Dreamworks #3: The Road to El Dorado

The Road to El Dorado - 7.8/10

I’d never seen this before, and I wasn’t expecting much. Wouldn’t you know it, I was pleasantly surprised. That’s sort of becoming a thing.

There’s nothing for me to get all deep over this time. There isn’t any underlying theme regarding political and sociological ideology, nor is it adapted from an ancient story upon which the faith of billions is founded…it’s just goofy fun. And you know, I welcome the change. 

This movie was really funny. They didn’t really tell any jokes; the dialogue was very witty and energetic and there were a number of visual and physical gags. I had a good time watching it. The two leads were very likable; they were quick and clever and their banter was always good for a laugh. For once I had no problem at all with the stunt casting; Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh were remarkable.

On the technical side of things, the animation was a little lower on the scale than The Prince of Egypt, but still good. The songs were decent for the most part but nothing special, with one exception. “It’s Tough To Be A God” was freaking great. I’m going to be singing it for weeks.

They surprised me a bit with the plot as well (and this paragraph will contain some spoilers if you’re worried about that sort of thing). Despite the name of the film, the majority of it takes place in El Dorado itself once they’ve arrived. Also, in the beginning it looked like they were setting up Cortes to be a villain, and then he barely appears or does anything at all. A bit of a curveball there, but I can’t say I mind. It would have been too formulaic and predictable and I prefer the way it turned out much more.

If there’s one complaint I had – and it’s a relatively big one – it’s the language thing again. At first it looked like they were going to do the unintelligible thing and I was really impressed for a fleeting moment…and then the natives started talking to them like it was no big deal. There wasn’t even an attempt to explain it; we’re just supposed to assume that everyone in the world speaks the same language and that’s the end of it. It really bugged me, but even that I was able to forget after a while because everything else was so much fun. And later on I realized - it took me a while, I admit - that this was in homage to the old Bing Crosby, Bob Hope "Road to..." movies. Once I figured that out, it bothered me a lot less.

So yeah, a good time was had by all, and by “all” I mean me, and from the sounds of it every actor who had a role in this movie. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s easily worth an hour and a half of your time.