Slashdot Mirror
The Emperor's New Groove
I'm betting I had the same impression as most of you when I saw the ads for Disney's new Emperors's New Groove flick. Frankly, It made me quite ill. It sounded quite stupid. The other thing that was different about this movie is that I've watched so much anime, that I hadn't even tracked Groove's production. All the animated features released in the last decade I researched quite extensively. Voices, songs, writers, directors, who was animating which character. In most cases I even bought the sound track and was right there singing along. This time I knew nothing.
So, it's a good movie. Despite the stupid name, it's very fun. Of course it has a wicked villian and her henchman ... at least one of them isn't a trio of singing wise cracking henchman. The sidekick is Crank, (rhymes with Bonk) and he's probably the highlight of the film. Voiced by Elaine's boyfriend from the last season of Seinfeld (I think that excluding maybe Terry Hatcher, every actor who did a guest spot on the show will be known in terms of their Seinfeld character instead of their actual name). He's right on the money as the big goofy sidekick. They poke fun at some many conventions with this guy, I laughed out loud countless times.
The star, however, is of course David Spade, who besides starring on the vomit inducingly bad Just Shoot Me sitcom on NBC (god bless Tivo) hasn't been doing much since Chris Farley died. Fortunately the writers apparently gave him room to read funny lines, but also improvise. Not since Robin William's Genie have I seen an actor more accurately have their comedy animated by Disney. Then again, if you loath Spade's whiney sarcastic stand up, you're gonna hate this movie.
The animation is really quite good, although during the Emperor's stint as a llama, he's very disturbing. They handled him well, but man, with that long neck and that stretched out face and Spade's voice, well, it's a crazy creature.
It looks to me also that Disney shaved the budget down to nothing compared to other recent theater outings. The special effects in this film are virtually nil. No wild panarama shots. No amazing CGI. I mean, the fx are there, but they are relatively subtle, and never jaw-droppingly impressive.
And the music: What's a Disney movie without a rousing musical soundtrack? Well, I guess its Groove. It isn't a musical. Tarzan was different as far as musicals go, but it did feature a great soundtrack (despite winning a grammy against South Park which frankly pushed the envelope much more entertainingly the little old Phil "I wish I was Peter Gabriel" Collins ever could have). Groove does have a reasonably cute Tom Jones Disco bookend, but its nothing that you'll leave be talking about when you leave the theater. And my last comment on sound, usually I see movies like this in a theater with a good sound system, but I caught this one at the local Holland 7, which boasts a sound system with approximately the same fidelity as a realaudio porno stream. So take this with a grain of salt: I thought the sound was lame. The voice acting was nice, and the surround sound was used nicely, but the music and sound effects never just got into your skin like Mermaid, Beast, Aladdin, Lion King, Hunchback, Hercules, and Tarzan did. It's flat. Then again, when the DVD is released I'll watch it on my home system and maybe rethink this judgement.
I'll leave the story summary short, because if you're still reading, you'll probably wanted to see the movie before you started reading my little review ;) Spade is the spoiled brat emperor. He wants to build his new summer home on a Peasants hill (played blandly by John Goodman). He runs amuck with his evil Jafar/Cruella advisor and is transformed into a llama. Thanks to Hercules style sidekick incompetance he accidentally ends up with the Peasant, and must work through his spoiled nature, turn himself back into a human, and reclaim his thrown.
As you might have noticed, there are so many pre-fabbed molds used in this movie that you might have expected me to hate it. But I didn't. The comedy is the fastest of any disney movie ever (even exceeding Aladdin which dragged until the Genie came along). The pacing is obviously designed for children, with major jokes and changes occuring constantly. It always feels rushed ... but it never gets boring.
If you like silly animated adventures, or just need a movie to take a kid to, this will do nicely.
E H Shepard Pooh versus Disney Pooh.
What did he throw?
My actions are illegal but ethical. I challenge you to find a single entity in the world which is materially harmed when I freeload a movie that I wouldn't have watched anyway without the freeloading. And of course even this argument is a moot point, because I don't freeload anymore -- I've been boycotting the MPAA for two years and counting.
Illegal actions should not be confused with unethical actions. When Rosa Parks refused to yield her bus seat, what she was doing was very illegal, but also very ethical. Sometimes when the law is unjust, honesty actually demands that it be broken.
I do not recommend watching Hollywood movies at all. This position should have been abundantly clear from the rest of my post.
However I realize that the practical reality is that many people cannot live without their Hollywood movies. If they don't care about MPAA issues, then fine; but if they do care, theater switching may be a viable alternative to total deprivation.
It is slightly dishonest, and I would not recommend this procedure for the Abe-Lincoln types out there. However, like most americans, I have no moral objections to freeloading something that has near-zero marginal cost, especially if I wouldn't have paid for it under any circumstances anyway.
My last question is, if theater switching is "empty" and "pointless", then why do you care so much?
that disney has gone from a feature every 8 years to a feature a year, rush, rush, rush. Outsourcing a lot of the filler cells. Also exhausting Grimm's and others tales where a hero/heroine doesn't die. Though that really didn't stop Hunchback.
USA-Democracy is 270 million YESes and NOes a day, not one every four years.
I agree with this in part. A tour of the Disney studios revealed that the individual cells are drawn by artists, they are no longer coloured by hand. They scan in the drawings then paint them in the computer. The computer then joins the cells together to form the entire picture.
My problem with Disney is that the overall animation quality has suffered lately. The last film they made with animation quality in line with the classics was 'Beauty and the Beast', IMHO. When 'Hercules' came out, I was shocked at how poor the animation was. It was very blocky, lots of straight, simple lines and appearing to come out of some animation factory. This movie seems to be drawn by the same group of artists. I can only hope that Disney puts a stop to this team before they draw again. I miss the rich, extremely detailed animation of old.
Maybe not a spell checker, since every one of those words is spelled correctly out of context. Maybe some good, old fashioned rewriting. What is it about the internet that makes first drafts OK for everything? Maybe for email and forums, but for articles, come on...
Yeah, right. You haven't paid much attention to Bugs Bunny, have you? The real, original scripts, had plenty of adult references along with the slapstick for the kids.
You might also look at things like the Flintstones; it was PRIME TIME and not just aimed at kids. It's schlock, but not any more so than any other sitcom of its era. That's not the same thing as "just for the kiddies."
As far as it goes, I'd say that a number of Disney's classic animation stories had plenty to chew on for the adults as well. Bambi's mom dying is "just for the kiddies"?? It's a story, and it is more than just some juvenile slop, unlike a lot of the more recent output from Disney.
You're right that Japanese animation gets more into adult themes, but US Animation is not so devoid as you might say in comparison.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
2) I hate David Spade's whiney sarcastic standup thing, but this movie put it in the right context, and made David Spade bearable. My new theory is: "David Spade should be heard and not seen."
3) Get someone to proof articles before they get put up in front of thousands of readers.
4) Don't say "Granted, I was in a movie theater with crappy audio, but man, did that movie have crappy audio." The audio was fine; there's lots of nice subtleties like branches cracking at strategic moments... and I'm glad that for once there was a Disney film where they weren't breaking into song every ten minutes.
5) John Goodman was anything but bland, and you forgot to mention his extremely funny wife (even though she had only a bit part).
My take on this is it's the renaissance of Disney animation; this is the first really clever, emotionally engaging non-piece-of-crap to come out of Disney in a long time.
echo Prpv a\'rfg cnf har cvcr | tr Pacfghnrvp Cnpstuaeic
Yep, a couple minor characters. (The kids were more cute than beautiful.) But no animal sidekick, for a change.
Nope.
I left the theater with a big grin on my face, because it was funny, something that most Disney movies aren't.
I'll agree with the general principle here. But this is a movie that was basically scrapped and restarted halfway through production--it may not have been as "designed from the ground up" as your average Disney feature.
It's got a zaniness, at least, that we haven't seen for a while. Robin Williams's improvisations in Aladdin were fun, but embedded in a treacly story. The Emperor's New Groove has clever and silly things going on at every level.
Okay, but I still wished he was Peter Gabriel.
I, for one, think that keeping a kid's attention is quite easy. My friend and I took his 5-year-old son to see Princess Mononoke, and he LOVED it.
Robert Dumas (robertdumas@hotmail.com)
Where is Taco? Well,
bored with the life in the City of Gold,
he left and let nobody know...
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
Disney seems to think that they perfected their formula for animated movies with Mermaid: the movie is a musical, loosly based on a fairy tale and has several annoying sidekicks. It got old.
Nice to see them make such a radical, gutsy change as to drop the musical part.
Hi, and I apologize for the swearing in my post :)
I don't know if it's whether I necessarily "care" all that much, I just think that if one is going to boycott the RIAA and MPAA for idealistic reasons, then one should boycott the products entirely and not do a sneak around the end zone, so to speak.
That's all.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Unfortunately, after the focus changed from a remake of prince and the pauper to a buddy flick, Disney had to call Sting and say, "Oh yes, those six songs you wrote, um, we won't be using them...But! Please write two more for us!" Tom Jones did them instead. :) The Sweatbox, Sting's wife's film about him details all this for you, I believe.
Wrong!
... the Oxford University Press."
Follow the link, and you'll see:-
"This is the usage of
He also assumes (rightfully so) that his readership has at least some capacity for independent thought (although that may be too much to ask of your everyday SlashBot).
I don't think that Rob should be asked to censor himself because his words might somehow affect how someone might live their life. That's absurd.
I love it when people correct someone, and then make the same mistake. *crosses fingers*
Words that are spelled and/or pronounced the same but have different meanings are known (in English) as "homonyms", "homophones", or even "homographs". None of the dictionaries I use knows what a "homogram" is, although somebody mentioned singing and gay people...
--
+&x
I just read something about this in the Palo Alto newspaper:
IMHO, The Emperor's New Groove is just another lump of manufactured Hollywood bullshit.
And, no, I haven't seen it, but come on, it's Disney for chrissakes -- it will always be:
OK, it's early, my cynicism runs a bit hot before I've had my coffee...
- jonathan.
The Moral Majority was disbanded in 1989
MAN! I almost never have this complaint, but this story needs some serious spell checking. Here are a few choice gems:
"Elain's boyfriend"
"This time I new nothing."
"reclaim his thrown"
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
Speaking of spelling, that's Tibetan, not Tibetin. Just a heads up.
If you want to see llamas, go see "Dude, Where's My Car?" instead :)
People who've seen it know what I'm talking about.
------------------------
Co-founder of GerbilMechs
So do llamas were orange robes? They're not as cute as lamas.
Perhaps we should define lllamas to be those people who mess up a good game of Quake?
"Life is like a sewer - what you get out of it depends on what you put into it" - Tom Lehrer
Nice shootin' Tex. That ought to do it. Well, you better watch your back, dude, because an anonymous coward doesn't want to see you again, and if he or she catches you watching cartoons again, that's IT. It's over. He'll uh, censor you. Like the STUPID AMERICAN CENSORS who don't allow any animation with violence or vulgarity onto the screen. Nope, nothing like, say, South Park or anything. Stupid american censors. Because god knows nothing's censored in Japan.
>And what happened to Mickey Mouse? Anyone seen him lately?
..
Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 are the only films to feature Mickey, and it's been a while since there's been a mickey short film or cartoon series
<? include ('signature.inc'); ?>
Oh God. I usually don't find flamebait like this amusing, but I just laughed my ass off for 20 minutes.
in a long time that did not 'borrow' heavly from some older "public domain" story...tarzan, Aladin, etc?
Most of the story line you can find in many old stories....but I am un-aware of any where the selfish are turned into a llama.
If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
I think that those who live the Buddhist way of life with peace and vitality do find it personally satisfying. This may be because they have cultivate a point of view which includes others inside their ego. But any life which can be sustained is not a life of emotional suffering and lack of fulfillment. I suggest that my analysis of Scooby-doo and your description of Buddhism have a lot in common -- people have developed skills and points of view that allow them to feel good about doing good. But this is much more evident in a show of arete like solving a mystery than it is in the modesty and hard-learned self-denial of the Bodhisattva.
Besides, to return to the original point of this thread, Scooby-Doo teaches skepticism and empiricism. These are not hard-hearted; they are a prerequisite to being able to help people effectively.
- Michael
-----
Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
-----
Go ahead, blame me... I voted for Nader!
]$`};L(;/proc);[I(;];<C{;};1S[;`\/while=1E1L[`\p roc{>=
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
which boasts a sound system with approximately the same fidelity as a realaudio porno stream
Thank you for that highly accessible comparison. Not that this is critical to the review, but I'm not sure how many of us reading this review know what kind of fidelity a realaudio porno stream has. Frankly, I'd rather not.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
BTW, next time you have a chance to mention you've watched 250hrs of anime , don't :)
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
"Every frame of their movies is handcrafted with tons of sweat and tears." I have to agree. I was getting tired of Disney and Fox Studios bringing out animations that seemed, for lack of a better word, artificial. Toy Story and Toy Story II contained some of the freshest animation and thought that I have seen in years. I am going to see The Emperors New Groove today and I hope it turns out to be as fresh. And Taco, Take a Valium big guy! The world is not out to get you. :-)
Your actions in life will determine your children's future.
When (if) the copyright on the old Mickey films runs out, anyone will be able to print new copies to sell. No one will be able to create new "Mickey Mouse" movies except Disney, because he is a trademark of the company. Of course, we will also see the Diz try to stop people from selling ex-copyrighted works on the basis of these trademarks as well.
There are three real reasons Disney doesn't make a "Mickey Film":
Firstly, they never have. Mickey evolved as a character in comedic shorts. He never made the jump to features for the same reason the early living short film comics never really did, there's just not that much character to work with. The first Disney features were all to serious to support the light characters from their short films. Now it is a tradition for Disney to create their features along the same lines, telling cinematic stories using characters that don't already have "baggage."
Secondly, ol' Mickey is now an important mascot for Disney, sort of a figurehead. If he starts playing in the mud and showing up in new films, there is the risk of failure or tarnish on that image.
Finally, Mickey represents the continued presence of Walt's ghost in Disney. Aside from a brief attempt to dress him "hip" in the eighties, Disney chooses to keep Mickey relatively timeless for this reason. (Have you seen that a lot of the new paraphenilia has gone back to the old "pac-man" eyes?) We are far more likley to see Goofy and Donald Duck in features than we are to see Mickey Mouse.
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Coming soon to theaters: "How the Emperor Got His Groove Back"!
And the first thing they do is turn the emperor into a llama?? This movie is more perverted than I thought! Someone alert the ChildCare Action Project immediately!
There are so many spelling and grammar mistakes in that review that it makes me sick.
Exactly. Lighten up.
Here's a quick quiz for you: where in the movie, promotional materials, or anywhere else does Disney state where and when this movie supposedly takes place? The answer, while you scratch your head, is "nowhere." The movie is pleasantly ambiguous about all that. Are they Mayans? Incas? Aztecs? And if they're in South America, why are there European-style cottages in Pacha's village? Why is Yzma's dress straight out of 1920's American flapper culture?
And so on and so forth. Perhaps in all our Slashdotty desire to be gritty and accurate and hypersensitive, we've completely forgotten that this is ENTERTAINMENT, not meant to be taken seriously - hell, I doubt if it's even POSSIBLE to take it seriously. It's a goddamned cartoon. Lighten up.
Oh, and how exactly are the Transformers "positive subject matter?" They fight and kill each other because they just simply don't like the other faction. That's a positive thing in your world?
Fucking sad. Go watch Schindler's List or something, and please leave the cartoons for those of us still young enough at heart to actually enjoy them.
Chris Tembreull
Web Developer, NEC Systems, Inc.
Chris Tembreull
"My karma just ran over your dogma."
I can assure you that Phil Collins does not wish he was Peter Gabriel, at least financially speaking. Phil Collins has raked in huge amounts of cash from the (overly) mainstream, pop-oriented Invisible Touch and We Can't Dance albums, as well as his Tarzan and upcoming Disney soundtracks. Gabriel's last album So came out in '92 which was mildly successful. What's he been doing since then? His next album is coming out next year... Any mild success his last album had is surely not going to carry over 10 years later. Most people won't even know who/remember who he is, outside of the die-hards. Now, does Phil Collins wish he was Peter Gabriel with respect to integrity and sticking to his progressive rocks roots and not selling out, that's a different question. We do know that Phil doesn't wish he was Gabriel for his hair. They're both bald!
blind faith is one of the most dangerouse actions humans can take.
who sez death can't be funny....www.endlesssorrow.com
Actually Disney did release anime classic Princess Mononoke in the US in its uncut violent entirety.
wow, you are so wise.
----(o)----
Actually, I've seen a few cartoons done with computer-aided in-betweening to add to the conventional in-betweening, and with the cumulative effect its damn sweet. Smoothest things you've ever seen. Some of the work in MTV's The Maxx uses this, for example. Don't knock it.
Besides, I'm always kinda fumed by posters who say "well wouldn't it be nicer if this were done by hand". Try it yourself, then see how much you say "goddamn I wish a computer would do this chicken shit!". In-betweening is one of the shittiest jobs on earth, and although it is helpful in giving an budding animator practice and experience, it is by-and-large a simple grunting pain in the ass.
Animators will go back to traditional approaches when all programmers decide to work exclusively in assembler.
THE LAMA
Ogden Nash
(1931)
The one-l lama
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.
Sorry, I hate to engourage this sort of thing, but I love lamas the're so cute.
I'm not some weird Disney fan or anything, but I've noticed this pattern. Groove is not a musical because it's coming out in the fall right before xmas. Disney's big budget movies never come out now, they come out in June right before summer. This puts Groove in the same boat as both Toy Stories and so forth.
I'm on top of my game like I'm standin' on Xbox.
I am going to agree with you wholeheartidly. I have a friend who works at Character Builders (made Ren & Stimpy and alot of 102 Dalmations). I saw how much work was put into designing the characters. Most of the designs are still done by hand on paper, even the storyboards. The computer just makes it a bit easier to do the final production drawings. Have you ever watched an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, and noticed the off coloring of somethings? Those were always the things that were going to move or something. That was because it was done by another person, and they may not of had the EXACT matched when they did their part. With the computer doing the colors everything matches so it goes more seemlessly.
If they didn't have computers doing it people would be saying, "What's with the hookey colors and stuff? Why does it take years for Disney to put out a new animation? With computers around it shouldn't take them anytime at all!"
Diz
In relation to the movie: Anyone notice that all the Disney movies have moved away from touching films with cute, cudly, loveable characters? And what happened to Mickey Mouse? Anyone seen him lately?
Oh well. I'm off to watch my daily showing of the Matrix :)
It's all about the Karma Points, baybee...
Moderators: Read from the bottom up!
SIG: HUP
Someone else pointed out some horrendous spelling mistakes in this article, and I have to wonder what's happening in our American school system when its graduates can't distinguish between homograms in their proper context. But the worst mistake here is:
"Lama" is completely and utterly wrong. It's spelled "LLama" (two ells, dammit!), and is properly pronounced by Andeans as "Lyama", not "Lama" like in the Tibetin monks. Between Americans not being able to spell and their electing Bush as President, things are gonna (sic) get just worse!
QP
-> I hate sigs...
...and in paragraph three, line one: change "villian" to "villain" (or even "villein").
"I do not avoid women, Mandrake. But I do deny them my essence"
As a parent, I'd much rather have them watch this than Scooby Doo.
What's wrong with Scooby Doo? As Carl Sagan correctly points out in 'A Demon Haunted World' Scooby Doo teaches skepticism. Skepticism is good.
--
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
What's wrong with Scooby Doo?
:-)
:-)
Well, it teaches kids to be potheads, like Shaggy and Scooby. (Why do they always have the munchies anyway?)
And isn't Velma a dyke?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Maybe I'll go see it. Apparently the llamas are cute. On the other hand, if I wanted to see llamas, I'd go play TFC or Q3A on any pub server...
He lies with me, cried the Queen of May Be,
/., too. (HHOS)
For her merchandise, he traded in his prize...
Wow, we can argue about music on
I haven't seen it yewt, but it looked funny on the previews. Hope to see it soon
Do you know what movie was released the same year as Kiki's Delivery Service? The harolded Little Mermaid. And I'm sorry Kiki's Delivery Service puts the Little Mermaid to shame! Miyazaki is the same guy that brought you Princess Mononke (which I didn't think was Disney but some one mentioned up above it was I not sure on that one. My guess is maybe a Disney pawn but not Disney directly.) The scenes in Kiki's Delivery are absolutly amazing. There is so much emphasis put in story and detail! And you know how long it took to make Kiki's Delivery Service? If my memory serves correctly 7 months! Maybe our animaters should go study over in Japan.
I haven't seen it yet, but I did sit my self down to watch Dumbo yesterday. :-] The crows are geniuses.
a/s/l here. Sorry, adding domain tags to your s
the fact that my history teacher disproved everything that was taught to me is what made me interested in history. maybe kids need something sugar coated to get them interested in it, if only to begin with. if everything was documentary style, then who would watch it?
the movie industry is primarily an entertainment industry, not an educational one.. so we should be happy we get any fact at all, even if it is far fetched. i see where you are coming from, but its the wrong genre of movies to be expecting truth from.
- yezzz, my name is a joke.
argh! that program is proof that microsoft wants to think for us too! dammit typos are what seperate us from the robots! long live our human mistakes! spell check makes us lazy!
- yezzz, my name is a joke.
Thank you for clearing that up Phil...
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
The Emperor's New Groove was in fact pretty fucking funny! Everyone in the theater had a good time, kids and grownups alike. The Disney "Formula" wasn't applied this time, at least not to the final cut, and whatever edits and change of direction was applied to the first version of the movie, including the chopping of Sting's songs, was probably all for the better. The end result is a tight, loopy and very much enjoyable cartoon.
The characterizations by John Goodman, Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton were all a delight, and the animation is top notch. Even if you don't like David Spade, his gleefully obnoxious character Kuzco is a perfect match.
On another note, I don't know what you hypocritical slashdot hippies are all screaming about boycotting MPAA and Disney, it's not as if the revenue they'd miss on you all combined constitute more than a few fractions of one percent of the take of the theatrical run of these things, so lighten the hell up already.
Nobody is sabotaging your Grand Movemement, all you had in the first place was a storm in a glass of water. And that scheme somebody mentioned, to sneak in on an 'alternative title' ticket and then go see the mainstream movie, that's a bit like rabid vegetarian activists sneaking a McBurger when they think nobody is watching, no? Defeats the purpose. And frankly, if you didn't care enough about cinema to see that 'alternative title' in the first place, I'm not sure what kind of statement your stealth ninja boycott actions are supposed to express.
An AC writes:
Ranma 1/2 is for pedophiles.
Now you could be a troll, or you could be dumb. Lets assume the latter, for argument's sake. The youngest person in Ranma 1/2 that is involved in the Ranma love polygon is 16 (Akane), nobody has sex, and the most objectionable thing about the series is some slight frontal nudity (the Japanese have different standards). A pedophile is normally defined as someone who lusts after young children, none of which can be found in Ranma 1/2.
Are you dumb, a troll, or both? I'm guessing the first or last choice.
Its the US. In this country, animation has always been for, and probably will always be for the kiddies. There are a few notable exceptions, such as South Park or the Simpsons, but mostly they are dry drivel, and only if you're lucky will you get a few jokes aimed at the adults (Rugrats is a good example).
Now on the other hand, in Japan anime is more then just kiddie fare, there is action, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, romance, porn, etc. A few anime beat anything in their non-animated US genre counterparts. For the best pure fantasy movie out there, I'd have to consider anime (perhaps Lodoss Wars or Mononoke), since the US seems unable to make even one decent fantasy movie. "Grave of the Fireflies" is one of the best anti-war movies out there, and "Ranma 1/2" (first and second TV seasons) is the funniest romantic comedy I have ever seen (and the most bizarre).
So, if you want to see good animation, rent some anime, just avoid the hentai and pokemon that Blockbuster and most of the other video stores seem to stock. Go to a few websites, look at the reviews, and find a good anime. Tenchi (OAV + Movies), Ranma, Escaflowne, Lodoss, Evangelion, Armitage III, KOR, Ghost in the Shell, Mononoke, Oh! My Goddess, Grave of the Fireflies, or Slayers would be a nice variety of movies, and all of the above are subtitled and dubbed, and none of them are hard to find.
My point is, there's plenty of garbage out there, regardless of whether it's Disney or anime, made in America or Japan, or whatever else. Crap does not discriminate against race, color, nationality, or creed. It's ubiquitous. And if every American animation studio folded tomorrow, most anime would still be junk, and very little of it would be good. "Stupid American censors" notwithstanding. And that's the way it should be.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0051337
7th Voyage of Sinbad, The (1958)
Clear to me, yeah. Clear to legislators, evidently not.
I rather suspect that this is another KTB troll, but I'm going to take the bait anyway.
If you really think that CGI, by nature, has less soul, emotion, or authenticity than "conventional" animation (in quotes because I suspect CGI will soon be the convention), then go rent or buy the Jurassic Park DVD (unless you consider DVD to have less "soul" than VHS or something) and watch the documentary. The animators of Jurassic Park use what they call a DID, Dinosaur Input Device, which is essentially a stop-motion puppet that's hooked to a computer. They use the same animation techniques that Ray Harryhausen pioneered with _Sinbad_ and _King Kong_ and the like, and took it to the next level, using computers to eradicate the "jerky" elements often associated with conventional stop-motion. One of the animators even complains that most people think that animators now just sit behind a keyboard and hit "D for Dinosaur" and "C for Creature" and pow, there it is -- when, in fact, most of the animators working on JP _hated_ their keyboards and created the DID so they wouldn't have to compromise their art. In this case, I certainly don't think "the ease brings a certain lack of attention to detail." If anything, it's the reverse: a desire to bring _more_ detail and realism to the screen has necessitated the push to computer animation.
Said documentary even has a few shots of _Sinbad_ so you can remember just how cheesy it looks. Sure, it has a lot of charm, and yes, it's still _amazing_ that Harryhausen et. al. pulled it off with the technology they had at the time -- but _Jurassic Park_ has better looking monsters, and I don't see how you could argue otherwise.
Now take the ill-fated _Godzilla_ remake with Matthew Broderick. The filmmakers basically ripped off the kinematic libraries of the Velociraptors from JP and made baby Godzillas out of them. Was Godzilla a hit? No. Does anyone really look back on those baby Godzillas as something memorable and awesome? Not likely. Is this the fault of the CGI? I don't think so. The animation was fine -- since, in fact, it was pretty much the same damn animation as the 'raptors from JP. It was the philosophy behind it -- the slipshod attitude of "let's slap some baby Godzillas together and have them, uh, slip on gumballs and stuff, hey, make them look like Velociraptors" that made it bad.
My point here is that CGI is a tool for expressing something, whether in a fully animated feature or in a more conventional motion picture setting. If the philosophy behind that expression (like, for example, the dinosaurs in _Jurassic Park_) is fresh and exciting and interesting, then the animation will express that. If the philosophy behind that expression is slipshod and dull (like the "attacking CGI Rorscharch blobs" you see in so many cut-rate sci fi movies and TV shows), then yes, the animation will also suck. But the tool, as far as I'm concerned, doesn't make any difference. I would much rather see the lively animated crowds of Disney's _Hunchback of Notre Dame_ than the same crowds rendered as the still frames or incomprehensible blobs I've seen in so many other movies.
I have a great admiration for the craft of special effects and the people who have accomplished seemingly impossible visual feats with limited tools. But I'm not going to reward that pioneering work with a sneer of derision and contempt when animators and special effects people finally get a tool that lets them _really do_ what they've always wanted to do, like computers. To condemn them for not staying in the previous generation of animation just because it seems more romantic or nostalgaic doesn't really serve anyone's purpose. I say, more power to them.
Remember to vote Naked Dancing Llama (http://www.llama.com or http://www.frolic.org)for President in 2004. He's more qualified than Dubya Bush! PL
I remember when I was a child reading such classic trolls as l33t j0e, Shoeboy, dmg, and that Penis Bird Guy. Those trolls were lovingly handcrafted by sarcastic, hateful people, looking to piss you off.
Nowadays, I feel that KTB has removed the character, if not perhaps the personality, of slashdot trolling. With the ease for uninformed slashbots to mod up a whore/troll that slashdot brings, doesn't the ease bring a certain lack of attention to detail?
I just feel that modern whore/trolls, such as KTB and the like, lack the interest of the old, and have a patina of artificiality. Some would say that this is because of soulless modern karma market, and this may be true, but it is also, IMO, due [1] to the very techniques used in modern trolling.
Give me old-fashioned goatse ascii art any time.
[1] sue
--
--
The government is not my daddy.
Mod me down ... I don't care .. The truth is out there ...
From a brochure for a car rental firm in Tokyo : When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
And bad at all of them. Maybe you should pick one and specialize. "Jack of all trades, and master of none."
--
Can you guess who I am?
I think the original poster forgot that this is Slashdot.
"Got lucky" is a euphemism for "had sex". Look up "sex" in your dictionary, it's the "mating" sense. For information on mating, there are a number of books. Ask your local librarian.
--
Can you guess who I am?
>poor the animation was. It was very blocky, lots
>of straight, simple lines and appearing to
>come out of some animation factory
Did you really think that was what it was? Hercules was drawn to mimic Greek design and artwork. It was stylised.
But Hercules had Gerald Scarfe do scenes! Gerald Scarfe! Apologise for your ignorant lack of respect!
Granted, Hercules _was_ pretty bad. But the animation had nothing to do with it.
*mouse
So are you saying that we can't do a funny movie about Jews without mentioning Hitler. Or maybe African-Americans without mentioning the KKK?
I watched the movie. There was not one mention of any culture other than the Emperors. I don't see where this complaint came from.
I saw this movie as a celebration of the uniqueness of the culture.
Maybe you are thinking of the Road to El Derado...
-I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
The movie was funny. But... it wasn't as funny as it could have been. I felt that much of the humor fell flat. Many times I only smiled at jokes... and I tend to be a laugher. On the other hand, I did laugh out loud several times.
I think this movie reminded me more of a Disney want to be and not a true Disney movie. Other "childrens" movies I have seen got many more laughs (such as Chicken Run, Toy Story 2).
Will the movie do well? I think so, the Disney marketing machine has been in full gear for a while, so people will go see it. Will they go back a 2nd time... probably not. They may buy it though because of lack of quality children videos.
I went in hesitant because of what I saw as over marketing. The game was over advertised and it came out before the movie. Always a bad sign.
I will have to say that I was more disapointed with Dinosaur than with this movie.
If you have kids, go see it. If you don't... it is up to you... maybe a matinee.
-I just work here... how am I supposed to know?
Remember the debacle over the copyrights to Mickey running out? Well they got the copyright time extended (bastards) but I bet they were worried. That's why each disney movie for a long time has had "brand" new characters never seen before. (well mostly)
This way, they will retain copyright on them longer.
Maybe there is a lesson in this from Sonny Bono:
Pander to a corporation's interests instead of the people's and you die in a skiing accident.
Oh wait, that's not the lesson otherwise we'd have politicians dying right and left.
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
Pixar is taking a breather after several years of holiday hits. Disney got into the habit two animation releases a year with pixar the holiday one. So this year they substitute a second string one.
IIRC, all of Gabriel's solo albums also sold very well. (I remember the time when "In Your Eyes" was playing on every radio station every half hour.) He's also got other stuff going on for him. It's pretty unlikely that Gabriel's got financial problems, even if he isn't ridiculously rich - which I don't know if Collins is either, given the nature of record contracts...
Regarding integrity, most of Gabriel's solo output wasn't really any more progressive than "I Can't Dance". Just well-produced, intelligent pop. (Featuring Tony Levin, which is always a plus!)
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
a word of advice to anyone who doesn't want to support Hollywood, but wants to watch a Hollywood movie:
And how, exactly, does this make a stand?
If you want to go see a major motion picture, fuckin PAY for it and enjoy it (or not).
If you want to go see cool indie file, fuckin PAY for it and enjoy it (or not)
Empty gestures like theatre switching are pointless, and more to the point, dishonest.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
OK, You've got a point. But on the other hand, language skills in general are still pathetic. I can hardly turn on the news or read a newpaper and not see/hear glaring grammatical errors, or gross mistatements based on a fundamental lack of arithmetic skills (e.g., confusing millions and billions), and don't get me started on the use of statistics. The writings from my fellows in the software world are generally awful, even from people who are highly intelligent and experienced.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Compassion, kindness, and the reduction of suffering by others at personal cost is the highest goal of life, or so Buddahism teaches. You may consider Buddahism not a 'viable way of life' but many do.
I agree it is an important concept, but remember we are talking about lessons for children here. Children have a very self centered world. The first step in teaching children compassion is teaching them they are not the center of the universe. This is what the Emperor's New Groove attempts to do.
As an adult, of course the goal is to temper personal satisfaction with compassion for others is a reasonable goal. But without learning the fundementals as a child, achieving this is nigh impossible.
-----
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
You have to teach children a bit at a time.
Personally, I put "Be nice to others" earlier in child rearing than "Be skeptical of others".
You are right it is important, but IMHO, somethings, like kindness, need to be taught first.
-----
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
Hercules was done is a different animation style.
You know, like Anime is a different animation style?
As far as I can tell, in any of Disneys future movies, anything with detail will be done by computers. That kind of detail is very expensive for animators to do.
Out of curiousity, how much does it take for Disney to make an animation movie?
Later
Erik Z
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
The Spanish conquistadores completely eradicated the great Inca and Maya civilazations through war, horrendous plagues (like smallpox), and rape. On one occasion, the conquistadore Pizarro captured the Incan king Atahuallpa, ransomed him for a large dining room's worth of gold and silver, then killed him anyway. (It's all told in a great book, Guns Germs and Steel.
"So, it's just a cartoon, lighten up!"
I know it's just a cartoon. I think that infusing our children with a candy-coated, competely inaccurate view of the past is irresponsible. I'm not advocating that Disney put the destruction of the Native peoples by systematic warfare (Pocahontas anyone?) in their next movie, I just think that maybe they ought to pick more positive subject matter. Like Transformers. They're cool.
Wah!
when they have a link to the best movie review site on the web, the Filty Critic
Not any more. The "Zombie Island" and other new movies produced by Cartoon Network have made the monsters real. The Skeptical Newsletter had an interesting editorial on it a while back.
Free Hans!
When is Disney going to get into animated sex and violence a la every japanese anime artist ever? Here's an idea, animate "A Clockwork Orange" and work from there...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It wouldn't suprise me if he did. He's into litigation. Penrose once sued Kimberly-Clark because they used something that looked like Penrose tiling as a pattern on Kleenex Quilted Toilet Paper.
- Star Wars, Episode VII: The Empire Strikes Back To Get Its Groove
- Empire of the Rising Groove
AAAAAND everyone's favouriteDid that hurt? I'm sorry.
io hymen hymnaee io
io hymen hymnaee
Reminds me of a short I saw on (IIRC) Saturday Night Live... it was some kind of superhero story, and the current crisis was a citywide animator's strike. EVERY scene was either completely still, or the back of someone's head.. you get the idea.. no? It was way funnier than I'm making it out to be....
Sean
So first we had a movie called "How Stella Got Her Groove Back". This was about a woman who got lucky for the first time in God knows how long. Now we've got "The Emperor's New Groove". I'm really hoping they've redefined "groove" for this picture...
Coming soon to theaters: "How the Emperor Got His Groove Back"!
/* Steve */
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of"-TMBG
Uh, Rob, the henchman's name is "Kronk" not "Crank". Kind of makes a world of difference, huh?
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
The main reason the songs don't really match up to other recent Disney offerings was that Sting was given no time to write them. Oh, he wrote a lot of songs... that were never used. During production, they noticed that parts of the movie fell flat. No laughs, nothing to keep people's interest. So they rewrote the script to up the laugh factor and that meant that a lot of the songs (which had been written with the original script in mind) had to be chucked. You will find them on the album for the movie, though.
/// Not a super-genius . . . yet. ///
uh the entire movie industry is a bunch of corporate poo heads.. what else is new. disney is a commercial piece of crap.. and so is mgm.. so whats your point? disney rarely comes out with anything good, but this one has a llama in it. i mean come on! llama = success!! what other movie company would have a dancing llama!!
- yezzz, my name is a joke.
I remember when I was a child, watching such classics as Bambi and Dumbo, which were lovingly handcrafted by teams of patient animators.
Nowadays, I feel that the computer has removed the character, if not perhaps the personality, of these old classics. With the ability to easily knock up an animation that modern technology brings, doesn't the ease bring a certain lack of attention to detail?
I just feel that modern animations, such as Toy Story and the like, lack the interest of the old, and have a patina of artificiality. Some would say that this is because of soulless modern commercialism, and this may be true, but it is also, IMO, sue to the very techniques used in modern animation.
Give me old-fashioned hand crafted efforts any time.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
There is no
Yeah, if Disney made some anime, I bet you'd be the first in line to watch it and rant and rave about how great it is. Yeah. Sure. No, instead, I rather suspect you'd condemn Disney (or any other American animation studio, for that matter) out of hand for trying to make an anime film, because it's just not as hip and cool as Japanese anime. And the unwashed masses might go to see it, which means that's one less exclusive little club you can feel you're a part of, right? There's as much garbage anime out there as lousy Disney movies. Significantly more, in fact. I've watched plenty of anime and can rank the ones I'd see again on the fingers of one hand. Like everything, most anime is crap.
I saw this movie yesterday, just on a whim, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's got a lot of very classic cartoon humor in it that has been missing from a lot of Disney films since Aladdin (classic example, Kronk (not Crank) getting a trap door opened beneath him, just standing there, then noticing it's open, dropping, and then his little angel buddies noticing, hugging, and falling after him .. that's classic stuff).
The major voices are John Goodman (as Panco), Eartha Kitt (as Yzma), Patrick Wharburton (aka Puddy from Seinfeld, as Kronk), and of course, David Spade (as Kuzco, the emperor turned llama). All are exceptionally perfect for their roles, and are drawn true to character. Wharburton is easily the comedic star of the film, from his opening appearance to right before the closing credits.
You will definitely laugh if you go see this movie (I guarantee it) and there's one reason for it: Disney designed it to be a comedy (mainly because of Spade's pushing). Originally, it was supposed to be a Prince-and-the-Pauper-set-in-Tenochtitlan type movie, with a number of song-and-dance routines written by Sting. Well, Disney execs decided that wasn't where they wanted the movie to go and scrapped the whole thing, but Spade, who had been brought on to do Kuzco, told them rework it as a comedy, scrap the musical crap, and bring in Tom Jones for any music. One of Sting's songs made it into the closing credits (a real sappy POS) and two or three others made it onto the soundtrack, but the whole thing was real messy (apparently).
The end result is an animated feature written to be a complete comedy, like the old-time Roadrunner cartoons, full of semi-slapstick action, great fast-paced lines, and a simple plot that allows the comedy to flow without getting bogged down in details.
In short, it's a joy, and yes, it's not typical Disney fare, mainly because they brought a very atypical Disney voice (Spade) into the project.
Okay, when I first heard "Trick of the Tail", I liked it, but I thought "poor Phil Collins, wishing he were Peter Gabriel". Next "Wind and Wuthering" came out. I liked it too. I thought "that Phil Collins is coming along nicely as a Peter Gabriel impersonator". Then "Then There Were Three" came out, and it became bloody evident to everyone (except Taco) that Phil Collins no longer wishes he was Peter Gabriel.
Schmuck.
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
I second that comment. The spelling was as bad as most of the AC posts. Furthermore, it was obviously not typos but real spelling errors.
/. frightens me sometimes, knowing that people who don't even have basic spelling or grammar skills are the technology leaders of tomorrow (or even today!)
It made the article really jarring to read. Hey, guys, can we at least have marginal grade-school spelling standards in the posted articles?!
Reading
Get a clue, guys, read some books for a change!
Rick
BTW, it's "Teri Hatcher".
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I'm sorry, but I feel that this is holding the Movie industry to a higher moral standard than the one to which you hold yourself. You expect the MPAA to be honest in their business affairs, but you think its ok if you sneak your movie fix "through the back door".
This is dishonest (even immoral) behaviour.
Comments like these are exactly the ammunition the MPAA can use to their ends ("Look and what one of these hackers said: (insert your comment here). They steal from us! And they'll use their computers to do it more!").
This is one of those times where it's all or nothing.
It won't corrupt any kids, but it also doesn't beat anyone over the head with a moral. It has a very small bit of music, but it isn't a musical. There are some bad guys, but only one of them is bad and they are both more funny than anything else. If you like goofy "toon" humor, go see it!
One example. The emperor is walking, and he decides to walk straight instead of turning right; a swarm of workmen appears, and with furious speed they build a new entrance to the palace and then fall on their backs gasping. The emperor walks straight through the new door. Total elapsed time: about three seconds... there are a lot of goofy throwaway gags like that in there.
I plan to buy a copy. It's the first Disney movie in a long time I have liked that much.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Why? The word is spelled correctly. It is just the wrong word. And no, the grammar checker doesn't catch that, I just tried it. (yep, I have a Win 2K box here with office 2000 - I don't like MS software, but I like my job well enough to put up with it).
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
The Emperor's New Groove does do a bad job of accurately depicting ancient Peruvian civilization, to be sure. But it's supposed to be that way. It's funnier that way. Disney hasn't accurately depicted anything since they began producing animated movies fifty years ago, and everyone knows it.
Relax. There's nothing to be offended by here.
How can one decry corrupt laws like the DMCA and at the same time continue to line the pockets of the very corporate special-interest groups that bought the law in the first place?
I can understand watching an occasional movie--it's not like there are many alternatives to the major studios out there on the movie scene--but posting movie reviews and recommendations for one of the worst companies in the bunch (i.e. Disney, purchaser of the Sonny Bono copyright extension) is beyond me.
I personally am in the midst of a three-year long boycott of all RIAA record labels and a two-year long boycott of all Hollywood movie studios, and I urge other like-minded readers to do the same. Note that the boycott does not mean I am depriving myself of all records and movies. Much as it may surprise you, not all music is RIAA, and not all movies are MPAA. While individual tastes differ, I'm sure that anyone who has bothered to look will agree with me that there is a lot of high quality material out there from independent studios.
Finally, a word of advice to anyone who doesn't want to support Hollywood, but wants to watch a Hollywood movie: Find a theater that shows independent films and also shows the movie you want, and buy a ticket for an independent film. Then once you're in the theater switch over to the movie you want to see. That way you get to see the movie but the Hollywood studio doesn't get anything for it. If theater personnel catch you, speak to the manager and explain what you're doing--the two times I've had to do this, the response from the manager was very positive.
I took my 4 year daughter to the movie yesterday.
Like most movies designed for kids, it's a bit simplistic. What would you expect? Keeping a 4 year focused for 90 minutes is a tough thing.
The story is about learning the importance of putting other's needs ahead of your own. A good lesson for everyone in this day and age. The bad are all punished and the once narcissitic emperor is rewarded with caring friends after learning to help others. As a parent, I'd much rather have them watch this than Scooby Doo.
The animation and music are on average for a Disney movie. You can tell they tried to keep the action in three places for simplicity, the castle, the peasant village, and the road between. There are none of the surperb background animation pieces found in Little Mermaid or Pochohantas. BTW, the preview for Atlantis looked promising, Jules verne style submarines, yum!
The are several cameos by other Disney characters to keep the adults chuckling. Adults that enjoy other Disney animation will enjoy this movie. the voice acting of all involved is good. Personally, I can't stand David Spade, but not seeing his alien-like RL body made it passable.
Overall, it's a good children's film that's worth catching on a matinee.
-----
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
I know I'll probably end up getting moderated down for this, but I have an honest point to make here...
/am/ doing is asking that he think a bit more about his impact on the community, and perhaps use the power of his voice for the betterment, not the detriment, of the good fight he wants us all to fight.
As most of you know, the MPAA case against 2600 had many people in the sub-culture of Slashdot demanding that there be a boycot of the MPAA until such a time as they dropped the case, etc. Since that time, Rob has certainly not boycotted very many movies at all.
However, all of the above are excellent films, and as a result, I find that somewhat forgiveable. My problem, at this point, is that now, Rob is giving his Gold Stamp of Approval to a movie he even admits is somewhat mediocre! If we actually listen to him is irrelevant. The point is, he's a well known figure in the community, and it's assumed that we at LEAST take his advice into account when making decisions.
So, while we watch Rob tell us all about the Emperor's New Groove, the MPAA sits back, knowing that they're still more than content with their profits. I'm not trying to beat Rob up here. I'm not trying to paint him as a hypocrite. What I
When encryption is outlawed, ?o'AZ-,++o+i++##4AoA+-/-C++bI+/.+~