The Emperor's New Groove is a funny, fast paced comedy that is worth an hour and a half of your time. My sons laughed out loud several times. I particularly enjoyed the humor in the drawing. The jump rope scene, with the adviser and her bodyguard, had me laughing louder than my kids.

The movie is basically a buddy, road movie. In this case one of the buddies is a talking Llama, who is actually a spoiled, selfish Emperor. The other is a peasant, whose land the Emperor is going to confiscate, to build a summer home. They learn to get along despite all of the predictable arguments.

There are many surprising things about this movie. There are no cute little side kicks that show up in nearly every other Disney movie. There is no long winded 'looking for something' song. There also is no one to root for. The Emperor/Llama is such a self centered brat that you wouldn't mind seeing the jaguars eat him. The peasant that helps him is such a chump. The Emperor screws him over so many times, yet the peasant still blindly believes his lies, and says since they shook hands he will still help him. Even right after the emperor lets him fall off a rope bridge.

My favorite characters were the conniving, old as dirt adviser, and her squirrel talking, spinach puff making, bodyguard. They steal every scene and all the good jokes are with or about them. The movie should have been more about them.

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