Stupid-Awesome: The Road to El Dorado

Reblogged from the Shadowgirls site

Road to El Dorado was one of those overlooked gems of a movie that I have no idea why it wasn’t more popular. It’s beautifully animated, the voice acting is great, and even the Elton John music isn’t that annoying. I assumed that it was simply a case of bad marketing, since this was about the time that Disney came out with Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Titan AE bombed like a nuke in the theaters, effectively killing Fox Animation. But looking at Rotten Tomatoes today, it’s still not highly thought upon, which really baffles me. Admittedly, it’s not a perfect film, but it’s far better than Brother Bear or that horrible piece of crap, Shrek. It’s by far the best of the movies I’ve talked about here thus far, and the flaws the movie has are no better or worse than the flaws in other more popular films that came out later. But then I remember, these are critics saying that. They’re the same people who can’t figure out why Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was so financially successful, when they hated it so much. Anything that gives Ebert a headache is okay by me. (However, with the Road to El Dorado, I should point out that when you click on the RT Community tab on Rotten Tomatoes, the rating is like 64%. Usually you want to go by those numbers, since those are real people reviewing a movie and not a critic.) The Road to El Dorado is based around the old “Road to” movies that Bing Crosby and Bob Hope used to do. Basically about two fast-talking friends that through a series of events, end up on an adventure to a far away land, with a beautiful girl and danger is often involved. This movie is no exception. (You might have seen this trend done on Family Guy on more than a few occasions. I’m the farthest thing from an Family Guy fan, but they are usually their better episodes. That right there is about the nicest thing you‘ll hear me say about that show.)

Road to El Dorado is basically about two Spanish conmen named Tulio and Miguel, who bumble their way onboard Hernán Cortés’ ship bound for the New World. Along the way, they end up in a lifeboat with a horse (long story) and end up on a quest searching for the fabled city of El Dorado. (Akator to us Crystal Skull fans.) They find the place (accidentally of course) where thanks to the help of a curvaceous native woman named Chel (more on her later) they’re assumed to be gods. Being greedy conmen, this works wonderfully for the duo. I won’t spoil much more. Yeah, it’s about as historically accurate as 300 and the plot has been done before, but it’s like Stallone making action films: He may be in his 60s and the movies are pretty much all the same, but goddamn, I like watching him blow shit up.
The voice acting in this movie, particularly that of Kevin Kline (Tulio) and Kenneth Branagh (Miguel) is about some of the best I’ve heard in an animated movie. (I think personally, I would put The Incredibles above it, and maybe Ratatouille… But not many more.) Their rapport and the way they play off each other is classic comedy. I could fill this entire reviews of the back and forth dialogue these two have that just brings a smile to your face.

Now the animation is beautiful. It’s not exactly “Tarzan” levels of jaw-dropping, but it’s also well above “serviceable”. (For the record, I consider Disney’s Tarzan to have the best traditional animation of any movie ever. And for $150 million, it better have been!) What really shines out to me as an artist is the character designs… They actually look like they’re from South America as opposed to being just a bunch of white people colored tan. (Happens a lot more than you’d suspect. But that’s another issue for someone much smarter than me to discuss.) But one character of interest I want to bring up here: Chel.

Chel is interesting. Personality-wise, Chel is flawed. She’s as big of a con-artist as our two heroes. She’s seduces, she cheats, sets the boys against each other, AND she’s one of the heroes. She’s not a princess, and she’s probably what would be defined as an “anti-hero”. (I think Charon shares a lot of traits with her.) She’s voiced by Rosie Perez, who’s a good actress, so she kinda rounds out the dynamics of the two heroes. Visually though I believe is where she shines through. Check her character design to the right. What are those things she’s got? Oh, that‘s right! Curves! She's got curves! When you see a lot of female cartoon characters (both animated and comic), they far too often fall into a category that I myself may be guilty of, as well. Kind of a generic female body, where the major differences between them are either the height or the bust size. Sometimes not even that. Some of the Disney Princesses or female characters from the DC Animated Universe you could probably just swap their heads around and be none the wiser. (In fact, I believe the toys have proven this.) Chel obviously doesn’t have that issue. Now, if you type in “Chel” into Google, you’re going to find a bunch of fanart of her. In fact, you’ll find more fanart of her than official artwork. Some good, some not so good… And some NSFW, so don’t do it there. (In fact, it was a bit of a struggle to find even that image of her I posted.) The only other female cartoon characters I’ve only seen this happen before with is Kim Possible’s Shego and Rescue Rangers’ Gadget. (Maybe Raven too… Dunno.) And both of those are from very popular shows, as opposed from a ten year old movie that bombed at the box office. It’s kinda odd. But then again, fanboys and fangirls really shouldn’t be examined too deeply. Just accept what is and what is not.

Clocking in at about 89 minutes, the Road to El Dorado is actually a fun movie and I’m quite baffled why it’s not more popular. If you haven’t seen it, give it a shot. I think you’ll be pleased.