October 10, 2000

The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) ****

Directed by by Mark Dindal. With the voices of David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt. Easily the lightest and hippest Disney animated comedy since Aladdin. Fresh, taut and consistently delightful, it’s a masterpiece of cartoony nonsense, moving at outrageous speed, devoid of any sentimentality and packing a wallop of crazy entertainment. The plot concerns a selfish Inca Emperor who’s turned into a llama, but that’s just gravy. What counts here are the gags: verbal, visual, surrealistic, self-reflexive, clever and most importantly, screamingly funny.