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Let me first admit: In general and principle, I hate Disney movies.There, I said it. I know as American consumers, we consider that blasphemy against the capitalist God that Disney is. They usually destroy any fairy tales they do get ahold of (The Little Princess in original form is NOT a happy story with saccharin musical numbers), and in those cases, I would recommend avoiding them like the plague...or American Idol.So why am I writing this? Because sometimes, one in a so often, Disney gets their act together. The original Fantasia is easily one of the most amazing cinematic accomplishments of the early 20th century. They are a huge influence on the Japanese manga scene (you can go straight to Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy" for that". However, after Disney died, quality dropped off.They got a shot in the arm of invigoration with their deal in the 1990's with Pixar, and most of us know that story. However, they also ended up producing two films that were a bit outside their safety zone that were, in my view, surprisingly fresh: Lilo and Stitch and The Emperor's New Groove.With The Emperor's New Groove, Disney seemed to be completely hands off on the project. Besides the opening Tom Jones piece (which, by the way, is lounge-erific), there are no singing and dance numbers. I normally hate David Spade, but he's okay here. He does his "snotty little punk" act here of course, but the character calls for it, making him bearable. John Goodman as Pacha is an excellent foil, an average joe swept up into extraordinary situation, and Goodman's deadpan works great off Spade (see "the waterfall scene" for an excellent example). Eartha Kitt plays a great villain here, Yzma, often made fun of for being "very, very, very old" and also has a wonderful wicked deadpan that works. However, the character that steals this movie, hands down, is Kronk, Yzma's manservant (played brilliantly by Patrick Warburton). I was out of breath laughing so hard at this character. He plays a dolt...who has a penchant for cooking and talking to squirrels. He is the icing on the cake of a script that is somewhat Monty Python-esque in it's absurdist humor, which had me hooked.I haven't seen either of the special editions, and normally I'm not a huge fan of the behind the scenes stuff unless it's a completely overwhelming film (think Lord of the Rings or Star Wars). However, if you are into absurdist humor from an unlikely source, I would recommend checking it out. |
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