The Emperor's New Groove - 8.9/10
Oh my god, I love this movie. I laugh my ass off every time I see it.
It's completely unlike anything Disney's ever done, even their other
comedies. The anachronisms of Hercules are here but not
overdone, and the pop-culture references are gone. In their place are a
lot of fourth wall jokes, and good-natured ribbing at the expense of
just about every story convention you can imagine. And it. Is. Hilarious. If Mel Brooks ever made a Disney film, it would look a lot like this.
The greatest strength of this movie is that it never for a second takes
itself seriously. Even at the few times when it looks like it might, it
surprises you with something completely random or ridiculous and you're
laughing again. The humor is all over the place, and the writers knew
just how far to go before pulling back to avoid trying too hard. And
like James Woods before him, Patrick Warburton alone is enough to make
this movie brilliant. Unlike Mr. Woods, he doesn't have to do it on his
own. Eartha Kitt is also amazing and hamming it up with the best of
them. Her character, Yzma, together with Warburton's Kronk, are easily
the funniest villain pair in the canon, ousting Hook and Smee by a
considerable margin.
Even minor characters like the wife portrayed by Wendy Malik are well
done and funny. The kids are adorable and amusing at the same time, and
the entire premise is just too ridiculous not to laugh at. And many
people give this film crap because of David Spade, but in my opinion
that's just being petty. I thought he did a good job. And when I say the
writing was good, I don't just mean the dialogue - everything about
this movie was funny from the situations they found themselves in to the
way they reacted to just the sound effects that were used. There was a
very manic feel to it all and the humor never really let up. And all the
movie cliches that are made fun of are done so in a very "affectionate
parody" sort of way.
I loved this movie when it came out and always found something to laugh
at. I still quote it today without even thinking about it, though I
haven't seen it for a while and I guess I forgot about just how funny it
was. I was howling.
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