Apparently, the audience had grown for The Emperor's New Groove to such an extent, that it was the first financially disappointing Disney Film to warrant a sequel. Either that or Disney was completely out of ideas and needed to make a quick buck, but who's saying that? Kronk's New Groove matches the original in terms of it's simplicity in storytelling, and while it misses the easy bullseyes in comedy that the first seemed to hit with each joke, the film is still fairly entertaining in it's own right.
Plot: Kronk, who is now working full time at Mudka's Meat Hut, receives a letter from his father that he is coming to visit him, expecting his son to be fabulously wealthy and have a family, or at least a loving wife. Kronk explains that he once had both of those things, making for the introductions to both stories that take place here.
The first, is a story where Kronk, who often visits and delivers food to the old folks home. He is recruited by Yzma, halfway recovered from her cat poison in the last film, to sell a tonic that would make the old people feel young and fit again, but in reality was just a scam to bring the evil sorceress back to her desired role as Empress. Despite making a nearly endless pile of money from it, Kronk gives into the goodness in his heart and helps the old folks win their money back and even gives them the mansion he bought as their new home.
The second, is at the Junior Chipmunks camp games, where he meets and falls in love with Miss Birdwell, one of the other camp counselors. But when Pacha's son takes the competitive nature of their games too far, Kronk loses the only person he'd ever loved.
As Kronk's father arrives, all of the people Kronk's kindness has touched decide to try and convince Kronk's father of Kronk's success, but can they hold it on for the whole time?
What's Bad?: The film lacks the seriously funny jokes the first one had, and despite focusing on one of the bright spots in the film, Kronk may be the most uninteresting part of this movie. If the film was more of a straight up sequel, then maybe I would have enjoyed it more, but the film can't deliver on the goods of the original.
What's Good?: The film at least tries. It's not like one of those Disney Sequels that just didn't give two damns about the plot and the characters. Eartha Kitt is still amazing as Yzma and the rest of the side characters are fairly amusing. Like I said, the film is at least trying to be decent.
Overall: Fairly decent. The film did meet my expectations and didn't exactly leave me angry or confused. If the film was only a bit stronger, then I probably would have had more to praise about.
Final Grade: C
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