The Disney Sequel Marathon: “Kronk’s New Groove” (2005)

I have to admit, I really struggled with this film. Though it had all of the flash and bang and energetic pacing of the original, the jokes just didn’t seem to land with the same precision as they did in The Emperor’s New Groove. I seemed to remember, from my one and only viewing back in ’05, that it wasn’t really that funny and, unfortunately, that’s still true 15 years later. What’s more, the narrative was disjointed for no really good reason, and the stakes — Kronk’s fervent desire to gain his father’s approval — just didn’t seem to matter as much as the original’s (which, given the rather low stakes of that movie, is really saying something).

However, since I started this series of reviews with the devout intention to find something redemptive about even the least enjoyable of the Disney sequels, that’s what I’m going to do (though stay tuned to the end for a bit more criticism).

To my mind, the first and third acts are the strongest. In the first third of the film, Kronk finds himself caught up in one of Yzma’s schemes, in which she is swindling the people by pretending to sell them a potion of youth that is, in fact, green slime that she procures from a pipe in her secret layer. As was the case with the first film, Eartha Kitt is just divine in this role, playing it up with all of the archness and camp that made her a…