The Emperor’s New Groove was released theatrically in 2000 and at the time reminded me very much of Hercules from a few years earlier. The story was decent but a number of time-based anachronisms were in place. It was a bit weird and while it was a success, it wasn’t the blockbuster Disney hoped for. It did spawn a direct to video sequel and a television series. Now on Blu-ray we get the two films.
Set in some variation of the Inca empire, Kuzco is a self-centered jerk. A plot to take over his throne goes wrong and instead of being killed he is turned into a llama. It’s goofy fun, and historically inaccurate.
But the Blu-ray has no special features. None. I happen to have a copy of the film, the 2 DVD collector’s edition. Gone from the Blu-ray are such things as the audio commentary, the music video, the behind the scenes featurettes and more. This struck me as rather odd.
This 2-movie collection is a bit odd, as with other recent Disney offerings there’s the 2 films on a single Blu-ray, then the two films come on separate DVDs, making this a 3 disc package, but not in the manner one might think.
I fired up the DVD copy of the film and noticed it was a master from a decade ago. Literally. The previews, commercials and trailers that ran before the film all featured stuff that was “coming new to DVD” or “coming to theaters” a decade ago.
And there were the special features. Audio commentary, music video. While not as complete as on the 2 DVD collector’s edition, there’s a lot there. Why were these special features not place on the Blu-ray? Why spend so little effort on the DVDs to not even update the trailers?
Disney really doesn’t care about the consumer and this is a great example. Do not buy The Emperor’s New Groove on Blu-ray. Send Disney a message that this isn’t acceptable.