Kingdom of the Sun (partially found original version of "The Emperor's New Groove" Disney animated film; late 1990s)

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Poster for The Emperor's New Groove, the film it eventually became.

Status: Partially Found

Kingdom of the Sun, also known as Kingdom in the Sun, was an animated Disney film due to be released in December of 2000. It was the predecessor to what would become known as the The Emperor's New Groove, sharing only a few similar characters, plot elements, and themes, such as the Incan civilization.

Original Premise

The protagonist, Pacha, is an eighteen-year-old llama herder with a strong affection for the Sun. While herding his llamas one morning, Pacha happened upon the arrogant and greedy Emperor Manco. The two quickly realize that they shared an uncanny resemblance to one another. Mancha; becoming bored with Palace life, proposes to switch lives with Pacha in a bid to escape his royal duties.

Pacha quickly enjoys life masquerading as the Emperor. Nina, Manco's fiancée, quickly falls for Pacha, not knowing that her future husband has switched identities. Meanwhile, Manco, along Mata, the female llama herder, begin their journey back towards the Grand Palace.

Yzma, a powerful sorceress, and member of the Emperor's Royal Court, soon finds out about the sudden switch. With her deep hatred for the Sun and the longing for the return of her youthful beauty, Yzma quickly grabs at her unforeseen opportunity to seize the throne and plunge the Empire into total and complete darkness, with the help of the Dark God Supai.

Using her magic, Yzma turns the unsuspecting Pacha into an ordinary-looking llama with the inability to speak, threatening him with the punishment of death for his crime of impersonating the Emperor. Blackmailed, Pacha surrenders control of the throne to Yzma, who now has complete control over the darkened Empire.

Her sidekicks consist of three animated mummies; named Mick, Bowie, and Lemmy. (Kronk, a main character in The Emperor's New Groove, does not exist in this version of the story,) as well as a small, rather grumpy, anthropomorphic Talisman named Huaca, who spends most of his time keeping a watchful eye on Pacha.

Manco, traveling along with Mata, begins his journey back towards the Palace, where along the way he learns humility and a new perspective on life. This propels him forward to return to his home only to find Pacha having turned into a llama and Yzma sitting on his throne.

The protagonists (Pacha, Manco, and Nina) must now fight off the powerful forces of the Dark God Supai. Together, they manage to lasso the Sun, and using its powerful rays, the trio manages to destroy Supai's incredible darkness, freeing the Empire, and allowing the Sun's rays to shine once more.

Retool

The movie was plagued with various rounds of delays and constant changes: many executives at Disney weren't fond of the idea and considered the "Prince and Pauper" plot as too cliché. Following much rework and revamping, the film was finally released as The Emperor's New Groove.

Availability

At least twenty percent of the movie's original animation, and the majority of its story, were completed before the executive-lead changes. Pieces of the unfinished scenes and sketches were shown in 2012, when the highly controversial documentary, The Sweatbox, reappeared online. In addition to the majority of its characters and plot being altered or removed, every song was also completely abandoned. Two of these original songs were later released on the official soundtrack released for The Emperor's New Groove: Yzma's antagonist song, "Snuff Out The Light" and "One Day She'll Love Me".

As of right now, the entire The Sweatbox documentary is available on Archive.org.[1]

Gallery

Images

  • Poster for when the film was titled Kingdom in the Sun.

    Poster for when the film was titled Kingdom in the Sun.

  • Ref sheet for Manco, who would later become Kuzco.

    Ref sheet for Manco, who would later become Kuzco.

  • Pacha's original design.

    Pacha's original design.

  • A character breakdown for the film.

    A character breakdown for the film.

  • The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (1/4).

    The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (1/4).

  • The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (2/4).

    The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (2/4).

  • The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (3/4).

    The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (3/4).

  • The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (4/4).

    The story beats for Kingdom of the Sun (4/4).

  • Model sheet for Nina.

    Model sheet for Nina.

  • Sketches of Mata.

    Sketches of Mata.

  • Ref sheet for Huaca.

    Ref sheet for Huaca.

  • Ref sheet for Snowball, Pacha's pet llama.

    Ref sheet for Snowball, Pacha's pet llama.

Audio

Yzma's cut villain song "Snuff Out The Light" originally meant for Kingdom of the Sun, it's currently one of the few pieces of music from the original project to have been released.

"One Day She'll Love Me" one of the other deleted songs included on The Emperor's New Groove soundtrack.

"Walk The Llama Llama" the third deleted song featured on the soundtrack.

Footage

A compliation of animated clips taken from The Sweatbox.

Fan voiceover for Antonio Navarro's original storyboards.

Yzma and Huaca.

An early animation test of Yzma.

An animation test of Mata.

An animation test of Manco.

An animation test of Nina.

See Also

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Animation (Disney)

Animation (Pixar)

Audio

Live Action

Short Films

References

  1. ↑ The entire documentary on Archive.org, mirrored from the now-defunct video site Vid.me. Retrieved 19 Jan '18
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