“The Emperor’s New Groove” is a famously weird Disney movie that was almost even weirder.
The delightfully offbeat David Spade comedy has endured several reassessments since its 2000 release, going from a notoriously troubled production (as documented by Vulture in that outlet’s great oral history) to a middling box office performer to an enduring cult favorite.In the years since the saga about an emperor-turned-llama on a quest to regain his human form hit theaters, a seemingly endless number of behind-the-scenes anecdotes have come to light about the movie that almost was.
At one point, Vulture notes, the film was meant as a more straightforward adventure saga called “Empire of the Sun,” which would’ve been led by Owen Wilson with a full soundtrack from Sting.
That version of the flick never happened, and the movie continued to evolve drastically until it became the irreverent, kooky comedy audiences ended up with.
One
Read full article