The Road to El Dorado
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Peachy
> 3 daythe old favorite animation Ive always known and loved
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Mallory Senich
> 3 dayThe Road to El Dorado is one of my DreamWorks animated movies. Although it has a little bit of adult humor and language, I enjoy watching it. I adored the voice acting, story, and music by The Lion King team (Hans Zimmer, Elton John, and Tim Rice). I believe the theme of this movie is that friendship is more valuable than gold.
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Sparkles the Cat
> 3 dayMy middle schoolers loved this film in social studies after our unit on pre colonization America. Be ready for some discussion about lots of current issues including how indigenous people are portrayed in film, and in my class, how the religious leader was motivated and wielded power.
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Jesse Quigley
Greater than one weekThe Road to El Dorado has never looked better than in Blu-Ray!
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Brian
> 3 dayThe Road to El Dorado seems to take its framework inspiration from the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road to movies where a couple of guys get mixed up with a gal in some escapade in a foreign land. Here its 1519 Spain, small time con artists Tulio (Kevin Kline) and Miguel (Kenneth Branaugh) win a map that eventually leads them to El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. Posing as gods (shades of Rudyard Kiplings The Man Who Would be King), they meet Chel (Rosie Perez), who both aids in their quest and becomes an obstacle between them as they cross paths with high priest Tzekel Kan (Armand Assante) and conquistador Cortez. Directed by Don Paul from a script by Ted Elliot, this is one heck of an entertaining and funny film. The animation is wonderful, a combo of traditional and CGI, with a rich color palette in terms of locations and characters. The cast is simply outstanding, especially Kline, Branaugh and Perez. There are many points it seems this trio were given the script, and allowed to ad-lib at will, coming up with great gags and one-liners which gives the dialog a very natural non staged feel. The songs were written by Elton John, who also serves as narrator in that he sings most of them, other than the rolicking Its Tough to Be a God, a surreal number where our heroes ponder being a deity while getting drunk on wine. The score by Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, the Dark Knight films) is as epic as one might think, especially during a couple of scenes involving our guys escaping Cortez and later putting in motion a plan a to seal him off from El Dorado. Ive seen a few reviews complaining about nudity and sex. We get a very brief bare butt scene as our guys chase after their clothes, and there is a bit of innuendo in terms of dialog, but all very PG. All in all a highly recommended film for any age. Pop some corn, enjoy.
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Travis Gutkowski
> 3 dayMy kids are 19 & 13.. we have loved this movie since they were small and we STILL have movie night with this movie… it’s the best !
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Fiona Nolan Sr.
> 3 dayToday at the tender age of 23, I woke up with one of the songs from this movie stuck in my head (Without Question), so I rented it, and since Im a screenwriter and really enjoy studying scripts from my favorite movies, I thought Id try to follow the script along with the movie as I watched. When I did some research, I couldnt find the script anywhere, but I found a page on TvTropes.com talking about how disastrous the film was for the creators. Not only was it the first Dreamworks film to NOT make a profit (they lost millions of dollars), but from the tidbits of the original script that I could find, the writing was absolutely atrocious. The creators had such a headache making it, it doesnt surprise me how even though it has a cult following, the creators still consider it to be one of the worst movies theyve ever worked on. They even changed directors part of the way through because the guy either had better stuff to work on or just couldnt stand working on it anymore (apparently he still has nightmares about it). To give you a taste of the original, not only were Miguel and Tulio supposed to be lovers, but even after they changed that, it was clear the writer didnt know what he was doing, constantly including inappropriate dialogue and then breaking the fourth wall to apologize to the audience (who were supposed to be kids?). In the scene where Cortes finds them on his ship, in the original script, he says, The two of you will be flogged. Then flogged some more. Then raped. Then [the films producer (30s, sunglasses, suit), taps Cortes on the shoulder], whispering something to him. Then Cortes turns back and says, My apologies. Im being told this is a family film. And yes, it got worse (at one point, the characters were struggling with their erections). The script was just horrid, too inappropriate for kids, but too simplistic and boring for adults. Im saying all this to make the point that its a miracle the production crew was able to turn this into such an enjoyable movie in the end. No, its not for small kids, but its entertaining, and being someone who grew up on anime, a little nudity and suggestiveness didnt faze me. Years later, I still think its a classic that both adults and mature children can enjoy. Thank you production crew for sticking with it to the end, and thank you voice actors for really breathing life into these characters, despite the utterly bland script. :)
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Kelly Gondek
> 3 dayI showed this to my 6-8th grade students, only one (out of 154) had seen it before. It is called by some a sort of lost gem, before Dreamworks was taken seriously as a threat to the Empire the Mouse Built. I had seen the movie before and hadnt really enjoyed it; I showed it to my students before Thanksgiving vacation and as a sort of history lesson regarding the Conquest (I showed another lost gem, Disneys The Emperors New Groove before Christmas break as a comparison). The movie is rife with tropes, and inexplicably features one Spaniard with a British accent (Branaugh), one with an American accent (Kline), and Aztecs with some sort of strange quasi-Mexican accents. While I had to watch this movie 6 times through, it grew on me, but I still couldnt help looking at is as an attempt to rip off Disney. There were scenes with animation ripped right from Disney films- a shot from the Little Mermaid here, Aladdin there, etc. The Elton John- Tim Rice music collaboration was an obvious attempt to rekindle the musical magic of Lion King... my students loved it, however, so I will probably use it again. The only drawback to this DVD is there isnt a Spanish language track- I usually show the movies in Spanish with English subtitles to immerse the students in the language.
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Joseph P
Greater than one weekIve had this movie on VHS for many, many years now despite having been made lazy by the no-need-to-rewind DVDs. I finally bought it on DVD and my girlfriend, who had never seen it, loved it. It has a scene that suggests sexual motives but not many children would pick up on it. Basically, its child-friendly and is an excellent comedy.
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Tiffany K.
> 3 dayThis movie has been a tradition with my sister and I since it came out. We make piles of food and quote it to each other. As an adult, you catch things you didnt as a child - its definitely kid safe, but adults will get some laughs that the kids wont understand, too. Totally worth it.