At the end of the year, when so many "prestigious" Oscar-baiting films flood the theaters, it's inevitable that a few really good movies that just don't quite fit the awards show mold will fall through the cracks. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is "The Emperor's New Groove," Disney's latest animated offering.

"Groove"'s hero is Emperor Kuzco (David Spade), the young ruler of a fictional, vaguely Inca-like land. The naïve Kuzco thinks he can fire his obviously evil advisor Yzma (Eartha Kitt) when she surreptitiously starts usurping his power. A cross between Cruella De Vil and Ursula the Sea-Witch, Yzma doesn't take this sitting down.

She immediately begins plotting Kuzco's death, aided by her clueless minion Kronk (Patrick Warburton). Kronk's incompetence results in Kuzco's transformation into a talking llama. He winds up in the care of Pacha (John Goodman), a peasant whose village is targeted for demolition to make way for the emperor's new summer home.

The heart of the film deals with Kuzco and Pacha's quest to return to the palace and Yzma's and Kronk's race to hunt them down.

Eschewing such Disney conventions as musical numbers and doe-eyed gentle-hearted heroines, "Groove" plays more like a Bugs Bunny cartoon than the heir to films like "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast"-which is to say it's pleasantly bizarre and absolutely hilarious. The film is a relentless barrage of visual gags, verbal puns and just plain oddities.

Spade displays just enough of his trademark sarcasm as Kuzco, and Goodman works just as well as a straight man as he did on "Roseanne." But by far the best thing about the movie is Kronk. Warburton (you may remember him as Elaine's boyfriend Puddy on "Seinfeld") gives a brilliant performance. He gets almost all the best lines, and his bone-dry delivery makes them even funnier.

Like most Disney movies, "Groove" has enough variety of humor to keep both adults and kids amused, but the jokes are never dumbed-down.

"Groove" started out as a standard Disney musical romance called "Kingdom of the Sun" with songs by Sting, but it was completely overhauled when the producers felt it wasn't working. Thankfully, little of the original remains-there's a bit of sap as Kuzco learns to appreciate the value of the peasants and a truly awful Sting song during the credits. Sting's other song, sung by an animated Tom Jones in the beginning of the film, fits the tone perfectly and adds to the charm.

It's a shame that one of the funniest movies of 2000 has been buried in a sea of "serious" (and seriously boring) flicks.