The Road to El Dorado
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| The Road to El Dorado | |
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Eric Bergeron Don Paul |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Brook Breton Bonne Radford |
| Written by | Ted Elliott Terry Rossio |
| Starring | Kevin Kline Kenneth Branagh Rosie Perez Armand Assante Edward James Olmos and Jim Cummings |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer John Powell Tim Rice Elton John |
| Editing by | John Carnochan Vicki Hiatt Dan Molina Lynne Southerland |
| Studio | Stardust Pictures |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Distribution LLC |
| Release date(s) | March 31,2000 |
| Running time | 89 Minutes |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $95 Million |
| Gross revenue | Domestic: $50,863,742 Foreign: $25,568,985 Worldwide: $76,432,727[1] |
The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 animated comedy film by DreamWorks SKG. The soundtrack features songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, music team from The Lion King.
The movie begins in 16th century (1519) Seville (in the south of Spain) and tells about two men named Tulio and Miguel. During a dice game using loaded dice, they win a map that purportedly shows the location of the legendary city of gold in the New World. However, their cheating is soon discovered and as a result, they end up as stowaways on Hernán Cortés' fleet to conquer Mexico. They are discovered, but manage to escape in a boat with Cortés' prize war horse and eventually discover the hidden city of El Dorado where they are mistaken for gods.
El Dorado is portrayed as a utopian civilization that combines facets of the Aztecs, Maya, Incas, and Atlantis.
The soundtrack was released as the album The Road to El Dorado; however, in some instances (such as "The Trail We Blaze"), the songs have been altered musically and vocally from the way they appeared in the film. The video game tie-in, released on PlayStation and PC, was named Gold & Glory: The Road to El Dorado.
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[edit] Production
The creation of The Road to El Dorado was a challenge for the studio because Dreamworks had devoted most of its creative efforts to its previous animated film, The Prince of Egypt. Tom Hulce was previously considered to do the voice of either Tulio or Miguel.
[edit] Plot
In Spain 1519, two wanted con artists, Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (Kevin Kline), win a map purportedly to the city of gold, El Dorado along with a large number of other valuables by cheating at a game of dice (though the map itself was won fairly). Chased by an angry bull and the city's guards, the two inadvertently hide themselves on the ship belonging to Hernán Cortés and his troops as they set off to the New World. They manage to escape to a rowboat, inadvertently bringing along Cortés' horse, Altivo, and eventually end up ashore on the New World, where Miguel recognizes landmarks shown on the map. The three follow the map and end up where the map marks the entrance to El Dorado, but find only an enscribed monolith waiting for them. As they try to determine what to do next, a young tribal woman is chased by a group of guards, and Miguel and Tulio step in to protect her. The guards believe the two to be gods as shown on the monolith, and escort them along with the woman along a river cavern to El Dorado, truly a city made out of gold.
Miguel and Tulio are introduced to the city's elders, Chief Tannabok (Edward James Olmos) and high priest Tzekel-Kan (Armand Assante). After appearing to stop the eruption of a nearby volcano by their words only, Miguel and Tulio are proclaimed to be gods despite Tzekel-Kan's suspicions, and are treated luxuriously. The woman they rescued from the guards, Chel (Rosie Perez), offers to be their assistant as to avoid punishment for attempting to steal gold from the city. After the night of a feast prepared by Chief Tannabok to honor them, Miguel and Tulio are shocked to find that Tzekel-Kan is ready to offer a live sacrifice, and insist that it be stopped, stating they will take the gold instead as their tribute. The two quickly conceive of a plan, and convince Chief Tannabok to build them a boat over the next few days so that the "gods" may return along with their tribute. While Tulio plans to wait out those days in their provided villa, Chel urges Miguel to go explore the city, allowing her to get romantically closer to Tulio.
Tzekel-Kan, finding Miguel playing ball with children in the streets, organizes a Mesoamerican ballgame match between them and the city's best players in the hopes that they will prove skilled enough to provide a modest challenge to the two. Miguel and Tulio quickly find themselves outmatched until Chel replaces the ball with a rolled-up armadillo that allows them to cheat and win the game. However, Tzekel-Kan catches a small cut on Miguel's forehead and is finally convinced that they are not gods. Tzekel-Kan brings to life a giant stone jaguar statue and chases Miguel and Tulio around the city to the edge of a cliff overlooking a giant whirlpool. Miguel and Tulio use their con tactics to fake an argument, and in the resulting chaos, both Tzekel-Kan and the jaguar statue fall into the whirlpool; when he emerges from the whirlpool, Tzekel-Kan finds himself far outside El Dorado at the feet of Cortés and his men, and quickly offers to show them the way to El Dorado in order to save his life.
Though Miguel and Tulio are safe, the two realize they want to go separate ways, with Tulio desiring to leave the city along with Chel and the gold, while Miguel opts to stay along with Altivo. They'll both get what they want, but they know they will miss each other. With the boat completed, Tulio and Chel prepare to depart and say their tearful goodbyes to Miguel and the people of the city, but Tulio then spots smoke on the horizon, and deduces that Cortés' is approaching the city, and that the people of El Dorado cannot defend against his forces. Tulio comes up with a plan to collapse the pillars supporting the river cavern with the boat, propelled by a large wave created by the cityfolk toppling a large statue at the river's mouth, as to seal the entrance to El Dorado forever and keeping its population safe. As Tulio and Chel depart, their sails fail to work correctly to allow the boat to clear the falling statue; Miguel forgoes his chance to stay in the city to jump onto the boat with Altivo's help and fix the sails, allowing the boat to clear the statue. Tulio's plan works as expected, though the boat and all their gold is lost as it collapses the pillars. As the wave deposits them by the monolith, they are met by Cortés and his army and Tzekel-Kan. When they discover there is no passage to the city any longer, Cortés and his men capture Tzekel-Kan and depart. Tulio, Miguel, and Chel reunite, and while disappointed about losing the gold, are happy to be alive and friends again, and they set off on Altivo, who still happens to be clad in golden horseshoes, towards their next adventure.
[edit] Cast
- Kevin Kline as Tulio.
- Kenneth Branagh as Miguel
- Rosie Perez as Chel
- Armand Assante as Tzekel-Kan
- Edward James Olmos as Chief Tannabok
- Jim Cummings as Cortes
- Frank Welker as Altivo
- Tobin Bell as Zaragoza
- Duncan Marjoribanks as Acolyte
[edit] Characters
Miguel: the sensitive and artistic of the pair. He falls in love with El Dorado and its people, but ultimately gives them up for friendship. Miguel is one of the protagonists in the film.
Tulio: the practical and logical of the pair. Initially, he only cares about the gold, but after falling in love with Chel, he comes to respect the people of El Dorado. Tulio is the other protagonist in the film.
Chel: Sassy, resourceful, and attractive, she is not fooled by the two "gods" for very long. Later on she becomes attracted to Tulio. She is cunning and seductive, and knows what to do to get what she desires. It has been noted by fans that Chel breaks out of the common female heroine archtype, therefore making her refreshing and unique.
Chief Tannabok: A good-hearted family man and the chief of the city. He works out that Miguel and Tulio are not gods, but is grateful enough to keep their secret.
Tzekel-Kan: The Mad Priest of El Dorado, as well as the villain in the story. Bloodthirsty and power-hungry, Tzekel-Kan rules over El Dorado with an iron fist. He competes with the Chief trying to please the "gods", but after Miguel stands up to him, he learns that Miguel and Tulio are in fact mortals and connives to destroy them. After returning from his alleged demise in the climax, he teams up with Cortes to capture the citizens of El Dorado in an act of treason, but is captured by Cortes after his plot is foiled. His final fate is unknown, although it is implied that he was to be sold as a slave.
Hernan Cortes: the ambitious leader of the Spanish armies, Cortes is hell-bent on conquering the New World and enslaving the people of El Dorado. Miguel and Tulio get on his bad side as the film begins.
Altivo: The horse that was once supposedly owned by Cortes. Now owned by Miguel. The horse is expressive, cynical, and self aware. He also has a severe weakness for apples.
[edit] Crew
| Crew Position | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Don Paul Eric "Bibo" Bergeron Jeffrey Katzenberg uncredited |
| Produced by | Bonne Radford Brooke Breton |
| Written by | Ted Elliott Terry Rossio |
| Executive Producer | Jeffrey Katzenberg |
| Songs by | Sir Elton John Sir Tim Rice |
| Original Score by | Hans Zimmer John Powell |
| Co-Executive Producer | Bill Damaschke |
| Production Designer | Christian Schellewald |
| Art Directors | Raymond Zibach Paul Lasaine Wendell Luebbe |
| Film Editor | John Carnochan Dan Molina |
| Artistic Supervisors | Ronnie Del Carmen & Jeff Snow (Story supervisors) Lorenzo Martinez & Damon O'Bierne (Layout supervisors) Kevin Turcotte (Background supervisors) Kristof Serrand (Animation/Final Line supervisor) Dan Phillips (Digital supervisor) Bud Myrick (3D Effects supervisor) Stephen Wood (2D Effects supervisor) Jane Gotts (2D Digital Effects supervisor) |
| Character Designers | Carlos Grangel Nicholas Marlet Tony Siruno |
| Senior Supervising Animators | James Baxter (Tulio) David Brewster (Miguel) |
| Supervising Animators | William Salazar (Tulio) Serguei Kouchnerov & Bob Scott (Miguel) Rodolphe Guenoden (Chel) Kathy Zielinski (Tzekel-Kan) Frans Vischer (Chief) Kristof Serrand (Altivo & Cortes) Nicholas Marlet (Armadillo) Sylvain Deboissy (Jaguar) Patrick Mate (Sailors & Ball Players) Erik Schmidt (Miscellaneous) |
| Additional Sequences Directed by | David Silverman Will Finn |
| Production Manager | Jill Hooper Mark Swift |
[edit] Annie Awards
| Result | Award | Winner/Nominee Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|
| NOMINATED | Animated Theatrical Feature | |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Storyboarding | Jeff Snow (Story supervisor) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Production Design | Christian Schellewald (Production Designer) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | David Brewster (Senior Supervising Animator - Miguel) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | Rodolphe Guendonen (Supervising Animator - Chel) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Effects Animation | Doug Ikeler (Effects Lead - Crashing the Gate) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Voice Acting | Armand Assante ("Tzekel-Kan") |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Music | Hans Zimmer (Music) John Powell (Music) |
[edit] Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2007) |
- Some scenes and characters of the movie are inspirated by the french satire Candide, from Voltaire, like the way to enter in the city of Eldorado and the character of Chief Tannabok (who is very similar to the city's chief in Candide).
- When Tzekel-Kan (the priest) is flipping through the pages of a spell book one of the illustrations resembles the DreamWorks logo of a boy sitting in the arc of a crescent moon fishing.
- The name of the armadillo that is seen throughout the film (and used in the game that Miguel and Tulio play) is Bibo. Bibo is actually the nickname of Eric Bergeron, the French director of the movie.
- The film is an homage to the classic "buddy" films of the 1940s starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Those films were always titled "The Road to..." (Morocco, Utopia, Zanzibar, etc.), involved two friends who accidentally find themselves en route to an exotic location, and a highly sexualized love interest (usually played by Dorothy Lamour). At one point in The Road to El Dorado, the reflections of Tulio and Miguel in running water briefly form caricatures of Crosby and Hope.
- Originally in the script, the relationship between the main characters (Tulio and Miguel) was supposed to have more of an implication, with each calling the other by pet names like "darling." This would have heightened the tension when Chel came between them and when they argued about splitting up. The producers and other executives had the pet names and other references cut, but in some versions of the subtitles (which are often taken from original scripts), the pet names can still be seen.
- The giant whirlpool that the jaguar fell in at the end was a cenote, or sacrificial inground well.
- Tim Rice, Elton John, and Hans Zimmer previously worked together, wrote songs and composed music for the 1994 movie, The Lion King.
- Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, along with the other voice cast, recorded their parts in 1998. One year later, the two would star alongside each other again in the film Wild Wild West.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Road to El Dorado |
- Official Website
- The Road to El Dorado at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- The Road to El Dorado at the Internet Movie Database
- The Road to El Dorado at Rotten Tomatoes
