The Bob Hope-Bing Crosby “Road” movies. Quite the change from epic, Biblical musicals. And that’s the way DreamWorks wanted it.
As a follow-up to The Prince of Egypt, DreamWorks turned to those classic movie comedies as inspiration. Their second traditionally animated feature, The Road to El Dorado, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this spring, was a decidedly different change of pace for the then-still-new studio.
In an interview in early 2000, the film’s co-director Don Paul said, “Part of the reason that the ‘Road’ movies were used as inspiration is that we’re trying to break the mold of animation storytelling.”
Set in 1519, the film opens in Spain and centers on two con men, Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (Kevin Kline), who win a map to the City of Gold, El Dorado, when they run a rigged dice game. When discovered, the two escape as stowaways aboard a ship that belongs to the famed explorer Cortéz (Jim Cummings).
The two are discovered and thrown overboard (along with Cortéz’s horse, Altivo) but eventually make it to land, where they discover El Dorado. Here, they’re mistaken for Gods, while Tulio falls for Chel (Rosie Perez), who is wise to their con, and Miguel falls in love with the city.
The two also wind up facing off against the villain, Tzekel-Khan (Armand Assante) and thwart an overthrow of the city and Chief Tannabok (Edward James Olmos).
The Road to El Dorado was initially to be more of a straightforward historical adventure, based on the book Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas. The film’s tone changed when Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted the studio’s next animated feature to be a departure from The Prince of Egypt.
El Dorado also underwent production changes, with original directors Will Finn and David Silverman leaving the project. Don Paul and Eric “Bibo” Bergeron then stepped in as co-directors.
In addition to a lighter tone, new sensibilities were brought to the film. “One of the unusual things about this film is that we have a really fast pace to the cutting,” said Paul in 2000. “There’s overlapping dialogue in the film and a lot of bantering back and forth.”
Much of this bantering came from Branagh and Kline. “They recorded a sword fight scene together,” said Bergeron in a 2000 interview. “They were actually doing their lines with swords in their hands. They were dueling and shouting and yelling. We kept most of it in.”
These performances were coupled with impressive character animation by such artists as the immensely talented James Baxter, who supervised Tulio. “I drew a line somewhere between Nicholas Cage and John Cleese,” said Baxter of crafting the character’s performance in an interview just before the film’s release. “I wanted him to be someone who is a little too tall for their own good.”
The film had a Burger King “Kids Meal” tie-in
All of this allows for impressive set pieces, such as a comedic and well-staged chase scene through the streets of Spain in the film’s opening, a dynamic action sequence where a giant stone jaguar is brought to life and tromps Godzilla-like through El Dorado, and a surreal, colorful musical number, “It’s Tough to Be a God,” where Miguel and Tulio suddenly realize their newfound good fortune.
It was just one of the songs written for The Road to El Dorado by Elton John and Tim Rice, Oscar winners for Disney’s iconic songs in The Lion King, returning here again to animation.
Opening on March 31, 2000, The Road to El Dorado was a box-office disappointment. Still, in the twenty-five years since its release, the film has found a devoted following among many who have come to appreciate its uniqueness.
Just before the film bowed in theaters, co-director Paul noted how distinctive The Road to El Dorado is, saying, “Initially, a lot of us thought, ‘How do we do a follow-up [to The Prince of Egypt]? But the more we became involved with El Dorado, the more that we saw that it was a huge departure. It’s a completely different film, and from that standpoint, I feel it stands alone.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
I really liked this movie when it first came out. The trippy, vibrant opening title had me hooked right from the start, and the character animation was on a par with, or even superior to, anything Disney had achieved during its Renaissance. Having seen most of the Crosby and Hope “Road” movies upon which “El Dorado” was modeled, I thought that Miguel and Tulio had an even better chemistry than their cinematic predecessors, and were certainly a lot more likeable. Above all, I loved the armadillo, an animal that, as far as I’m concerned, has not been used in animation nearly as often as it deserves to be.
As for why it failed at the box office, perhaps it skewed too far toward an adult audience; young children might have found the story, and the motivations of the characters, hard to follow. Also, Disney’s “Pocahontas” proved five years earlier that in any movie about first contact between European conquerors and indigenous Americans, taking liberties with historical fact is bound to displease everyone. I’m glad the film has found an audience that can appreciate it on its own merits. While “El Dorado” might lack the heartfelt emotion of the Disney features of the ’90s, it’s top-notch entertainment with plenty of thrills and laughs.
The late 90’s and early 2000’s offered a smorgasbord of choices for the animation fan. The upside of this was that there was plenty to choose from, but the downside was that there were bound to be casualties. With less animation competition, Road to El Dorado might have fared better.
I think the biggest issue is that the so-called heroes are motivated by greed and ambition, not always the best ingredients for successful animated heroes. I have seen this film, and while it is a magnificent production in many ways, it seems to lack heart. Con men as protagonists are a tough sell in live action, let alone in animation, and the characters have to be extremely endearing in order for audiences to buy into their situation. The trailer itself does not seem very enticing, although that could be only my perception.
It’s a good film, and worth a look, but it seems somewhat self-sabotaging. If characters are hard to identify with, audiences may have a hard time warming up to them. But I am not trying to be harshly critical. I would rather have this film than not have it. And with stellar performers like Branagh and Kline, the characters are vividly brought to life.
I never knew of the existence of this film. It certainly sounds interesting. It’s never mentioned as part of Elton John‘s repertoire, so I don’t know if the songs became pop standards or anything like that, but the casting in this sounds very interesting as well for voiceover. Is there any style in animation that could be compared with this film? In other words, how would you see this next to classic theatrical animation? Just wondering, folks.
For my money, the animation in this film is similar to that of the aforementioned “Prince Of Egypt”. It’s likewise similar to the other hand-drawn animated features from Dreamworks and Disney at the time. The production values are pretty solid. As I said in my comment above, it’s definitely worth a look!
As Paul mentioned above, The Road To El Dorado did eventually find an appreciative audience, and in turn, found a niche for itself in pop culture. It came in the form of a meme that uses a brief 2-second snippet from a scene at the beginning of the film where Miguel is playing his lute at a wildly frenetic pace while expressing a mockish look of consternation (much the same kind of take that Artie Gass of Tenacious D might occasionally do while performing) to set a dramatic tone to the scene while Tulio attempts to win off with the map leading to El Dorado in a gambling match. (Here’s the scene in reference: https://youtu.be/d2TP6DZpmfA?t=82)
The meme became viral in use, morphing into many variations that appropriated other pop culture figures in Miguel’s place. At least two other scenes from the film would also inspire memes
It’s also worth noting that the soundtrack provided a critical element to this film. Elton John’s contributions to the El Dorado soundtrack were especially essential elements, adding weight to pivotal points in the film, such as the scenic montage during the pair’s journey to El Dorado, just as the musical numbers he provided for The Lion Kong served the purpose of punctuating dramatic moments in the film. Clearly, Katzenberg was still riding the wave of success with animated musicals that he helped kick off while working at Disney during their renaissance. Along with that, the film’s release came at a point when animated features aimed at adults were experiencing a renaissance of it’s own, coming at the heels of Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove (which I had the pleasure of seeing during it’s theatrical run), and coinciding with the release of Heavy Metal 2000, a more adult-oriented film that tried hard to improve on the excitement, pace, and spectacle of it’s 1980 predecessor, yet came short of living up to the expectations of both critics and it’s target demographic, thus becoming a critical and financial failure, with El Dorado sharing it’s fate. Regardless, the trend would eventually continue with international imports arriving soon after, anime features in particular, such as “Paprika”.