For the extra reading diary for this week (which I'm also doing on Monday night, what?!), I chose Andersen Fairy Tales for no other reason than the Emperor's New Suit. This is mainly because I'm fairly certain the Disney movie, The Emperor's New Groove, is based on this story. If you haven't seen it, by the way, go watch it now! It's probably top 3 in my favorite kid's movies of all time. I don't know how many times I've seen it, but it's a pretty high tally. After a quick Google, it appears they only have a similar name, but I'm gonna leave it because I love this movie and feel like everyone should watch it.
The main characters from The Emperor's New Groove.
Characters left to right: Yzma, Kronk, Emperor Kuzco and Pacha.
In the Emperor's New Suit, there lives an emperor who only wants to wear the newest and most stylish clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day. One day some dudes rolled up to his overly festive kingdom and said they could make the finest clothes the emperor had seen. Their clothes had the ability to be invisible to any ruler unfit to rule or one who was exceptionally dumb. The king agreed to pay them a lot of money.
They began "working" on the clothes, when really they were just pretending to make them and taking the fine silk and gold cloth the king gave them and storing them away. The king couldn't see what they were making, so he sent his most trusted minster to check on them, because surely he wasn't unfit for office. When the minster couldn't see anything either, he pretended he could so they wouldn't think he was unfit or dumb. One other person, the king himself, and eventually all the people acted like they could see the clothes the men were making.
Once it was "ready," the men acted like they were carrying things to the king, and gave him all of his new clothes. He puts them on, and still, everyone pretends like they can see the clothes so no one thinks they are dumb. The king's servants even carry the "train" to the cloak, when in reality they were holding nothing at all. Everyone "saw" the clothes, until one small child spoke up. "He's wearing nothing at all!" the kid said. His father agreed, and eventually so did the rest of the people. The king thought these people were right, but carried on as if he was wearing the finest cloaks and garments possible.
'The Emperor's New Groove' was one of my favorite childhoood movies as well! Before that though I remember reading the 'The Emperor's New Clothes.' Imagine my surprise when I saw the movie and realized there was no correlation between the two. While I'm sorry there's no correlation between one of your favorite childhood movies and this classic tale, I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless. It's a fun story and goes to show that one shouldn't put their faith completely in what other people think.
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