While many know The Emperor's New Groove as a cult classic in the Disney lineup, it was originally a completely different film called Kingdom of the Sun. Almost all of the evidence was documented by singer Sting and his wife Trudi Styler in The Sweatbox.
In the mid 1990s, Disney had contacted Sting to write songs for an Incan Prince & the Pauper story. Throughout the documentary, the key thing Styler and co-director John-Paul Davidson focus on is how Sting and the animation crew are affected by the drastic changes to the film brought on by the Disney executives, including former president Thomas Schumacher. The film's title derives itself from the Disney animation screening rooms, famous for their lack of air conditioning causing the animators to sweat while their work got critiqued. While the documentary might lead a bit more into Sting than the actual production process of Kingdom to Emperor, it nonetheless emphasizes how much of a task it was for the Disney crew just to please the executives in the short and long run.
Despite the troublesome production the film went through, the documentary blissfully paints both the artists and the executives in the same light. Throughout the film, we get interviews from the Kingdom crew and the Emperor crew later on, all of whom detail their processes in putting the work together based on both the material they're given and the constant changes from the higher ups. Anyone working in animation can understand just how mind numbing this process can be, let alone at a major Hollywood animation studio. As for Sting, he only made two songs for Emperor, and the difference in quality between both productions is jarring to say the least.
Despite the film barely getting screened outside of mini festival runs, The Sweatbox details one of many true stories behind the making of what seemed like a goofilly cartoony buddy comedy from the getco.
In the mid 1990s, Disney had contacted Sting to write songs for an Incan Prince & the Pauper story. Throughout the documentary, the key thing Styler and co-director John-Paul Davidson focus on is how Sting and the animation crew are affected by the drastic changes to the film brought on by the Disney executives, including former president Thomas Schumacher. The film's title derives itself from the Disney animation screening rooms, famous for their lack of air conditioning causing the animators to sweat while their work got critiqued. While the documentary might lead a bit more into Sting than the actual production process of Kingdom to Emperor, it nonetheless emphasizes how much of a task it was for the Disney crew just to please the executives in the short and long run.
Despite the troublesome production the film went through, the documentary blissfully paints both the artists and the executives in the same light. Throughout the film, we get interviews from the Kingdom crew and the Emperor crew later on, all of whom detail their processes in putting the work together based on both the material they're given and the constant changes from the higher ups. Anyone working in animation can understand just how mind numbing this process can be, let alone at a major Hollywood animation studio. As for Sting, he only made two songs for Emperor, and the difference in quality between both productions is jarring to say the least.
Despite the film barely getting screened outside of mini festival runs, The Sweatbox details one of many true stories behind the making of what seemed like a goofilly cartoony buddy comedy from the getco.