We didn't watch the movies that came after the renaissance period (ie. after Tarzan) until we were adults. Also, we never watched the dubbed versions anymore (because the quality had for some reason dropped). Hence these will be Disney, presently, not retrospectively.
The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
It's okay. It's funny in places, the characters are fine. It's perfectly inoffensive apart for the slight homophobia that seemed to be a thing in early 2000's comedies. That does not mean that we don't have problems with it.
Characters
Kuzco: The first self-aware main character of Disney. We're not big fans. But at least he has a narrative which is simple and memorable. He's occasionally quite humorous and David Spade is the reason for that.
Pacha: The voice actor is why we remember this character (had to look up the chacracter's name on Imdb). He's the voice of reason character, the sympathetic one and that's pretty much all we can say about him. If it wasn't for Goodman's voice, this character would be forgettable.
Yzma: A passable villain, but not nearly as entertaining as Ursula. In addition, you had Eartha Kitt voicing her; why the fuck did you not give her a song?! What a waste.
Minor characters: Kronk is the best thing about this movie. He's a classic, funny renaissance sidekick character. Pacha's family was nothing to write home about, but also not terrible.
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Story
In essence, it's a buddy roadtrip movie and because of that simplicity, it's passable. However, this is not a Disney film. It's Dreamworks: the fourth wall breaks, the narration and the infinite self-awareness that pokes fun at traditional storytelling. We're grumpy traditionalists when it comes to storytelling so it should not come as a surprise that the aforementioned rub us the wrong way. Especially since most Western animations after this are saturated with these tricks. It turned tiresome real quick. We're guessing that Pixar was the main influence on why Disney suddenly decided to change their whole MO.
Miscellaneous
All the character designs are very memorable, the background animation is serviceable but it's nothing compared to what Disney was capable of. Their previous movie also happened in a jungle and it looks incomparable. Also, we dont remember any of the music, not even the Elvis song in the beginning, and it's a problem they have yet to fix.
