Film
Initially conceived as an adaptation of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, after numerous reworkings and plot twists it was transformed into a story heavily focused on the comic charge of the characters. The arrogant emperor Kuzko, transformed into a llama by the wicked councillor Yzma and her clumsy helper Kronk, embarks on a journey with the peasant Pacha that will change him forever. Comedy, which has always been a double-edged sword that can make any product enjoyable but is ill-suited to wide-ranging narratives, turns out in this case to be the backbone of high quality writing, voice actors who are up to the mark and a team of inspired animators who demonstrate an impeccable mastery of expression.
Art
Set in Peru in pre-Columbian times, that of The Emperor's Follies is a golden world of masks, jewellery and blades. Among the Incas, in fact, one of the most developed pre-Columbian civilisations, gold was considered the sweat of the sun (the deity at the centre of their cult). Working it therefore had no material value, but for them it represented a religious ritual. The natives were master goldsmiths, accustomed to blowing pipes to feed the flames of their simple furnaces so that they could melt the precious metal. Using rudimentary tools, these indigenous South Americans created incomparable works of art: throughout their empire they decorated temples with gold, it is said that even the walls of the worship halls were gilded both inside and out. Among the living, only the king was allowed to wear gold jewellery as proof of his divine birth; even the wealthiest members of the nobility had to wait until they were placed in their burial chambers to surround themselves with gold. Until then, they had no choice but to use it to glorify the god and emperor with golden artistic representations.
Well, when a group of Disney animators travelled to Peru, to Machu Picchu, to study the lost city of the Incas, they got to know their artwork by using it as a springboard. Indeed, much of the Inca design lends itself to animation: their textiles feature bizarre animal motifs, as we can see with the character of Pacha and his family. They then took a close look at the golden statues made by the Incas, taking inspiration from those designs to design the façade of the palace. They observed small sculptures and enlarged them and used them out of context. For example, the design of the throne was taken from one of the Inca masks.
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