365 Days. 365 Films.

Creeping slowly back into my Disney phase, I stumbled across this, The Emperor’s New Groove – one of Disney’s attempts to slip into the more modern style of animation. The film is simply about a selfish and greedy emperor who gets turned into a llama by his evil advisor so that she can rule instead. When he needs it more than ever, as a llama, he must seek help from a villager and peasant whom he has recently pissed off by telling him that he is going to destroy his house to build a swimming pool. In true Disney fashion, the emperor learns the error of his ways, and in receiving help from a peasant and walking in his shoes, he understands that you don’t need riches to be happy.

The animation for this film is beautiful – similar to that of Hercules, but with it’s own style. It is a fairly funny film and the writers were slightly more adventurous with the comedy than Disney is usually comfortable with, so it isn’t just a film for children. I wouldn’t say it has a hugely vast appeal like Pixar does, but it is bearable to those of you who may not like the Disney Classics anymore.

It is unusual for me to give an animated film such a low rating (even though three stars is perfectly respectable) because animation usually requires more attention to detail and, like I said, a broader appeal. But for this film, it was not quite as funny as I’d hoped, and not quite as clever as I’d hoped either. Enjoyable but slightly disappointing.