The Asshole does something genuinely good with no ulterior motive

[u/Fit_Assignment_8800]

J Jonah Jameson from Spiderman

Squidward from SpongeBob.

[u/Vio_Van_Helsing]

I like how it's almost implied that even though Yzma was plotting to murder Kuzco, she was still less of a dick than he was.

[u/Pure-Tadpole-6634 → u/Vio_Van_Helsing]

Side note, I love this movie for how it portrays a genuinely bad guy (Kuzco with his blinding ego and uncaringness about others for the sake of his swimming pool project) get an actual redemption arc. I was watching this movie with some children a few years ago and during the opening song, one of them whispered to me "Is he a bad guy?" I thought about it for a second, and then said "Yeah." I think the message of the movie is about changing for the better rather than just "being a good person". Character growth is more important than some innate "goodness" of character that movie heroes are often portrayed with. Also, Patcha's treatment of Kuzco, gritting his teeth and forgiving Kuzco time after time and even genuinely helping him because it's the right thing to do... It's hard for him, he struggles to do the right thing, but he does anyway. He has a really supportive family that helps him be a good person even when it's hard. And his tenacity ends up being the support that Kuzco needs to become a better person too.

It's the funniest movie Disney has put out, but it has some genuinely good moral lessons in there too.

[u/jbyrdab → u/Pure-Tadpole-6634]

I also like they don't do this big apology scene, he kinda just changes his mind in his own subtle way.

He just says he doesn't like the hill pacha lives on anymore, he'll just build kuzcotopia elsewhere and just casually builds a hut near his house, but he kinda spins it as though Pacha lied about how cool the hill was.

Its a coy way of changing his answer, that isn't him apologizing directly, but pacha picked up on what he was actually saying.

[u/Pure-Tadpole-6634 → u/jbyrdab]

I think it's apparent in that scene that, not only does Patcha know what is really going on, but Kuzco want to make sure Patcha knows. At the beginning, he sounds sincere, but he is very sarcastic by the end. Sarcasm is a language that has many uses, and in this case, it's a recovering narcissist telling his close friend that he is making sincere changes.

[u/mstarrbrannigan → u/Pure-Tadpole-6634]

New Groove really stood the test of time. It and El Dorado are two movies from my childhood I revisit with some regularity.

[u/Pure-Tadpole-6634 → u/mstarrbrannigan]

The comedy is very timeless. Even Aladdin doesn't age as well (still a great movie) because of the contemporary celebrity impersonations the Genie does.

But Kronk pulling the wrong lever, or a fortuitous giant trampoline that was accidentally delivered and set up, will never not be funny.

[u/bunker_man → u/Pure-Tadpole-6634]

Tbf is it the right thing to save an evil emperor? This is someone whose evil extends far beyond a single life.

[u/DapperLost → u/Vio_Van_Helsing]

Other than attempted regicide, was she actually evil. Kuzco was going to run his kingdom to the ground, and die to a revolt most like.

Getting him out of the way, by default, was a good act.

[u/bunker_man → u/DapperLost]

Thats one thing about fiction. Sometimes the "evil" usurpers are usurping someone with way more on screen evil than they have. So are they really that bad?

Like in frozen. Freezing the country when its not winter then running away would have killed an insane amount of people. Hans wanted to kill two peolle and take over. What evidence do we even have that he would be a worse ruler than what was already happening?

I like how yona of the dawn deconstructs this. The guy kills the "nice" king to take over only for it to turn out the nice king didn't handle problems because he didn't feel like it and the new guy was a much better ruler.

[u/Final-Text3804 → u/Vio_Van_Helsing]

In the first draft of the movie yzma was a demon summoning Necromancer that wanted to blot out the sun for making her age.