Disney's 39th animated feature film, The Emperor's New Groove tells the story of self-centered young emperor Kuzco (David Spade) who is turned into a llama by his disgruntled former adviser Yzma (Eartha Kitt) in a botched assassination attempt. Kuzco finds himself at the mercy of Pacha (John Goodman), a peasant whose home Kuzco was planning to destroy in order to build himself a summer palace. Pacha grudgingly agrees to help Kuzco get back to the palace and attempts to teach him about friendship, loyalty and self-sacrifice during their momentous journey.

The Emperor's New Groove was nominated for a "Best Song" Academy Award for "My Funny Friend and Me," which was written and performed by Sting. Reportedly, Sting only agreed to participate if his wife, documentarian Trudie Styler was permitted to film the production. Disney owns the rights to the resulting film, The Sweatbox, which was shown at a handful of film festivals, but has not been released for private viewing.

A straight to DVD sequel, entitled Kronk's New Groove was released in December of 2005 and a television series, The Emperor's New School premiered on Disney Channel in January of 2006.