The Sweatbox

This documentary records the production of the Disney film that began as Kingdom of the Sun and eventually emerged as The Emperor's New Groove. Trudie Styler was granted access to the studio with a camera when her husband Sting joined the project to write songs, and she shot across four years. The resulting material is a rare record of how a large animation studio works from inside. The film's direction is changed entirely, sequences worked on for years are cancelled, one of the directors leaves the project and most of the songs are discarded. Sting's reaction to his own song being cut is on the recording. The documentary was never officially released. After a brief festival screening it went into no distribution and years later leaked online. That situation accounts for most of its reputation. Who it's for: those interested in animation production and the studio system. Who it's not for: viewers expecting high picture quality; the circulating copies are low resolution.