Hey folks, Harry here with our spy MacGyver and his look at the first ever public screening of the roughcut of Disney's THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE, which we learned a lot about from MOO COW (Click here to read that original report for more plot info and project history!) back around the first of February of this year. In animated films, especially with Disney, the testing process is integral to the creation of the film. If a sequence doesn't work, they stop production on that sequence and go back to the script to tool it out. So what MacGyver was lucky enough to see will most likely be incredibly different from the later version, or... if the screening went very well... it will just move on ahead. MEANWHILE, regarding the SPIDER-MAN information he has here... Folks, it is very important if you are a Spider-Man geek in the Los Angeles area to go volunteer for this focus group. The last thing we want is a bunch of nobs that know nothing about Spider-Man being given access to advising the filmmakers... Personally I'd volunteer in a heartbeat. So go run and find a recruiter... and try to get on this focusgroup... I could careless if you report back in... it's just important that people that know the history of the character be in there. And for now... I'll hand it over to MacGyver...
Harry... L.A. spy MacGyver here with a report on the first (according to the NRG reps) screening of the new Disney animated movie The Emperor's New Groove. Before I start I have to wonder aloud how bright these NRG boys are. I got my passes to the movie outside a matinee performance of Guys and Dolls at Moorpark College, California. The recruiter asked me what my major was and if I was in any way involved in the entertainment industry... to which I answered undecided and "Hell No..." However, she failed to notice that I was still in Full costume and stage makeup after having just performed in the show.
First... The bit on spiderman. I happened to be sitting behind some teenage boys inside the theatre when a recruiter came around asking people about being in the focus group afterwards. She asked them some questions, and then as if it was an afterthought asked if any of them were fans of and followed Spiderman... especially the comic books. They answered "no not really," and she went on to express her dissapointment and say that she was looking for serious spiderman fans (teenage boys) to be in a focus group next week. She was then asked if it was related to a spiderman movie and she evaded the question and walked away. What does it mean? Maybe nothing... or maybe if you are a spiderman fan in southern california and happen to be at a screening in the next few days you should drop little hints about spiderman while near the organizers.
Anyway... The Emperor's New Groove. This was the smallest audience I have ever seen at a screening... the theatre only about 25% full. Either there is little to no interest in this movie, or they anly wanted a very small audience sampling to reduce the spy presence. It starred the voices of David Spade, John Goodman, and while he wasn't listed in the preview paper: the show stealer "Puddy" from Sienfeld. Only about 30% of the 75 minute film contained seemingly finished animation in this print, the rest being about evenly split between colorless yet fully animated scenes and 1 - 2 fps storyboard animation. I'm not a big fan of spoilers so I'll just say that the plot outline given over at the IMDB is so far removed from the actual story seen, that I would not even recognize it as being the same movie if it didn't have the same title.
David Spade plays a bratty self involved 18 yr old emperor who gets transformed into a Llama (Ok... so maybe these are minor spoilers) and also provides the voice over for the film, which is pretty entertaining but a little akward and scattered throughout the film, ceasing perhaps entirely towards the last 3rd of the movie. He was quite entertaining and much of the humor in the movie will be apreciated by adults perhaps as much as children. He is of course playing the typical slightly annoying David Spade type character we all know, and the movie even contains a trademark Spade "Buuuhh-bye" from one of his SNL characters.
John Goodman is fine as Pacha the Llama Herder, also the film's Hero, but was a little underused comicaly as he is a pretty funny guy usually. This was expressed by many in the focus group afterwards. Patrick Warburton (Puddy) played the hilarious Dumb-as-a-box-o-rocks sidekick/guard to the villian, a Cruella DeVille type character who turns Spade into the Llama and attemts to take over the Empire. One thing that I really liked about the movie was the fact that none of the characters ever break into song and go twirling into the forest singing about true love while nearby animals provide backup vocals - or any crap like that - which happens all to often in Disney Movies of late. Of course it is possible that they have just not included these sequences because the songs aren't finished yet, but I doudt it because there is no love stroy element of any kind in the movie, and none ove the actors are known for their singing. There is another thing missing which may or may not be good thing. There are no real sidekick secondary characters in this animation as I'm used to in Disney movies... like the monkey and the parrot in Aladin, or Timon and Pumbaa from Lion King. Perhaps it is because those characters are usually there for comic relief and the main characters in this provide plenty of that already. Still it does seem like something is missing because there are really only four characters that have more than about a minute of screentime throughout.
Overall - I liked it and so did everyone else at the screening. I was quite entertaining.
