ANI-MOVIES, *The Emperor's New Groove

What was originally supposed to be a musical epic titled Kingdom In The Sun put together by animation directors Roger Allers and Matthew Jacobs(infamously documented in the film The Sweatbox)was later totally rewritten into a family comedy film that was Disney's first full-length animated movie of the new millenium. This made for a strange reception as most Disney toon movies were regularly based on an existing fairy tale or childrens book, plus the original billing of Kingdom Of The Sun synced with its comedic rebranding didn't leave alot of confidence to initial theatrical releases who weren't sure what to make of it. If the movie was based on some centuries old Grimm Bros. story, audiences would know what they were getting into, so The Emporer's New Groove gained real success after its home video release, becoming a hit with its video rental premiere. Cats Don't Dance director Mark Dindal was given the reigns of the movie, although seemed to trip a little later on with Disney's underated Chicken Little which he also directed, although his helming the Kringle holiday special worked out better for him. However, this departure from Disney's average formula seemed to pan out for them in the long run.

Set sometime during the height of the Incan Empire, or at least in some alternate reality where the Incans never went out of business because the film is filled with up-to-date cultural references, Kuzco is a spoiled teenage emporer who has a compulsary need to have things go a certain way, otherwise it would upset his "groove", leading him to fits of selfish rage. One such upset makes him fire his royal advisor Yzmna, a creepy elderly lady who along with her bumbling but good-hearted sidekick Kronk happens to be a part-time mad scientist who plans to poison he Kuzco, but because of Kronk's nincompoopery is instead turned into a talking llama. The now llama-ized emporer is accidently taken away by a Pacha, a village leader that Kuzco planned to kick off his land to make room for an amusement park. Pacha rescues Kuzco from turning into a jaguar snack, and agrees to help take him back to the palace if he doesn't bulldoze his home. Yzma and Kronk are on the trail for Kuzco after getting some help from a bi-polar squirrel, which has the two parties continuously missing each other in an Incan "diner". The chase leads back to the palace where a mixup of potions has several guards also turning into animals, but Kuzco manages to become human again after several tries, while Yzma is turned into a menacing fluffy kitten. Kuzco is restored to the throne, and builds his getaway on an empty neighboring hill next to Pacha's.

Despite being out of the feature-length non-musical comedy for several years, Disney did turn out a quality production on the level of classic Looney Tunes humor. The animation itself is very above reproach, but not the engaging way that prior landmarks like Beauty And The Beast did. The thing that really sells this movie is the witty performances by the cast. David Spade makes a great recovery into movies after the loss of his former partner Chris Farley as Kuzco, Patrick Warburton cemented himself as a voice over gold mine, and Eartha Kitt plays one of the most bombasticly cartoonish Disney villains of all time. As one of the best buddy comedy films of recent memory, The Emperor's New Groove achieved its place as a fan favorite despite its shaky history.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S: *Ogre Slayer

Curse Of The Undead Yoma creator Kei Kusunoki later made a modern day Japanese horror series, Ogre Slayer. This manga went on for 20 volumes, and was popular enough to get its own 4-episode OVA series. Final Fantasy writer Kenji Terada handled the anime adaptation, which is sort of like a more terrifying version of Blade Of The Immortal.

In Japan, ogres are usually referred to as "oni", demonic man-eating monsters that feast on human suffering. Some centuries ago, an ogre mother gave birth to a human looking son born not with a horn but an enchanted sword. Both the boy and the sword are called Onikirimaru(aka: Ogre Slayer). The humanish youth believes that if he uses his sword to rid the Earth of all ogres, he will be free of his supernatural past. Fast forward to 1990s where Onikirimaru travels through Japan, getting involved with several cases where ogres prey on innocent humans. One is a schoolgirl infected with ogre twins that spring out of her body whenever she's in trouble, while another has a deceased ogre trying to reform himself after being cut to pieces sometime in feudal Japan. Onikirimaru appears like a Japanese schoolgirl as he goes on his seemingly never-ending quest.

There's some outright gore in this anime, plus some violently sexual situations, so really not for kids. Viz released the anime on VHS only in both dubbed and subtitled, but they only put out the first 2 volumes of the manga series, so you might have to dig around a little to get the complete story.

ANI-MOVIES, *Dragonball Super: Broly

Being the first DBZ movie under the Super label, this was meant as a follow up to the Dragonball Super anime series, although whether its officially canon is slightly up in the air. The character of Broly was featured in three other Dragonball films, but none of them have been in the same continuity, and more of an expanded universe, which is what Dragonball GT eventually came to be accepted as. This movie introduces the "legendary Super-Saiyan" into the established timeline, but fitting all the events previously covered in Dragonball Super. Unlike the previous theatrical Dragonball releases, this was co-produced with 20th Century Fox Japan along with Toei.

The first part of the movie retcons alot of the origins of the Saiyan race, which apparently excludes Goku's father Bardock getting psychic powers allowing him to see Planet Vegeta's destruction. Paragus, a prideful Saiyan, resents his unpredictably powerful son Broly being exiled to a far off planet by King Vegeta, and chases after him just as Frieza nukes their homeworld. Jump a few decades, sometime after the Universal Survivor Arc, Frieza is alive again after helping save his own universe, and sends some of his low level flunkies to get the Dragonballs on Earth, all so he can wish himself to be taller. Meanwhile, a pair of Frieza Force minions rescue Paragus and Broly from their outcast to join Frieza's team. All this activity gets Goku and Vegeta's attention as the last Dragonball in the North Pole, where Frieza sicks Broly on Vegeta. After a major tussle between the Saiyan prince and outcast, Goku steps in, but Broly beats him two even in his Super-Saiyan Blue form. Goku and Vegeta teleport away and try to perform fusion, all while Broly stomps the tar out of Frieza in his gold form for a solid hour. Now combined to be "Gogeta", the 2-in-1 Saiyan nearly ends Broly, while turning the Arctic into a volcanic wasteland. Broly was fortunate to make friends with his original rescuers who use the Dragonballs to wish him back to his home planet. Goku seems to not have any problem with this as he teleports their later on with some supplies from Earth, hoping to sometime spar with Broly again just because he enjoys the challenge.

Again, it's not confirmed if this movie is officially part of the Dragonball canon, or if it ties into the Super Dragonball Heroes internet series. It does make for a good retrospective of the established Dragonball history, plus establishes a new status quo concerning Earth's heroes and Frieza's reborn empire. The fight scenes are bombastically invigorating, with probably the greatest superpowered melee shots ever done for an anime. The dub keeps the majority of actors from the previous TV dubs, so there's no real shake up in the localization. The film achieved a major success in America, largely due to it getting a direct theatrical run in U.S. theaters, which helped it not only become the highest grossing anime movie in the franchise, but one of the biggest anime blockbusters of all time.

Legally speaking, you can't be "vengeance", "the night", and "Batman". Pick just one you greedy bastard!

You'll never see a He-Man x Skeletor kiss!

Meanwhile...in every amusement park everywhere...

ANI-MOVIES, *Deathstroke: Knights And Dragons

Similar to Constantine: City Of Angels, DC Comics original "Deadpool" got his own internet animation mini-series that was eventually re-released in this compilation film. Deathstroke was a dark shadow of Captain America originally introduced in the mid-80s as a repeating foil for the Teen Titans, who eventually spun off to his own title as an anti-hero. The character has been seen on the Teen Titans animated series, Arrow, and a cameo in the Justice League movie, but this is the first time that the one-eyed gun for hire has been the star of his own feature. The animation seems more similar to that used on The Venture Bros., which is largely due to a good portion of the production being handled by Titmouse, Inc. The story is also separate from any existing DC Universe titles, as there doesn't seem to be any other superheroes in this reality. J. M. DeMatteis wrote the script, and gives it the lethal seriousness that he showed in Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt.

Slade Wilson is a injured American soldier who volunteers to be part of testing the army's own super-soldier formula. It doesn't seem to work at first, and Slade then separates himself from his lover, Gen. Addie Kane. While he takes his leave from the armed forces, Slade has a brief affair, as well as realizing the experiments had a delayed reaction, where he now has enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes, as well as a powerful healing factor. Thus, Slade adopts the identity of "Deathstroke" as a hired mercenary, while keeping his career secret from Addie, who he marries and has a son named Joseph. Deathstroke is eventually tagged by a terrorist group known as HIVE that send their main agent Jackal to kidnap Joseph and add Slade to their ranks. Joseph gets rescued, but at the cost of his vocal chords, as Deathstroke seemingly kills Jackal. Time jump a decade later where Slade is divorced from Addie, and became a full-time merc. HIVE however is reforming under the leadership of a mysterious new queen, and has Joseph kidnapped again as the mute teen has psychic powers which the terrorists' plan to exploit in their plans for world domination. Slade teams up with Addie and his ex-partner Wintergreen to stop the HIVE, and their commander which turns out to be Deathstroke's daughter Rose he never knew existed who has all of her father's abilities. Rose is really working for the revived Jackal, who was an original character made up specifically for this movie.

Deathstroke: Knights And Dragons functions better as a mini-series as you can see there are breaks in the flow of the plot where they would timeskip several years at a time, and go from one big bad to an even higher big bad waiting in the wings. This was one of the faults with the Constantine mini-series, plus the two Arroverse animated spinoffs, Vixen and The Ray. The production quality seems to lack a little of the more cinematic style of the regular DC Animated Universe titles, but at least as good as the Harley Quinn series. The main drawback in the movie is the motivations of the Jackal as we never learn his true intentions, and spends the entire film under battle armor, so we don't find out his real identity. It was suggested that Jackal is supposed to be a stand in for Deathstroke's original son(aka: Ravager), but his appearance seems more like he's with the DC Comics' criminal organization Kobra. If you've been waiting as long as most fans have for Deathstroke to finally get his own movie, then this will tide you over until they give him the eventual live-action film. Although, fans of hard-R splatterhouse action should also be satisfied.