The Road To El Dorado is a good road to travel. While playing dice Miguel and Tulio, two likeable rogues, win a map to the lost and supposedly gold filled city of El Dorado. When they�re caught cheating they elude their pursuers by hiding on Cortez�s ship and are thrown in the brig when they are found. Cortez is a cruel fanatic with no sense of humor who is determined to find the lost city. Escaping Cortez�s brig our heroes find the lost city first where, with the help of a local female rogue named Chal, the natives accept them as gods. Miguel, Tulio and Chal just want to play the con long enough to carry off some of the city�s gold, but the head priest plans to use these �gods� to begin a local jihad and �cleanse� El Dorado of those he considers unbelievers. And, of course, Cortez is still coming.
Created by the artists behind the absolutely excellent animated film, Prince of Egypt, The Road To El Dorado is a visually impressive piece of work. The film�s story moves along at a smooth pace as well; it�s not as good as the animation, but it�s not bad either. The characters are well written, especially Miguel and Tulio, who made me think of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which, in my opinion, is the ultimate �buddy� flick.
The films weakness is in its soundtrack, written by Elton John, who is an excellent pop/rock and roll singer and writer, but in my opinion, doesn�t seem able to write a soundtrack that really fits the movies with which he works. This was true with Disney�s The Lion King and is equally true with The Road To El Dorado. Not that the music is bad, it�s not, but its simply not up to the quality of the rest of the film. One other thing that many parents may find disconcerting is that Miguel and Tulio are pretty, uh, chummy. There are rumors that the characters were subtly written to be gay, and I can certainly see how they could be taken that way though I doubt young children would really notice anything overt in their nature. And Miguel makes no bones about his physical attraction to Chal, which would weaken this theory, at least, in my opinion. Personally I chose to simply interpret Miguel and Tulio�s behavior as being normal for European men who, so I�m told, tend to be more physically affectionate toward each other then non-europeans.
So hit the road. You�ll enjoy the trip!
Average Grade: B+
