The Emperor's New Groove 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Emperor's New Groove 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 7, 2025

For all the blowback Disney has gotten for going "woke", The Emperor's New Groove might be a prime example of the studio going "old school" (meaning about as far from "woke" as you can get) by casting David Spade as a supposedly pre-Columbian Incan royal, though that said, there may not be that many real descendants of Incans working in the voice actor field that Disney might have met with more PC approval by hiring. Even given certain questionable (by contemporary standards) casting decisions, my hunch is even diehard Mouse House fans would ever place The Emperor's New Groove toward the top of the studio's animated output. It's a pleasant enough time filler, but it's never aesthetically very challenging, its story is definitely old hat (and/or crown), and perhaps most surprisingly even an intermittent song score contributed to by Sting isn't especially exciting. At least some of these deficits may be due to what was evidently some pretty major retooling during production, but even given that chaotic state of affairs, The Emperor's New Groove really never finds its groove.

The Emperor's New Groove was released on a "two fer" 1080 Blu-ray disc years ago with its sequel, and Ken Brown's The Emperor's New Groove / Kronk's New Groove Blu-ray review offers Ken's thoughts on that release. There's a separate (singular) The Emperor's New Groove Blu-ray review Ken also offered culled from the "double feature" review. For the record, the sequel is not included here.

The Emperor's New Groove 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Disney in all their wisdom is offering a 4K presentation in 1.66:1 and a 1080 presentation in 1.68:1 (per the old release). I typically don't include screenshots taken directly from the 4K disc since downscaling to 1080 and SDR offers an inaccurate representation of the palette in particular, but for those interested I've offered a couple of screenshots in positions 6 and 7 directly from the 4K UHD disc. Screenshots 1 through 5 are from the 1080 disc and certainly offer a more accurate representation of the palette, even if the original aspect ratio is a little off.

The Emperor's New Groove is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Disney / Buena Vista with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in a 1.66:1. Ken noted some relatively minor anomalies in Disney's 1080 presentation, and if the 4K disc isn't a complete "wow", it at least has ameliorated some of the banding and aliasing that Ken details in his review. However, once again it's probably the palette rather than any huge uptick in clarity or "detail" (such as it is in this kind of middling style of animation) that will attract the most attention. To my eyes, the Dolby Vision / HDR grades tend to add the most "oomph" toward the warmer end of the spectrum, with reds, yellows and oranges really offering some newly vivid and nuanced tones. Blues and purples toward the cool end are often also quite inviting, if perhaps not as noticeably different from the old SDR presentation. The increased resolution may only tend to point out a few passing inconsistencies in line detail (noticeable in the 1080 version as well, though probably not as overtly). Still, for fans of the film, this should prove to be an appealing if limited upgrade in video quality.

The Emperor's New Groove 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Emperor's New Groove gets an upgraded Dolby Atmos mix for this 4K version, and while probably not reference quality it does add some noticeable new immersion and verticality in several scenes, as in the opening torrential rainfall vignette, or later when one of the Emperor's toadies gets tossed from a window for interrupting the supposed "groove". The glut of outdoor material provides good and consistent engagement of the side and rear channels for ambient environmental effects. The song score (another "victim" of the production difficulties alluded to above) sounds fine and is also nicely spacious, if to my ears not markedly different in presentation from the old DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 version on the 1080 disc. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Emperor's New Groove 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As Ken got into in his old review of the 1080 double feature release, supplements were relegated to the DVDs included in that set. Disney has not opted to port any of the supplements over to either the 1080 or 4K discs in this set, not even in standard definition. Making this kind of "budget label" impression even stronger is the somewhat hilarious retooling of the main menu both the 1080 and 4K discs boot to. It features an image of the Emperor and Kronk "pointing" to a black square, which in the 4K version at least offers the minimal menu options like Play, Scenes, and Setup. On the 1080 disc, however, those menu options are listed at the bottom of the frame and the black square is blank, until the Scenes option is chosen at which point the black square populates with thumbnails of the various chapters. A digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

The Emperor's New Groove 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Disney's treatment of this film on home video kind of reinforces a "remainder" sensibility from the studio, and that may persist to this 4K release, which offers neither the sequel nor any supplements. At least the aspect ratio has been (very slightly) corrected and audio now is presented in Atmos, for any fans who may be considering making a purchase.