My TV Show Review on The Emperor's New School · 4:00pm Mar 22nd, 2021
Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, for my 31st TV show analysis, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "The Emperor's New School".
Here's the rundown of this program:
After being temporarily taken off the throne, Kuzco discovers that if he wants to continue being emperor, he'll have to spend a couple of semesters in a high school called "Kuzco Academy" until his graduation.
However, reaching graduation will be no easy matter due to Kuzco's social struggles. That, and because of Yzma (secretly the school's principal, Amzy) consistently trying to get rid of Kuzco forever so that she can have the kingdom for herself.
Whether I had originally intended on reviewing this program before is something I don't remember, but I will say that I've been interested in giving it a shot for a while considering its popularity compared to "Kronk's New Groove". I've often recalled seeing this show on Disney Channel here and there as a child, so I wasn't a complete stranger to it.
Having watched some episodes recently, though...I honestly found this program to be openly mediocre.
For instance, the overall concept and the decisions revolving around it were not exactly to my liking.
Throughout my time watching it, I frequently noted that there were elements that were incorporated to purposefully make a callback to "The Emperor's New Groove", such as Yzma turning Kuzco into an animal with a potion. I don't see anything entirely wrong with this sort of thing, but the problem with how it was being done in this program was that elements like the one I mentioned clearly worked better when used only once. The worst part was that they got tiring due to how repetitive they were, and the way they were executed felt openly uninspired and dull. The same can pretty much be said for the comedy, because it hardly got a laugh out of me.
In addition to this, I was not a big fan of the show team regressing Kuzco back into a spoiled brat. It not only made him an unlikable lead no matter what sort of character development he had, but it completely disregarded what made the character special in the movie: His phenomenal growth into a more good-hearted person. As a matter of fact, despite being called a continuation of "The Emperor's New Groove", the series apparently disregarded the events of the film a little too much, such as Kronk being Yzma's henchman again despite the fact that he openly quit working for her near the end of the movie.
The overall story of Kuzco being a high school student also became questionable as I thought about it more, because number one I'm pretty sure Kuzco would have his own personal teachers in the palace since he's royalty, and number two...why would he need to go to school just to keep being emperor to begin with?
Along with the fact that I wasn't a fan of Kuzco's character in this show, I wasn't fond of the replacing of David Spade with J.P. Manoux as the voice of the character either. Granted, I was impressed by the fact that he apparently impersonated Spade and played the role for video games and cameo appearances. But, similar to Mark Moseley's impression of Eddie Murphy for the role of Mushu, Manoux's filling-in for Spade clearly worked better for shorter doses. It's mainly because the more I heard Manoux's portrayal, the more I noted the uncanny valley effect vibe his performance carried. Compared to Spade's performances as Kuzco in the films, Manoux's portrayal in this show openly lacked a sense of heart and personality, so it was more annoying than great.
The performance of Jessica DiCicco as Malina was likewise quite irritable. Whether it had something to do with the voice direction, I don't know. But, her portrayal sounded extremely squeaky despite the character's voice being like any teenage girl's. The character herself wasn't someone that I found to be a noteworthy addition to the franchise, and neither were the rest of the new characters. To put it bluntly, they were all openly forgettable.
In spite of these negatives I mentioned, the show wasn't without its positives.
I deeply enjoyed the reprisals of Patrick Warburton as Kronk and Eartha Kitt as Yzma, the latter whom certainly wasn't awarded two Daytime Emmy's without reason!
In fact, Kitt was pretty much one of the best parts of this show. I loved that she sounded like she was having all the fun in the world playing Yzma, and the amount of commitment, personality, humor, and heart she put into her performance was absolutely outstanding! A definite example comes from when she sang the song "Yzmapolis" in the episode of the same name, which I'm surprised a soundtrack version of it wasn't released on iTunes or on a CD.
The animation of the show was astonishing, if I may add.
It was amazing to see how faithful the visualization was to the style of the film, even technology-wise. The way everything translated for the television format was likewise quite fascinating, as it was like the style was practically born for television viewing.
In the end, though, despite the show not being without a highlight or more, "The Emperor's New School" was more of a bore than something groovy. The canonicity of it is questionable, it's not fun despite trying to be, and it feels more like something directly made to make a profit out of. When it comes to being a continuation of "The Emperor's New Groove", "Kronk's New Groove" honestly does a better job at being one.
So, I rate "The Emperor's New School" two out of five stars.
I remember watching this show years ago. It was fun at first until I stopped watching it at some point.
Eh, not up to the standard of the movie.
I do like they got John Goodman back to be in the series
Now watch the first episode again: but this time convince yourself that you're watching a fan made project done by 'entry level' fans who got to work on an AU story without doing the required homework.
Now the confusing, amateurish, and sometimes 'so baffling that it hurts' moments become endearing.
5482261
I don't think that would work. A few episodes was enough for me, and my time watching them felt pretty rotten.