The Road to El Dorado (2000) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
Featuring the voice talents of Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Armand Assante, Rosie Perez, Edward James Olmos, Frank Welker. Directed by Bibo Bergeron and Will Finn. Rated PG.
I'll get straight to the question that was on many people's minds regarding The Road to El Dorado: is Dreamworks' attempt at traditional animation on par with the movies the Mouse House is releasing annually? Well, for what it's worth, I liked it a little bit better than Tarzan. It's certainly nowhere near as satisfying as some of Disney's previous efforts. Still, this amiable little cartoon is an enjoyable diversion even if it isn't (and it isn't) the animated masterpiece that Dreamworks' CGI Antz was.
Essentially a cartoon version of Ridyard Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King," which was itself made into a movie starring Sean Connery in 1975, The Road to Eldorado tracks the adventures of Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (Kevin Kline), two resourceful crooks looking for adventure. They spend their days scamming passers-by out of their money by playing craps with loaded dice and each feigning innocence when discovered. In one of these craps games, they win a treasure map. With nothing to lose and apparently a lot to gain, they stowaway on a boat heading in the general direction of the destination indicated on the map. Unfortunately, the ship happens to belong to one of Spain's most militant explorers who finds the two crooks and throws them in the dungeon.
With the help of one very groovy horse, Miguel and Tulio escape and wind up in the New World -- exactly where they were heading in the first place. Following the map, they discover El Dorado, a.k.a. the City of Gold, whose residents along with the benevolent chief (Edward James Olmos) and the malevolent High Priest (Armand Assante) are convinced that Miguel and Tulio are gods. The con men play that for all it's worth, of course, hoping to sail away in a brand new boat and with a hefty load of gold to boot. But they can't do it without the involvement of a scheming young woman (Rosie Perez) who discovers Miguel and Tulio's plan and blackmails them to let her in on it.
The Road to El Dorado is thoroughly watchable and thoroughly harmless. Much like Tarzan, the songs here are mostly kept in the background (with one noticeable exception), keeping the film from being a full- fledged musical. This is probably a wise choice: perhaps the biggest criticism of the last few Disney 'toons was of the showtunes that relentlessly permeated the action. When done well, they can get stuck in your head (like every song in The Lion King) but when the songwriters whiff it, they are at best forgettable and at worst irritating. El Dorado sort of skirts the issue by making the songs background music.
Kevin Kline is a wonderful voice talent with unbeatable deadpan delivery. As Tulio, he more than makes up for the fact that Branagh as Miguel is more than a little dull. Branagh simply fails to do anything distinctive with his character. Kids need specific little quirks or catchphrases to remember characters by and the movie, along with the actor, fails to provide them for one of its protagonists.
Other than that, the film is well-intentioned and it mostly succeeds. The adventures are fun, Rosie Perez is funny, the villain is sufficiently menacing to make the young 'uns hate him and cheesy enough to make adults chuckle. My one question: why did Dreamworks insert skinny-dipping scenes and profanity to make the film PG instead of G? It doesn't make any sense and if anything, it probably hurt the movie's box-office.
The Road to El Dorado is hardly the Road Less Traveled, but it's decent while it lasts. Not everything has to be for the ages.
Grade: B
©2000 Eugene Novikov
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews