The Road to El Dorado

Here's another Dreamworks cartoon that I can cross of my movie bucket list. It's easy to see Dreamworks inching towards making a Disney quality cartoon with this homage to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's buddy adventure movies. There's great chemistry between Kenneth Branagh (Miguel) and Kevin Kline (Tulio). They are two con artists who end up on a journey to the Americas and are mistaken for gods by the local inhabitants. The story seems predictable until it's now...and I liked how a friendship problem was solved in the end (yay, friendship!). There are some really catchy songs by Elton John and Tim Rice and the animation is so fluid and appealing except for...Miguel's face. I don't know what it is about the rendering. Eyes too big? Face lacking expression? It creeped me out.

Anyway, there's something for everyone--adventure, romance, music, comedy--I'm not sure why it flopped at the box office twenty years ago.

Watch on YouTube