Movie Log: Kronk's New Groove

By all rights, I shouldn't claim to have watched this movie. Yes, I was in a room where it was playing, and I was facing towards the TV, but the boys were noisy and in front of me, and I was both eating dinner and poking around on my computer, so Kronk didn't get much of my attention. That was also on Tuesday night, so I'm not getting to talk about it as quickly as I wished.

This is the Disney obligatory straight-to-video sequel, this time of The Emperor's New Groove, and it's very episodic. The ex-evil henchman from Emperor is now running a restaurant, but his stern father is coming to visit, and so Kronk quickly tries to build the kind of life he thinks his father expects. (And of course it all goes comically wrong. And of course there are Important Life Lessons along the way. And of course there's a gigantic explosion of cheese.) Except for the animation, which was quite good, and the fact that all of the original actors have returned, this is all very TV-level. It's not bad, but it's 75 minutes of professional but unspectacular Extruded Disney Product.

But it is funny, the colors are vibrant, the voice acting is top-notch, the dialogue is snappy, and, as I said, it has near-feature-quality animation. It's certainly not for anyone who didn't see and like New Groove (which is, on the other hand, probably the best recent Disney animated film), but it's a pleasant and enjoyable sequel.

From the extras on the DVD, though, I learn that there will be a spin-off TV show, called The Emperor's New School, in which the (ex?) Emperor has to go to high school for some utterly stupid sitcom reason, and finds both a cute girl to crush over and that his nemesis is now the headmistress of the school and dedicated to seeing him flunk out. That looks absolutely horrible, and even David Spade (the voice of the Emperor, who I had thought would do anything for money) is not involved. Run away. Run far away.