It does not surprise me that the movie was pieced together that way. It absolutely has that energy of "oh my god, guys what if THIS happened?" "OMG YES LMAO!"
"For animation, the script is locked down before any animation is done because to do so is inefficient" Emperor's New Groove crew flying by the seat of their pants: we ain't got time for that. If it's a good pitch, it's in the movie.
Doesn't South Park also make all their episodes on the fly? Perhaps the best way to do animation is by doing things one step at a time and really fast. In this way the thing that gets promoted are the things that are funny instead of whatever else people focus on when making movies. For instance one of the worst things is when people bring in politics into movies like this or try to add weird themes. But these all disappear when everything is done one step at a time and what's funny and brings the creators the most enjoyment is what is pushed forward.
- So is the script ready for archives? - Oh, the movie is finished. - Not the movie. The...you know... *Waves frantically at interns to have them put some pages together* - Oh, right. The script. The script for the movie. The script written specifically for the movie. The movie's script. That script? - Yes! That script. *Hands over a stack of haphazardly stapled notes and documents wrapped in a sticky tangle of tape.* - Got you covered.
It's like a bunch of the disorganized chaotic creatives somehow got their shit together long enough to actually make something and this was it. It's beautiful.
I think Emperor's New Groove is an inspiration, because it's a cult classic. Disney snobs don't really like it, and Disney tries to forget it, but it has a dedicated fan base. It shows that you don't have to have something planned out and grandiose to make something that people will enjoy.
Disney still sells Llama parkas to this day, greenlit a tv show, and a sequel. "Try to forget it" sure Comment patch notes: Changed sequals to just sequal, realized the 2nd sequal I thought existed was just the first 3 episodes of the tv show
The difference between emperors new groove and wish is astounding. I can't say for sure that disney used AI for wish but it really doesn't feel human like emperors new groove does: they're like two equal and opposite extremes
I feel like it's the closest we'll ever get to indie animation from a big studio. Kind of a shame when most of the time indie animation is better than the studio movies now.
@@3DSCarnajeI wouldn’t call it a shame. Indie animation these days has more heart and creative freedom then most things made in a big studio could ever have… generally. Of course there are plenty of big studio films where creative freedom is preserved, but indie preserves it much more consistently and often authentically. I love indie animation so much💕
@@cloudskat3r Same. I meant it's a shame that the big productions so rarely match the quality of indie animations now. The only ones that I can think of that are somewhat recent are the sonic movies, the Mario movie, and the last wish.
“Do you have the script?!” “Riiight. The script. The script for Groove. The script drafted specially to shoot Groove. Groove’s script. That script?” “Yes, that script!”
Oh, this is great! :) "Tell me you have the script. I need to hear these words!" "Do you need to hear all those words exactly?" "You mean it's not written!?!?" "Well, it's not as written as we might've hoped..."
Fun story: In my Spanish class, we got to watch a movie, so I brought in Emperors new Groove ON DVD, and the class instead voted to watch Home Alone 2 over this. I have never forgiven the Home Alone franchise
Group creation. Honestly, a good campaign will be made that same way with a DM creating a thread, the players taking it and running with it, and the DM adjusting as they go.
"What. How did you guys get your movie to theaters!?" "Well you see, we- Spade, how DID we get this movie finished?" *David Spade pulls out a board with sticky notes pinned to it* "You got me, by all accounts it doesn't make any sense.."
When I was a kid, it was always so weird to hear voiceactors talk about characters as if they weren't them. My little brain couldn't separate the actor from the character! Now, all grown up, it would feel weird the other way around.
Fun fact: In the LAT spanish dub, the voice of Kuzco was made in a day, that's because the original actor (who was more known for soap operas than dubbing, they do that a lot to promote movies) made such a poor job that they just decided to make a last minute replacement, it was a success and the dub of the Emperor's New Groove is one of the many loved ones here
and when he protests, tell him it was a clerical error but the other princesses like him so much that it doesn't really matter and nobody wants to kick him out
@@anarchohelenism What I mean is improved is already a word hence why its confusing. I did get confused otherwise I wouldn't have bothered correcting you lol.
Literally watched this as a kid so much to the point that our VHS caught fire. Never before has the fear of God been put into me more than seeing kuzco catch fire along with the television.
There are two things that Disney has irrevocably altered in my mind: 1) The phrase "Let's get down to business" 2) The ability to pull a lever, or worse, instruct someone else to pull a lever.
My youngest sibling would loop the sequel all summer for multiple summers when we stayed at our grandparents. The line "They say eyes are the windows to the soul; hers were like triple-locked steel doors with a combination I just HAD to crack" is engraved into my soul and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I never knew any of this! I knew the movie had been a flop in the US, but here in Brazil it was a hit. This makes it all the more special to know how spontaneous its creation process was! I wonder if this "no script" method would ever work again for other movies, I'd be curious to see them.
I say more masterpieces would be created if the movies were made this way, where everyone involved gets to have a blast making it. Tons of silly jokes, visual gags, etc. Trust me when I say, that Emperor's New Groove is the best movie ever made.
Mark Duplass loves this method. The One I Love is a sci-fi dramedy that only had a scene outlines, and the actors just tried to hit the points outlined while improvising the script. Same with the movie Bluejay, a black and white drama. (Both starring Mark Duplass!)
I didn't hear about it being a flop, but it did come out around the same time as Shrek, which could have hurt sales. I don't think Shrek was half as good, but computer animation was still a big novelty back then, so it got a lot more media coverage and such.
3:44: "[The Sweatbox] has never been released officially. I'm actually unsure of why Disney wants to burry it." It's because "The Sweatbox" is a little too honest about how the sausage gets made at Disney. Their entire brand as a company is predicated on being "The Happiest Place on Earth" where everybody's dream comes true; to the point where they adopted "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio as their corporate theme song. The experience of Roger Allers contradicts that narrative and the documentary paints Allers as being more sympathetic than the Disney executives he's answering to.
Disney is a corporate machine churning out carefully polished products. They don't want you to know what's going on behind the scenes unless it makes them look good, and the development of these two films is far too human.
Anyone else think the og concept fo Ezma got turned into Mother Gothel? A villain obsessed with getting her glamor and beauty back and wanting to live eternally beautiful, sounds exactly like Mother Gothel. Heck could Corona not be described as a kingdom of the sun? Food for thought. (Side note Pacha's wife hitting Kuzco with pan immediately made me think of Rapunzel lol)
I also think parts of the concept of KOTS's prince and pauper story were partly reused for The Princess and the Frog. Doctor Facilier his villain song "Friends on the Other Side" also vaguely reminds me of "Snuff out the Light". Though Facilier was clearly motivated by greed and ambition rather than vanity. Generally, I think they reused a lot of ideas that worked in KOTS in other movies going forward.
...y'all know Mother Gothel already existed, right? They didn't have to recycle anything for her because that's how she was in the original story of Rapunzel...
Your note about CN using a more board-driven approach for their shows reminded me of something- Recently, Ian JQ (writer for Steven Universe and creator of OK KO) wrote on twitter advising people to beware of fake 'production scripts' for Steven Universe being sold on eBay and such. He noted that ANY listing for a script for the show was guaranteed to be a fake, because they NEVER USED SCRIPTS! The production of every episode was entirely storyboard driven!
At 4:14, you ask why Disney would bury a documentary about the art and making of a movie. That's because it highlights how these things are made: by people. Disney does not want people to think about how F-ing hard it is to make quality art, they just want us to consume cheaply-made content.
Kind of like Nintendo doesn’t want you to think about or hear about the developers and how they made their games, but just to take it at face value . Barring some recent appearances at Game developer’s conferences when they talked about making Zelda, it’s very similar
Honestly no wonder so many several jokes are just so perfect: Kronk talking with his angel and demon and Yzma pointing it out at Kuzco and Pacha, Kronk and Yzma literally noticing map-markers on the floor, the whole sequence of Kronk becoming a cook. All of these were jokes that just made me crack up.
It was a MIRACLE that this film turned out as fantastic as it is. I also agree Kronks New Groove is a great movie and I will die on this hill. Great video EJ! :D
4:12 My cynical guess here is that Disney (and many other companies that want to be like Disney) doesn't want general audiences to think of media as being made by "people," they'd rather you associate movies with the company instead, or a studio that they can simply buy the name of. You see this a lot in video games as well, when it comes to credit the work done by individual people is often downplayed compared to the name recognition of studios. It doesn't mean Disney is going to start burning records and hiding credit (because they're literally not allowed to, thank you labor unions), but it does mean that they have no real interest in highlighting older documentaries like this one.
"Tell us where the talking Llama is, and we'll burn your house to the ground." "Uh, don't you mean Or?" "UGH, Tell us where the talking Llama is OR we'll burn your house to the ground!'
Omg the fact the guy that made this also made cats dont dance makes so much sense. The vibe is so similar its insane, I would have never called it out of my own accord but once the fact is said it seems so obvious
Same. My wife and I watched that one religiously, along with Brave Little Toaster (Why is the original never on any of the streaming platforms?!?). And our son loves The Emperor's New Groove
Yep. I was lucky enough to work at WDFA at the time and...pretty much what you said. Crazy times. Bonus fact: In one of the many attempts to fix Kingdom Of The Sun, they renamed it to Kingdom In The Sun (I think I still have some crew gifts with the logo)...then eventually reworked it all into The Emperor's New Groove. Fun stuff.
A few years ago I made a 7 minute video without a script. It was extremely difficult, so I can't imagine doing an entire movie like this! Great essay! You had me captivated.
A whole movie made via TTRPG style group improv? That's genuinely impressive, but also it kind of totally explains the excellent flow and just genuine *fun* of the film. Thanks for teaching me something cool
I’ve always stood by this movie as the best Disney film of all time (followed closely by Lilo and Stitch) Literally just the other day, I was thinking about the old man that gets tossed out the window in the opening, particularly his voice bc, going purely off of memory, I was like “huh, he kinda sounded like Piglet from Pooh Bear”. Forgot about that random shower thought until I saw this video and turns out I was right (not that it matters lol) So yeah, fun fact! John Fiedler: original voice of Piglet; also gets tossed out a window by order of Emperor Kuzco
His GROOVE! The rhythm in which he lives his life! I threw it off. And the emperor had me thrown out a window! Don't throw off his GROOOVE! Bewaaaaare...the GROOoooOoOVVE... . . . GROOoOooOoOoVE...
The problem with Kingdom of the Sun is that it wanted to do a Prince and the Pauper storyline… with the Prince being a Llama and ultimately unable to fill that Pauper role the switch is supposed to give him. One aspect needed to be discarded, and Emperor’s New Groove stuck to the Llama transformation storyline. I’m fine with that. Kingdom of the Sun, from what we know, feels like it needed a few more drafts before it had any chance at being the epic masterpiece it was envisioned as. What does blocking out the Sun have to do with Llamas thematically? Do we need a romance with the female Llama herder when we have the role swap, the evil sorceress, the Llama transformation, and the peasant trying to fit into the role of prince all in an hour and a half? Half of Sting’s songs don’t sound like completed musical numbers. What I’m saying is, it sounded ambitious, but the more I think about it, I’m glad it was retooled
I saw this for the first time as a freshman in college. Dorm room full of like 7 people just all laughing ourselves to tears. Obviously it became an instant favorite for all of us, and I couldn’t wait to show my kids (favorite of theirs now too). I am in awe that there was no script, but it also kinda immediately makes sense, since it always felt like a long-form comedy sketch by really funny people. Thank you for sharing this with us all!
I'm pretty sure this has been said a hundred times whenever the making of Emperor's New Groove is brought up, but I really wish there was a way for Kingdom of the Sun to somehow coexist alongside New Groove. Great video! I rarely see people mention the final film having no script whenever discussing the making of the movie. Also, glad to hear someone else that also doesn't think Kronk's New Groove is bad lol, but what do you think of the series? It's been like a million years since I last watched it, so I don't know how well it holds up.
WOO! Another Kronk's New Groove enjoyer!! "Let's groove tonight~!" 🕺✨ Lol I actually haven't seen the TV show, as big of a fan I am of the movie - I've seen bits and pieces, but never sat down to watch an actual episode. Always happy they gave Eartha Kitt another musical number with the song "Yzmopolis"! :)
This explains the iconic "by all means it doesnt make any sense" joke and makes it even better cause legit they probably were like "How do they get there first? Idk lets just do it as a gag"
This is one of my favourite childhood movies. It weirdly makes sense that this movie was just thrown together with whatever made everyone laugh the hardest. It's still one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
Kronk's New Groove *is* a good movie. You are correct, and people are entitled to their wrong opinions. My favourite quote? "Three oinkers wearing pants, a split of hot air, and change the bull to a gill. Got it." I want to kiss the people that came up with every exchange in the restaurant full on the mouth. That is all.
I am so glad this happened, it seems when you let artists loose, very funny things are made. I dread that alternate timeline in which this movie didn't happen, they don't have Llamaposting.
I rewatched this movie recently, after Kronk retrieves the llama emperor in a bag from falling off the waterfall, it zooms out too far, zooms back in, and he's bumbling through town saying to himself "what to do...what to do..." In the best possible way, it feels like the story writers are flailing, don't know what should happen next. So they throw darts at a board, land on transition idea: "Kronk trips on a cat" And the show goes on. That chaotic energy is so perfect.
The original idea was rightly criticized for being confusing. It was The Prince and the Pauper...but the then the real Prince leaves he gets turned into a Llama? Then Yzma is trying to summon the Sun god to devour the planet but the fake Prince falls for the Fiance and the Llama Prince falls in love with a Sheppard woman and then its also a Musical? It's too much at once.
It's obvious to me why disney will never release the sweatbox-go look at the comments anywhere it's uploaded (and some here too) and you'll see people pining for the bad movie that got scrapped instead of the incredible, perfect movie that got made. (I saw new groove something like five times in theaters when it came out-100% obsessed) and the audience getting that takeaway makes sense-because that's ultimately what ends up being the incorrect message of the documentary itself: disney execs kill a beautiful project and make a rushed soulless cash grab comedy instead.
People who think that must not have watched the movie or have no idea how comedy works. If it was a cash grab they would have used really lame, overused jokes. You cannot have a movie this unique if you want a cash grab. In terms of comedy, this is quite literally the opposite of a cash grab, and has more comedic soul than it deserved
Emporers new groove is one of those movies that didnt grab me very much as a kid but i enjoy it more and more as i get older. Its aging like a fine wine
I won't mourn the loss of another Prince and the pauper story. Good riddance of bad overused plot devices. Emperor's New Groove has everything you need in a movie. And most importantly it's made by people who were having a blast while making it.
The saddest part of Kingdom being scrapped to me is that simply, Snuff out the light, Ysma's supposed villian song was scrapped along with it. Its still one of my favorite songs period.
What's interesting about the Ysma in Emporors New Groove 2 is they brought back that side of her that wanted to be youthful and it definitely didn't work in their favor.
no one will ever truly know how much of a hold this had over me as a kid. i remember age 12 i watched it, made all my cousins watch it, bought the sequel on dvd for christmas, discovered empire of the sun was meant to be a thing and read about the whole sweatbox situation, and then proceeded to send an email to disney that probably no one ever read about how if they ever wanted to do a more serious toned live action movie they should adapt the plot of empire of the sun. honestly younger me probably had a point there considering whatever is going on with disney remakes right now, but oml hearing the word sweatbox gave me flashbacks and i completely forgot i did all that for a mo.
really good video!! also i feel like i need to mention it since i'm currently obsessed with it but, Yellow Submarine. Kinda like Emperor's New Groove but in its case, it didn't have a final script or storyboard, had a production of 11 months with over 200 artists working on it, which is insane to me. there should be more movies like this, no script. Since it's so fascinating..
This makes me SO much more happy with my own creative process for my book; I take the themes relevant and decide how I want to progress them, I write scenes to that effect using ideas I think would be cool, then I write the scenes into chapters.
Honestly I never knew the movie had no script, which speaks to the quality of the movie in that it still holds up regardless and that you would never know it had no script just by watching it alone. That aside it's definitely one of my all time favorite movies & I always enjoy watching it even today.
Love when productions come together when they're down to the wire and blow everyone away. Like you said, stuff like this is a pure testament to the talent and chemistry of those working on it. Reminds me of how the work done on Halo 2 was scrapped with roughly a year before release and the team just shrugged and went on to revolutionize early 2000's gaming.
This is a good example of what an animation studio could do with a budget and a co-op style development process. Focusing on the simple "what do we enjoy and want to see?" and just making that. So much of these productions goes into all the red tape and minutia that so little is left for the creative touch of those actually making the product, but that's what I want to see. I want to see something created by creative people, not the product of some conglomeration of HR, Sales, Marketing, Logistics, and Management with maybe a few creatives allowed at the table, but almost always the top brass. It just leads to the same safe, basic, predictable stories getting told over and over again.
An old person with an obsession of youth?!? That's never happened before! So original! Nobody has ever done something so original! Oh wait, that's very common.
I think it would be so amazing to see what a movie that went for this idea from the beginning I love the idea of such a collaborative and intertwined process
I LOVE Emperor's New Groove, but I gotta say I feel a little pain knowing there was an epic tale in there somewhere. That said I can't regret the funniest disney film imo
This is insane always and forever, and I will forever love Emperor's New Groove. But, honestly, I kinda just wanted to take a moment to thank you for bringing back my memories of Eartha Kitt as Yzma. It was my introduction to her, and she quickly became my idol. Thank you for the memories, and RIP Eartha Kitt.
I desperately want to read more of the notes when they were creating the scrips. Knowing the actors and writers took so much delight in Koronk’s focus being on the dinner brought me just as much delight
I’m so happy to finally see someone who talks about Kingdom of the Sun and not say it would have been soooooo much better than the movie we got. These things happen in the movie industry all the time and I love what we got. Also everyone please actually go watch The Sweatbox, it is not the dark heinous documentary that Disney doesn’t want you to see. It’s honestly no different from other behind the scenes documentary.
I dont normally comment on videos, but I loved this video, for 11 minutes it went very fast and held my attention, you should totally make more like this, maybe a video about the thief and the cobbler
When this movie first came out, people were not so sure it was going to be any good. I knew it would be and I needed to see it. When I did, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! I got it on VHS (yup, that old) and would watch it over and over again. Sadly, no one else enjoyed it that I knew. Well they can all suck it! I’m not a David Spade fan (did like his work in Just Shoot Me), but I thought he did an excellent job in The Emperor’s New Groove. I actually liked everyone especially Poncho’s wife. I don’t know why… she wasn’t even in much of the movie but that woman was BOLD as heck
This gives me the vibe of iterative design-how many games and products are made. Keep testing till the thing works. Probably also why portal is such a great game. I don't think they did quite the same thing, but it certainly feels like they went down the road of "yo guys wouldn't it be funny if ..."
I can't believe you're not a long time video essayist, you go great editing, great manner of speaking, and are also insanely funny. Glad my recommendations was blessed with this, fr.
I loved this movie as a kid too. My own kids mom and her siblings could quote the whole movie practically from start to finish, even now that she’s passed away I can still hear echoes of her randomly imitating eesma “llama?! He’s supposed to be dead!!”
already seen the move, loved the movie, and can't believe it was WITHOUT A SCRIPT! such a masterpiece must be re-watched in light of this new knowledge. Also that end-screen is adorable.
This is fascinating... I'm only halfway through, but I have to say: How is it "deep" and "profound" to have a female villain obsessed with staying young and beautiful forever, isn't that kind of hackneyed at the very least?
The trope is hackneyed, but the implication of it being deep and profound sounds like it was more about the commentary of/on the character. Given the late 90's production, coming out of the hyper consumerism and heavily sexualized advertising, etc, having an antagonist possibly learn and grow in their arc, rather than merely defeated and discarded like most previous villains could have been profoundly moving. Of course this is all just speculation, my interpretation of the limited context clues given, filtered through my own experience. Maybe the cigar is just a cigar.
This is the most entertaining and enjoyable talk about a movie I've ever seen. Usually I'm not interested in this kind of stuff, or it looks interesting but I tune out halfway through. You managed to keep my interest and make this enjoyable for me. Great job, and thanks. I think I found a new person to follow
Random, but I had to say something. In my high school (class 2017) marching band, our performance was the evolution of music, so we played "Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman as the early 1900's piece. I have NEVER heard it anywhere else, nor have I EVER met anyone but my grandpa who has even heard of Benny Goodman. It brought back so much nostalgia. So good!! Also, Benny Goodman is awesome. I'm glad to see a random fan here. Oh, and great video, too!
This video has such a delightful editing style and it’s so informative and silly too OH MY GODD new sub instantly. Also because of the nordic bunny fancam
The music sequence and the thanks for watching card 😭😭 beautiful, thank you. And thank you for sharing this info cause that's actually insane but amazing!
