DVDizzy Forum

The Little Merboy wrote:I love the alternate ending to The Little Mermaid, where Ariel comes singing to Eric. I love that ending, showcasing Jodi's beautiful vocals!!

Super Aurora wrote:

Disney's Divinity wrote:That reminds me that I loved "The Dress That My Mother Wore" song. But I can understand why it never made it into the movie, mostly because it's hard to think of where it could be placed.

Yo is there a youtube video where I can view these two deleted songs? I can't find any video on it

Mooky wrote:Favorites only:

"Proud of Your Boy" (Aladdin)- such a beautiful, touching song, it's a shame it never truly reached the public ear (the DVD release's effect was more or less limited and you can still find people who have never even heard of it). Maybe it's better that way as it feels very special. I kind of wish they found a way to incorporate it into Treasure Planet at least, it would have felt right at home there.

"Keep 'Em Guessing" (Mulan) - fantastic tempo and melody, wonderfully clever lyrics, and VERY toe-tapping. I understand why it was cut as it didn't stylistically fit with the other songs in the film.

"One Day She'll Love Me" (The Emperor's New Groove) - I'm in love with this song! As much as I love TENG, it makes me wish we got the original, Kingdom of/in the Sun version as well (as clichéd as it may have ended up being). Gorgeous melody and lyrics, very melancholic and uplifting at the same time, and Shawn Colvin's voice is so soothing.

ajmrowland wrote:

Mooky wrote:Favorites only:

"Proud of Your Boy" (Aladdin)- such a beautiful, touching song, it's a shame it never truly reached the public ear (the DVD release's effect was more or less limited and you can still find people who have never even heard of it). Maybe it's better that way as it feels very special. I kind of wish they found a way to incorporate it into Treasure Planet at least, it would have felt right at home there.

"Keep 'Em Guessing" (Mulan) - fantastic tempo and melody, wonderfully clever lyrics, and VERY toe-tapping. I understand why it was cut as it didn't stylistically fit with the other songs in the film.

"One Day She'll Love Me" (The Emperor's New Groove) - I'm in love with this song! As much as I love TENG, it makes me wish we got the original, Kingdom of/in the Sun version as well (as clichéd as it may have ended up being). Gorgeous melody and lyrics, very melancholic and uplifting at the same time, and Shawn Colvin's voice is so soothing.

Never heard of "One Day She'll Love Me". Link?

Super Aurora wrote:

ajmrowland wrote: Never heard of "One Day She'll Love Me". Link?

Me either. Link?
Was there even suppose to be an Inca Princess in it? First time hearing it.

Super Aurora wrote:

ajmrowland wrote: Never heard of "One Day She'll Love Me". Link?

Me either. Link?
Was there even suppose to be an Inca Princess in it? First time hearing it.

An unusual story development

In its four years of production, thousands of hours of work and an estimated $30 millions of dollars of finished animation have been tossed out trying to find the right tone and story for this film.

As originally planned, "Kingdom of the Sun" (renamed in 1999 "Kingdom in the Sun") was supposed to be an Aztec adventure based loosely on Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper". A handsome but haughty prince, Manco (voiced by David Spade), discovers that he has an exact look-alike in a kindly llama herder (voiced by Owen Wilson). To get a taste of freedom, the prince switches places with the pauper for a day -- little realizing that the switch has been observed by the evil court sorceress, Yzma (voiced by Eartha Kitt).

Yzma once was a great looker. Now, she's a painfully thin, faded beauty -- sort of an Aztec version of Cruella De Vil. Yzma wants desperately to regain her lost looks. To do this, she'll need the pretend prince to marshal the full resources of the Kingdom. What must Yzma do to achieve eternal youth and beauty? Lasso the sun and bring it down to Earth.

Therefore, Yzma sees the switch as an opportunity to gain control of the throne. She uses her magic to turn the pompous prince (when he's disguised as the pauper) into a llama. The court sorceress then tells the pauper (who's then masquerading as the prince) that she knows that he's not who he says he is. Yzma threatens to expose the pretend prince (which would result in instant beheading) unless he does her bidding.

Meanwhile, there is a sub-plot romance. A young princess called Nina absolutely despises Manco, but when Pacha takes his place, she starts to like him.

The trouble with the original story for "Kingdom of/in the Sun" was so he would turn back into a human. Having finally learned humility through his experiences as a llama, the prince is finally ready to lead his people. The pauper would win the hand of a head-strong-but-lovely handmaiden in the prince's court (who knew that something wasn't quite right when the pauper was pretending to be the prince). The three of them live happily ever after... Yadda Yadda Yadda ... Nothing new here. Just like in dozens of other Disney animated features.

Not to say that everything in the original version of "Kingdom" was going to be lame or predictable. Sting wrote several fun pop songs for the film's score spent over a year animated this very funny little character before Disney dropped it from the movie. Confesses Sting: "We are exchanging ideas all the time and generating new possibilities. I write the music, and then they're supposed to animate it, but there are constantly changes being made. It's constantly in turnaround. It's enough to make a person crazy, but that's OK, because I'm crazy anyway. I'm enjoying it. I accepted because the challenge was writing music for children. It was something I have never done before, a real shame for a father of six. So, I was puzzled to see if I could do it or not. It's been a hard task..."

As Disney edited together work-in-progress versions of " Kingdom", it became obvious that a talented team were doing lots of good work on the project. But it became obvious that Allers was clueless as to how to fix the film. Disney Feature Animation head Peter Schneider and Thomas Schumacher then stepped in and quietly shut down work on the project.

For six months ( starting in the summer of '98), production was shut down on "Kingdom". During that time, Disney radically reworked the story while the film's idle animation team was put to work on Eric Goldberg's "Rhapsody in Blue" project -- which was later decided would be a perfect last minute addition to "Fantasia 2000".

Finally tired of waiting for the film's story to be fixed, several of "Kingdom"'s original animators opted to bail out of the troubled project. Chief among these was Andreas Deja, the original animator of Yzma. Though it's said that he did some of his best work ever with the evil sorceress, Deja had had enough with "Kingdom"'s never-ending story problems. Frustrated by Allers' inability to fix the film, Andreas opted to get out of town. He left Burbank and headed to Orlando, where he joined up with Disney Feature Animation Florida. Here, Andreas is currently working as the lead animator on Lilo, the little girl heroine of Disney's forthcoming animated feature, "Lilo and Stitch". Based on what the staff down there says, Andreas is genuinely happier working on "Lilo & Stitch".

By 1998, after six months of work (and four years of development), a finished story board and a third of the final animation completed, Disney's story department finally decided that the only things that actually worked in the original version of "Kingdom" were:

1) The Aztec setting

2) David Spade & Eartha Kitt's performances as the prince and the sorceress.

3) The turning-into-a-llama story idea.

"A movie begins to emerge as you are making it," Schumacher explained. "It's a lot like writing a novel or a play. It takes shape over a long period of time." Producer Randy Fullmer gave one example of how the original story failed to jell. "We wanted to set it in the 1400s before the Spanish came [to South America]," Fullmer recalled. "The Spanish brought the wheel, but we had to have a cart on the storyboard. We debated for three hours whether to have a wheel on the cart. At the end of the day, it hit several of us. We are really on the wrong track. We are not trying to make a documentary on the Incas. We are just trying to have fun. [At this point] we realized we had missed the boat on our film. We had sacrificed the potential humor in the movie creating instead an epic love story with powerful songs. We had taken ourselves and the film too seriously." Wilson's pauper character was the main focus of the film, so when Spade's emperor was turned into a llama the character ceased speaking and became a minor character. "Everyone agreed that when we didn't have the llama speak, the energy drained out of the movie. If we let the llama speak, it changed the entire tone of the movie." Heads were scratched, meetings called and opinions tallied. The result was a groovier idea. "We decided to go the comic route and make something really wacky. We brought our new plan to Thomas Schumacher (head of Disney animation), and he gave us the company's full support."

So, virtually everything else left over from the previous incarnation of the film was tossed out. Gone was the "The Prince and the Pauper" under-structure, Yzma's lassoing-the-sun scheme, supposedly the worst Disney song number ever (entitled "Llama Llama" and featuring two dozens of dancing llamas!) as well as the characters of Owen Wilson and Harvey Fierstein (as a little Indian God, Huaca).

The new script for "Kingdom", consequently re-titled "The Emperor's New Groove", goes as follows: When the sun reaches its apex on his 18th birthday, snooty prince Kuzco will ascend the throne of the Aztec empire. On that day, his aged aunt Yzma must step down. Trouble is, Yzma doesn't want to step down. She wants to continue holding power. So Yzma conspires with her well-meaning-if-dim-witted henchman, Kronk (voiced by Patrick Warburton, best known for his work as Puddy on "Seinfeld"), to do the young prince in.

Yzma furious when she realizes her lethal poison only turned Cuzco into a llama! As the prince's birthday nears, Yzma invites her nephew to dinner one night. During the meal, Kronk is supposed to serve the prince a potion that will poison him. But he accidentally serves Kuzco a potion that doesn't kill him but turns him into a llama. Trying to make the best of their botched plan, Ymza and Kronk then brain the enchanted prince with a vase. Thinking they've killed Kuzco, they quickly dispose of the body by throwing the limp llama onto the back of the cart of a peasant (Paucho, voiced by John Goodman) who's heading out of town.

Trouble is, Kuzco isn't dead, just unconscious. The next morning, the enchanted prince comes to in the back of the cart. He finds himself, miles from home and at the mercy of the cart's owner he's going to put this lazy talking llama to work...

Meanwhile, with the coronation day approaching, Yzma and Kronk put out the word that Prince Kuzco has disappeared. Their story is that the young prince told them that he wasn't up to the challenge of leading a kingdom, so Kuzco fled in shame. Yzma says that she hopes someday that the prince will change his mind and return. Til then, she will be happy to stay on the throne and rule.

Sketch Back out in the countryside, Kuzco learns the value of hard work. He notices that Paucho and his friends are good, kind hearted people who deserve a great leader. Humbled by his experience, Kuzco vows to become a good king. Knowing that the prince has finally learned his lesson, Paucho now offers to take Kuzco back to the city where they hope to find someone to break the spell.

Meanwhile, word comes to the palace that a talking llama has been sighted in the countryside. Yzma and Kronk realize that Kuzco must be still be alive. So they send soldiers from the city to go capture the bewitched creature...

Good triumphs over evil. The spell is eventually broken. Kuzco becomes human again, while Yzma is turned into a screeching peacock. Paucho's village is destroyed by the soldiers, but Kuzco vows to build it back, better than ever.