The Road to El Dorado (2000) Review

 The Road to El Dorado (2000) 8/10

Hello and welcome to another movie review. Today, I’ll be going over The Road to El Dorado. El Dorado was released on March 31, 2000 with the directors being Bibo Bergeron, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Don Paul. The movie was produced by Dreamworks Animation and is one of their few 2D animated features.

I loved this movie and rewatching it was a blast from the past. Watching now from the eyes of a reviewer, it still holds up and I just can’t fathom why this movie was a “failure”. It’s a genuinely great movie and I love how it has a small cult following all these years later. Let’s begin.

This movie is set in 1519, during the Age of Discovery. In Spain, duo Tulio and Miguel are con men who “win” a treasure map to El Dorado. They sneak aboard Cortes’ ship and eventually make it to the New World. Tulio and Miguel eventually find the City of Gold, El Dorado, and the natives deem them as gods. Tulio and Miguel hatch a plan to steal all of their gold, and with the help of a native woman named Chel, they embrace their godly facade to pull off the con of the century. However, things get interesting when Miguel starts growing fond of the native Aztecs and Tulio grows feelings for Chel. And on top of all of this, the head priest Tzekel-Kan suspects they aren’t actually deities, constantly putting them to the test. As the con continues, Tulio and Miguel’s friendship is put to the test.

The story isn’t the deepest or greatest, but I love it. It’s light hearted, fun, and great for family entertainment. There’s a surprising amount of adult humor in this that went completely over my head when I was little and watching it again now, and I was laughing my ass off at these moments. I love the writing and the plot itself is pretty cool. Like I said earlier, it’s not the greatest, but there’s a charm to the movie that keeps it unique. I love the characters. Tulio and Miguel make great protagonists and they learn a lesson by the end of the film about brotherhood and how gold isn’t worth risking your life for it. I also love Chel and her snarky, sly attitude. Great side character in which she bounces off of Miguel and Tulio very well. Tzekel-Kan was a decent antagonist but I wish he did more. The Chief is a lovable guy and I love his chemistry with Miguel, even though you can only see this in like one scene.

I also love the dialogue. Miguel and Tulio’s chemistry is amazing. I love how they constantly bounce off each other, especially at the beginning with the loaded dice, how Chel snakes her way around Tulio’s heart and even seduces him, and even Chief Tannabok implied discovery of the duo’s real identity. Honestly though, Miguel and Tulio made this movie as entertaining as it is. If they were written differently, then this movie wouldn’t be as good.

The production value for this film is nothing short of amazing. I miss traditional 2D animated western movies and I really hope they make a comeback someday. I love the art style. It screams late 90’s-early 2000’s (like The Iron Giant, Sinbad, Treasure Planet, and The Emperor’s New Groove to name a few). Animation is also fucking amazing. For grand scale scenes (like leaving Spain and arriving in El Dorado), the movie uses 3D animation and these moments look great and not uncanny. The animation for the 2D scenes are also amazing. I love the smoothness of the character’s movements and the way the camera is used is great.

The music is great too. With none other than Elton John scoring, the movie’s OST is amazing and a massive wave of nostalgia went over my head as the opening scene started playing with “El Dorado” blasting through my room. Elton John knew exactly what he was doing with this score and It’s one of my favorite movie scores. The voice cast is great too. Kevin Kline (Tulio), Kenneth Branagh (Miguel), Rosie Perez (Chel), and Armand Assante (Tzekel-Kan) with guest appearance Jim Cummings as Cortes. These voices made these characters and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else playing these characters.

My only problem with the movie is that I wish it was longer. Show more of the duo’s chemistry and honestly make Chel a more important character. Show more of The Chief and Tzekel-Kan’s rivalry. Show us more of this fabled city of gold. Show us more! If the movie was longer, I feel like this movie would’ve been better. Other than this, the movie is basically perfect imo. And of course, there are the blatant plot holes lol. Like where did that one guy get the map to El Dorado in the first place? I know it’s ultimately not relevant, but for something like that, an explanation would be nice. And there is also the non-existent language barrier. Tulio and Miguel are Spanish speakers, yet they can communicate with the Natives with no issues at all. Again, you’re not really meant to think about this, but some sort of explanation would be nice.

I love this movie and I will defend it to my grave. This movie has such great charm and I can’t recommend it enough. The art direction alone is worth watching. If you’re looking for a great family movie with amazing production value (both art, music, and voice cast), go check it out.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.