#the sweatbox

[the-plot-blog-thing]

For Fun: Here's My Favorite Disney Songs That Were Deleted/Changed In The Final Film (Part 5)

Eventually, the Disney executives decided the film wasn't working, and called for a complete retool. Roger Allers left, leaving Cats Don't Dance director Mark Dindal as the sole director on the film. The film became a buddy comedy, road-trip Looney Tunes-esque film set in ancient Peru, known as Kingdom in the Sun, later known by release as The Emperor's New Groove. All of Sting and David Hartley's songs were cut, but they stayed on to write "Perfect World", Kuzco's theme for the beginning and end of the film, and "My Funny Friend and Me' which is the end credits song. However, at one point, Yzma was going to have her own reprise of "Perfect World". About halfway through the film, after Kuzco's fake funeral would've been when this reprise would've taken place. (The fact that Eartha Kitt does not sing in the final film at all is the biggest problem of Emperor's New Groove)

(If you do get the chance, check out the documentary "The Sweatbox" on Internet Archive. It documents the crazy development of this film, and Disney intentionally tried to bury it as it made their execs look bad. It's very interesting, so give it a watch!)

Tangled and Frozen were both in development for a significantly long time for Disney movie standards. Back when Tangled was called Rapunzel, songwriter Chris Curtis wrote these two songs based on an early draft: "All That I've Done for You" and "Are There Girls In The World Like Me?"

For the final film, there was a cut reprise of "When Will My Life Begin" and "Mother Knows Best" was also longer initially.

Alan Menken wrote an early song for Frozen called "Love Can't Be Denied" back when the film was called The Snow Queen

Finally, my personal favorite cut song from Frozen by the Lopez's is "Life's Too Short" which was replaced by the "First Time in Forever" reprise in the final film. I like how the sibling energy feels between Anna and Elsa here.

That's all the songs I'm gonna cover here, but there are plenty more. Alice in Wonderland had like two movie's worth of cut songs to go through. But thank you for indulging in my wordy nerd posts!

[thedyf]

Kingdom of the Sun: Animated Compilation (June 2021)

[eekwinn]

Watching the documentary "The Sweatbox" on the creation of Kingdom of the Sun, and eventually The Emperor's New Groove. What immediately caught my eye is the lack of any diversity in the creative team - directors, animators, writers, musicians were all white men trying to write a story of the indigenous people of South America! On top of all of that, they had too many plots in one movie (romance, magic, prince/pauper swap, musical) - no wonder it didn't work as originally thought. Many of Sting's songs are too relaxed or slow for what the movie became so them being cut was the right choice.

Would that have been different if any women or people of color had been involved in the early days? Would it have stayed a musical? Would it have kept a more complex plot?

With all the said, I really enjoy The Emperor's New Groove and I think it has come to be seen as a good film.

[inmate62763]

Convict... Cause any more trouble whilst you are on the chain gang and you will get another 24 hours confinement in the sweatbox.

[myrdrottningen]

Oh, there's actually a whole documentary on the process on what happened with Emperors groove/Kingdom of the sun! It has to be watched in parts and like, teeny tiny in a corner because every now and then Disney tries to take it down but it's been around for too long to be stopped:

https://youtu.be/rSoBkTIg2OM

emperor kuzco was clearly gay

[really-good-devil]

matt murdock in and out of the daredevil suit gets me like a victorian man about to catch the flu bc his lady love showed him her stocking like the suit does nothing i don't think anything about it but if he takes off his mask, gloves and/or boots and the rest of him is still fully clothed i need smelling salts

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Record Label History: 4AD Records (BAD 506)

The Wolfgang Press

Sweatbox (1985)

[patzweigz]

watching the frozen 2 documentary and it really is just. all the more fascinating that disney buried the sweatbox as they did

because functionally they're very similar? sweatbox is of course more focused on sting, and i suppose with him being a very critical outsider to the film making process (along with just nakedly showing the reality of the disney artists as well) is probably why only a sliver of it has been released officially. the frozen 2 doc is just the sweatbox but sanatized to prop up rather than examine the disney machine...

and yet. because of the inherent messy nature of making corporate art, it can never be fully sanitized. there are raw kernels of insight just waiting to pop under the surface, those that had fully bloomed in the sweatbox. and even as mild as they are (perhaps the only incendiary thing that happens in the doc is the swearing), they betray the corporate mythos and thus can never be broadcasted. just... little things, even, like andreas deja choosing to leave emperor's new groove after the shuffle, betray the narrative that disney so badly wants people to buy into...

but even the frozen 2 doc, as manufactured as it is, displays the falliblity of the system. the fact that with less than a year left to release-- with a trailer released --the story was still being ironed out... it's a wonder that emperor's new groove was able to be what it was despite enduring similar circumstances

[mikejudge]

i don't talk about it enough but yzma is like one of my favorite characters ever i love her evil ass

[mywifeleftme]

292: Various Artists // Abstract Magazine Issue 5

Abstract Magazine Issue 5 Various Artists 1985, Sweatbox Just got up to flip the record after sitting cross-legged on the couch typing on my laptop for quite a bit, not realizing my leg had fallen asleep until I tried to plant on it and had to pinwheel my arms to keep from falling flat out and cracking my head into my turntable. Absolutely how the coroner will shoot my body someday too, ass-naked and alone on the floor of my apartment, surrounded by instruments I can’t play and books I haven’t gotten to, bleeding into my record collection with a scythe propped sardonically against the wall in the background.

Speaking of ignominious deaths, while doing some research on the compiler of today’s record, a post-punk compilation / fanzine combo from 1985, the first thing that came up was a 2007 post from Burl Veneer’s old Typepad blog, specifically this inimitable sentence: “Abstract was the brainchild of Rob Deacon, who died last month in a canoeing accident at age 42 (same as me).” Strange nautical coincidence that, and a neat trick for Burl to keep blogging after death too (in fact, he’s still at it here on Tumblr), but I kept link hopping, and have learned that Deacon was quite a special guy, and a pivotal figure in two or three generations of UK music.

There’s genuine fondness and grief in The Guardian obit, the kind they reserve for lesser-known people who busted their asses and made a difference behind the scenes in media, and they spell out a resume I’m a little ashamed not to have been more up on. He was in his late teens when he started Abstract magazine, profiling the cream of the post-punk crop and cajoling exclusive tracks out of a bunch of them. Abstract would eventually morph into his own label, the influential Sweatbox, but the magazine + compilation bug stuck with him, and he’d go on to start the CD-era Volume series, which moved real numbers for an indie comp and featured… Jesus, everybody, apparently. He followed that up with the groundbreaking Trance Europe Express and Trance Atlantic electronic compilations, became a dance night impresario, did music photography, started a label (Deviant)… and then he fell out of his fuckin’ boat. Damn.

Abstract #5 is a real time capsule of 1985, featuring songs and interviews with the likes of Swans, Gene Loves Jezebel, Cindytalk, Colourbox, and the Jazz Butcher, interspersed with record reviews, scene reports, comics and more. The written pieces are all over the place stylistically, some transcribed in a borderline-incoherent fashion, others fighting for their lives against the adventurous two-tone printed layouts, but it has a wonderful fanzine energy and a level of ballsy spite you don’t see much these days.

Nearly every artist has a bone to pick with their label or journalists or bands they used to like that sold out or fans who have any sort of expectations of them. (The editorial pages get into it too, describing Morrissey “prancing daffodilously” and previewing a new New Order tune called “I’ve Got a Cock Like the M1,” which would see daylight as “The Perfect Kiss.”)

It’s zany and vulnerable and, even just shy of 40 years later, totally inspiring stuff. Highlights include Swans’ Michael Gira’s typically serial killer-coded interview, in which he talks about watching TV for 14 hours a day and shares the trans body horrific lyrics to a song called “BASTARD” that would eventually come out during the band’s maniac 1986; an account from industrial music pioneers Test Dept of the ’84 miner’s strike in South Wales, with a photo of one member who appears to have two sets of upper teeth like a shark; and the 400 Blows talking about having recorded their contribution to the issue in an echoing drainage pipe in which they nearly became trapped and drowned.

Musically this is by design a mixed bag (side one is kind of the uncommercial, experimental bits; side two the peppier guitar pop stuff). None of these exclusives would make anyone’s definitive collection of any of these bands, but as a complete listening and reading experience, Abstract #5 is a beautiful celebration. Cheers to Rob.

292/365

[justsome-di]

I’m making a deal with myself that if I get one of my homework assignments done tonight, I get to watch The Sweatbox before bed

[viridesco]

honestly respect to f1 drivers but i truly think there is no vehicle hotter than my yellow ka+ without ac for 3h in the uk today

[riddlerosehearts]

thinking about how people who watch the emperor's new groove and somehow come out of it shipping pacha and kuzco, or thinking yzma only became evil when kuzco fired her and that she would've been a better ruler than him, are both so wrong in so many different ways and are also missing one of the things that i absolutely love about the movie. which is that, the way i see it, pacha and yzma are counterparts. as parental figures to kuzco.

like, just to get this out of the way first, yzma was a dismissive asshole to a peasant whose family was starving. and yeah, if kuzco had been in her place he definitely would've also done that, which... is why she would not be a better ruler than him. she'd just be the same because they're both horrible people in the exact same ways. her reaction to being fired is to plot murder, and as soon as his funeral is over she sets everyone to work on replacing paintings of kuzco with paintings of herself and covering the palace with imagery that makes it clear that it's all about her now. i'm not even sure why this is a discussion tbh.

and also, kuzco is literally a teenager. he's barely 18 years old. source: in the movie, yzma says at his funeral that kuzco was "taken from us so tragically on the very eve of his eighteenth birthday." she also claims in the movie to have "practically raised" him, to which kronk replies "yeah, you'd think he would've turned out better". and sure, she could be exaggerating, but what evidence do we have that she is? we learn absolutely nothing of his parents, who are never mentioned even once in the movie, or of anyone else who could've raised him, and she's his advisor who for some reason sees no problem with attending to royal duties in his place. most likely because she's his regent. also, i'm not exactly a fan of the sequel tv series "the emperor's new school" but it does have something that backs up my point: kuzco is revealed to be an orphan and just before his father went and got lost at sea, he asked yzma (who was also his advisor) to take care of kuzco if anything happened to him. so, yeah, the writers who worked on the series clearly thought that yzma genuinely did raise kuzco, and nothing in the movie contradicts this.

and i find the idea of her being his only parental figure for pretty much his whole childhood incredibly interesting because, and this also goes back into why she wouldn't be a better ruler than him--she mirrors him as a reflection of what would've become of him if he'd never met pacha. they're both incredibly arrogant, power-hungry, selfish, and cruel, with a tendency to blame their problems on everyone but themselves. yzma was even originally going to have her own reprise of kuzco's theme song "perfect world", which i really wish had been kept:

[ID: Lyrics that read:

I'Il be the sovereign queen of the nation And the chicest chick in creation I'm the cat with all the cream and ooh-la-la This deadly concentration Will put an end to my frustration Now this perfect world begins and ends with moi

What's my name? Yzma, Yzma, Yzma Yzma (what's my name?) Yzma, Yzma (What'd you say?) Yzma (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!) Yzma. End ID]

(this song can be fully heard in "the sweatbox", the documentary about the making of the movie, and is also on youtube btw)

anyway, i'm sure yzma would not exactly have been the most nurturing or hands-on guardian, especially given that she and kuzco don't exactly treat each other like family. but it makes a lot of sense to think that her behavior influened kuzco's throughout the years. and for the entire movie, she remains determined to kill him. when he tries to reason with her and admits that he should've been nicer, she says the same thing to him that he originally said when he fired her. she never grows or changes and in the end, she hurts the one person who was willing to stand by her (and even then, kronk had never fully been on board with her plan) and he ends up trying to crush her with a chandelier. kuzco on the other hand is able to realize the error of his ways, come to regret who he was in the past, and start taking steps toward being a better person. his theme song gets a reprise where it's changed from a song about one person being the center of the world to a Power Of Friendship song. why? because, as i've already mentioned, he has pacha.

pacha, who similarly to both yzma and kuzco is in a position of authority as the leader of the village but unlike either of them is gentle and humble. who isn't afraid to stand up to kuzco and be honest with him even though he's the emperor, who agrees to take him back to the palace but has no obligation to be so helpful, kind, and caring toward him--and just about every reason not to be--and still chooses to be anyway. pacha who is 45 years old (also stated in the sweatbox documentary) and can see that kuzco is practically still a kid, not a single day over 18, who has time to grow and change. pacha, who already has a wife and two kids with another on the way, but practically treats kuzco like one of his own. who acknowledges that if kuzco dies all his problems will be gone and then still worries about him and goes out of his way to rescue him after he wanders into the jungle. who sees kuzco shivering at night and covers him with his poncho, who carries him when he's genuinely too weak to keep walking, who refuses to give up on him even after repeatedly being betrayed by him because he believes there's good in everyone.

also, while yzma ends up repeating kuzco's harsh words of dismissal as she tells him of her plans to kill him, kuzco had previously repeated pacha's words that "nobody's that heartless" after he saved pacha's life. and as the movie progresses kuzco and pacha's relationship becomes more and more equal and is constantly contrasted by moments of yzma being cruel and unappreciative of kronk's kindness. a good example of this is how kronk is constantly being forced to carry yzma everywhere on his back while yzma literally walks all over him and steps on his hands when she gets down, whereas when pacha briefly carries kuzco after the latter collapses he tells him he'll have to walk the rest of the way later and kuzco doesn't even protest.

idk if i'm even explaining well what i'm trying to say here. but basically, if yzma actually raised kuzco and contributed to his current behavior, then she and pacha both are figures who guided him and helped him grow. only yzma helped him become the tyrant that he was at the start of the movie, who was selfish and callous and saw everyone else as beneath him. whereas pacha helped him see the value in being selfless and considerate of others. and in the end, yzma is stuck as a cat and nobody is concerned about her. kronk has found a new job that makes him genuinely happy, while kuzco has decided to build a hut on the hill next to pacha's and effectively joined his family. in the sweatbox documentary it's even mentioned that chicha and the kids were at risk of being removed from the film, but it was decided that they needed to be there because having just pacha as a single guy who lived alone wasn't interesting enough--kuzco needed to go from having basically an empty world where he had nobody to being able to come together with pacha's whole family. and i just think that's incredibly satisfying and beautiful. it also leads up to one of the few things i really do enjoy about the emperor's new school, which is the fact that during the show kuzco moves in with pacha and chicha and pretty explicitly thinks of them as basically his parents while he's like a son to them.

idk. i feel like my mind went in a million different directions while i was writing all this. but i guess i just think that for all of the praise the emperor's new groove gets for its comedy and for how hilarious yzma and kronk in particular are as a duo, the movie also has a lot of genuine heart that gets overlooked. kuzco's character growth and his unique dynamic with pacha is, for me, really what elevates the movie from just a funny movie that i like to one of my favorite disney movies. and i wish more people appreciated that aspect of it and saw it as a found family story in the same way that treasure planet, brother bear, and lilo and stitch are all found family stories.

[postpunkindustrial]

Skinny Puppy – Ain't It Dead Yet VHS

A live video companion to the Ain't it Dead Yet live album. The live video that shows Skinny Puppy on the cusp of their late career experimental peak.

A great showing of Skinny Puppy's Industrial Horror Goth aesthetic crammed into a punk gig sweatbox.

One of the great live show documents of the era.

You can get a DVD rip of the show fon my Google Drive HERE.

also here is the record on bandcamp.