The vain and entitled emperor of the Inca people, Kuzco (voiced by David Spade), is turning eighteen. He announces that he’s building himself a waterpark for his birthday — which will necessitate the destruction of a nearby village, understandably upsetting the village’s leader Pacha (John Goodman). Kuzco also decides it’s a good time to fire his seneschal, the elderly alchemist Yzma (Eartha Kitt), as he thinks she’s trying to usurp his power. Well, even a broken clock’s right twice a day. Yzma does have designs on the imperial throne, but her bumbling assistant Kronk (Patrick Warburton) gives Kuzco the wrong poison, turning him into a llama instead of a corpse. Now Kuzco, Pacha and the people of Pacha’s village will have to navigate their differences (or in Kuzco’s case, grow up) in order to save themselves from the evil Yzma.

There’s a whole documentary about the making of The Emperor’s New Groove. It’s called The Sweatbox, and it’s a fantastic, anxious, cathartic examination of the difficulties of development from concept to release. When people make movies about the making of movies, it implies two things. One: the movie in question is beloved enough to warrant spending two more hours exploring its creation in depth. And two: it must have been a real train wreck. And it was! But out of that debacle came a generational hit, a hilarious and high-spirited answer to the soaring melodramatic epics Disney Animation was beginning to stagnate around — and what better time to revisit it than its 25^th anniversary?

This screening is held in the Historic Duncan Auditorium. This space utilizes open seating for this event, seat selection is not required.

View the full Family Favorites 2025 series lineup.