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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.
These got people's attention because they were not even remotely related to the articles being discussed. To get attention, you just had to be off-the-wall weird. Pretty soon, pouring hot grits down your pants stopped getting a rise out of people and we saw the rise of a more modern breed of trolling that seeks to directly make people mad by being as beligerent as possible.
However, as before, the "arms race" continues. We're getting apathetic as fast as the trolls get offensive. At first, an ASCII picture of a guy's anus is pretty shocking. But after not too long, you just yawn and hit the page down key again.
I'm not sure what ways there are left to get attention by being a troll on Slashdot. Troll technology seems to have stagnated for the moment.
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.
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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.
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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?
I think he's pointing out that Llama was spelled wrong and that it's pronounced differently from Lama
It's not la-ma it's ya-ma.
--
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
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.
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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+/.+~