The Emperor's New Groove - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Revisiting The Emperor’s New Groove was quite nostalgic for me. When I was a kid, I wore out the VHS copy we owned, and it was a delight to watch this movie again. It was great to find out that all of the jokes still hit, the animation is gorgeous and delightful, taking inspiration from Incan—and other South American—art styles. The film follows Kuzco (David Spade), a spoiled young Emperor of the Incan people. We see his life of opulence and disregard for the people he rules over, first by throwing an old man out of the window, whom he bumped into and “threw off his Groove”. His disregard for the everyman continues when the leader of a hilltop village, Pacha (John Goodman), is summoned to a meeting in Kuzco’s palace. Kuzco asks questions about his village and informs Pacha of his plans to knock down the village and install his summer home. The plot sets in motion when Kuzco fires his advisor Ysme (Eartha Kitt) and her toadie Kronk (Patrick Warburton). As it turns out, Ysme is an alchemist with a secret lab under the palace, and she seeks her revenge by plotting to kill Kuzco and take control of the country, but a mislabeling mishap with the poison, which got swapped out for a serum that turns Kuzco into a llama. The rest of the film is a road trip buddy movie with Pacha and Kuzco after the attempt on his life failed, and he accidentally ended up on Pacha’s cart as he made his way back to the village. Along the way, they have to get each other out of several harrowing and hilarious situations to get Kuzco back to his normal self, as they grow closer as the journey unfolds.

This movie holds up surprisingly well. Some jokes date the movie, however. for the most part, what dates the movie is just David Spade’s performance of Kuzco; his mannerisms and jokes are very 2000-centric. Other than Kuzco, the humor in the film relies heavily on a balance of modern and timeless jokes. I especially love how many modern flourishes there are, like there being a greasy spoon diner in the middle of the jungle, just to name one gag. But the main comedic duo in this picture is the scene-stealing Kronk and Ysme. They are the perfect odd couple of one big dumb guy and a slinky, tall, terrifying, vain Ysme, or as multiple people describe them, “this big guy and woman who’s scary beyond all reason”. The scene where, after they turned Kuzco into a llama and Kronk does his secret agent schtick, is probably my favorite bit in the movie. He’s the quintessential himbo, and he is the greatest.

The main 4 characters have a tour de force of truly great vocal performances. David Spade and John Goodman work so well together and do a great straight man/funny man dynamic. Our lead, while being funny, really grounded the comedy and created such a good juxtaposition with the villain pair to make their performances shine. Patrick Warburton has the best voice for Kronk. I could not imagine anyone else pulling off his affable, deep, himbo voice; he embodies his mannerisms and likability perfectly.  The best performance in the film is the incomparable Eartha Kitt playing the villain Ysme. Eartha Kitt puts her all into this performance; it’s very campy and Norma Desmond-esque in her exaggerations and bombast. One time, I came across some behind-the-scenes footage of Kitt in the recording booth, and you can tell she played Ysme with the seriousness of Othello. This movie is really fun and worth revisiting, especially if you have young kids and want to share an old, great animated movie with them.

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K UHD
After living a nice life in 1080p, the Emperor's New Groove upgrades his home video palace to 2160p with a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release from Disney. For this set, the 4K is pressed on a BD66 disc with a BD50 disc serving the standard 1080p. Both discs are housed in a black 4K case with slipcover. 

This release is shown in 4K UHD. For the most part, the colors pop and the animation is clear throughout the film. However, when there are kinetic scenes of fast action, sometimes the frame rate looks odd and choppy. For instance, you can see each cell in the scene when Pacha helps the old man out of the banner after he was jettisoned from the window; you see each animation cell instead of a fluid motion, but only momentarily. The lines are good and crisp, and the Dolby Vision HDR grade looks consistent with how the film originally looked, and nothing is oversaturated. There aren’t any super dark or murky scenes; everything is visible. I have always loved the animation style in The Emperor’s New Groove. The style of the Inca palace and city somewhat resembles that of Metropolis, just with some ancient South American elements. Some of the style is definitely lifted from Mayan cultures rather than that of the ancient Inca, but that’s just a bit of pedantry on my part. Overall, the visuals are serviceable, but a few scenes could have looked a bit smoother when action was taking place. 

The audio is fairly average, even for an Atmos mix in that I did not notice anything bad or wrong during the viewing. The film is presented in Atmos, and everything sounds good; the music is great, and the dialogue can be heard clearly. The soundtrack is really great, they have a theme song by Tom Jones that will stick in your head. The rest of the soundtrack has a great Latin brass sound that keeps the film upbeat and running. Overall, the audio in this release is serviceable but not exactly remarkable. 

There are no supplements at all in this release, simply a 4KUHD copy of the film and a Blu-ray copy of the film. No Commentary Track, BTS featurettes, or anything.  Don’t buy if you are looking for any supplements.

I love The Emperors New Groove. The animation and performances make this funny and goofy buddy movie a great watch. The voice talent is amazing, I love Eartha Kitt so much as the Villain Ysme, and Patrick Warburton is always a delight as Kronk.  This release, however, is incredibly lackluster. The visuals become mucky when there’s fast motion on the screen, messing up the frame rate. The audio is serviceable, but there are also no supplements in this release at all. I guess it’s kind of cool that they include a Blu-ray copy, but it is honestly a bummer that there are no supplements at all, even though I’ve seen some BTS footage online that they could have absolutely utilized. I suppose this is just good if you want a bare bones physical copy of The Emperors new Groove. Always will always recommend the movie, but this release I would buy at a steep discount. For fans only.