Kronk's New Groove

Now we come to a fairly entertaining sequel, Kronk’s New Groove, released in 2005. The basic story is that Kronk (Patrick Warburton) finds out that his father (John Mahoney) is coming to visit him, so he tries everything he thinks of to impress him. After every single one of his plans go bad, his friends try to help him give his father what he wants. Kronk then figures out that his friends and family are more important than anything else.

To be completely honest, this is one of the selected handfuls of Disney sequels that I enjoyed watching. Anna Catherine admitted in her review, “I watched it directly after watching The Emperor's New Groove, so I caught a lot of inside jokes and other funny stuff.   In other words, I was a giggly mess for almost four hours.”

Kronk, the right hand man/wannabe chef from the previous film, is now a chef and is happy with his job at Mudka’s Meat Hut. He’s doing what he dreamed to do as head cook of the restaurant and has many friends in the townspeople. Once he receives a letter that his father is going to visit him, he freaks. He tells the waitress, voiced by Patti Deutsch, one of his childhood memories.

Kronk tells waitress that when he was a child, his father never appreciated him. Kronk’s only wish was to be a chef and Kronk’s father never supported him. His father wanted for him to do was to settle down with a wife and children in a big house on a hill. Obviously, Kronk was not able to do that. He lied to his father in every one of his letters about his large house and his family just so he can make his father happy. Kronk tells the waitress that he almost had that.

Yzma, the villain from the last movie, reprised by Eartha Kitt, now is back with her schemes. She recruited Kronk’s assistance to sell “youth potions” to the people at the senior home. When the seniors don’t have any more money to buy them, they sell the senior home to Kronk. Kronk does get his dream home on a hill. After finding out that the “youth potion” was only a scam, he gives the senior home back.

At Camp Chippamunka, Kronk meets Miss Birdwell, voiced by Tracey Ullman. At first, the two are immediate enemies. Later, after finding out that they have same interests, they fall in love. When Tipo, one of Kronk’s squirrel recruits, voiced by Eli Russell Linnetz, cheats in one of the contests, Kronk takes the blame. Miss Birdwell is angry, and the two break up.

When Kronk’s father shows up at Mudka’s Meat Hut, everyone agrees to help him out with his dishonesty. Pacha (John Goodman) agrees to let his wife (Wendie Malick) and his children Chaca (Jessie Flower) and Tipo play as the wife and children and Pacha disguises as the mother-in-law, causing confusion and chaos. Kronk eventually has to confess that he did not have what his father wanted him to have. You have to watch the movie to see if his father still accepts him for the way he is.

Catherine admitted, “Though not quite as funny as the original, Kronk's New Groove still had me giggling the entire way through!” Unlike the first movie, this move has more of a moral to the story. This film tells you to be yourself, which is actually a hard thing to do, but that’s how you need to live your life. Catherine ended her review by saying, “Also, you'll probably want to bake after this, so pull out your favorite spinach puffs recipe!”

I do think that the first movie was more enjoyable than this, but this one is entertaining in its own way. Also, David Spade comes back as Emperor Kuzco in a smaller role, since this movie’s main focus is on Kronk. When I saw this movie, I was laughing throughout and I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone thinks it is. So I’ll say to watch this because you will have an entertaining time throughout the duration of the movie.

Heads up everyone: I’m going to be seeing the new Star Wars movie today, so I will be reviewing that later on. That is right for this month since this is, as I stated after every review, “Disney Sequel Month.”