The Big Picture
You may have heard that Lilo & Stitch was forced to re-animate its ending in the wake of a national tragedy, but in the case of The Emperor’s New Groove, its ending was entirely rewritten because a certain rock star composer didn’t agree with it. That rock star was the original Dune-star Sting and, well, didn’t agree with it is putting it lightly. In response, Sting wrote a vehement letter touting his activism and raging over the fact that the film’s story was seemingly going against everything that he ever stood for as an icon and a musician. Against all odds and in spite of its absolutely disastrous production history, The Emperor’s New Groove is viewed today as a modern classic. For that, we genuinely have Sting to thank, as the original ending would have made it much more difficult to enjoy in retrospect.
We all know the story, but it’s appropriately bonkers so it wouldn’t hurt to recap, as The Emperor’s New Groove is one of a few big budget animated spectacles to achieve the same anarchic splendor that Chuck Jones established with The Looney Tunes so many decades prior. Following Incan Emperor Kuzco (David Spade), one of the most rottenly spoiled characters in all of cinematic history, the film chaotically tells the tale of his transformation into a llama by his subordinate Yzma (Eartha Kitt in a role that’s “scary beyond all reason”). Ignorant to her cruel intentions, Kuzco is cast out into the jungle, finding himself in Pacha’s (John Goodman) village. Pacha is reluctant to help Kuzco as Kuzco plans on destroying his village for the sake of building his summer home Kuzcotopia, but, seeing the good in everyone, decides to help him get back to his faraway palace in an attempt to change his mind.
Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma, and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha, the gentle llama herder.
Release Date December 15, 2000
Director Mark Dindal
Rating G
Runtime 78
‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ Had a Tortuous Production Cycle
It’s not just the ending of The Emperor’s New Groove that proved different to the original storyline. As covered in this Collider retrospective, it was almost an entirely different movie. The Emperor’s New Groove began as Kingdom of the Sun, and while it maintained the Incan setting of the original idea, it was meant to be much more serious and somber than the story we grew up loving. Kingdom of the Sun bore a strong similarity to Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper, featuring a similarly-minded spoiled young emperor who switches places with an identical llama farmer. It was basically Trading Places with the exception of an evil villain (still named Yzma) whose plan was to summon the evil god of death in order to destroy her nemesis: the sun. The reason for her beef with the sun comes from the fact that it gives her wrinkles, which, if nothing else, is classic Yzma.
How Did the Original ‘Emperor’s New Groove’ Ending Change?
While it’s likely that Kingdom of the Sun would have come to be as revered as The Prince of Egypt for injecting some darkness and gravity into the animated medium, it’s hard to argue against the final product that was The Emperor’s New Groove… unless you’re Sting, of course! While Kingdom of the Sun was eventually scrapped, likely as a result of the box office underperformance of some of Disney’s more serious animated fare, Sting was kept on as a composer, completing several songs that finally made their way into the finished version. There was just one problem… the original ending for The Emperor’s New Groove saw Kuzco certainly learning from the mistakes of his cruelty, even if he still built Kuzcotopia. Instead of bulldozing Pacha’s village, however, the original script saw him eviscerating the neighboring rainforest.
Enter Sting, who according to NME in the article above, sent them a very carefully worded letter of disapproval. The contents? “You do this, I’m resigning because this is exactly the opposite of what I stand for. I’ve spent 20 years trying to defend the rights of indigenous people and you’re just marching over them to build a theme park. I will not be party to this.” In 1987, Sting founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund dedicated to the protection of indigenous people in relation to their land and “against the destructiveness of resource exploitation.” It’s safe to say that Disney was a little tone-deaf on this one. However, one can only admire them for course correcting, as they had previously done with The Lion King and would later do with Lilo & Stitch. This probably also had to do with the fact that Tarzan without Phil Collins only sounds half as exciting.
Why the Final Theatrical Ending to ‘Emperor’s New Groove’ Works Better
The final theatrical ending saw Kuzco learning from his mistakes and scrapping his plans for Kuzcotopia altogether, leading to the joyous finale we all lovingly remember. He still gets his summer house, of course, he just builds one significantly smaller in the free hilltop next to Pacha’s. Here’s the thing though — while it’s of paramount importance to Kuzco’s character arc that he stops exploiting others for the sake of his comfort and enjoyment (watching this movie as an adult, you realize how much of a monster Kuzco really is), one aspect of the story that the original ending didn’t quite sell is Kuzco’s newfound humility in the wake of spending time with the peasants. In a real blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, eagle-eyed viewers will observe that Kuzco’s new home is on the hill below that of Pacha’s.
If someone had come up to Kuzco in the beginning of the film with that kind of proposal, they would have been executed more swiftly than that poor old geezer who “threw off [his] groove” early on. It’s sufficient to say that if it weren’t for Sting, audiences would have left the theaters scratching their heads over the message of the movie, and while not every character has to be a role model, this is a Disney movie, damnit! Entire generations of children would go on to be raised on the morality provided in some of the most formative movies of their childhood. With that kind of responsibility on their shoulders, it’s not just important that they get their messaging straight, but essential.
The Emperor’s New Groove may be all fun and games at a glance, but part of its enduring appeal is the fact that it genuinely offers one of the most compelling characters arcs in fiction. The extent of Kuzco’s Game of Thrones-level tyranny, while all brushed off with an obnoxious dance and a smile, is so prominent for the first two acts of the film that you’d think his name was Fire Lord Ozai. Narcissistic and self-centered to a ruthless extent, there’s no limit to who he’ll kill or evict from their homes for a simple pleasure denied to him, which is why it’s so heartwarming to see him comfortable with not only living below his peasant friend Pacha, but allowing him and his family to share his pool as well. By the end of the film, he may still have all the power in the world, but he now enforces it as a man of the people. Now that’s a message that Sting can get behind!
The Emperor’s New Groove is available to stream on Disney+.
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