Analyzing The Film 'The Emperor's New Groove'

Research Paper #2 Rough Draft “Pull the lever Kronk … Wrong lever!” (The Emperor’s 11:31). For any Disney fan, this iconic quote brings to mind the popular children’s film The Emperor’s New Groove, which is a full-length animated film that was released by Walt Disney Feature Animation in 2000. The plot follows an arrogant emperor named Kuzco on his journey from human to llama, after a power-hungry advisor poisons him, and back to human, after he enlists the help of a villager named Pacha. In typical Disney fashion, the story ends happily when the formerly selfish ruler finds the joy in helping others. The film has all the makings of a classic children’s movie; it is family-oriented, witty, and heartwarming. What it lacks, however, goes unnoticed

This intentional removal of time and location indicators is not without consequences. Firstly, it grants the creators more artistic freedom (Borthhaiser, 2010). Since the action of the film has no explicit ties to any one civilization in any specific time period, the filmmakers have full autonomy over how archaeologically accurate or inaccurate to make the film. Additionally, they are free to borrow characteristics from other cultures, regardless of whether or not the civilizations existed near each other or during the same time period. The creators of The Emperor’s New Groove claim that they intentionally placed elements in the movie to show that it was intended neither “to represent any particular country in South America” nor “to be taken seriously” (Silverman, 308). For example, a map is shown during a chase scene to document Kuzco and Pacha’s travels (The Emperor’s 1:00:47). One would expect this map to situate the action in a particular place; however, it has no labels and does not show any recognizable features of any particular South American country, emphasizing the film’s sense of placelessness. Secondly, the omission of place and time distances the action of the film from reality (Silverman, 306). Ignoring time and place situates the movie in a fantasy world where anything can happen, regardless of logic or historical

The Inca civilization developed a distinct “abstract” and “geometrical” style of art (Zuidema, 2). Drawing upon this, The Emperor’s New Groove’s creators claimed to use the Inca art pieces “as inspiration and use their designs in other ways” (Silverman, 309). While the creators did base some of the film’s animations off of authentic Incan art, they do admit to altering nearly all of it. This fragments the archaeological information that could be provided by these art pieces by taking it out of context (Silverman, 301). For example, using a design that may have been originally on a piece of pottery on, for instance, a wall in Kuzco’s palace removes the archaeological significance of the presence of that specific design on that specific piece of pottery. Instead, it becomes merely decorative, while providing little accurate archaeological information to the movie’s viewers. In addition to taking great liberties with Incan designs, the creators were very selective with the types of art they considered, focusing on pottery, sculptures, and textile design (Silverman, 309). Only considering this rather limited scope of Incan art left the creators with a small sample of art to include in the film. Accordingly, Incan art makes only sparse appearances throughout the film, such as in a