 Disney Movies. The animated TV show that spun off from it is worse, though.

Unknown said...

I thought Eisner hated the film, though?

At any rate, all Disney was making up until this film were epic animated musicals. They'd hit onto a successful formula and beat it into the ground by this point: the songs weren't as good, the characters less original, and the comic relief increasingly obvious and cringe inducing. At least Emperor's New Groove showed that Disney could make a different kind of film and do it well. Had they stayed with the original concept it would likely have been just another in a long line of animated musicals being met with declining interest from the public.

As others have said, it's also a miracle it made as much as it did. Disney basically just threw it out there not expecting anything and it performed surprisingly well. There was initially very little (if any) merchandising. The film, however, held up really well over a relatively long period. I'm sure they spent far more marketing Atlantis earlier that year, but TENG ended up making over $5 million more at the box office and producing a lot more spin-offs. At $89 million its box office also wasn't that far below films like Hercules and Hunchback that received a massive push.

Anonymous said...

Randal said: "At least Emperor's New Groove showed that Disney could make a different kind of film and do it well."

Yes, they knew how to make a different kind of film with TENG. One that sucked BADLY.

Anonymous said...

This was a horrible film. Simply horrible. It's not even in the same universe as films like Lion King and Aladdin, much less Snow White or Peter Pan.

Unknown said...

Emperor's New Groove is very cute and has quite a few fans in the late teens/early 20s demographic. I like it quite a bit. I agree with the people who've said that it sort of fits in with Disney's less groundbreaking work, like Robin Hood or (I'd say) Oliver and Company or something like that.

No, it's not Kingdom of the Sun. I would still like to see that movie get made. But I think it's pretty unfair to say the movie sucks simply because it got changed into something different than what they'd planned. For what it is, that's one good little movie. It's not a classic, but it's a nice change.

And anyway, I'd say it has more "heart" than Alice in Wonderland, which everyone agrees is a classic and which Walt specifically said he thought had issues. If you despise this movie, you expect everything to be groundbreaking, despise anything other than broadway inspired productions (which, as was mentioned in the comments here, had started to become old-hat and forced by the point this movie came out came out). I don't think making something out of the ordinary is a bad thing. If it's a mistake, simply learn from it and move on.

I would take 10 Emperor's New Grooves over literally ANY MENTION of the putrid pink Princess-pimping line any day. At least kids who saw Emperor's New Groove didn't feel like crap about being poor, chubby, or just not great looking. We can't all be flawless royalty. There's nothing wrong with Disney branching out as long as they never leave the classic behind; there's room for more than one kind of movie at a studio.