The Road to El Dorado

A map leading to the city of gold is what ignites two con men buddies in their quest to find El Dorado. Once discovered, the duo are thought to be Gods by the locals, and must keep up the ruse until they figure out a way to get the gold, and themselves, back to Spain.

I enjoyed it. I didn’t go nuts over it…I didn’t hate it…in fact, I don’t particularly remember any grand sequences from it…but all in all, I enjoyed it while I was there, and I suppose that’s the most important thing. The two leads were actually very amusing, with much of their repartee striking my own fancy on more than one occasion. The rest of the cast, including Rosie Perez as the very shapely Chel, were also pretty good, but no standouts a la Mushu from MULAN (7/10) or the Genie from ALADDIN. Of course, the best animation films always feature the greatest “bad guys” and despite this one teasing us with one very mean-looking son-of-em-bitch early on in the flick, the main baddie ultimately oozed very little threat, so on that front the film could be faulted slightly. Action-wise, the movie generated a couple of cool puffball sequences early on, one big ass blowout scene during its last few minutes, and generally managed to keep me entertained throughout.

Were the songs any good, you ask? Well, personally I have never been a huge fan of films which rely solely on their songs to do the talking for them, but thankfully for this film, that wasn’t the case. Sure there were a couple of musical montages here and there, all to be expected, but all in all, nothing over-the-top or crappy either. I do think that Elton John/Phil Collins should put a cork in their animation song-writing schedules from now on, since their voices generally propel my attention away from these films, but then again, maybe that’s just me! If you’re gonna put songs in a film, how ’bout having the characters and their voices sing ’em and forget these over-the-hill Englishmen (no offense, gentlemen :). I did really love the whole look of this movie with its magnificent array of color strokes lining every frame just right, the city of gold exuding its powerful odors of paradise and the characters all emitting a strong sense of personality. Overall, I would suggest this film to all kids and certainly to most adults who like these kinds of movies. Mind you…it’s no FIGHT CLUB (10/10)! 🙂

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian