The Road to El Dorado.

[Elton John]

One of Dreamworks early 2D animated films. I vaguely remember watching tv spots for it, not knowing that three of the big names behind 'the lion kings' music, Tim Rice, Elton John and Hans Zimmer, worked on the music behind it.

Listened to the soundtrack. Pretty decent but it doesn't hit the same highs as the lion king. Kinda wish this movie was on blu ray.

[TheLionPrince]

The movie, as a whole, was just alright. It was very entertaining, but not very memorable. The story was inspired by Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would be King, which was about two Englishmen who were crowned kings (and were seen as gods and descendants of Alexander the Great) to the Kafirs in present-day Afghanistan. It was best adapted into a 1975 film directed by John Huston, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine, which I highly recommend.

It adapted the same story elements albeit setting in the Age of Discovery where con men Miguel and Tulio travel aboard conquistador Hernán Cortés's ship and arrive in El Dorado where they are mistaken as gods by the natives. Voiced by Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, Miguel and Tulio have chemistry with each other and their relationship allow for some adult innuendo to slide into the film. However, I felt the story was lacking by the middle section, which played on as a series of comedy routines of Tulio and Miguel proving their divinity than a construction of an actual plot. And in our politically correct culture, a film about two white Europeans exalted as superior by indigenous natives comes off racially offensive.

The songs written by Sir Tim Rice and Elton John were catchy, but nowhere as memorable as their songs in The Lion King. Nevertheless, my favorite song was "It's Tough to be a God". Similar to what Phil Collins did with Tarzan's soundtrack, Elton John sings nearly all of the songs off-screen.

The animation was dazzling and great to look with the character animation having fluidity to them to match with the cartoony mood of the story. The background layouts really helped evoked the richness and splendor of the film's pre-Colombian setting, and probably did better so than in The Emperor's New Groove.

Overall, it was a pretty breezy, lightweight adventure film. With a setting in the Age of Discovery (which is not commonly explored in animated features these days), it could have a lot better. According to the Los Angeles Times, the film was originally supposed to be a more dramatic film like The Prince of Egypt, but midway during production, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided for the film to be a comedy-drama. So, yeah, great potential was lost there.