AND WE'RE BACK! Happy 2024 everyone! Hope you're all having an amazing start to the year. I've got SO much awesome stuff in store for you in the coming months that I can't wait to tell you about. Stay tuned!
As a lifelong fan of the emperor’s new groove, I CANNOT BELIVE I HAD NEVER HEARD OF THIS SONG LIKE WHAT?! Thank you so much for bringing it back into the light of day for all of us to enjoy🥰👏🫶🏻
Dear Charles, if it's not too much trouble, I recommend talking about Pat Metheny's "Part Three" in "The Way Up" album. It might be interesting to check out the chord progressions within this masterpiece. BTW, your channel is currently one of my favorites, on RU-vid! 🔥🔥🔥 Thank you and happy new year to all musicians !
Happy new year to you! I'm so happy to see your videos come back. Even if I don't understand all that stuff of dominant, natural or whatever, your videos give me the motivation to learn piano and music theory about it. Thank for that because without those videos music theory and learning piano seems so boring and I like to learn fast, so practicing an instrument is pretty awkward for me. I wish for you a wonderful hear and Ii can't wait to watch your future videos! :)
Fun Fact: Patrick Warburton improvised when Kronk hummed his own theme song in the scene where he was carrying Kuzco in the bag to the waterfall. Disney's legal department had Warburton sign all rights to the humming composition over to them.
@VeraBrightfeather Huh? What about their comment implies they don't understand that fact, as one of the two basic catalysts of an unchained appetite for rights?
If anything, she was decidedly *not* treated as a national treasure by the US state and the American entertainment industries, with her being an unwitting victim of McCarthyism and thus spending much of her adult life in Europe, where she remained popular while being unknowingly blacklisted in the US. While she got some more attention in her homeland after those CIA documents were made public, she was much beloved by lots of people around the world for decades.
To think Barack Obama opted for Beyoncé instead of Ms. Eartha Kitt to sing at his inauguration. Beyonce is a wonderful performer, but At Last is a song (written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warden) that is unequivocally connected to Ms. Kitt. Obama was showing off when he should have been paying homage.
There’s a reason Disney hired Eartha Kitt, and it’s not because they planned to not have a villain song. They scrapped so much from the original concept and script, it’s really sad. But the result is still my favorite movie ever. They tried to screw over Sting in the process. He wrote an entire soundtrack for the original concept, then they canned it all and tried to not pay him the full amount, even though he already wrote it
The logical thing to do is to take the original soundtrack and the original script and make it into a Broadway musical instead. The hard thing to do is to find an Yzma.
When you say "the full amount" are you referring to a royalty percentage of the box office for a movie that doesn't actually contain any of his songs? Or do you mean a lump sum or other contract worker type payment? Because not paying royalties in that situation would make sense. Edit: I haven't watched the documentary, but 5 minutes on google and I didn't see anything about google shorting/settling a monetary dispute with sting.
Kingdom of the Sun and Emperor's New Groove is such a deep rabbithole. They pretty much did two completely different movies, the original being much closer to the prince and the pauper, with Owen Wilson being the second lead. His character is completely absent from the final movie, as he has been pretty much replaced with the completely different character of Patcha, played by John Goodman. Kingdom of the Sun had a much darker tone, more akin to the pre renaissance Disney movies. There was a LOT of stuff already animated, and it was completely disregarded, together with most of Sting's work, including this absolute banger of a villain song (one of Disneys best villain songs EVER btw). Don't get me wrong, i LOVE Emperor's New Groove, and i love that it is pretty much a roadtrip comedy, but i'm sad we will never see what could actually have been one of the best of the renaissance movies.
"ou attain a console and a guitar. Reach out.. " have ever receive this msg from cornell telegram? Is it a scam?? Please the guy ask me 75$ for the taxes but i don't know shoud i pay ?
I was reading an interview about the development of Kingdom of the Sun/Emperor’s New Groove, and they mentioned how practically all of the movie was improvised to the point that there wasn’t an official script made for the movie until 2 MONTHS after it was released. Most of the dialogue in the movie is either improvised or was brainstormed during storyboarding.
Interesting. I heard a similar story about Zootopia where predators had to wear control collars unless they went to a seedy pleasure island for them. Again, the first plot was darker than the one that was released.
I love how like you said Eartha Kitt was being really casual with the note placement in the beginning but then as she goes on she gets really tight into those 16ths before the Chorus! Brilliant range and artistic choice with her voice!
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="183">3:03</a> THIS! Find out about Eartha Kitt. Not only did she have an absolutely unique singing voice, but she had a truly inspiring life story. She was so ahead of her time…
I've said this for DECADES!! They got EARTHA MAE KITT!!! who was RENOWNED for her unique delivery in jazz and caberat music!! they wrote a song that PLAYS TO THAT UNIQUE STRENGTH!! A damn good song, that really only she could sing! A perfect addition to the Disney Villian repertoire and they had the AUDACITY to cut and bury it!! I dont understand, because even with the changes they made, it still absolutely fits Yzma's character. Maybe not lyrically, so just rewrite the lyrics, because the sound ABSOLUTELY fits Yzma. That drama queen would EAT THIS!! I will NEVER forgive them. I won't. Like they had a whole TV show, a sequel and they NEVER bothered to dust off this gem??? I had to hear this years later?? By accident?? How many other AMAZING SONGS ARE THEY JUST HOARDING???!?!?!
The absolute fumbles like this that Disney makes actually blows my mind. Example: in 2019, Disney releases their live action Aladdin movie. A movie that takes place in a fictional, heightened, over-the-top Middle East, and was made during a Bollywood Renaissance, and they didn't reimagine Aladdin as a Bollywood musical?? Like, imagine the same numbers we could have gotten from that. And the music! Those classic Aladdin songs remade by Bollywood artists. What an incredible L on Disney's part.
Imagine having so much money that you could hire sting and Erma Kitt and still "decide to go in another direction." Not because it's bad, but because you feel like it.
We are speaking the same language... At least about this subject, I don't really speak your language but anyway... THEY CALLED AN AMAZINGLY TALENTED SINGER AND THEY MADE A BANGER VILLIAN SONG ONLY TO BE DISCARDED INTO FORGETFULNESS!?!?!?!?!?!
It's not Disney, but Biggering is such an amazing song in so many ways for the Onceler instead of How Bad Can I Be. It's on my mind a lot and they really could a have made the Lorax so much better if they changed some things up
Santa Baby is Eartha Kitt's song originally. I'm so glad you love this track because I do too, it's just about perfect for Eartha. This is arguably a better villain song than Hellfire.
Wow!! It harkens back to the Latin big band sound of the 50s. Eartha Kitt's spoken phrases are French caberet chanson. Thank you for unearthing this absolute hidden diamond of a song. Your analyses never cease to amaze and educate. You've got 'big ears', Charles! 😊
This song is too iconic to leave in the Disney vault forever. Eartha Kit is just so iconic herself and her exceptional performance abilities are just mind blowing!
To take a little bit away from the magic: You can obviously tell that he meticulously prepares these videos. But of course this does not mean he has an amazing ear and great analytic skills
Here's the deal: I have been dreaming about a parallel universe where "Kingdom of The Sun" was made and not scrapped to be rewritten to become "The Emperor's New Groove." This song, sung by Eartha Kitt, is so amazing that I cannot even put it into words. People have taken the behind-the-scenes footage and attempted to recreate the animation for this song based on snippets and stills. That's how much people love this tune! It has such a catchy rhythm, amazing lyrics, and - of course - what a masterful performance by the late, great Eartha Kitt. I am so hyped to watch this video; I haven't even made it through the first 5 seconds. I just had to express my hype! Thank you so much for uploading this!
Glad to hear that Yzma was also amazingly voiced in the original english version. In Brazil there's almost a general consensus that there should have been an Oscar awarded to the best voice actors at least once, just to give this award to Marieta Severo's Yzma. Boy, she did a HUGE job!
You should TOTALLY review "My Funny Friend and Me", written entirely by Sting for the original version ("Empire Of The Sun") and they used it for the ending credits of the movie!!!
It sounds like this song was adapted to become the opening song to introduce the emperor, his "groove". If you make this song more major-centered instead of minor, it could easily turn into the song that the movie opened on.
Latin big band music is such a massive sound with energy and passion, ENG has so much of this vibe and I wish they figured out how to reword the lyrics to include this song into the final movie. Such a hidden gem!
If Disney continues with its trend of animation to live action and does a remake of Emperor's New Groove, we should petition them to include this song.
Fun fact: that movie simply exploded popularity in Brazil, very much because of the dubbing work from voice actors here.. recomend you guys to check it out some works from here.. tens of thousands views and likes garantee
Eartha Kitt...what a GODDESS!! Also I know it's cut from the movie, but it 1000% still fits Yzma's character in Emperor's New Groove. I could totally see her jamming out to this while brewing up who knows what in her evil lair!
Movie could be a musical. Emperor's New Grove always had...well a good grove. I remember that movie being one of the first times I recognized music as an artform because of how well it was written.
It makes me so happy to see this song covered. Kingdom of the Sun is one of those things I wish we had gotten to see because while it was dark as hell, it probably would’ve been stupendous, and this song is amazing! 😊
I have this song on a CD that Disney released for Halloween, it's part of a 13-song selection of Villain songs going from Pink Elephants on Parade from Dumbo all the way to Friends on the Other Side from The Princess and the Frog, the CD came out before Tangled existed I think. I think this song is toward the end of the CD, like maybe the 10th or 11th track.
It also has You're Only Second Rate from the Return of Jafar, which is kind of a weird pick. The CD has both Aladdin sequels listed for the movie it's from for some reason. I wonder if whoever made the list has taken it from the soundtrack for the sequels, and just pasted it to the label. It's weird, but yeah, I don't think I have anything else to say about it. 🙂
You are awesome for bringing more attention to this glorious song!! I'm obsessed with Eartha Kitt and EVERYTHING that woman sang was a bop. She was such an amazing person and you're right, people need to check her out! Thank you!!
Eartha Kitt is one of my idols and the more I learn about her, the more I love her. And I’m so happy to hear someone else appreciate this particular song and the fact that no one else could have possibly done this song quite like her. This song was right up her alley. It’s good to see someone else get excited about it!
Okay but the OTHER incredible song from Empire of the Sun is the love song “One Day She'll Love Me”. I'm not into slow Disney love songs-but that one is INCREDIBLE. The composition is delightfully oblique. That chorus NEEDS some serious harmonic analysis. Sting and Shawn Colvin's voices are so clean, textured and evocative. PLEASE go through it.
Thanks for bringing this one into the light! Three great names coming together. "I Want To Be Evil" by Eartha has always been a favorite and am reminded by this song.
I was so pissed when Sting and David Hartley were snubbed to win the Academy Award for “My Funny Friend and Me” after being nominated in 2001. Their work was phenomenal for this feature, and having Tom Jones sing the opening song was a perfect touch (Sting didn’t want to). Trivia note: Eartha Kitt also played Cat Woman in a few episodes of the 60’s Batman television series.
Watched this the other night, was blown away. Listened to the track like 4 times. Played it for my colleagues this morning and everyone was also blown away at how brilliant this track is. Thank you for sharing this!
This was honestly my favourite childhood/early teens film. Eartha Kitt is an incredible artist, apart from Usula, Yzma is my favourite Disney villain. So much personality, flair, ambition and sass.
I found an unedited version of emperors new groove and had the story board motion art and it was colored ver and started watching it and had the full scene for this song I was listening to more into the songs and engrossed into the movie then the final version wish they kept this in and told more of Yzmas. Background and have more structure to the character.
ZOMG, CHARLES!!! This is such a pleasant surprise to see you cover Snuff Out the Light from The Kingdom of the Sun!!! Been in love with that piece since 2012, so happy to see it getting more attention and love it deserves, since about a year or two ago, people made animatics finishing the storyboards that were released 🥰
I’d love to see an analysis of music from Pokémon Colosseum sometime! It’s music is a hidden gem. Miror B’s theme is a straight groovy bop, and the Pyrite Town theme is some nice bluesy jazz.
I sadly don’t know squat about music… other than I like listening to it. I don’t know how to read it, I don’t know how it’s composed, I know zero about its technical aspects. Regardless, I absolutely love your channel!! Your enthusiasm and love for music is so infectious!Even though I don’t know what you’re talking about half the time, the way you deliver and emote to us viewers has me hooked! I love all your videos! I enjoy seeing your reactions. I love to hear about the history and significance of what you’re talking about. Overall, your content is just so interesting! I have to say thank you!! It’s a pleasure to watch end listen to you! 😊👍
I love love LOVE the current Emperor’s New Groove that we have (my favorite movie of all time) but I would love to see Kingdom of the Sun be animated and hear more of the songs that Sting wrote for it.
So glad someone covered this song! I stumbled on it one day and was blown away, it’s such a phenomenal piece. Not to mention, the crazy irony of it not being in the flippin film
It’s like we’re on the same wavelength. I just watched The Emperors New Groove last week for probably the millionth time. I may have actually watched this movie in theaters as a kid-and I still love it today. Somehow I can always find new things that I didn’t notice before. ❤
Wow that gorgeous chord at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="470">7:50</a> that Charles describes as C/F and/or F Maj7 has major Domi & JD Beck "Sniff" vibes. Instantly brought me there. Thanks as always for this Charles!
I've been meaning to watch this video for ages abd totally forgot... SO glad I'm watching it now because MY GOD THIS IS INSANELY AMAZING! The song in itself is INCREDIBLE. But it's your EXCITEMENT and pure JOY at figuring out how to play it, the way you explain it, the shock when you hear something unexpected... I often have similar facial expressions to you at the same time so I feel like we're just vibing together in my living room! You have an amazing ability to be able to travel through our screens and BE WITH US, just through your personality! Never change Charles, you're a light that can't be snuffed!✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️
I always forget that this song wasn't actually in the movie. Was gifted a few Disney soundtrack CDs with my first boombox, and fell in love with this song. A "spirit animal" of songs.
I truly thank Sting and David Hartley for creating such beautiful themes for both versions of this film. And let me tell you, they went through HELL getting the production on its feet. Sting even preferred the original concept of the film rather than the comedy, which shows how much went on at that time. Still, this film is an absolute classic.
There’s a lot of thematic overlap between this and the final movie’s “Run Llama Run” from the chase scene! Never really noticed Actually, as I listen to it, there’s definitely overlap with the “What’s his Name?” Song at the beginning of the movie too. Specifically there’s a part that sounds very similar to the part right before and as the lyrics “he was born and raised to rule” are sung
For years Emperor's New Groove was a massively underrated gem from Disney. I was a very young man in college when it came out and ended up watching it on video with a girlfriend who rented it. Loved the irreverence. Meta commentary. 4th wall breaks. That kind of stuff was going on in some comics, but not in a major studio movie. Especially not from Disney. Massively ahead of its time. Every bit of casting was brilliant. Earth Kitt of course was perfect as Yzma. She was stealing scenes from John Goodman and David Spade. She's rightfully a legendary performer. Just like the commentary where her voicing is so fluid in between the notes. That's where the heart and soul and emotion lives. It's not just an old man shaking his fists at the clouds to complain about auto-tune. Excessive production just paves over the emotion living between the notes and robs the music.
as long as people like you are around music will never be lost. music is what make us "us" music has so much power to surprise you make y7ou happy leave you in awe.
I definitely remember first hearing this song as a kid. They probably played it in between shows or in a special on the disney channel. Unless they included it somewhere in the tv show. Later revisited it by looking up the soundtrack on youtube in college, such a good song. Idk why they didnt market the song more.
The Sweatbox is one of those documanties that I'm glad is out there (on internet archive). Mostly cause Disney didn't want it to see the light of day. If interested in the movie that this song existed on. This is hands down why Eartha Kitt is and always will be a legend.
I grew up with a CD of the soundtrack to The Emprror's New Groove, so I always knew this song existed, and it's always been one of my favorite Disney songs
I LOVE that you made a video about this song! It's so good and although Emperor's New Groove is an amazing movie without it, I love that people can still appreciate the work that went into it and the incredible talent of Ertha Kitt!
Yeah that transition I to the chorus is TOO 🔥. I went down this rabbithole a year ago and goodness I'm glad you're analyzing this piece. It's probably one of my favorite Villain themes from Disney.
This is literally one of my all-time favorite movies (also loved the video game). I had heard that Sting was upset that a lot of his songs were cut, and only the closing song remained (lyrics talk about "my funny friend" I think). Really enjoyed this.
Happy 2024! This is so amazing! My first day of school, and fourth and last semester of classical music theory - although you are explaining kick ass jazz theory here - which is definitely my thing… everything you post has really helped me when I have to analyze stuff for school. Informative, fun, and always engaging content. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh And Eartha Kit is phenomenal. 🎉❤🥂💥🔥
Never thought I’d see anyone talk about this song, was lucky to have the CD so I knew this song existed but wasn’t part of the film. On top of that, this film is a hidden treasure that tragically rarely gets acknowledged. It’s already a crime how underrated this movie is, but even more tragic missing out on an Eartha Kitt song!!! If you’re going to cover fantastic underrated Disney music, YOU GAVE GOT YO COCER THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE. No exceptions.
Hey Charles. I just wanted to say I hope your days are going well. You’ve been doing awesome work for years now and I just have to say. Hats off to you my good friend. You always make my friends and I think about music in films in ways we wouldn’t have thought of without your help. You are awesome and your work speaks for itself. Cheers!