Directed by: Mark Dindal

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade) is a self-involved young ruler who raises the ire of his sorceress administrator, Yzma (voiced by Eartha Kitt) when he fires her. Seeking revenge (and the throne), Yzma turns Kuzco into a llama. Stripped of his creature comforts, Kuzco must now learn to rely on the peasant Pacha (voiced by John Goodman) to help restore him to his rightful place as Emperor.

Cartoon Cats: After Yzma turns Kuzco into a llama she instructs her dim-witted assistant Kronk (voiced by Patrick Warburton) to dispose of him. But Kronk doesn’t have the heart to kill Kuzko and is trying to sneak him out of the city when he accidentally steps on a sleeping purple cat’s tail on a steep stairway.

Both Kronk and the cat tumble down the stairs, the cat landing on Kronk’s head. As Kronk notices the bag containing Kuzko rolling away on Pacha’s cart, the cat beats a hasty retreat.

At the end of the film when Kuzco and Pacha are in the final battle with Yzma, they are struggling over countless vials of potion which change Kuzco into a variety of animals. At last there are only two vials left and one explodes, changing Yzma into what seems, at first, to be a ferocious bloodthirsty animal. As it turns out she has turned into a kitten.

But this kitten has claws, and she wants the last vial as much as Kuzco.

Pacha tries to get the raging kitten Yzma off Kuzco but is also attacked.

Kuzco finally manages to smash kitten Yzma against the wall.

But Yzma still gets hold of the vial. As she threatens Kuzco she is taken aback by the high-pitched squeakiness of her voice.

She explains that she is going to drink the potion, become human and then kill the emperor.

But her impatience as she struggles to open the bottle with her little kitty paws causes her to throw it again the wall, bouncing it over the high precipice.

Not thinking she leaps after the vial, realizing in cartoon fashion that she’s about to take a big fall.

After falling for ages, she lands on a trampoline (conveniently set up by a trampoline salesperson) and flies back up, catching the vial in mid-flight . . .

. . . before crashing into a ceiling.

But Yzma isn’t done yet.

She still manages to get hold of the vial, snatching it away from Pacha. “I win!” she smiles.

Kronk suddenly throws open a door, smashing kitten Yzma and saving the day.

In the film’s final tag, Kronk is teaching a group of Junior Chipmunks how to speak squirrel. It turns out a relucant kitten Yzma is one of the troop.

A hilarious film with a great payoff, made even more funny by the fact that Eartha Kitt is voicing Yzma (she was also known for playing Cat Woman on the Batman television series.)

Final Mewsings: Don’t underestimate the danger of an angry kitten!

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