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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.
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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>Give me old-fashioned hand crafted efforts any time.
ok Kiss, you're building up quite a career being a neo-luddite. John K would be proud... you never disappoint
Computers don't 'do' the animation any more than your car 'drives' you to work. I'm just boggled that people think this. That's like implying that your computer balances your checkbook. Or the computer 'made' the mp3 that you're listening too. Computers are tools, thats all. Lets quit personifying them and giving them abilities far beyond being really fast abacus'.
Computers don't write the story. Computers don't insert the mindless sidekicks with their anacronistic references, the painful sappy tunes, or the Happy Meal tie-ins. And there my friend lies the tragedy of most modern animation. It isn't the technology, it's the lack of creativity and merchandising and drive for the bucks.
>I remember when I was a child, watching such >classics as Bambi and Dumbo, which were lovingly >handcrafted by teams of patient animators.
Have you worked in a current, feature animation house? I have. Guess what - animation is STILL handcrafted by teams of patient animators. Who do you think does it? Who lays down the poses - does the inbetweening, does the background painting? It's people. Computers have only replaced the mindless background tasks that were dying to be automated.... ink-n-paint, compositing and some special effects that could never have been done by hand anyway.
>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.
I've been to Pixar. I have several friends who work there. Every frame of their movies is handcrafted with tons of sweat and tears. The story is substantially and thoroughly developed (unlike the cookie-cutter stories coming out of elsewhere). If you don't like the visual look - fine, that is an artistic choice. But it doesn't LESSEN the work that they are doing. Most ANIMATORS that are hired at Pixar have never used a computer before. They are hired because they can ANIMATE, for no other reason. You can teach anybody how to operate a computer, but animation is a SKILL. You don't just buy some boxes from SGI and get the talent. It's the same if you're producing acetate cells or doing stop-motion. But you probably think Chicken Run is modern and evil too.....
By this is Slashdot. Don't let not knowing anything about how animation is really produced stop you from participating...
j
Dude
>You are right that computers don't write the
>story. However, they do a lot of things that
>used to be done better by people. For example, >an animator will draw two scenes, and the >computer will fill in the missing frames. Great -> from the point of view that it is cheaper and >faster. Not so good from a qualitative point of >view though.
Um, no. Computera aren't used for inbetweening (thats that it's called). The lead animator will draw the main poses, and then a secondary animator will fill in the middle bits, just like it's always been done.... This is all STILL done on paper. At this point the cells will be scanned in and inked/painted, cleaned up, etc etc.
Computers ARE used in inbetweening in places like saturday morning animation, where they're pounding out tons of animation every day. But thats fine - there the are going for quantity over quality. Remember the old spider man TV show - where at least half of the show was generic 'spidey flying between buildings' shots that were constantly recycled, or scenes where none of the characters moved except for their mouths? That is the alternative..... which i don't think is any worse.
Computers DON'T animate... people do. The only people who think computers DO animate are people who have no idea how the animation industry works....
j
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
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