Deep Dive DreamWorks: Wes Looks at The Road to El Dorado

Welcome back to Deep Dive… Dreamworks? Wait, what? Have I somehow accessed the wrong blog? Actually, no, thanks to a special request from noteworthy podcaster and friend of the blog, Charley Marlowe, today we’re taking our first look at a Dreamworks film with the 2000 film, The Road to El Dorado. So, after Walt Disney Studios gave their long time chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg the boot, Katzenberg founded Dreamworks and decided to make a bunch of movies that either ripped off or took pot shots at the Disney formula, because I’m given to understand he’s kind of a petty asshole that way. In any case, what do we have on tap today? Well, our story begins in Spain in the 1500’s where we meet our heroes, a pair of con artists named Miguel and Tulio. When Miguel and Tulio end up swindling the wrong people, they run afoul of merciless conquistador, Hernan Cortes, and, to make a long story short, find themselves stranded on an island with nothing but a horse named Altivo and a map to the supposedly mythical Golden city of El Dorado. When our heroes locate the lost city, the locals immediately mistake them for gods, something that the two con-men try to take full advantage of. With the help of a native girl named Chel, Miguel and Tulio live the high life in El Dorado until they can get out of there with as much gold as they can carry. However, things aren’t so simple as the mad high priest of El Dorado is up to something. Let us waste no further time and dive into The Road to El Dorado.

Main Character:

I’ll say this right up front, Miguel and Tulio make this movie for me and the movie wouldn’t be half as fun as it is without them. Helping this is that Miguel and Tulio are played by two excellent actors in Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline respectively. They are just infinitely fun characters and the two actors have incredible chemistry with one another. Miguel’s more passionate and adventurous nature is very nicely balanced out by the more greedy and cynical Tulio. There’s also this great running gag where Miguel keeps taking the con a bit too far and Tulio gets frustrated, telling him that he needs to listen to the voice in his head that tells him when something is a bad idea. Still, even though they are conning the people of El Dorado, they are ultimately not bad guys, just a couple of losers down on their luck trying to improve their situation the best way they know how. They’re not out to hurt anyone and when it comes time to choose between gold and saving the lives of the people of El Dorado, they choose the latter, even if Tulio himself ends up frustrated about it. Also, I’m sure I’m not the first to point this out, were this movie made today, Miguel and Tulio would totally be a gay couple. They seem to have become LGBT icons in the 20 years since this movie came out and I think that’s awesome.

Villain:

Tzekel Khan is definitely following the typical Disney Villain archetype and in a lot of ways he feels like a Jafar type, with perhaps a bit of Frollo thrown in there for good measure. He’s a religious zealot who seems far too eager to enact ritual sacrifice and is constantly at odds with Tannabok, the village chief, over who’s actually in charge. Beyond that though, there’s not really much to this character. Honestly, he’s a pretty by the numbers villain. However, there was one thing I found kind of interesting about him. Remember how in Aladdin, Jafar was the only one who suspected that Prince Ali wasn’t who he said he was? Here, it’s a total one eighty. Tzekel Khan buys that Miguel and Tulio are Gods hook, line and sinker and as such, spends much of the movie brown nosing the two. That’s kind of an interesting subversion, but there’s not much else going for this guy. We also have another villain in the form of the ruthless Cortes who is just as much of a bastard in this movie as he was in real life. We’ll talk about him a little more later, but I will say that Jim Cummings is welcome in any film he appears in.

Side Characters:

I think I’ll start with Tannabok, the chief of El Dorado voiced by the always great Edward James Olmos. By all accounts, Tannabok is a decent sort who is welcoming to the two new arrivals to his kingdom and is constantly at odds with Tzekel Khan. I always got the sense that he knows, or at least suspects, that Miguel and Tulio aren’t really gods, but doesn’t call them out on it because they seem to have brought good will to his city and are constantly undermining Tzekel Khan.

Altivo the horse is… well, let’s be honest, he’s proto-Maximus. He’s a horse who is constantly taking the piss out of our heroes. It’s funny, but it was better when Maxims did it.

Finally, there’s Chel. Chel, voiced by Rosie Perez, is awesome. A young native girl who dreams of adventure outside of El Dorado, Chel immediately figures out who Miguel and Tulio really are and wants in on the con. I love how she’s constantly sassing our heroes and reminding them that she’s way smarter than they are. The romance that develops between her and Tulio is adorable, even if it goes against Miguel and Tulio’s gentleman’s agreement not to let the pretty girl distract them. She’s a welcome addition to the cast and a has a lot more going for her than the common perception of the Disney Princess crowd.

Songs:

Okay, so before we discuss the soundtrack, we need to talk about that crazy looking album cover. Seriously, what in the blue hell is Elton doing in that picture? What is he doing with his hands? Why are his legs crossed? Is this some kind of Men In Black II situation where this album cover is part of some elaborate secret code and Elton is actually pointing two a key on the wall somewhere? Whatever it is, it’s really weird. Anyway, the songs in Road to El Dorado are pretty good, as one might expect from the song writing team that brought us The Lion King. However, none of the songs really reach the heights of the 1994 classic. They’re fine, they just don’t stand out in the same way as songs like Circle of Life or I Just Can’t Wait to be King. The one song that stuck out to me was “The Trail We Blaze.” It’s a fun little traveling montage song that plays as Miguel and Tulio make their way to El Dorado. I dig it.

Memorable Scenes:

My favorite scene is early on in the movie. Miguel and Tulio are cheating some poor sucker out of their money. When it’s discovered that Tulio is playing with a loaded dice, Miguel and Tulio pretend to fight with one another in order to distract everyone and escape. It’s actually a lot of fun and demonstrates the chemistry between these two characters early on. Plus, the insults they hurl at one another are excellent. My favorite is definitely “You Fight Like My Sister” which is responded to with, “I’ve fought your sister, I’ll take that as a compliment.” Nice. Also, they pull the same tactic during the climax to vanquish Tzekel Khan. Good stuff.

Story:

So, the story of The Road to El Dorado is pretty straight forward. Good friends are worth more than Gold, adventure is its own reward, the true treasure is the friends we made along the way, something like that. That’s all well and good, but that’s not actually what I want to talk about here. See, there was a very specific reason my friend Charley requested this particular movie. This movie is written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the same writing team that gave us the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Now remember, the original eight hundred and eitghty-two pieces of Aztec gold that the crew of the Black Pearl stole were said to have been stolen by Cortes himself. One cannot help but wonder if the Cortes we see in this film would later go on to do just that. Hell, it’s not like that’s the only common trope between these two series. In the second movie, we have a primitive tribe mistaking Jack for a God. One can’t help but wonder, is this movie a hidden prequel to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? It’s my blog, so I’m going to say, head cannon accepted.

The Dark DreamWorks Factor:

Not too much dark stuff with this one, but we do get a disturbing amount of implied ritual sacrifice and a giant robotic demon Panther that serves as Tzekel Khan’s final boss monster, so that’s a thing.

Final Thoughts: This was a fun flick and I like the idea that it might be connected to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was nice to step out of the Disney limitation for once. Once again, I'd like to thank Charley Marlowe for requesting this one. Speaking of, do you like Gravity Falls? Well, Charley and their friend Ella cohost a podcast called Mystery Shack Look Back, a nostalgic time capsule and spoiler free bookclub of the original Gravity Falls fandom. Charley and Ella are hilarious together and have brought me many hours of joy. If you're interested, I'll leave a link right here. Anywho, next time, probably more Ducktales, but Patrons, stay tuned, coming soon, another look at the Twisted Tales series.