In the summer of 1999, cast members Owen Wilson, Harvey Fierstein and Trudie Styler were dropped from the film. Kitt and Spade remained in the cast, Dindal commented, "then John Goodman and Patrick Warburton came aboard." After Sting's songs for "Kingdom of the Sun" were dropped from the new storyline, Sting remained on the project, though he was told by the studio that "[all we want is a beginning and an end song." The song, "Perfect World", was approached "to open the movie with a big, fun number that established the power of Kuzco and showed how he controlled the world", according to then-Feature Animation president Thomas Schumacher. The filmmakers had asked Sting to perform the song for the film, though Sting declined by telling them that he was too old to sing it and that they should find someone younger and hipper. They instead went with Tom Jones, who is eleven years older than Sting.