Here's the thing, I remembered almost everything important about this movie, but watching it back again it feels like a different experience than the first time. The Emperors New Groove is the story of a Prince who is an emperor that cares not for any of his people and only cares about his enjoyment. His adviser, Yzma, tries to kill him but due to shenanigans, he is instead turned into a llama. Kuzco ends up working with a local villager to try to become human again, though the villager in question lives on the hill Kuzco wants to destroy to build his resort.
This story plays out exactly as you would expect. The whole idea is that eventually, Kuzco realizes he shouldn't be such a dick and does the right thing by not destroying the village to make his home. It's not the predictability that bothers me, it's the complete lack of character everyone has. From villain to hero, everyone is about as one-note a character as I have ever seen from Disney, and it makes it hard to get invested in a plot with no twists or elements worth paying attention to. From any kind of analysis, everything about the movie is so bland it hardly warrants any kind of detailed explanation, there just isn't enough here to do that. For me, that keeps this from being considered a classic among their films. And this is what makes the show different for me now, I just don't think the story is any good.
That said, I see why a lot of people love it and why I did still enjoy the movie a lot. Ignoring the shallow characters and plot, the movie is a non-stop barrage of jokes. Beginning to end, there isn't a point in the movie you don't have some kind of gag going on. Fourth wall breaks, visual gags, absurd humor, slapstick, it's a never-ending barrage of joke after joke. And this is where a review gets difficult to do because the only thing even worth talking about in the movie are the jokes, and there is nothing worse than sitting down and explaining a joke.
What I can say is this, these aren't jokes that require you to know what's happening in the movie. If you were to watch a random compilation of highlights from the movie, they are going to make as much sense as if you were to have watched the entire movie or not. This is kind of what your enjoyment of the movie hinges on, does it make you laugh? If so, you will be laughing the entire time and enjoy yourself, even if you don't walk away from the film with any striking memories of what happened.
One of my favorite animated movies! Good review, although I agree with your complaints, the original version of the film which got cancelled was way better at least in theory