Dynamic Duos: John Goodman and David Spade, Emperor’s New Groove, 2000 After the masterpiece that was Coyote Ugly (2000), I noticed less and less of John Goodmans presence in movies. Reason was because John was doing more voice and television acting. This endeavor begun around the time of Emperor’s New Groove, where he co-starred with David Spade. In the movie, Emperor Kuzco (David Spade), a sniveling unlikable man (not a stretch for Spade) who gets turned into a llama and must regain his throne with the help of a simple herder named Pacha (John Goodman). Taken from The Emperor’s New Clothes, the Disney take is more comedic than morality tale. I watched it during university, a time when I had quite a hate-on for the mouse, but I actually found myself laughing harder than I had in a long time. Goodman and Spades voices really lend to the hijinks their characters get into and it was also just nice to see something animated and not computer-animated. The film itself had a trouble history. Before Goodman was even involved, it was the brain-child of “Lion King” director Roger Allers and “Cats Don’t Dance” director Mark Dindal. Meant to be a dramatic retelling of The Prince and The Pauper, voiced by David Spade and Owen Wilson (and with a soundtrack by Sting), the film was 50% complete and testing very poorly with audiences. The mouses management were getting impatient, but allowed the directors retool it. However, it tested even worse than before. Finally, Roger Allers and The Prince and The Pauper angle were let go. Mark Dindal decided to make a funnier film. Owen Wilson left and John Goodman joined to play the newly written character Pacha. Most would say the right choices were made.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 13:55:14 +0000
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