Movie Review: The Road to El Dorado 8-7-20
DreamWorks’ third feature film is about two Spanish con artists, Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (Kevin Kline), who discover a map to the legendary Mesoamerican city El Dorado, which is said to be loaded with and made of gold. They hitch a boat ride to the New World, but end up separated with the guard horse Altivo. The boat ends up on land, and after a long journey, Miguel and Tulio arrive in El Dorado and get mistaken for gods and fall head over heels over Chel (Rosie Perez). However, Tzekel-Kan (Armand Asante) doesn’t believe that Miguel and Tulio are gods, and plans on killing them so he can prove everybody wrong.
Road to El Dorado is another forgotten gem (but not quite gold) with Disney quality animation, a brilliant score from Hans Zimmer and John Powell, catchy songs from Elton John and Tim Rice, a story that easily outshines newer films like Trolls and The Boss Baby, and enjoyable albeit familiar characters. Altivo, for example, reminds me very much of Maximus from Tangled, as both were equine characters who belonged to royal blood and are smarter than most of the human characters.
Chel is also a fun fan favorite character; She may seem beautiful, but Chel is almost as mischievous as Miguel and Tulio.
It’s honestly a shame that this movie, along with Spirit and Sinbad, didn’t do that well at the box-office, because DreamWorks really did put in their all when they did hand-drawn animation. The Road to El Dorado is better than most critics say, and is a good alternative to Dora and the Lost City of Gold, who are afraid that ‘Dora’ might be a disaster like Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Garfield.
Rating: 3.4 stars out of 5.
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