| The Emperor' New Groove This past weekend I watched a modern Disney Classic which isn’t a classic just yet; The Emperor's New Groove. Say what you will, this was one funny movie. And I didn’t even watch the whole thing through as I had grocery shopping to do. But let it be known that the opening sequence, and the subsequent 15-20 minutes made me laugh louder then most so called “comedies” would make me laugh these days. And so I sat there trying to figure out which movies really made me laugh these past couple of years… to which I concluded only two had the power to tickle my funny bone (and one of those is actually a drama); Man on the moon and Chicken Run. That’s one film and two, count ‘em, one two, two animated movies. How in all that is Mel Brooksian is that possible? There have been countless of comedies produced in the past 3-4 years, and none made me laugh out loud like two animations and one drama. I racked my brain trying to ascertain the reason of this most distraught revelation, and in the end I could but conclude that caricature is where it’s at. Setting aside Man on the Moon for what it is, and for who is in it, the other two movies are caricatures of life through the eyes of animators. These animators can use any creativity they want, not depending on the physical prowess of an actor/actress and create for funny situations where eyes bulge out of heads, or bodies are dropped from great heights only to be shot straight back up using the ever funny “what in the name of all that is holy is this trampoline doing here?”. Sheer comedy I tell ya. As the characters in these animations stand apart from real physical presence we can forgo the usual comparisons one would make if say Jean Claude van Damnit performs yet another death-D-fying split in one of his thespian acts. “Did he manage to spread at 180 deg, or was it 178 deg just like in Bloodsports II?” Quick side note; it would be hilarious to have a JC voice a character in one of Disney’s modern epos! If Sly can do it, well then so can the muscles from Brussels. Back to The Emperors New Groove. If there is one actor I can think of who can lay down the Y in whiny then it has to be David Spade (well, Woody Allen should be top listed in this category, but then the character needs to be a hypochondriac/manic depressed/inferiority complexer to boot…). Spade can whine just about anything to the extend that you just want to pick him up and slap him silly and put him back down to pick him up and slap him silly again. Add to this his flair for sarcasm and you already have a gem. But the producers didn’t stop there. They needed more great A top beef to fill the casting line-up. John Goodman being good. Eartha Kitt being out of this earth. And to add icing to the cake we have Patrick Warburton who put the uhm into dumb (I kept expecting him to say; Yeah that's right). Basically what the writers did here was write quick exchanges which in a parody-voice, and with a subtle hint of timing, delivered one laugh after another. Most of the dialogue was pretty predictable, but it was not what was being said, if not how it was being said. I know, I could go and give you some examples, but as is always the case I am to damn lazy to cut and paste from some internet page. And here is a spoiler, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but there is no ballad in this movie! No “can you feel the love tonight” or “over the rainbow far away” or “it’s a small world after all” or any other kind of grinding a movie to a halt / finally I can go take a piss / anybody else need some fresh popcorn / is it over yet spoiler. Same can be said for Chicken Run, a movie which in it’s opening 5 minutes made me want to leave the theater as I thought it was going to be a animated drama akin to After the Bomb has dropped (or whatever it was called). Again here we have a movie which let’s you enjoy the experiences of chickens trying to avoid death by boongar. <- that would be an inside joke, sorry. Obvious question to ask is, when will Hollywood (or independents) realize that the ingredients for a good comedy are; timing, caricature and text? Take a hint from Dumb & Dumber and go with it. I am sure that there were some funny movies produced these past 4-5 years, problem is that I visit the theater about once or twice a year, and all the DVD’s I purchase are “classics” which I need to have as this is what the marketing people spoon feed me on my weekly visit to the local cd/dvd store. So, to all you kids out there who want to finally be able to laugh again at the screen, I suggest you head on out and rent a copy of the Chicken Run or the Emperors new groove, and prepare to laugh again instead of crying at the end of a comedy! … |