The soundtrack to Disney's
The Emperor's New Groove, about a haughty young emperor in pre-Colombia, South America, who gets his comeuppance when he is turned into a llama by scheming courtiers, features songs written by
Sting and
David Hartley and a score by
John Debney.
Tom Jones and
Eartha Kitt lend their voices to Latin pop and R&B-inspired songs such as "Perfect World" and "Snuff Out the Light," while
Sting himself sings "My Funny Friend and Me" and performs a duet with
Shawn Colvin on "One Day She'll Love Me."
Debney's score is the album's star, however, ranging from tense and taut to soft and gentle on pieces like "Beware the Groove," "Jungle Rescue," and "A New Hope." Strangely, several of the
Sting-penned songs included on the soundtrack were not used in the final cut of
The Emperor's New Groove; that's a pity, because even though the film's songs aren't quite as inspired as the work that
Howard Ashman and
Alan Mencken have done for Disney, they're still some of the more interesting songs related to the studio in recent years. ~ Heather Phares