The Emperor's New Groove

In this comedy, the vain and cocky Emperor Kuzco is a very busy man. Besides maintaining his "groove," and firing his suspicious administrator Yzma, he's also planning to build a new water park just for himself for his birthday. However, this means destroying one of the villages in his kingdom.

Meanwhile, Yzma is hatching a plan to get revenge and usurp the throne. But, in a botched assassination courtesy of Yzma's right-hand man Kronk, Kuzco is magically transformed into a llama.

Kuzco finds himself the property of Pacha, a lowly llama herder whose home is ground zero for the water park. Upon discovering the llama's true self, Pacha offers to help resolve the Emperor's problem and regain his throne- only if he promises to move his water park.

Emperor Kuzco/Narrator, Pacha, Nina, Yzma, Kronk, Chicha, Chaca, Tipo, Theme Song Guy, Bucky the Squirrel, Waitress, Old Man, Official

First shown in limited release; nationwide release was on December 15, 2000.

The Emperor's New Groove has one of the more troubled production histories of any Disney animated feature. In its over six years of development and production, the story went from its original concept as a more traditional Disney musical entitled Kingdom in the Sun to an adaption of the Hans Christian Andersen, to whatever the final product Dindal turned it into is.

When he wrapped up on The Lion King in 1994, Roger Allers immediately started work on this project, then titled Kingdom of the Sun. Also on board was supervising animator Andreas Deja, famous for his flamboyant villains, and producer Randy Fullmer. In a bit of an animation coup, they brought in Sting to do the music on the project.

The story was very similar to the The Prince and the Pauper with a greedy, selfish emperor (voiced by David Spade) who finds a peasant (voiced by Owen Wilson) who looks just like him, and the two switch places. Deja's Yzma catches wind of the switch and turns the real emperor into a llama and threatens to reveal the pauper's identity unless he becomes her slave. The emperor-llama learns humility in his new form, and even comes to love a girl llama-herder. Together, the girl and the llama set out to undo the witch's plans. From there we would proceed to a standard happy Disney-style ending.

Seeing a story too similar to many other existing The Prince and the Pauper stories (including at least one from Disney itself!), and seeing Allers as essentially lifeless, the studio brought in Disney effects editor and Warner Bros.'s Cats Don't Dance director Mark Dindal. The hopes were that Dindal could add some music, some comedy and bring the story to life. What happened was the project was split in two- Allers' sweeping epic version and Dindals' singing and dancing version.

At the beginning of 1999, production had still not started, and this put the July 2000 release date in jeopardy. With deals already in place, the release date was set in stone. Under pressure to perform or quit, Allers left the film. Producer Dindal, Fullmer, halted production for six months to retool the project and, with writers Chris Williams and David Reynolds, overhauled the film completely.

When the four reviled their new film, everything had changed. It was now titled The Emperor's New Groove, and was now a buddy film. Gone were the sun-capturing plot, the look-alike peasant, and the llama-herder love interest, and animator Andreas Deja, who moved to Florida to work on Lilo & Stitch. And the Sting music...

Ultimately, the budget blossomed to over 100 million dollars. In its theatrical release, the film brought in about 170 million gross.

Soundtrack:

• "Perfect World"/"Perfect World Reprise," Performed by Tom Jones, Produced by Sting and David Hartley, Arranged, Orchestrated and Conducted by David Hartley, Recorded and Mixed by Frank Wolf;
• "My Funny Friend and Me," Performed by Sting, Produced and Arranged by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for Flyle Tyme Productions, Inc., Co-Produced by "Big Jim" Wright for Flyle Tyme Productions, Inc., Recorded by Dave Rideau and Steve Hodge, Mixed by Steve Hodge.

This was the 40th film in the official Disney list of animated films.

Academy Award Nominee, Best Music, Original Song, "My Funny Friend And Me" (Music: Sting, David Hartley.
Lyrics: Sting), 2001.
Golden Globe Award Nominee, Best Original Song, "My Funny Friend And Me" (Music: Sting, David Hartley.
Lyrics: Sting), 2001.
Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation, Dale Baer, 2001.
Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production, Eartha Kitt, As the Voice of "Yzma," 2001.
Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for a Song in an Animated Production, David Hartley and Sting, For the Song "Perfect World," 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature, 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production, Mark Dindal, 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music Score in an Animated Feature Production, John Debney, 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, Colin Stimpson, 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production, Stephen J. Anderson, 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production, Don Hall, 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production, Patrick Warburton, As the Voice of "Kronk," 2001.
Nominee, Annie, Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production, Mark Dindal and Chris Williams, 2001.
Nominee, Black Reel, Theatrical -- Best Supporting Actress, Eartha Kitt, 2001.
Nominee, Blockbuster Entertainment Award, Favorite Family Film, 2001.
Bogey Award, Germany, 2001.
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Best Song, Sting (Composer/Lyricist) and David Hartley (Composer), For the Song "My Funny Friend and Me," 2001.
Artios, Best Casting for Animated Voiceover -- Feature Film, Ruth Lambert, 2001.
Nominee, Golden Trailer, Best Animation/Family, 2001.
Nominee, Grammy, Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, David Hartley and Sting, For the Song "My Funny Friend And Me," 2002.
Nominee, Blimp Award, Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie, David Spade, Kids' Choice Awards, 2001.
Nominee, Sierra Award, Best Family Film, Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, 2000.
Nominee, Sierra Award, Best Song, Sting, For the Song "My Funny Friend And Me," Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards, 2000.
Nominee, Golden Reel Award, Best Sound Editing -- Animated Feature, Tim Chau (Supervising Sound Editor), Thomas Whiting (Supervising ADR Editor), Nils C. Jensen (Sound Editor), David Kern (Sound Editor), Albert Gasser (Sound Editor) and Donald Sylvester (Sound Editor), 2001.
Nominee, Golden Reel Award, Best Sound Editing -- Music -- Animation, Paul Silver (Music Editor), 2001.
Nominee, Golden Satellite Award, Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media, 2001.
Nominee, Golden Satellite Award, Best Original Song, Sting (Composer/Lyricist) and David Hartley (Composer), For the Song "My Funny Friend And Me," 2001.
Nominee, Young Artist Award, Best Family Feature Film -- Animation, 2001