Reviews for The Road to El Dorado
By Neona Lightman 
Spoilers
"The Road to El Dorado" is truly a breathtaking masterpiece, a movie that
swept the screen to break all stereo types. It begins in the Spain of long-ago,
in the time of Cortez the explorer as he prepares to leave for the New World.
But even as he makes preperations, two con men, Miguel and Tulio have begun
forging their own paths. It starts when the our two heroes stumble across a
map they won in a round of gambling with a sailor--a map of the "wonders of
the new world," a map of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado. When it is found
that the dice they are gambling with are have been fixed to land only on the
winning number, the fast-paced chase down the broad avenues of old Spain begins
as the sailors, angry at being cheated are joined by a mob of other people as
they try to capture the con men. The hapless duo become (unkowingly) stowaways
of a Cortez's ship while trying to hide from the people persuing them. They
are found and taken prisoner in the brig down below, to be sold (by order of
Cortez) into slavery once they pass by Cuba. They do, miraculously manage to
escape with the help of a perky warhorse named Altivo, who joins them in their
little rowboat as they struggle to find land. They do find land, eventually,
washing up on a tropical island which seems to match the map that Miguel owns.
From here, the two friends strike out to find the legendary city of El Dorado.
I found that the movie did break stereo types. If you're sick of the
usual, noble, self-sacrificing, eternally-doomed hero type, you'll find relief
in this movie! The characters are brought down to a very human level. They are
flawed, which makes them very beleiveable, more lovable and easier to relate
to. The sidekicks (Altivo the warhorse and Bibo the armadillo) are completely
silent (thankfully) but make up for their silence in the neverending stream
of laughs they give, which enhance the ones provided by our two main characters.
I do have to admit I think that Dreamworks made a mistake in throwing in the
sexy, seductive native girl Chel. (hate the little "seduction" scene involving
her and Tulio...) it wouold have been a lot funner to see how the two men cope
on their own whle trying to adjust to the culture shock. I found that Chel was
actually quite useless, unless of course you consider getting one of the main
characters sidetracked by pure sex appeal.
By Mario 
No offense to fans of this movie, but I'm left wondering,
"What on earth did I see in this movie?" Oh sure, I used to like this
movie, and I found it to be an amusing trip, but even when I liked it, it
left a bad taste in my mouth. And I mean a REALLY bad taste in my mouth.
The banter between Miguel and Tulio is funny enough, and this being the
main draw of the movie, it keeps the movie borderline interesting. Up
to a point, at least. You see Miguel and Tulio are terrible actors. Oh
sure, they're different from the typical Disney characters, but what
good is being different if a character is stuck with a script that gives
him the dumbest dialogue? And even when the movie tried to go for
heart(emphasis on "tried"), neither one of those two could emote to save
their lives.
In addition to an awful script that looked like Dreamworks didn't know
what the heck they were doing, The Road to El Dorado is peppered with
songs so bad it's practically painful. In The Prince of Egypt there were
way too many songs, but at least they kept the movie going. The songs
here chop the movie up like a vegetable in a food processor. And the
songs themselves seem chopped up as well, making the experience doubly
painful.
To add insult to injury, the villain is just plain awful. Thank
goodness the heroes are at least somewhat colorful. Even still, he is just so
weak and cardboard, it's practically laughable. The inclusion of Cortes
served no purpose, either. He, like many of the other characters, was
pretty much one dimensional.
The good points? Well, the animation is vibrant, and many things looked like they
actually have physical heft. However, the smooth artistic wonder that was in The
Prince of Egypt is not present in this movie. Is The Road to El Dorado funny?
Maybe. Then again, maybe not. At any rate, with a script that's essentially a
patchwork of scenes with no narrative cohesion tacked together and really dumb
dialogue, humor, and acting, who really cares?
By JessKat 
Spoilers
The most enjoyable thing about "Road to El Dorado" is that it
takes a step into a more adult direction in western animation. (just
look at some of the scenes between Tulio and Chel!) The animation is also
beautiful, but they used WAY too much CGI. Come on, even I can animate
a couple of lifeless barrels by hand!
The main characters don't come off as anything special to me and the
villain is a joke. The music is simply horrible. This from the team who
created the beautiful music for The Lion King?!
Some of the jokes are okay and the animation looks great at best, but the rest
of the film is uninteresting to me.
By little Blue Lucy
Spoilers
The more I see this movie, the more I love it.
It is a veritable feast for the eyes and ears.
Tulio and Miguel (voiced respectively by Kevin Kline and Kenneth
Branagh) are two con men from Spain who obtain a map to the fabled El Dorado.
Through one mishap after another, they finally discover the legendary
and beautiful city of gold, but the adventure has only begun.
An imaginative story fueled by creative characters, exciting and often
hilarious scenes, plus enjoyable and memorable music from Elton John,
Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer make this one of the greatest films of all
time, animated or otherwise.
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