There is neither an exact place nor a time mentioned in the film itself. The trailer begins "Long ago, in a far away land..." and that's as close as we get. So the movie occurs in no particular place at no particular time. That's all, thanks for asking, let's go home.

But that's lame.

Clearly, the film is Peru "themed." There's mountains, there's llamas, there's abundant visual references to the material culture of Peruvian peoples. Wikipedia claims it's set in the Inca empire, but I can find nothing else to substantiate that. So let's do as archaeologists do and examine the iconography to set a rough date.

The film's opening sequence is a rush of images, many of which draw (or even copy) actual designs from Peru:

• 0:05 Kuzco's mirror here is reminiscent of funerary masks from Peru's north coast, especially the later (800-1500 AD) Lambayeque and Chimu cultures. The pendant, flat pieces of metal are common in metal art, even on the tiniest scale.

• 0:17 The large face on the wall is borrowed from the Middle Horizon (400-1000 AD) empires Wari (North-central highlands) and Tiwanaku (Southern highlands), who shared many motifs and styles. The image has been called the "Sun God," and in some places it does seem to be associated with the sun, but is often called the Front-facing Deity to avoid reading too much meaning into it. It is most famously seen in the stonework at Tiwanaku, e.g. on the Gate of the Sun but features prominently on ceramics and adornments of the day.

• 0:21 The profile figure in the background (you can see his feet and staff) here is likewise from the Middle Horizon. It can be seen attending the Front-facing Deity on Tiwanaku sculpture (as on the Gate of the Sun above) and likewise appears on ceramics, to a limited extent. On the Bennett Monolith, we see the Front-facing Deity on a platform in the middle, with several similar figures processing away from him, with human, llama, and avian heads, each holding a staff.

• 0:42 The armrests of Kuzco's throne have eyed, triangular faces like those at the Moche Huaca de la Luna (North Coast, 100-700 AD).

• 1:09 Here we get the first shot of Kuzco's palace. Like the mirror, it borrows from the rich gold-working traditions of the later North Coast, but this specific design comes from the figure that appears on sacrificial tumi knives.. This image appears a lot, so I won't bring it up more.

• 1:17 There's a lot going on on this table, but towards Kuzco's end you can see a bridge vessel typical of the Nasca (100-600 AD) and Wari, and in the middle right is a stirrup-spouted jar, typical of many Northern Peru traditions throughout time.

During this song, we also get the line "A thousand years of aristocracy." This means we cant be too early on the timeline. But we also get the line "Mesoamerica history." Peru is 1000s of miles away from Mesoamerica. Some further observations:

• 2:52 The hat on this advisor is like those on many Moche warriors.

• 10:16 The looming, fanged face in the background is like many fanged beasts from Chavin art (highlands, 800-200 BC), especially the Lazon oracle (illustration, reproduction) from the eponymic main religious center.

• 11:51 I'll admit to loving the imagery here, that is a cool play on the wild designs of Paracas textiles (South Coast, 200 BC-100 AD). Also note that portions of the "roller coaster" track also borrow from the mantles.

• 12:46 The bird vessel on the right is very Nasca.

Conclusion 1: The artists did some research. While there's a lot of emphasis from the North Coast, and perhaps an overuse of the tumi figure, there are a lot of details that show they were working directly from authentic art and artifacts from across Peru.

Conclusion 2: The name Kuzco (the Inca capital), the "1000 years of aristocracy," and the presence of Chimu imagery tell us that this must be later in Peru's history. We might consider a fairy tale version of the Inca empire, in the same vein as the European Medieval-Rennaissance-Baroque amalgamations in which Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty live.