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The Emperor’s New Groove
Apr. 9th, 2021 07:35 amI’ve never particularly cared for The Emperor’s New Groove, and I cared for it even less this time around, possibly because my tolerance for “super-privileged asshole learns to be slightly less of an asshole” storylines has been utterly extinguished over the last few years. I personally was on Team Let the Jaguars Eat Kuzco.
It also just strikes me as an overall mean-spirited movie, especially the constant jokes about how Yzma is so old. Some of these jokes are clearly meant to show that Kuzco’s an insufferable asshole, but the narrative tends to reinforce them - so you have, for instance, the scene where Kronk sees Yzma in her nighttime face mask and cucumbers over her eyes, and recoils in shrieking horror. (In general Kronk is a sweetie pie and one of the highlights of the movie; a himbo from the pre-himbo era.)
Or you have the bit at the end, when Kuzko and his peasant friend Pacha have just escaped from near-certain death! and are still precariously balanced on a precipice! and hug each other to celebrate their narrow escape! … and instantly leap apart in a classic 2000s-era panic over whether this hug will undermine their masculinity forevermore.
Possibly in another forty years I will find this charmingly characteristic of the era, in the same way that I find ludicrous things in 1960s TV delightful purely because they are so very sixties, but 2000 is still too recent for me to do anything but roll my eyes.
It also just strikes me as an overall mean-spirited movie, especially the constant jokes about how Yzma is so old. Some of these jokes are clearly meant to show that Kuzco’s an insufferable asshole, but the narrative tends to reinforce them - so you have, for instance, the scene where Kronk sees Yzma in her nighttime face mask and cucumbers over her eyes, and recoils in shrieking horror. (In general Kronk is a sweetie pie and one of the highlights of the movie; a himbo from the pre-himbo era.)
Or you have the bit at the end, when Kuzko and his peasant friend Pacha have just escaped from near-certain death! and are still precariously balanced on a precipice! and hug each other to celebrate their narrow escape! … and instantly leap apart in a classic 2000s-era panic over whether this hug will undermine their masculinity forevermore.
Possibly in another forty years I will find this charmingly characteristic of the era, in the same way that I find ludicrous things in 1960s TV delightful purely because they are so very sixties, but 2000 is still too recent for me to do anything but roll my eyes.
