ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2015

Kingdom of the Sun
Lost Disney Films

Before The Emperor's New Groove was an Incan roadtrip buddy comedy, it was an Incan 'Prince and the Pauper.'

In 'Kingdom of the Sun,' a bored prince trades places with a young llama herder who looks exactly like him. The evil sorceress Yzma changes the prince into a llama, stranding both prince and pauper in unfamiliar territory.

Kingdom of the Sun failed to wow test audiences and production lagged. Eventually, the film was totally overhauled, ditching tons of work and several songs from musical collaborator Sting.

The protagonist is Pacha, an eighteen year old llama herder voiced by Owen Wilson. Pacha meets Emperor Manco, who he looks and sounds identical, and they decide to switch places in order to let Manco take a break from his royal duties. A romantic plot involved Nina,

Manco's fiance, falling for Pacha, while Manco is with the female llama herder, Mata,

who joins him in his quest back home. Yzma is a sorceress and member of the Royal Court who longs to be young and beautiful like she was years prior. She creates a plan to block out the sun. Her minions consist of a talking talisman known as Hucua, three mummies named Mick, Bowie and Lemmy, and the dark force Supai, and Kronk does not exist. Yzma turns Manco into a llama, which the emperor-llama learns humility in his new form. The climax involved Pacha and Manco set out to undo the witch's plans, and Yzma summoning Supai to engulf the kingdom, but ultimately being killed by the sun, which Pacha lassoed and pulled down to Earth.

At least 20 percent of the animation was complete and the entire story was created but only a few scenes have been leaked. In addition to the plot being scrapped, every song from the movie was cut when it was retooled from a dramatic musical (and loose adaptation of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper) to to a buddy comedy; despite this, three of the Kindom of the Sun songs (with one of them being Yzma's song, "Snuff Out The Light") were included on the official soundtrack.

Even when I just updated this, I still had no idea how much new information I keep finding!

One of the animators shows a crucial scene of the film in progress, and explains what's going on.

"Manco thinks Pacha is an assassin come to kill him. Then he realizes they look exactly alike. Pacha talks his way out of being killed by suggesting they switch places." We see much of this scene as he's talking, which is fully animated.

Pacha: "Listen! One me is doing the things I don't want to do, while the OTHER me is having FUN!"

Manco: "Suddenly I'm not so depressed."

The climax involved Yzma summoning Supai to engulf the kingdom, but being killed by the sun itself, which Pacha lassoed and pulled down to Earth.

I would have loved to see this even though The Emperepr's new groove was great!.

One of Disney's best lost films that could have been.

Source: Disney Wiki and http://www.platypuscomix.net/educational/thesweatbox.html

November-27-2019 Update: Updated and changed chapter