For all their faults, The House That Walt Built is still a class outfit. When they decide to do something, they don’t mess around; they go all out. Despite tens of millions of dollars and years of lead time already invested in a serious animated drama called Kingdom of the Sun, a retelling of The Prince and the Pauper set in Mesoamerica, when they decided about half-way through that it wasn’t working, they scrapped the whole project and started again from scratch. Keeping only the setting and the barest hint of the plot, they set out to make a comedic fantasy instead. What they came up with is a departure from their usual style, both in look and feel.*
David Spade supplies the voice for Kuzco, the spindly, self-absorbed, fabulously rich emperor of an unspecified Mesoamerican civilization. Though not really evil, he pays little heed to who gets trampled in his idle pursuit of G-rated hedonism. Just as he’s about to demolish the peaceful mountaintop home of happy peasant Pacha (John Goodman) to make room for a swimming pool, his scheming, cadaverous advisor Yzma (wonderfully voiced by Eartha Kitt) botches an assassination attempt and turns him into a talking llama. She boots him out and assumes the throne, leaving the now quadrupedal Kuzco to seek help from the only person who will listen to him: Pacha. They have a bunch of hyperkinetic mishaps while trying to get Kuzco back to the palace and turned human again, and in the process the emperor finds his humanity.
What sets …Groove apart is the emphasis on droll, Chuck Jones, Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote-style gags, and an abundance of more-stylized-than-usual, dayglo artwork. It’s also got the driest, wryest humor in a Disney film since James Woods voiced Hades in Hercules, thanks largely to Spade’s whiny delivery and the deadpan of Patrick Warburton (who played Puddy on “Seinfeld”) as Yzma’s huge Epicurean henchman, Kronk (also furthering that sardonic vibe is Spade’s “Just Shoot Me” costar Wendy Malick as Pacha’s very pregnant wife – something else one doesn’t often see in a cartoon). It doesn’t hurt that the script was written by David Reynolds, who worked on both A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2.
In other words, it’s pretty entertaining. About the only people whose movies I consistently look forward to now are the Coen brothers, John Sayles, and Disney. B
*The whole arduous gestation has now been chronicled in a documentary by Sting’s wife, Trudy Styler (Sting had already written and recorded five dramatically themed songs, including a duet with Shawn Colvin, that were no longer appropriate for the altered concept; with much diligence, and cash, he was persuaded to somewhat grudgingly contribute two new lighter-hearted tunes), and will probably also inspire a book or three.