The Emperor's New Groove

What a movie! This is easily as good as Hercules, Disney's other recent film with truly original energy. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Mulan immensely, but I think Hercules was the start of their branch of animation to explore irreverent humor and just plain wacky fun along with their more traditional fare of fairy tale romance, adventure and music.

So I went to see this today with Jean, Kelly, Kelly's friend Ashley (and her grandma, Carol Holman, who also works at Mentor). I have to say that I laughed pretty much nonstop, and Jean seems to agree that it was the funniest, cleverest Disney movie she's seen in a long time. I sure hope that they let the creative team responsible do another one.

Many good choices for actors. John Goodman plays a major role, as do David Spade (the Emperor/Llama), Eartha Kitt (the Villain) and a guest appearance by Tom Jones, doing the main theme music. I was very amused by the role of Kronk, played by Patrick Warburton. Jean told me he played Elaine's boyfriend on Seinfeld, which clicked immediately for me. Tom mentioned that he does the voice of Space Ghost on Space Ghost Coast to Coast on Comedy Central. I didn't recognize him from that...

Kelly's favorite line: "Oh, I've been so bad. Bad llama!". "qbullet.smiley" http://www.disney.go.com/disneypictures/emperorsnewgroove/