The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 American animated adventure comedy film directed by Eric "Bilbo" Bergeron and Don Paul, with additional sequences by Will Finn and David Silverman, starrring Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, and Rosie Perez, and produced by DreamWorks. The soundtrack features songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, as well as composer Hans Zimmer.
The movie begins in the 16th-century Seville, Spain, and tells about two men named Tulip and Miguel. During a dice game using loaded dice, they win a map that supposedly shows the location of El Dorado, 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 Hernan Cortes' fleet to conquer Mexico. They are discovered, but manage to escape in a boat with Cortes' prized war horse and eventually discover the hidden city of El Dorado, where they are mistaken for gods. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb.
Plot
In Spain 1519, two con artists, Tulio and Miguel win a map to the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado, in a rigged gambling match (thoug irronically they end up winning the map fairly). After being accused of cheating with loaded dice, the two evade capture while being chased by a bull and hide in barrels, which are shortly loaded onto one of the ships to be led by Hernan Cortes to the New World. During the trip, they are caught as stowaways, but manage to break free and take a rowboat with the help of Cortes' horse, Altivo. They land at an unknown shore at the edge of Mexico, and Miguel begins to recognize landmarks stated on the map. The map leads them to a relief outside of a waterfall where a young woman approaches them, chased by a number of guards. The guards see the image of Tulio and Miguel riding Altivo as the same on the totem, and believing them to be gods, escort them and the woman under the falls and into El Dorado, truly a city made of gold.
Tulio and Miguel are brought to the city's elders, Chief Tannabok and wicked high priest Tzekel-Kan. While Tannabok warmly welcomes them to the city, Tzekel-Kan mainly sees them as a way to enhance his own standing. After celebrations offered by both Tannabok and Tzekel-Kan, the two are taken to private quarters along with the woman, Chel, who has seen through their ploy but offers to help maintain it as long as they take her with them when they leave. Tulio tells Tannabok the next day they are only here for a visit, but will need a boat built to leave the city with the gifts the city has showered them with; Tannabok says it will take them a few days to construct a vessel. As they spend time with the locals, Miguel finds the city peaceful and expresses interest in staying. Chel encourages Miguel to continue to explore the city, allowing her to become closer to Tulio. When Tzekel-Kan sees Miguel playing Tlatchli (an ancient South American ball game ), with children, he demands that the gods play against the city's best players. During the match, Tulio and Miguel are clearly over-matched, but Chel replaces the ball with a rolled-up armadillo, allowing the two to cheat and win the game. Afterwards, Tzekel-Kan offers to have the defeated players sacrifaced, but Miguel refuses and oders the insane priest to leave, saying that gods speak for themselves now.
While leaving, Tzekel-Kan sees a small cut on Miguel's forehead, and realizes that they are not gods because gods don't bleed. Tzekel-Kan uses a dark potion to conjure a giant stone jaguar to do his bidding. He sends it to attack the city and chase Tulio and Miguel. Though somewhat intimidated at first, Tulio and Miguel manage to outwit the stone jaguar, causing both it and Tzekel-Kan to fall into a giant whirlpool, thought to be the entrance to Xibalba, the spirit world. Tzekel-Kan survives and ends up outside El Dorado, where Cortes and his men are searching for gold. Thinking Cortes is a true god (a reference to the fall of the Inca Empire), Tzekel-Kan quickly offers to lead them to El Dorado.
With their boat completed and loaded with treasures, Tulio is ready to leave but Miguel announces that he will be staying. As Tulio and Chel start to leave, they spot smoke on the horizon, realizing that Cortes and his men are quickly approaching the city with the help from Tzekel-Kan, hoping to take it over. To protect the city from the Spanish troops, Tulio determines they can use the boat to slam against rock formations under the waterfall path that will cave in and block access to the city, but they will need to give the boat enough speed to do so. The city's residents start to pull down a large statue to create a wave to propel the boat, but Tulio cannot get the sails up to give the boat enough speed to avoid the statue. Miguel forgoes his chance to stay in the city and jumps into the boat with Altivo to finish hoisting the sails. The boat clears the statue in time, and Tulio's plan is successful; though the boat and its treasures are lost, the entrance to El Dorado is sealed for good. Tulio, Miguel, Chel, and Altivo hide as Tzekel-Kan brings Cortes and his men towards the waterfall. Once Tzekal-Kan finds out that the entrance has been blocked, an angry Cortes takes this as a lie, and orders his men to place Tzekel-Kan into custody for leading them for nothing. Cortes and his men then march away with a humiliated Tzekel-Kan in their hands.
Tulio, Miguel, and Chel, though disappointed they lost their treasure, take off in a different direction for a new adventure, unaware that Altivo still wears the golden horseshoes he was outfitted with in the city.
Cast
- Kevin Kline - Tulio. He and Miguel are con artists who pretend to be gods so they can get gold. He is the planner who wanted to leave El Dorado with the treasure. He falls in love with Chel, a beautiful woman from El Dorado. Miguel is his best friend.
- Kenneth Branagh - Miguel. He is the fun-loving one who wanted to stay in El Dorado. Tulio is his best friend.
- Rosie Perez - Chel. A beautiful young woman from El Dorado who discovers Tulio and Miguel's con and plays along with their con. In exchange, she will return to Spain with them and get some of the gold. She falls in love with Tulio.
- Jim Cummings - Hernán Cortés- the merciless and ambitious leader of the expedition to find El Dorado. Cummings also plays additional voices.
- Armand Assante - Tzekel-Kan- the fanatically vicious High Preist who has a fixation for human sacrifices and evil magic.
- Edward James Olmos - Chief Tannabok. He is the kind chief who welcomes Tulio and Miguel.
- Tobin Bell - Zaragoza
- Frank Welker - Altivo- Cortés' horse who ends up teaming up with Tulio and Miguel.
- Duncan Marjoribanks - Acolyte - Tzekel-Kan's henchman
- Bibo - An armadillo that travels to El Dorado with Miguel and Tulio.
Trivia
- A series of sequels featuring Miguel, Tulio, Chel, Altivo and even the armadillo going after other legends about gold was planned, similar to the Shrek series, but following the disappointing box-office results they were immediately cancelled.
- Voice artists in animated movies usually record their parts alone, with no other actors in the studio with them. In a break with this tradition, Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh recorded their dialogue together.