BACKGROUND
DreamWorks was a relative newcomer to the animated world back in 2000.
The Road to El Dorado was only its third animated feature, but after Antz (1998) and The Prince of Egypt (1998), DreamWorks was making a name for itself already. Headed by former Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks was preparing to do battle with Katzenberg’s former employer.
The Road to El Dorado was to be an animated musical, but with the added twist of this being a buddy comedy, something that Disney Animation was experimenting with around the same time. The filmmakers over there were also producing a buddy comedy set in the ancient civilisations of South America, set to be released in 2000, so there have been numerous comparisons between The Road to El Dorado and The Emperor’s New Groove ever since. It’s even been theorised by some that Katzenberg may’ve “stolen” the idea from when he worked at Disney, just like the idea being floated around that Antz’s story was just a rehash of Pixar’s A Bug’s Life (1998), which DreamWorks released just a month before Pixar. But let’s not open up that can of worms again. I’ll be the first to say that the two films have just as many differences as they have similarities – but I still hate Antz.
Moving on. I don’t remember having The Road to El Dorado on VHS as a child, so I can’t have loved it much when I was younger, but I do remember watching it, I’m assuming on TV. It wasn’t until I watched The Prince of Egypt on Netflix a few years ago, this being another DreamWorks movie that I hadn’t watched much of when I was a child, that I rediscovered The Road to El Dorado. And yet the road to me watching this film was not simple.
Netflix are annoying and don’t put on the same programming that you get in the US and take things on and off at random. So, although The Prince of Egypt was on Netflix UK, for a limited time, The Road to El Dorado was not. I decided I’d have to get the DVD to watch it, because I just had to watch it. Soon. And because I don’t like to pay the Amazon price for a DVD, I wanted to find it somewhere cheaper. Luckily, in the UK, there is a second-hand media store that I like to get DVDs from. This particular store that had a copy was about thirty minutes’ drive away but the town was populated with strange characters that day, making it not such a pleasant experience… But I got The Road to El Dorado and went on my way, excited to see this film, which I knew had a great voice cast and some good music. I was not disappointed, even re-watching as an adult.
PLOT
The Road to El Dorado begins in Spain in 1519, where the Spanish conquistadors are preparing to sail to the New World in the hopes of finding gold. Meanwhile, two men are gambling in the streets and winning plenty of money, thanks to the loaded dice they’re using, but that’s a secret! The other players then tell these men, Tulio and Miguel, that they want to bet a map to the city of El Dorado against all their money. Miguel is very excited by the prospect of finding El Dorado, but Tulio is much more sceptical, however, he goes along with the bet. The opposition tell them they want to use their own dice, not the dice Tulio and Miguel were using. Tulio is concerned but they manage to roll successfully to win the map.
As they go to leave though, their loaded dice are revealed and needless to say, the gamblers are not happy about being hustled and go to attack Tulio and Miguel. Tulio and Miguel begin a fake fight with each other, complete with swords and an audience of people, ending up on top of a roof. They jump over the other side to get away from the men chasing them, inadvertently landing right next to a bull who begins to chase them through the city instead. Tulio and Miguel are eventually stranded at the edge of the roofs, but seeing barrels of water below them, they choose to jump into those to escape.
These barrels are lifted onto a ship, which Miguel and Tulio are unaware of. They simply plan to jump out of these barrels, but they are unable to, because a chest has been placed on top of them. This ship begins to sail away from the harbour. Later, the chest is removed and Tulio and Miguel jump out of their barrels, but are not prepared to be confronted with a whole army. The two are promptly shackled and taken to Hernán Cortés, the leader of this expedition, who wants them flogged and thrown in the brig, with the plan to put them to work on a plantation in Cuba.
With little to no plan of escape, other than an idea to hijack a row boat to sail away but this being useless unless they can get on deck, Miguel and Tulio begin to feel hopeless in the brig. That is, until an apple, meant for war house Altivo, falls into the brig. Miguel uses this apple to lure Altivo to the bars above them. He asks Altivo to look for a pry bar. Tulio thinks Miguel has gone crazy, asking a horse for help – until Altivo throws the keys to unlock themselves from the brig instead. In the dead of night, Miguel and Tulio steal supplies and get into a boat, ready to lower themselves into the sea. However, Altivo wants his apple back. Miguel tries to toss it back up to the deck for him, but misses, and the apple lands in the ocean, so Altivo jumps into the sea to retrieve it. But Altivo isn’t a great swimmer and Miguel has to jump into the water to save him. Their boat is then almost hit by the ships and in the panic to avoid them, the boat overturns. With all their strength, Miguel and Tulio manage to right it, and they, along with Altivo, begin to sail away.
With rough seas, no food, because that was lost when the boat overturned, and no idea of where they are going, all looks lost for them. Even when a seagull dies on their oar, making them think they actually have some food, fate continues to be cruel, as a shark jumps out of the ocean to eat this seagull. As time passes, Miguel and Tulio lose all hope, and start to talk to each other about how much their friendship has meant to them, as they believe they are about to die. They then look down and see that their boat has landed on a beach. Maybe they won’t die after all! Except on closer inspection, the beach is full of skeletons of dead pirates. Ah, maybe this isn’t such a great place to be… As Tulio debates getting back in their boat, Miguel looks at the map to El Dorado, after recognising an eagle-shaped rock. Sure enough, this rock is on the map! Miguel excitedly tells Tulio they should follow the map and find this “city of gold”, but Tulio isn’t so sure, believing the map to be a fake. He is eventually persuaded into trekking through the forest to find it, planning to find El Dorado, take the gold, and sail back to Spain.
Miguel, Tulio, and Altivo follow the map for days, getting into various scrapes, like having monkeys steal their clothes whilst bathing, and being attacked by numerous animals. Tulio gets covered in leeches at one point too, which is just gross. A little armadillo begins to follow the group as well. After some time, the group arrive at a large rock that resembles El Dorado on the map. Tulio is frustrated, believing this rock is El Dorado and there never was a city of gold. Miguel thinks this is all just a mistake, but Tulio angrily tells Miguel to get on the horse so they can leave.
But as fate would have it, this is not to be. A woman being chased by soldiers literally runs into them. She is carrying some sort of golden ball that she is meant to have stolen. On seeing these strange men and their horse, who resemble the image on the large rock, the soldiers take them and the woman through the fog to a waterfall, then through a cave, and placed on a boat. This boat takes them to a strange city, which turns out to be the legendary El Dorado! Miguel and Tulio are stunned. The two men are greeted by Chief Tannabok and High Priest Tzekel-Kan. Tzekel-Kan says he prophesised that the gods would come, and believe Tulio and Miguel are those gods, although the chief is less than convinced. Tzekel-Kan then sees the thief woman, and asks the “gods” to decide on her punishment. They choose to let her go. This immediately makes Tzekel-Kan suspicious who wants proof of Miguel and Tulio’s divinity. Luckily, as the two argue a nearby volcano starts to erupt, but when they stop, so does the volcano. That’s enough proof for now!
Miguel and Tulio are led to the temple, where they will stay for the duration of their visit. Chief Tannabok plans a feast for the evening, with Tzekel-Kan preferring a dawn ceremony to welcome them. Miguel and Tulio decide they’d like to have both! The chief and Tzekel-Kan then leave the “gods”. Thinking they are alone, Miguel and Tulio laugh about the ridiculousness of the situation, and begin planning the scam of the century, pretending to be gods so they can take gold from the city away with them. However, the thief woman has overheard all of this, and she wants in on this scam, as she is trying to get away from El Dorado forever, though no-one really knows why. She introduces herself as Chel. Tulio and Miguel initially refuse to let Chel in on the plan, but after realising they know nothing about gods, they agree to work with Chel, so she can assist them. Both men are attracted to Chel but they say she is “off-limits”, so things don’t get messy. Yeah, let’s see how long that lasts!
Then, it’s time for the celebratory feast for their arrival. They rationalise this scam, deciding it is in their best interests to play along with the god pretence, believing that the citizens, Chief, and Tzekel-Kan would kill them if they found out they were lying. After a night of drinking and over-indulging, the next morning, it is time for the dawn ceremony, which concerns Chel. It soon becomes clear why, as Tzekel-Kan has set up a human sacrifice for them. He wants to push a living man into the water below as a tribute to the gods, however, Tulio and Miguel put a stop to this, saying the stars are not aligned so they cannot do this today. The Chief brings his own tribute instead, in the form of gold objects. Tulio and Miguel are happy to accept that! However, they misunderstand part of this ceremony, and accidentally ask for this gold to go to “Xibalba”. They are confused to then see the gold being thrown into the water, going to Xibalba, like they said, which is the Spirit World. Tulio and Miguel ask Chel what is going and she explains, before telling the Chief that the “gods” would actually like to keep that gold. The rest of this tribute is taken to the temple.
We then see that Cortés and his soldiers have landed on the same beach that Miguel and Tulio did days earlier. Cortés sees someone has beaten him there, and orders his soldiers to begin their expedition through the forest.
After the ceremony, Miguel and Tulio start to see tension between Chief Tannabok and Tzekel-Kan. The men plan to use this to their advantage, by playing them off against each other. They also begin to think they shouldn’t push their luck and should leave as soon as possible before their ruse is discovered. Tulio and Miguel ask the Chief for a boat to be built for them so they can leave with their tribute. The Chief assumed the gods would stay in El Dorado for the next 1000 years, but says they can build them a boat, only that it will take a week to complete. Once they say they’ll ask Tzekel-Kan if he can build a boat for them quicker, this time scale is reduced to three days. It’ll have to do. Tulio asks Miguel to lie low for the next three days until they can leave. Miguel, however, wants to explore the city. Luckily, Chel wants some alone time with Tulio and encourages Miguel to leave the temple. When Tulio realises Miguel has gone against his plan, he is annoyed. Chel then turns her attentions to him and helps him forget all about Miguel…
In the city, Miguel begins to walk around, but is confused why no citizens seem to be there. Talking to a guard, Miguel learns that Tzekel-Kan ordered the city to be cleansed for them, and that nobody is allowed to be walking around it. Miguel then sees a man being hassled by soldiers and orders them to stop. Miguel seems to be intimidating the people, so he makes a small guitar and starts to play music. This impresses some of the local children who have been with Altivo the horse. This encourages the people to show Miguel around. Tzekel-Kan watches Miguel in the city, and doesn’t think he is acting as a god would so he goes to Tulio, interrupting his “alone time” with Chel. Tzekel-Kan explains to Tulio that humans are imperfect and they are like snakes or insects that need to be killed. Tulio is deeply disturbed by Tzekel-Kan’s apparent thirst for blood.
Tulio meets Miguel in the city and tells him the need to leave El Dorado right now, but Tzekel-Kan instead orders the gods to play a ball game, where they must get the ball through a hoop high up on a wall. He says it should be easy for the gods to win, even against the city’s best players. After only playing for a short time, Tulio and Miguel are falling behind quickly and simply getting more and more tired. As the ball goes out of play, Chel has an idea. She throws in their armadillo friend to pretend to be the ball. Sure enough, this works, and Tulio and Miguel start to catch up. With only a few minutes left of the game, the armadillo is taken out of a play and a real ball is thrown in accidentally by Chel. Tulio and Miguel fight to get the final shot – and they manage, with a little kick from Altivo. Tzekel-Kan demands that the losing team be sacrificed, but once again, Miguel and Tulio refuse to allow this, raising further suspicions. They order Tzekel-Kan to leave the area. He agrees to do this, having seen Miguel bleeding from a small cut on his eyebrow. Gods don’t bleed, proving that Miguel and Tulio are not gods after all. Tzekel-Kan vows to enact his revenge on them.
Miguel is later asked by the Chief to check over their new ship. Miguel pretends to see flaws in it, but in actual fact, he just wants to stay in the city longer. Chief Tannabok tells Miguel if he wants to stay in El Dorado, he would be very welcome. Miguel goes back to the temple to think about this, when he overhears Tulio saying “forget Miguel”, when he tells Chel he wants to take her back to Spain. This makes Miguel certain he’ll stay in El Dorado, believing their friendship to be over now.
But that is the least of their worries because Tzekel-Kan has brewed a potion allowing him to control a huge stone jaguar. The stone jaguar attacks the city, going after Tulio and Miguel. They jump on Altivo with Chel and ride through the city, but are soon thrown off. With Chel in danger, they tell Altivo to take her away from there. Miguel and Tulio end up being chased on foot through lava, before being cornered at the ledge near the water portal to Xibalba. Tzekel-Kan tells them they are not gods and goes to attack them with the jaguar. However, the two begin to argue, like they did in Spain with those gamblers, which allows them to punch Tzekel-Kan whilst he is distracted. They go to tie him up with vines, but the jaguar leaps out at them. They jump to the side of the ledge, meaning the jaguar jumps on to Tzekel-Kan, breaking the ledge and dropping them into the water. Tzekel-Kan eventually comes out the other side of the water, right in front of Hernán Cortés. Seeing gold jewellery on him, Cortés orders Tzekel-Kan to take him to El Dorado.
Back at the city, Miguel returns a hero and chooses to stay in El Dorado. Tulio and Chel gather up their gold and prepare to leave on the boat. However, they soon hear noises and see smoke in the distance. Tulio and Miguel believe this must be Cortés and his soldiers. They fear Tzekel-Kan is leading them to the city. Chief Tannabok wants his citizens to fight against them but Tulio and Miguel say they cannot win that fight. Tulio makes his own plan: to crash the boat against the pillars under the waterfall to block the gates to El Dorado. As the citizens collapse statues in the city to propel their boat forward to enable this plan, Tulio and Chel risk being crushed as they cannot get their sail open in time. Miguel and Altivo leap over to their boat, pulling the sail free. The only thing is, Miguel now can’t get back to the city, but he’s actually ok with that, wanting his friendship with Tulio more. As the pillars in El Dorado fall, their boat catches the wave out, and they turn it in the cave so the boat will collapse the pillars, causing a landslide, blocking any entry to El Dorado. The humans and Altivo jump at the last moment and ride the flow of water. They land on solid ground – without their gold which was lost in the water – and see Tzekel-Kan at the entrance to the city. The way is now blocked, much to Tzekel-Kan’s surprise. Believing Tzekel-Kan has lied to him, Cortés imprisons Tzekel-Kan, turning away from the area.
Tulio and Miguel, although sad to have lost their gold, are happy that they saved El Dorado and have allowed it to be kept a secret forever. They then leave with Chel and Altivo – who unbeknownst to the others is sporting golden horseshoes – ready for a new adventure.
CHARACTERS & CAST
In all honesty, Miguel and Tulio do not begin The Road to El Dorado as good people. They are crooks and scammers, hustling people out of their money on the streets in Spain. Somehow, they have been made to be “lovable rogues” in this movie, but if you really think about it, they aren’t people you’d actually want to come across! Having said that, they are very likeable characters, although they have differing personalities. Tulio is the cynical one, the realist, whereas Miguel is the idealist, the dreamer. Tulio comes up with most of the plans, being quick to think on his feet, whereas Miguel sits back and takes things at a calmer pace. Tulio wants nothing more than to get their gold and leave El Dorado before they are discovered to be scamming the city and its people, however, Miguel wants to experience what the city has to offer and talk to the people, which is where he comes to the realisation that El Dorado is a great place to live, not something they should be exploiting. This causes friction in their friendship and they almost go their separate ways, until Miguel sees Tulio in danger and knows he’ll have to sacrifice his future life in El Dorado to save him and repair their friendship.
Strangely for an animated movie, the voice actors for Tulio and Miguel, Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, recorded their lines together. This has happened on occasion, but for the most part, actors will record their lines separately from the rest of the cast. For The Road to El Dorado, this process helped to create the necessary chemistry these characters have to have, as well as increasing the potential for great improvisation of lines and humorous moments. This was specifically noticeable in the sword fight between Tulio and Miguel in Spain whilst they are trying to distract and get away from those chasing them for the money they basically stole. Kline and Branagh were even recording their lines with swords in hand! Despite both Kline and Branagh being classically trained serious actors, they were happy to do something different and be silly for their roles in this film. Kline and Branagh also both starred in the movie Wild Wild West (1999) alongside Will Smith, so The Road to El Dorado did not end up being the only time the two actors would work together. Although I have not seen Wild Wild West, I doubt this was their finest hour, so let’s talk about some of their career highlights instead!
The Road to El Dorado was not Kevin Kline’s first experience voicing a character for an animated movie, as he voiced Phoebus in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), my all-time favourite movie, even reprising the role for the direct-to-video sequel. Also for Disney, Kline appeared as Maurice, Belle’s father, in the live-action remake Beauty and the Beast (2017). Kline began to make a name for himself in the 1980s, performing as The Pirate King in the opera The Pirates of Penzance, first for the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, before the show moved to Broadway. Kline won a Tony Award for his performance and reprised this role in the subsequent 1983 film. On screen, he starred in the drama Sophie’s Choice (1982) alongside Meryl Streep, and with John Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis in the comedy A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which Kline won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. More recently, Kline has voiced Calvin Fischoeder in the animated comedy series Bob’s Burgers (2011-present), being nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his role and in 2024, he was cast as Stephen Brigstocke, opposite Cate Blanchett, in the AppleTV+ series Disclaimer, being nominated at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and the Critics’ Choice Awards for the role. Kevin Kline was nominated for a Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie for his role as Tulio, but lost out to Susan Sarandon’s role in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000).
Sir Kenneth Branagh is well-known for being a great Shakespearean actor, both on stage and screen, having both directed and starred in numerous film adaptations of Shakespeare plays, such as Henry V (1989) and Hamlet (1996), both nominated at the Academy Awards: for Best Director and Best Actor for Henry V, winning for Best Direction at the BAFTAs; and for Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamlet. Branagh played the title roles in these films, and starred as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), opposite Dame Emma Thompson as Beatrice, and as Berowne in a musical version of Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000), which was an interesting take on the play! He also directed Belfast (2021), which won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated in the Best Picture and Best Director Oscar categories too. It won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. Branagh has also appeared in various other roles. For example, he has recently portrayed Hercule Poirot in a series of movies based on Agatha Christie’s novels, also directing the movies, starting with Murder on the Orient Express (2017), and was cast as Niels Bohr in the Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer (2023). Branagh also appeared as Commander Bolton in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017). On the more comedic side, Branagh was cast as Sir Alistair Dormandy in the comedy-drama The Boat That Rocked (2009) and he became popular with a new audience for his role as Gilderoy Lockhart, my favourite Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), my favourite Harry Potter film. Branagh is set to appear in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) which sounds great to me. Another role to mention is Branagh’s portrayal of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the docudrama series This England (2022), which covered the British government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tulio and Miguel take up much of The Road to El Dorado’s focus, however, there are a small selection of supporting characters to mention. One of these is Chel, the confident, devious citizen of El Dorado, who we first meet trying to escape from the city with seemingly some of El Dorado’s gold. She does not get away and instead, tries to get in on Tulio and Miguel’s scheme, seeing this as her ticket out of El Dorado, somewhere she doesn’t want to be for reasons we never find out. Chel spends much of her time trying to save Tulio and Miguel from being discovered as just ordinary humans and not gods, using her knowledge of El Dorado and its cultures and practices to help them fit in with the customs. Chel also has an ongoing flirtation with Tulio, which lead to some not-so-Disney love scenes! Chel is a great female character, very different from the princesses that Disney Animation were creating at the time, both in looks and personality, however, it is a little bit of a shame that Chel had to be the woman who breaks up the bromance, because that happens in so many stories. It might have been better for her to simply be an addition to the scam, and not necessarily a love interest – but I guess it all worked out in the end, and Miguel seems happy enough with Chel and Tulio as a couple.
Rosie Perez was chosen to voice Chel, and they found her delivery of lines very funny and perfect for the sassy, feisty character. Perez herself enjoyed having the freedom to act in a more over-the-top expressive way for an animated movie. Prior to The Road to El Dorado, Perez had appeared in White Men Can’t Jump (1992), which starred Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes, as the character Gloria Clemente, before going on to be cast as Muriel in the comedy It Could Happen to You (1994) with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda. She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for her role as Carla Rodrigo in Fearless (1993), which starred Jeff Bridges. In more recent years, Perez has appeared in movies like Pineapple Express (2008) as Officer Carol Brazier, and The Counselor (2013) as Ruth.
Another citizen of El Dorado is Tzekel-Kan, although he is not just an ordinary human. Tzekel-Kan is a High Priest, capable of magic and prophesising the future. Tzekel-Kan has a total superiority complex, despising humans, and even Chief Tannabok, who doesn’t seem to like Tzekel-Kan’s opinions and views of the world. I don’t know why the Chief doesn’t have the power to just banish him if that’s the case, but I don’t know who ranks higher, a High Priest or a Chief, in this city so maybe he can’t! Tzekel-Kan is so pleased to have gods in El Dorado because he believes they’ll agree with his way of thinking, that human blood is the best kind of sacrifice…Instead, he gets Miguel and Tulio who don’t believe in blood shed and human suffering. This immediately makes Tzekel-Kan suspicious and it turns out his suspicions were spot on. And yet, despite not being gods, they still manage to deceive him and cause him to almost fall to his death in the water. On coming to the surface, Tzekel-Kan is met with Hernán Cortés, and wanting revenge on everyone in El Dorado, he plans to show Cortés the way so he can destroy El Dorado and reap the rewards of all that gold. But once again, Tulio and Miguel stop him, and Tzekel-Kan becomes a prisoner of Cortés. Well, I hope, as a High Priest, he knows all about karma!
Armand Assante voiced Tzekel-Kan. Assante had appeared in both big and small screen projects before being cast in The Road to El Dorado. For example, he played John Gotti in the TV movie Gotti (1996), winning the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his portrayal, being nominated in the same category at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. He was also cast as Roberto Texador in the crime thriller Q&A (1990), where Assante was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes. He later plated Odysseus in the miniseries The Odyssey (1997), earning himself another nomination at the Golden Globes, this time for Best Actor in a Miniseries of Television Film. Assante was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, this time for his role as Richard Mansfield in the miniseries Jack the Ripper (1988). Assante was nominated at the Annie Awards for Best Voicing Acting by a Male Performer for his role in The Road to El Dorado. He lost to Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 2 (1999).
For Chief Tannabok, he seems uncertain by Miguel and Tulio’s arrival in El Dorado, being slightly dubious of their motives as well as their desperation to leave, wanting the citizens to build them a boat quickly to take plenty of the gold tribute away with them. To be honest, I don’t think the Chief ever really thought Miguel and Tulio were gods; he doesn’t seem to believe in Tzekel-Kan’s prophecy, and I think their refusal or misunderstanding of the city’s rituals was a big give-away. Maybe Chief Tannabok just allowed these visitors here in the hopes they’d find a way to get Tzekel-Kan to leave! The Chief warms to Miguel quite quickly, even offering him a home in El Dorado, which Miguel quickly accepts, believing Tulio wants them to go their separate ways anyway. He even seems a little bit sad, although understanding, when Miguel jumps onto the boat to save Tulio and Chel being crushed, meaning he’d never be able to get back to El Dorado.
The filmmakers chose Edward James Olmos as the voice of Chief Tannabok, as his naturally warm voice matched the presence of a chief who is the heart and soul of his city. Edward James Olmos had been cast as Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988), being nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance. He also won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his role as Martin Castillo in Miami Vice (1984-90), later winning ALMA awards for his role as Abraham Quintanilla Jr. in Selena (1997) and for his performance as William Adama in Battlestar Galactica (2003-09). He returned to animation many years later, to voice Chicharrón in Pixar’s Coco (2017).
There is one non-human character that is important to the cast of characters in The Road to El Dorado too and that is Altivo, the pampered warhorse, meaning supreme or proud in Spanish who technically belongs to Hernán Cortés, but is quite happy to go along with Tulio and Miguel instead[1]. Altivo even has an opportunity to return to his owner at the end of the movie but chooses to go away with Tulio, Miguel, and Chel, who definitely treat him with the respect he deserves. Altivo reminds me of Maximus from Disney’s Tangled (2010), who has a personality without the need to have a real voice. Like Maximus, once away from military duty, Altivo really just wants to eat apples and be loved! Altivo does have a “voice artist”, despite not speaking. This actor was Frank Welker, who has a long history of voice acting for Disney and non-Disney projects, voicing many animal characters, including Abu the monkey and Rajah the tiger, as well as the Cave of Wonders, in Aladdin (1992); Flit in Pocahontas (1995); and Pegasus in Hercules (1997) for Disney; and Totoro and the Catbus in the 2005 English dub of My Neighbor Totoro and even Scooby-Doo for numerous animated Scooby-Doo specials and series. He has also voiced Fred in some of these.
The final character to mention is Hernán Cortés, the leader of the conquistadors and the head of the expedition to the New World. He is cruel and cold, not letting anything impact on his focus and their mission: to find as much gold and resources in the New World as possible. Tulio and Miguel first meet Cortés after inadvertently boarding his ship. Cortés comes up with a harsh punishment for them, locking them in the brig and intending to sell them as slaves in Cuba. Later, Cortés appears close to El Dorado and instructs Tzekel-Kan to take him to the city so he can take all its gold for himself. Thankfully, Tulio and Miguel block the path because Cortés and his soldiers would’ve most definitely destroyed it, and he later takes out his annoyance on Tzekel-Kan for “lying” about the way to the city. Cortés was a real Spanish conquistador whose expedition to the New World led to the fall of the Aztec Empire, bringing large areas of the land under Spanish control[2].
Cortés is an exceptionally intimidating villain, but strangely enough he was voiced by the same man who voices one of the most beloved animated characters in the world. Randomly, Jim Cummings, the current voice of both Winnie the Pooh and Tigger for Disney, voiced Hernán Cortés. Cummings has been a frequent contributor to not only Disney voices, voicing numerous characters for the Studios since the mid-1980s, including Ed the hyena in The Lion King (1994) and Ray in The Princess and the Frog (2009), but also for other studios including voicing Luca in DreamWorks’ Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), and Featherstone in Gnomeo & Juliet (2011).
PRODUCTION
To begin a look at the production of The Road to El Dorado, we first need to see how its animation studio, DreamWorks, came to be. And to do that, surprisingly, we need to go back to The Walt Disney Company in the 1980s.
In 1984, Ron Miller, Walt Disney’s son-in-law, was removed as CEO of The Walt Disney Company, leading to a management shake-up. Frank Wells, who had previously worked at Warner Bros., and Michael Eisner, coming from Paramount Pictures, took over the running of the company, as President and Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer respectively. They became the first people to have been brought in to Disney management from “the outside”. Eisner and Wells then employed Jeffrey Katzenberg, also from Paramount Pictures, to become Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, including the animation department, however, Katzenberg’s background was in live-action, not animation, so this led to tensions with the animators, at least initially and especially on the first movie he oversaw, The Black Cauldron (1985), which was basically a disaster from start to finish.
Katzenberg would later be able to prove his worth, by guiding the company into its “Renaissance Era”, putting Disney Animation back on top once again, with movies like The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and The Lion King (1994). After the tragic death of Frank Wells in a helicopter accident in April 1994, it became clear to Eisner and Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew and Vice Chairman of the company and Chairman of Disney Animation at the time, that Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted to take over from Frank Wells as president of the company. A news article proclaiming Katzenberg as the saviour of Disney animation would be the final straw, with rumours surfacing of Katzenberg’s imminent departure from the company. At the red-carpet premiere of The Lion King in June 1994, Katzenberg refused all interviews, knowing his position was on unsteady ground. He was forced to resign from the company in October 1994[3].
So, now what was Jeffrey Katzenberg do? Well, it was quite simple actually. He co-founded a whole new studio, DreamWorks SKG, alongside Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, with Katzenberg being heavily involved in the animation division. This animated department released its first movie, the computer-animated Antz, in 1998. There was some controversy around Antz, as it had some story similarities to Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, information which Katzenberg may’ve seen during his time at Disney, though there is no concrete evidence that this story was “stolen”. But it is quite telling that Katzenberg aimed to steal the spotlight from Disney and Pixar by releasing Antz just under two months before A Bug’s Life. Antz is a more mature movie than A Bug’s Life and it feels like it was aimed at a slightly older audience though. Next for DreamWorks Animation was The Prince of Egypt (1998), with violence and adult themes as per the biblical content it was based on.
Both of these films did well financially and critically, although A Bug’s Life did ultimately outgross Antz, and Disney’s Mulan (1998) outgrossed The Prince of Egypt[4]. Still, Katzenberg was showing that he could run an animation studio without Disney, and that it would be successful. And now was time for their third film.
There were a few sources of inspiration for The Road to El Dorado, though the legend of the lost city of El Dorado itself was a primary one. The story of El Dorado began in the 16th and 17th centuries, when Europeans believed that the New World, or the Americas, had vast amounts of wealth and gold, so searches and expeditions were taken to find this place called El Dorado, meaning “the golden one”, where much gold was said to be.
In the early 16th century, Spanish conquistadors arrived in South America where they heard stories about tribes in the Andes, in what would now be Colombia, and their ceremony of succession. In this ceremony, an imminent ruler was covered in gold dust and taken to a sacred lake, with gold being thrown into the lake as an offering to the gods. The Spanish named this chief “El Dorado”. But they believed that since these people had so much gold, there must’ve been a specific place where it all came from. The Spanish even partially drained one of these Colombian lakes, Lake Guatavita, in 1545 to find the gold that had been thrown in there. They could see gold around the edge of the lake, but they were unable to reach it. Even Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to find El Dorado for the British on two separate occasions. On his second trip in 1617, Raleigh was too old to travel and stayed at their camp, sending his son Wyatt to explore with the others, who was then killed by the Spanish. Raleigh returned to England, where in 1618, King James I ordered his beheading, in part for engaging in conflict with the Spanish on this expedition[5]. So, El Dorado was never discovered, because it was never a real place.
As well as this, DreamWorks also turned to classic comedies like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s Road to… films, where places like Morocco, Zanzibar, and Bali were explored. It was initially meant to be a more serious straightforward historical adventure based on the book Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas, however, the tone of the movie changed when Katzenberg decided the studio should make a movie that was different to their previous movie The Prince of Egypt, a serious biblical story. Many reviewers and critics couldn’t help but notice some story points from the film The Man Who Would Be King (1975), adapted from the 1888 novella of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, within The Road to El Dorado. I’ve not seen it so I wouldn’t know, but apparently the discovery by Tzekel-Kan that Miguel and Tulio were not gods after seeing Miguel bleed was just like a scene in The Man Who Would Be King.
Production on The Road to El Dorado took four and a half years to complete, with the story line changing often during this time. Although it may be seen as a creative blessing to be making a movie without a strict plot to follow, this was seemingly a nightmare for the filmmakers. It was discussed whether this movie would ever be made at all, and jokes were made that the movie should in fact be titled El Dorado: The Lost City on Hold. Because of this, staff morale was incredibly low at times. Strangely enough, a similar movie from Disney, The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), also a buddy comedy adventure film set in the ancient civilisations of South America, became famed for its complicated production story.
There are less details available around the specific story changes of The Road to El Dorado, however, the original concept seems to have been a serious, historical narrative, with some more realistic depictions of the conquistadors’ destruction of the lands, before becoming an adventure comedy. Another story change was that Miguel’s character was meant to die and come back to life, making the natives believe he was a god. Some of the love scenes with Chel were meant to be raunchier too, but this ultimately was lessened.
The story for The Road to El Dorado was written by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, who also co-wrote the screenplay for Aladdin (1992) and contributed to the story of Treasure Planet (2002) for Disney, alongside directors of both films John Musker and Ron Clements. Rossio and Elliott later co-wrote Shrek (2001) for DreamWorks, winning the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production. Rossio and Elliott also wrote the screenplays for some of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
During production, the directors of The Road to El Dorado changed, adding to the disfunction of the movie’s production process. Initially, Will Finn and David Silverman were named directors of this film. Will Finn had previously been an animated at Disney before working on The Road to El Dorado, animating key characters such as Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast, and Iago in Aladdin. After his experience at DreamWorks working on The Road to El Dorado, it would appear that Finn went back to Disney to write and direct Home on the Range (2004). David Silverman has a long history of working on The Simpsons (1989-present), both as an animator and as a director. Silverman also directed the feature-length The Simpsons Movie (2007), as well as some of the more recent short specials for Disney+, such as Rogue Not Quite One (2023) and May the 12th Be with You (2024). Silverman also co-directed Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. (2001), alongside Pete Docter and Lee Unkrich, and directed the animated movie Extinct (2021), released globally on Netflix.
The new directors of The Road to El Dorado came to be Don Paul and Eric “Bibo” Bergeron, who took over around 1998. Don Paul has been credited as a visual effects producer for various animated movies, such as DreamWorks’ Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, and How to Train Your Dragon (2010), and Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox’s Rio (2011) and Ice Age (2002). Prior to The Road to El Dorado, Bergeron had worked as an animator on movies like FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) and Disney’s A Goofy Movie. He went on to co-direct DreamWorks’ Shark Tale (2004) and work as a story artist on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) and Flushed Away (2007) for the studio.
To ensure a level of authentic representation of the South American culture, a research trip was taken by the filmmakers, who headed to Mexico to study Mayan cities, like Tulum, Chichen-Itza, and Uxmal. They also hired John M.D. Pohl, an archaeologist from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles to consult on aspects of the film[6]. On their visit, the creative team found inspiration from the temples and forests in Mexico, which helped production decide on what their city of El Dorado would look like. Since El Dorado was not a real place, and was meant to be an unknown, untouched paradise, they were able to be creative with their creation of this city. They made the city colourful, full of colours you’d typically associate with South American cultures, such as magentas, terracottas, and teals. The city of El Dorado, and the lush forest encompassing it, is in stark contrast to the muted tones of the stone and slabs that we first see in the movie when Tulio and Miguel are in Spain. There is very little colour in these scenes, other than the bright blue and bright red tops the main characters are wearing. Obviously, gold is a necessary colour in The Road to El Dorado too, however, to get the true metallic nature of gold to come across on screen, the animators knew this would not be achievable with traditional paintwork, so any gold in the movie was rendered on computers to make it look more realistic.
The Road to El Dorado is actually a showcase of the traditional 2D animation with many computer animation techniques, like the gold rendering. For example, new software was created to help with some of the water effects, which are notoriously different to animate traditionally. This was particularly useful for the sequence of the boat crashing through the gates to El Dorado, to realistically show how the water would move and splash in real-life. Other special effects used in this movie include scenes with lava and the stone jaguar chasing Miguel and Tulio through the city[7]. Sometimes it was a little jarring to see the 2D animation and the 3D effects together in the same scene, but it was only 2000 and many animation studios were still experimenting with the new technologies on offer, so it would never have looked seamless at this point.
MUSIC
Music has always been a vital element of any movie, but particularly around the late-1990s and early 2000s, many animated movies featured plenty of songs, sometimes sung by the characters, and sometimes not.
For The Road to El Dorado, DreamWorks managed to reunite the team that worked on the music for Disney’s The Lion King, which won multiple awards, including Grammys, Oscars, and Golden Globes, both for the score and the songs. This team consisted of singer-songwriter Elton John, songwriter and lyricist Tim Rice, and composer Hans Zimmer.
The Road to El Dorado consists of six original songs, all written by Elton John and Tim Rice. Elton John performs all of them, basically being a singing narrator, except for one. The opening song is “El Dorado”, which is accompanied by a short opening sequence, showing a stylistic creation of the city of El Dorado by the gods. I do like this song, and it gives a quick introduction to the audience about what they are going to see.
Following that is my favourite song in the film, “The Trail We Blaze. This song plays as Miguel, Tulio, and Altivo navigate the forest, following the map to El Dorado, which turns out not to be the easiest journey! It’s a brilliantly positive, upbeat song detailing the excitement of adventure, and it regularly gets stuck in my head.
I also like “It’s Tough to Be a God”, which comes into the movie after Miguel and Tulio have arrived in El Dorado. Here, they are arriving at the feast put on to welcome them to the city, and the two are discussing the pros and cons of this scam to pretend to be gods. It’s a fun number, full of colour. “It’s Tough to Be a God” is the only song in The Road to El Dorado that Elton John did not sing. Instead, it is performed by Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh as their characters Tulio and Miguel. The two of them said that Hans Zimmer, who was the producer on the film’s songs, was funny and encouraging, but also a good taskmaster, making them do numerous takes of the song, which was difficult for all involved apparently!
Moving on from the fun and adventure, from this point, the remaining three songs are more emotional and heartfelt, matching the tone of the movie, as Tulio and Miguel start to drift apart from each other. This next song is “Without Question”, which is used as Miguel starts to integrate with the people of El Dorado and learns to love this new city, and potentially starts to feel guilty about his and Tulio’s con. It’s a sweet, calming song.
The last song to appear in the movie is “Friends Never Say Goodbye”, which sees Tulio preparing to leave the city with Chel and their gold, whilst Miguel plans to stay there. This seems to signal the ending of their friendship as Miguel believes Tulio is more bothered about his new life with Chel instead of him, and the two only say a brief “good luck” to each other. It’s not the best song in the film but it is still somewhat emotional.
Finally, there is the End Credits song “Someday Out of the Blue”, which was co-written by Patrick Leonard, as well as Elton John and Tim Rice. A music video was made to go alongside this song, despite it not being heard in the film. In the video, Elton John begins singing as his live-action self before becoming an animated version of himself, transported into the animated world of El Dorado. Some clips from the movie are also used here.
The score for The Road to El Dorado was composed by Hans Zimmer and John Powell. Zimmer composed the score for DreamWorks’ previous film, The Prince of Egypt and is also known for his work on Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), and Dunkirk (2017), being nominated for Best Original Score at the Academy Awards for all these movies, winning the award for his music on Dune (2021), alongside a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for this movie too. Zimmer has won Grammy awards for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for both his work on The Dark Knight (2008), alongside James Newton Howard, and Dune: Part Two (2024). Zimmer has won numerous other awards for his music over the years, and returned to compose the music for other DreamWorks’ movies many times. John Powell was no stranger to DreamWorks’ either, as he had previously worked with Harry Gregson-Williams on the music for DreamWorks’ Antz, going on to work on Shrek and Chicken Run (2000) together, before working solo on the How to Train Your Dragon animated trilogy for the studio. More recently, Powell returned to work on the How to Train Your Dragon 2025 live-action remake, and is credited as a co-composer of the score, alongside Stephen Schwartz, on Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025). Zimmer and Powell collaborated again on the music for DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda franchise.
The soundtrack for The Road to El Dorado received mixed reviews, with some loving the songs, and others hating them. I personally find them catchy and really like most of them. In terms of awards, at the Annie Awards, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Elton John, and Tim Rice were all nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Music, but this award was won by Randy Newman for his work on Toy Story 2. At the Saturn Awards, Hans Zimmer was nominated alongside John Powell for Best Music, and Zimmer was also nominated alongside Lisa Gerrard in this same category for their work on Gladiator (2000). Best Music was actually won by James Horner for How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). Hans Zimmer did however win the Best Composer award at the Critics’ Choice Awards for both his work on Gladiator and The Road to El Dorado.
Elton John worked with songwriter and producer Patrick Leonard to produce an album containing songs from the movie, although these songs are not the official versions you hear in the movie itself, for example “It’s Tough to Be a God” features on this album, but is performed by Elton John and Randy Newman, as well as songs inspired by the movie and a selection of the soundtrack’s score[8]. “Someday Out of the Blue” from this album peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and at No. 49 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
RECEPTION
The Road to El Dorado was finally released on 31st March 2000, with reportedly next to no competition at the box-office at the time in terms of competing family-friendly movies.
Yet, even with a kid-centric marketing campaign that included a promotional tie-in with Burger King, giving away toy figurines of characters from the movie with their children’s meals, The Road to El Dorado struggled at the box-office. With a budget of $95 million, The Road to El Dorado only gained back $76.4 million at the box-office[9]. The movie was easily beaten by the end of the year by other family movies such as Disney’s Dinosaur; How the Grinch Stole Christmas; and Chicken Run, which was also released by DreamWorks, although a co-production with Aardman Animations.
It’s not entirely clear why this movie didn’t do well at the time, although the more mature humour, which appears to have been used in the official trailer, may’ve been off-putting to parents of small children, and others thought the film would be more historical, with the overall tone of the movie confusing audiences.
Those are just two opinions, but there are a mixture of criticisms and comments around what makes The Road to El Dorado good and bad. On the positive side, many appreciated the colourful artwork and the fast-paced nature of this fun adventure movie. The voice acting of Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline was also largely praised, as well as that of Armand Assante’s ability to great a larger-than-life, theatrical villain. Although it was not seen to be as good as DreamWorks’ two previous movies, Antz and The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado was still considered to be a fun movie, and a step in the right direction for this animation studio which was taking on the greats of Disney and Pixar. There were some who stated The Road to El Dorado was much better than Disney Animation’s Dinosaur, which was released two months later, in May 2000.
However, on the other side, some said the plot was boring and didn’t consist of much adventure at all. Some also did not like the music, saying it was forgettable or just all-around bad, despite the songs being written by the legendary Elton John and Tim Rice. I’m afraid I have to disagree with this comment; I have at least three of their songs from this movie stuck in my head on a regular basis. There were complaints that The Road to El Dorado did not take the subject matter seriously enough, since The Road to El Dorado is basically about colonisation and the conquering of land. This was something that many felt Disney’s Pocahontas had managed to do, getting the balance right – although there was plenty of criticism at the time around the historical inaccuracy of that film.
There were also comments around this movie’s PG rating, due to some animated nudity, mild sexual references, mild language, and threat and peril. This may’ve been a reason for parents not taking their children to the cinema to see The Road to El Dorado, leading to the low box-office numbers. It is worth noting that many animated movies these days are rated PG now, so this doesn’t seem to be an issue anymore. I will also point out that The Road to El Dorado is rated U, our equivalent of G, in the UK, meaning it was likely also rated the same in Europe and other areas of the world.
In later years, reviews of The Road to El Dorado have been more kind, with many fans writing endless reviews about why this movie is brilliant. I wouldn’t go that far, but I would say it is decent, not competing with DreamWorks’ Shrek or Madagascar franchises, or some of Disney’s best, but I’d say it’s a similar level to other animated movies I enjoy like Thumbelina (1994). They have their imperfections, but the voice casting and music keep me entertained and singing for days.
The Road to El Dorado’s lacklustre reception was met with a similar response during awards season, although to be fair, the Academy Awards didn’t even have a Best Animated Feature category at the time, and I’d like to think The Road to El Dorado would’ve been on the shortlist had it existed back then. At the Annie Awards, The Road to El Dorado was nominated in seven different categories, including Production Design; Storyboarding; Character Animation; and Effects Animation; as well as the Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature. Pixar’s Toy Story 2 (1999) took the win for the Animated Theatrical Feature and Storyboarding. Disney’s Fantasia 2000 (1999) won for Production Design, Effects Animation, and Character Animation.
LEGACY
Apparently, there were initially plans for The Road to El Dorado to become a movie franchise, perhaps resembling the Road to… comedy films, which spanned seven movies and were an inspiration for The Road to El Dorado. However, these plans were quickly scrapped when the movie did not perform well. Some fans are hoping for a live-action remake though, and after DreamWorks has given the live-action treatment – unnecessarily, I think – to the How to Train Your Dragon animated trilogy, perhaps they’ll get round to looking at The Road to El Dorado. But I wouldn’t get your hopes up.
Apart from that, there was a video game developed based on the storyline of The Road to El Dorado, which was called Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado. You can also buy merchandise online, like T-shirts, and posters, although many of these are fan-made.
Although The Road to El Dorado specifically did not inspire a franchise, there have been other movies in the years since which either reference a search for El Dorado directly, like Paddington in Peru (2024), or others that look at similar lost civilisations like Jungle Cruise (2021). This shows that family movies around adventure are still alive and well, with legendary cities and lost worlds continuing to be a source of inspiration.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In my view, The Road to El Dorado was unfairly treated on its release.
I’m not even sure why. Most of the time, animated movies are judged against other animated movies, sometimes from the same studio, at times from different ones, and this tends to be the reason why a new animated movie suffers harsh criticism.
In 2000, The Road to El Dorado had little competition from animation studios. It’s not like Disney were doing well with their movies in 2000s, releasing Dinosaur and The Emperor’s New Groove specifically in 2000, and Pixar had only made three feature-length movies by this point, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and Toy Story 2, albeit great ones. So, why The Road to El Dorado was judged to be bad at the time, I have no idea.
Fair enough, The Road to El Dorado is not super unique, but it contains great characters, in part thanks to the casting of brilliant actors, and colourful animation. The story is simple, yes, but it is uncomplicated and unpretentious. It has some jokes for the kids, and some more mature ones for the adults, something that DreamWorks was later praised for in movies like the Shrek franchise, so I’m at a loss why just one year before Shrek came out, that The Road to El Dorado didn’t seem to match up to critics’ expectations.
Regardless of this critical blip, I am glad to see that The Road to El Dorado has since cultivated a loyal set of fans, with help from the internet and its ever-growing craziness and virality. It deserves more attention than it gets, because the buddy comedy has always remained a favourite with audiences, and continues to be a familiar genre for the masses.
The Road to El Dorado also has its part to play in the history of animation, and showcases some real technological advancements alongside the nostalgia of 2D animation, which seems to have died a death in the mainstream ever since the early 2000s.
REFERENCES
[1] Credit: DreamWorks, “Behind the Scenes Featurette”, from The Road to El Dorado (2000) UK DVD (2001).
[2] Credit: BBC, ‘Hernando Cortés (1485-1547)’, BBC.co.uk, date unknown.
[3] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).
[4] Credit: Scott Mendelson, ’15 Years Of DreamWorks Animation And Its Complicated Legacy’, Forbes.com, 2nd October 2013.
[5] Credit: Willie Drye, ‘El Dorado’, NationalGeographic.com, date unknown.
[6] Credit: Lorenza Munoz, ‘Bumpy Road to ‘El Dorado’’, LATimes.com, 29th March 2000.
[7] Credit: DreamWorks, “Behind the Scenes Featurette”, from The Road to El Dorado (2000) UK DVD (2001).
[8] Credit: DreamWorks, “Behind the Scenes Featurette”, from The Road to El Dorado (2000) UK DVD (2001).
[9] Credit: James White, ‘The Road to El Dorado is a Hidden DreamWorks Gem’, Collider.com, 18th January 2022.
The Disney Purist 