tek's rating: ½

The Emperor's New School, on Disney Channel
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This 2006-08 series is based on the 2000 movie The Emperor's New Groove (which I didn't see until 2013). I liked the series fairly well, in spite of not having seen the movie yet. There was a new actor voicing Kuzco in the series, but Yzma, Kronk, Chicha, and Bucky had the same actors as in the movie. There was a different actor for Pacha in season 1, though John Goodman returned to the role in season 2. And of course Pacha and Chicha's kids, Chaca and Tipo, had different actors. (Also they had a younger child, Yupi, with whom Chicha had been pregnant in the first movie.) I'm not sure how much of the series I actually saw; I probably missed a lot, and much of what I did see was probably out of order. Not that order matters much, in a show like this. I also want to say that, while the show is set after the movie, there were things I thought didn't make sense, given the events of the movie. But it's possible these things were explained in episodes I missed, or maybe I've just forgotten the explanations. Also, I feel like Kuzco was a couple years younger in the show than the movie, but I guess I could be wrong about that.

Anyway, the show is about a teenager named Kuzco, who's supposed to become emperor. But first he has to graduate (from a school that's named after him). He's got a couple friends: Malina (who wasn't in the movie), and Kronk, who actually works for a woman named Yzma, who always comes up with weird schemes to prevent Kuzco from becoming emperor, so that she can become empress. I'm not real clear on how that works, but whatever. Yzma also secretly poses as Amzy, principal of Kuzco Academy, though the only one who seems not to know this is Kronk, who's surprised every time Amzy reveals to him that she's really Yzma. There's also a teacher named Mr. Moleguaco, who is constantly frustrated by the way Kuzco acts. And there's a squirrel named Bucky, though he's not very important.

Anyway, the show's pretty funny. Kuzco's not all that smart, really, though Kronk's probably less smart. And um, Kuzco's very spoiled and self-centered and lazy. Though ultimately he occasionally does good things, I guess. And he stops the show sometimes to do things like "Kuzco's doodles" and stuff. He's also always calling Malina a "hottie hot hottie." (He'd totally like to date her, but she basically thinks of him as a friend. An often exasperating friend, who she's always trying to get to do the right thing in any situation, which tends not to come naturally to Kuzco.) Um... I dunno, I should explain all this better, but it's kind of weird. And cool. And funny. It's got tons of running gags, anachronisms, puns, fourth wall-breaking... it's all just ridiculous, but clever and fun.


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