It’s a simple fact. Villains get the best songs. Dr. Facilier sang “Friends on the Other Side.” Ursula had “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” Mother Gothel gave us “Mother Knows Best,” and Scar provided one of the most haunting performances in Disney history with “Be Prepared.” Each steals the show.
Unfortunately, some of Disney’s most captivating villains don’t have their own songs. Maleficent. The Evil Queen. The Horned King. But what about the evil sorceress Yzma? Equal parts comic and nefarious, she is the primary antagonist of Disney’s 40th animated feature, “The Emperor’s New Groove.” Voiced by the legendary Eartha Kitt, it would seem like a no-brainer to give her a musical number in the film. And yet…none appears.
The Emperor’s New Groove (released in 2000) is less of a musical than many of the Disney films that went before it. The song “Perfect World,” performed by Tom Jones, is featured at the beginning and end of the movie, but that’s about it. Even the Oscar-nominated “My Funny Friend and Me” does not appear until the film’s credits.
But that wasn’t always the plan. For much of its life, the movie was envisioned as a musical, which would have included a stunning song, “Snuff Out the Light” performed by Yzma. So, what happened?
The Kingdom of the Sun
In 1994, director Roger Allers saw the debut of the smash hit The Lion King. At this point, he and writer Matthew Jacobs came up with the idea for a new film: Kingdom of the Sun. The movie was to be set in the kingdom of the Inca.
Despite its South American setting, the movie was to draw its plot from a quintessentially North American source: the writings of Mark Twain. The story would adapt Twain’s novel The Prince and the Pauper. The part of the prince, named Manca at the time, would be voiced by David Spade, while the pauper, Pacha, was to be performed by Owen Wilson.
In the story, the film’s villain, Yzma, sought to revive the shadow god Supai in the hopes that he would restore her youth. To do so, she must sacrifice Prince Manca, who bears the symbol of the sun. The song “Snuff Out the Light” details her motivations:
When a woman acquires a certain age
And the men who adored you no longer swoon
It pays to avoid the sunlit days
And live by the light of the kindly moon
But the moon grows old just like us all
And her beautiful years are done
So now she prays through endless days
To take her revenge on the sun
When I was a girl at my daddy’s side
Papa, the royal mortician
Revealed to me in secret signs
The mark of the magician
And daddy was no dummy
Did outrageous things with a mummy
And often the stiffs that he would drive
Would look better dead than they did alive
I studied well I learnt the trade
I thought my looks would never fade
If I could find that recipe
To give eternal youth to me
It was always my ambition
To use papa’s tuition
And gain some small remission
From the vagaries of time
Every little ray of sunshine robs me of my youth
Who to blame? Who the one? Who to curse?
You know the only one to blame
Would be my enemy the sun
Snuff out the light, claim your right
To a world of darkness
Snuff out the light, neophytes
Of a world of darkness
Supai baby, turn me on
Every wrinkle soon be gone
I could squeeze myself with glee
The promises you made to me
I’ve really stopped at nothing
Murder, treachery and lying
Whatever it takes to keep my looks
You really can’t blame a girl for trying
Snuff out the light, claim your right
To a world of darkness
Snuff out the light, neophytes
Of a world of darkness
Snuff out the light, claim your right
To a world of darkness
Snuff out the light here tonight
Apparitions of eternal darkness
Spiraling in circles through the night
Creatures of beguiling blackness
No more squinting in the light
Bats and owls and coiled sea dragons
Crocodile and carrion beasts
Swirling in the growing darkness
Join us in the coming feast
Spectre wraith and apparition
Spirit demon phantom shade
Salamander serpents, dog-faced devils
Dance and watch the dying sunlight fade
The music for the movie, including “Snuff Out the Light” were composed by the team of David Hartley and rock icon Sting (aka Gordon Sumner).
Unfortunately, the movie suffered numerous setbacks during production. Disagreements about the plot led to significant revisions, with Disney feeling that the original concept was too similar to other Prince and the Pauper adaptations. Complicating matters further, the film received a poor response from test audiences and CEO Michael Eisner expressed displeasure with it.
Director Mark Dindal, the man responsible for the Warner Brothers’ film Cats Don’t Dance, was brought in to assist with the movie. His vision differed drastically from Allers, who wanted to emphasize drama over comedy. The disagreements eventually led Allers to quit the film, causing Eisner to threaten to shut down production completely.
A complete re-tooling of the movie began. The plot was drastically changed, and John Goodman replaced actor Owen Wilson as Pacha. The songs composed by Hartley and Sting were scrapped from the film, as they reflected the original plot. Sadly, this included “Snuff Out The Light.” It was a development not well received by the musical superstar, who commented, “At first, I was angry and perturbed. Then I wanted some vengeance.”
Fortunately, many of the discarded songs were included in The Emperor’s New Groove original soundtrack album, including Yzma’s grand number.
Inside the Sweatbox
The chaos of the production was captured in a documentary titled The Sweatbox, directed by Trudie Styler (who also happens to be Sting’s wife), and John Paul Davidson. A review from MotionPictureComics.com states, “the first thirty-to-forty minutes of The Sweatbox unfolds as one might expect any in-depth look at the making of an animated film to go”…about forty minutes in, we witness the fateful day in which an early story-boarded cut of the film is screened for the heads of Disney Feature Animation, Thomas Schumacher and Peter Schneider. They hate the film, declare that it is not working, and begin a process of totally scrapping and reinventing huge chunks of the story. Characters are totally changed…voice actors are replaced, and the entire story is shifted around.”
Unfortunately, most of the world would not be able to see the finished product. An altered and Disney-approved version was released as a featurette with the DVD release of The Emperor’s New Groove. Viewers would not get the chance to watch the original until it was leaked by an 18-year-old cartoonist from the United Kingdom.
A review from Cartoon Brew states, “The Sweatbox is at turns infuriating, hilarious and enlightening. You’ll cringe in sympathy with the Disney artists as you see the gross bureaucratic incompetence they had to endure while working at the studio in the 1990s. The film not only captures the tortured morphing of the Kingdom of the Sun into The Emperor’s New Groove, it also serves as an invaluable historical document about Disney’s animation operations in the late-1990s. If any questions remain about why Disney fizzled out creatively and surrendered its feature animation crown to Pixar and DreamWorks, this film will answer them.”
The story of Kingdom of the Sun and, by extension, “Snuff Out the Light” casts a fascinating light on the production process of an animated film, revealing the conflict, politicking, and struggles that go into creating a work of art. But it is still only part of the story when it comes to the music.
Next week, we’ll dig deeper into the men who wrote the music for Yzma’s song: David Hartley and Sting.
Make Mine Music 