You know, someday you're gonna wind up all alone. And you'll have no one to blame but yourself."
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~ Pacha to Kuzco
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When the sun hits that ridge just right
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~ Pacha's most memorable line
Pacha is the deutaragonist of Disney's The Emperor's New Groove, a supporting character in it's 2005 film, Kronk's New Groove and a major character in The Emperor's New School. He is a very kind peasant, and family father. He helps the film's protagonist, Emperor Kuzco, to go back to his palace, under the condition that he won't destroy Pacha's village to build a pool. Though Kuzco shows little will to respect the deal, Pacha takes him home anyway, and the two develop a strong friendship. In the end, Kuzco is turned back to human and agrees to forget about Pacha's village. In the TV series, The Emperor's New School, they are still close friends.
He is voiced by John Goodman in the movie and second season of the TV series (who also voiced James P. Sullivan from Monsters Inc. and played Fred Flintstone in the 1994 live-action Flintstones movie) and Fred Tatasciore in the TV series season 1.
In the video game he is voiced by Bill Farmer, most famous for his role as Goofy.
Pacha is very polite, lovable, and caring. He takes his position as village leader very seriously and attempts to do what's right for his people. He can be describe as a family man, spending most of his time with them. Upon meeting Kuzco, Pacha felt he was a spoiled brat but learned to forget that in an attempt to change the emperor's attitude around.
Appearances
The Emperor's New Groove
In the first film, Pacha is summoned to the palace by Kuzco and is told that his house on the hill will be destroyed to make room for Kuzco's summer home. Distraught and horrified that the emperor could be so callous, he travels home to tell his pregnant wife Chicha and his two children Chaca and Tipo that they have to leave their ancestral home. However, before he can tell them, he discovers that Kuzco has been transformed into a llama and dropped in the back of his cart. The two set out to turn Kuzco back to a human by getting to Yzma's lab. After the adventure and the defeat of Yzma, Kuzco decides to let Pacha keep his hut and village and even builds a summer hut on the hill right right next to Pacha's. Pacha and his family welcome Kuzco into their lives and enjoy themselves in Kuzco's pool. Pacha and Chica also welcome their newborn son Yupi.
Kronk's New Groove
In the second film, Pacha is Kronk's friend. He disguises himself as Pachita, Kronk's mother-in-law (they initially planned for him to pretend to be his wife, but Pacha's wife, Chicha did that instead).
The Emporer's New School
In the TV series, he is like a father to Kuzco and lets him live with him. He always gives Kuzco advice to help him out of any situation. For example, when Kuzco was transformed into a rabbit, he told Kuzco to "Make the best of what you've got," which in this case was speed. In Cart Wash, when Kuzco is transformed into an elephant and laments how he is going to wash carts, Pacha tells him that elephants wash themselves through their trunks and he could do the same with carts. After Kuzco's graduation in Graduation Groove, Kuzco reveals during the credits that he had Pacha and his family move into the palace with him as he loved living with them and would miss them.
In an earlier draft of The Emperor's New Groove (when it was titled Kingdom of the Sun), Pacha's role in the film was filled by a woman named Mata and would have served as Kuzco's love interest and later wife. However, it was later decided that the film should be a buddy comedy instead and thus Mata was scrapped and replaced by Pacha.
In another earlier draft, Pacha was meant to be younger and resemble Kuzco for the film's then "Prince and the Pauper" storyline where he would have switched places with Kuzco and would have been forced by Yzma to serve as puppet ruler. Pacha and Kuzco would have later worked together to stop Yzma from awakening the dark god Supai and restore the sun to it's proper place (as Yzma wished to get rid of the sun as she blamed it for aging her). This version of Pacha would have been voiced by Owen Wilson.
Before John Goodman was cast as Pacha, Bill Murray, George Wendt, Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd were considered to voice Pacha.
The scene when he says the phrase "When the sun hit that ridge just right." has become a internet meme 2016.
