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The Story
"The Emperor's New Groove" is Disney's latest
(as of May 2001) feature animation film to be released to DVD. The
story is about Emperor Kuzco (voice talent of David Spade), an
obnoxious, self-centered ruler who cares only for his well being. When
he fires his advisor Yzma for running the empire behind his back, she is
enraged and turns him into a llama with help from her right-hand
man, Kronk. Left for dead, Kuzco has to find his way back to the palace
to reclaim what is rightfully his. On the way, he encounters Pacha (John Goodman), a
peasant of his kingdom who he had just rudely
rejected a request. Pacha is a good natured and warm-hearted man who
tries to help the Emperor, even though the Emperor has crossed him. The
two goes on a journey that transforms their bitter relationship into one of
true friendship. Eventually, they make it back to the palace and Kuzco has to find the potion that will break the spell and turn him back into
human form.
The story reinforces with children the values of kindness, friendship,
trust, and team work. As with many Disney feature animations, there is
something in it to entertain what Disney calls "kids of all ages". The obnoxious Kuzco personality can be downright rude at times, but it serves as an
"anti-example"
for children and illustrates by example (though fictional) that people can change for the better, once they
open their hearts and start relating to others. Honestly, when I took my kids to see
this movie in the theater, I didn't think it was that good. My kids
enjoyed it though. On my second viewing with this DVD, I actually enjoyed it more the
second time around. Go figure. I guess you can say "I found
the groove". 
The animation is a composite of hand-sketched characters that
are scanned into computers and colored in by computers using solid color fill-ins,
and backgrounds drawn in traditional hand-drawn paintings. While the
backgrounds are nicely done, the characters are drawn in a two dimensional
classic style that looks quite bland when you compare with Disney's previous
works such as "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the
Beast". Though there are some applications of computer graphics
imaging (CGI) for special effects, these applications are rather subtle, and
nicely enhances the images (without the audience even conscious of it).
As for the music, most
of it is only OK. For the exception of Sting's "My Funny
Friend and Me", the music do not measure up to the great songs and musical scores of previous Disney feature animations
such as "The Lion King", "Pocahontas",
"Hercules", "Mulan", and "Tarzan".
They're simply not that catchy. At least not as catchy as Kuzco's
line:
"Whoa! No touchy! No touchy. No touch."
The Extras
This 2-disc "Ultimate Groove" Collector's
Edition DVD definitely lives up to its name. There's a lot of stuff
here. The first disc contains the
following bonus features under the "Extra Gravy" menu selection:
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Audio commentary with the filmmakers (producer Randy
Fullmer, director Mark Dindal, art director, character designer, head of
story, supervising animators for Kuzco and Pacha)
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"The Emperor's Got Game": an animated board
game where you try to elude Yzma's grasp, by answering questions
correctly about the movie.
-
Rascal Flatts Music Video - Learn to "Walk the
Llama Llama"
-
DVD-ROM features (requires a computer with DVD-ROM
drive): Emperor's action game, the Emperor's Groove Center, official web
site, and exclusive online DVD content
-
Sneak Peeks theatrical trailers for "Monsters,
Inc., "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "The Hunchback
of Notre Dame II", "102 Dalmatians", and "Atlantis:
The Lost Empire"
The second disc contains these bonus features:
-
From the main menu, you can navigate in one of three
ways, take one of the following two tours by selecting "Get in the
Groove", or go on your own through each bonus featurette (a là
carte style):
-
The Studio Groove: a video backstage tour of
Disney's animation studio, with producer Randy Fullmer
and director Mark Dindal as tour guides. These two go way out of their way to
make the video tour interesting to watch, as sometimes their
explanations can get lengthy. (Is director Mark Dindal really
that goofy?)
-
The Animation Groove: a video tour of the various
stages of animation using split screen comparisons
-
Stand-alone a là carte featurettes (there's so much
stuff here that luckily Disney provides what is essentially a paper map
of all the bonus features to aid in navigation):
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Development: shows how the initial development
takes place, "the process", "the research trip",
"story treatment", "visual development gallery",
and "Kingdom of the Sun"
-
Story and Editorial: how the story is developed
and refined, "the process", "the pitch",
"putting it up on reels", and "deleted and unused
scenes". There are three deleted/unused scenes:
"Destruction of Pacha's Village", "Pacha's
Family", and the original Kuzcotopia ending. The first
scene is actually of near-finished picture quality, while the latter two are
just rough still sketches.
-
Layouts and Backgrounds: "the layout and
background departments", "inside scene planning",
"layouts", and "backgrounds"
-
Animation: "animation process",
"CGI props", "character animation",
"production progression" (with DVD multi-angle feature to
show the various stages of production -- nice!), and "clean-up
animation"
-
Putting It All Together: "ink and paint/compositing",
"clean-up animation to ink and paint comparison", and
"color models"
-
Music and sound: contains "music and sound
effects" (explains that music is really an integral part of the
story), Sting music video of "My Funny Friend and Me", and
a sound "mixing demo" (a cool interactive demonstration of
how the sound is composed of different stems (dialog, sound
effects, music), where you can select
any combination and listen to your selection with the movie snippet)
-
Publicity: explains how the movie is promoted
using theatrical trailers (which there are two), TV spots (which
there are three), and posters and ad campaigns (which there are
samples as a collection of still images)
Then on a separate CD-ROM (yes, a third disc!), you
get the "Atlantis: Search for the Journal" game. It's a
fully functional 3-D graphics (heavy) oriented PC game that requires a Pentium
II 266 MHz or better, with at least 64 MB RAM, a 8 MB video card with
3-D acceleration, 300 MB hard disk space, 8x speed CD-ROM drive, and
16-bit DirectX-compatible sound card. From just the required computer specs
alone, you know it's a graphically intensive game. It's amazing
that this came for free!
Anyways, back to the DVD content: if you are interested in how Disney makes their
animated feature films, their collector's editions will certainly take
you behind the scenes and show you how all the magic happens at the
Disney Animation Studio. And this "Ultimate Groove"
collector's edition for "The Emperor's New Groove" certainly lives up to
the high standards set by other Disney's 2-disc collector's
editions. If none of this really matters to you, then the standard
movie-only edition is better suited for you. Most of these bonus features
can only be enjoyed once really. So if you're just interested in
the film itself, the standard edition will do you fine.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is excellent. The colors are accurate and saturated.
Just beautiful. Both the DTS
and Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtracks are well balanced and the surround channels are
used effectively. The dialog
is crystal clear. In short, the THX-certified
video and audio transfer is simply top notch.
Conclusion
"The Emperor's New Groove" is a good film,
though not quite the great animated feature reminiscent of Disney's recent
past. Fans of animation will want
to consider this incredibly jam-packed 2-disc "Ultimate Groove"
collector's edition. Those who are more interested in just the movie,
the standard edition has the same THX-certified
video and audio transfer and will do you just fine.
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United We Stand
