1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

The Walt Disney Company had probably hoped when Jeffrey Katzenberg was let go as Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios that Katzenberg would slip off quietly and there wouldn’t be any additional competition in the animation world, other than the movies of Pixar – but Disney were working on combining forces with Pixar, so that would be easily avoided.

Well, that didn’t turn out to be the case, because pretty much as soon as Katzenberg had left Disney in 1994, he had his own plan to create an entirely new studio to go up against Disney. To be fair, I’m sure the primary objective was just to make movies that he wanted to make, but the competitive element was surely an added bonus.

This company was DreamWorks Pictures, founded in October 1994. Its co-founders alongside Jeffrey Katzenberg were David Geffen and Steven Spielberg. The new studio was also going to include a new animation powerhouse. Not something Disney was likely anticipating, and certainly not something they’d have wanted to see.

Disney might have been in the midst of their so-called Renaissance Era in the 1990s, but by the time DreamWorks released their first film, Antz, in 1998, the tide was slowly turning and they were unable to recreate their big hit of 1994, The Lion King. Antz had its own problems, like Disney accusing Katzenberg of stealing the idea from Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, but then what should happen but DreamWorks release a traditional 2D animated movie, and a musical no less, trying to outdo Disney’s Mulan. Oh, DreamWorks, trying to play Disney at their own game? Risky, but clever. Luckily for DreamWorks, this mostly paid off with The Prince of Egypt, a musical take on the Biblical story of the Book of Exodus.

I vaguely remember watching parts of The Prince of Egypt at primary school but I don’t know if I’d ever watched it in full until I found it many years later on Netflix. From the epic opening musical number, I was hooked and amazed at how moving I found it; I hadn’t been expecting much. The Prince of Egypt is quite a heavy story, but it is brilliantly done, bringing tears to my eyes in numerous places, mostly due to its an amazing soundtrack. The Prince of Egypt also benefits from high-quality animation and a stellar all-star cast.

DreamWorks was showing Disney their studio was just as capable at making family-friendly movies with heart and soul, the irony being that Walt Disney Feature Animation is where DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg would’ve learnt everything he needed to do that!

PLOT

The Prince of Egypt opens in Ancient Egypt where we see the Hebrew people being treated poorly as slaves, forced to construct buildings and statues for the Pharaoh Seti. Fearing an uprising, due to the number of Hebrews in his kingdom, the Pharaoh decrees that all newborn Hebrew males will be killed. Hearing this news, a mother, carrying her newborn baby, heads to the river with her two older children, avoiding guards who are tearing through their village. At the river, the mother places her baby in a basket and sends it on its way, knowing that this is a better option than having her child killed. The basket makes its way through choppy waves, passing by boats, and ending up in a pool outside the Pharaoh’s palace. Here, Queen Tuya, the Pharaoh’s wife, sees the child and chooses to raise it as her own, to be a brother to her son, Rameses, calling the baby Moses.

The story picks up years later. Moses and Rameses are now young adults, chariot racing through the streets of Egypt, causing trouble and breaking the nose off one of their father’s statues of himself that was currently being built. They also send an avalanche of sand right into the kingdom. Pharaoh Seti is furious. He puts most of the blame for the chaos on Rameses, despite both the brothers saying it was Moses who had suggested the race, due to the fact, Rameses, as the eldest brother, should know better. Rameses storms off to be alone. Moses pleads with their father to not be so hard on Rameses, but the Pharaoh says Rameses needs to take more responsibility for his actions since he will be the next ruler of Egypt. Moses says he believes Rameses will live up to that title one day.

Moses then tries to console Rameses, but Rameses is too angry with Moses for always getting him into trouble even though it is usually Moses’ fault and not his. Moses then drops wine onto the Pharaoh’s advisors, Huy and Hotep, who are below them in the courtyard. Huy and Hotep immediately blame Rameses, proving his point. Moses encourages Rameses to drop more wine on them, since he’s already taken the blame!

The two brothers then find they are late to the Pharaoh’s banquet and race over to it. They arrive in front of a huge crowd, finding that the Pharaoh has just named Rameses Prince Regent – following Moses’ advice to give Rameses the opportunity to show he is a leader. Rameses is gifted a woman from Huy and Hotep, a “desert flower”, for his new title, but she is incredibly feisty and not at all happy about being forced here against her will. Rameses offers her to Moses instead, but she is none too pleased to be around him either. Moses reminds the woman to show him the respect he deserves as a prince of Egypt. She says she is, because he doesn’t deserve any respect. Moses then grabs the rope she has been tied with, and the two briefly fight – until Moses lets go of the rope, making her topple into a pond nearby, embarrassing her. She is taken to Moses’ room. Rameses then names Moses as his Chief Architect and the celebrations continue.

Later that night, Moses returns to his room to find a man tied up; the woman from earlier is nowhere to be seen. He watches as she makes her escape from the palace, on her way back to her home in the desert. Moses proceeds to follow her, distracting some guards to make sure she gets away. He follows her again and sees her ride off into the desert. He is then distracted by two Hebrews by the nearby well. The brother and sister act strangely in front of him, with the sister suddenly announcing that Moses is actually their brother. Moses doesn’t believe the utterings of this mad woman, and warns her, Miriam, that she will be punished for her actions. The brother, Aaron, begs Moses for leniency, but Miriam just won’t stop, explaining why and how their mother gave Moses away. Moses is about to walk away, even more angered, when Miriam begins to sing a lullaby, the same one that was sung to Moses as their mother pushed his basket onto the river. Moses remembers it, and runs back to the palace, shaken to the core.

Moses is very confused about who he is now, having been brought up to believe he is a prince of Egypt, but now discovering he was actually born a Hebrew, and would therefore have been a slave. He struggles to reconcile this fact, and learns from hieroglyphics on the walls of the palace, and from the Pharaoh himself, that Pharaoh Seti had in fact ordered the murder of newborn Hebrews, proving that Miriam’s story was accurate. The Pharaoh says those he killed were “only slaves”, horrifying Moses who walks away from him. Moses speaks with his mother, the Queen, asking why she let him live a total lie. She says Moses is still their son, regardless of where he came from, and that she has never wanted to question the miracle of Moses being brought to her.

Later, Rameses outlines a grand new vision for the construction in Egypt, putting the slaves to work instantly. Moses starts to see how badly the slaves are treated for the first time. On seeing an elderly man being whipped, Moses demands that the guard stop, and in a moment of pure rage, Moses runs up to the guard and seemingly pushes him off a ledge and to his death. Aaron and Miriam saw this play out nearby, as Miriam was also calling for the whipping to stop. Troubled by what he’s done, Moses runs away. Rameses catches up with him and tells him not to worry, as he can simply stop Moses from being blamed for the man’s death. Moses says that he is not the person he thought he was, and asks Rameses to talk to their father about who is, before escaping into the desert.

Moses travels alone through the desert, choosing to shed all his princely items of clothing – all except a ring, which he keeps. He is then buried in a sandstorm. The next day, he is discovered by a camel. Moses drags himself out of the sand, and hangs onto the camel, as he is so weak and he cannot walk. The camel takes him to a waterhole where Moses happily drinks from it. He sees thieves harassing some children, seemingly trying to steal their sheep. Moses sees the thieves’ camels nearby, and lets them loose, making the thieves run after them, leaving the sheep and the children alone. Moses then stumbles into a well. The three girls try to pull him out, when their sister comes to see what they are doing. She helps them pull the man out of the well – but she is shocked to discover that man was the former prince of Egypt, and Moses is shocked to find she is the woman from the banquet. The woman, Tzipporah, drops Moses back into the well and walks away.

Moses is rescued from the well and taken to their community of Midian, led by High Priest Jethro, who welcomes Moses as an honoured guest. Jethro is also Tzipporah’s father and father to the three girls. At dinner, Jethro thanks Moses for being with them, but Moses doesn’t see himself as worthy. Jethro reminds Moses that he saved Tzipporah and his other daughters, and that he should see his worth through his actions. Moses joins the community, becoming a shepherd and eventually, him and Tzipporah fall in love and get married.

One day, Moses is chasing a lost sheep through the desert when he enters a cave. Inside the cave, he sees a burning bush. He then hears a voice say his name. It is God, speaking to him. God says he has seen the oppression of his people in Egypt and says Moses shall be the one to deliver them to the Promised Land. Moses doesn’t believe he can possibly be the right person, but God tells him he is that man, and not to fear, as He will be with him, and will smite Egypt with all his wonders, through Moses’ staff. Moses is changed by this encounter and goes to Tzipporah to tell her what happened. Tzipporah is concerned Moses cannot do this on his own, but Moses say he must try. The two go to Egypt together.

In Egypt, the two see that the treatment of the slaves has only gotten worse in the time Moses has been away. They arrive to meet with the Pharaoh, where Moses discovers that Rameses is that new ruler. Rameses greets Moses, pleased to finally be reunited with his brother, fearing he was dead. Rameses is hoping for a heartfelt brotherly reunion, pardoning Moses for his crime of murder, however, Moses has another purpose for this meeting. He tells Rameses that they might still be brothers, but things cannot ever be the way they were, since he is a Hebrew, and his only purpose in Egypt is to demand that his people at free. Rameses doesn’t believe what he’s hearing. Moses uses his staff to prove the power of God, with the staff turning into a serpent. Rameses then gets Huy and Hotep to respond, using their powers to create two serpents of their own, showing that Moses’ power is not impressive. It is shown that God’s serpent easily eats the other two though. Moses retrieves his staff and him and Rameses go to talk alone. Rameses says he must maintain the traditions of their father, and will not let Moses’ people go. Moses declares they are not on the same side anymore and returns his royal ring.

Fearing this battle will not be easy, this is then shown to be true as the Hebrews turn against Moses, questioning why he is only caring about them now, and is that just because Moses found out he was one of them. This all comes from Aaron, Moses’ brother, however, Miriam convinces Moses to not abandon them and to keep on with God’s plan. Moses sees Rameses on the river on his boat and goes to the water. He demands that Rameses let his people go once again, but Rameses refuses. God tells Moses to put the staff into the water. The water turns to blood, troubling Rameses’ guards, however, Huy and Hotep simply recreate this same “trick” for Rameses. The Hebrews feel that Rameses is too powerful and Moses is not, not seeing any change in their future. Moses tells them not to lose faith.

Over the coming days, Moses uses God’s powers to engulf Egypt in plagues including locust, frogs, hail fire from the sky, pestilence, and darkness. Moses feels guilt for the suffering he is causing, but sees no other way, since Rameses is refusing to do the right thing and let the Hebrews go. Moses goes to the palace again to speak with Rameses. The two reminisce about their times as children. Rameses reiterates that Moses was always getting him into trouble, although he also got him out of trouble just as much. Moses and Rameses are interrupted by Rameses’ son who is scared of the darkness that has overcome Egypt, blaming Moses for all this. Moses warns Rameses that something much worse is coming, and to allow the slaves to be freed now. Rameses says he will not let them go, and threatens to slaughter them all because of Moses’ interventions. Moses leaves.

That night, Moses tells all the Hebrews to mark their doors with sheep’s blood to avoid God’s final plague that night. Sure enough, the plague comes and kills every firstborn whose family was not protected by the mark. This includes Rameses’ son. The next day, Moses goes to him and sees Rameses laying his son to rest. Angry and distraught, Rameses tells him that he and his people can leave Egypt.

Not wanting things to have ended this way, and feeling guilt for all the suffering, Moses returns to Tzipporah and Miriam, letting them know that the Hebrews are free to leave Egypt. Slowly, everyone learns this news and they leave Egypt in a group, happy for the miracle that has come at last. It is a long journey to the Promised Land, but eventually, they reach the Red Sea, where their path is blocked by the body of water. Suddenly, they hear noise behind them. It is Rameses and his army, who have followed them. With the Hebrews trapped, they fear they will be killed. A storm forms, and a bolt of fire rises up to block the army. Moses is told to walk into the Red Sea. Using his staff, the sea parts, giving the Hebrews a way to cross it. The crossing is treacherous and difficult. As they almost get to shore, Moses sees that the fire bolt has been removed and Rameses makes the order to attack and kill them all. Moses hurries the last few to shore.

As the Hebrews make it to shore, the Red Sea returns to normal, drowning the Egyptian army and throwing Rameses onto the rocks away from them. The Hebrews celebrate their survival as Rameses cries out Moses’ name in anger. Moses says goodbye to him over the sea. Moses later receives a stone tablet from God, on which The Ten Commandments are written. Moses readies himself to share this discovery with his people. The Prince of Egypt ends with lines from various Biblical texts that reference Moses and his journey to free the Hebrews from Egypt.

CHARACTERS & CAST

In The Prince of Egypt, Moses is brought up to believe that he is a prince of Egypt, and a son of the Pharaoh, making him spoilt and entitled. Thanks to a chance encounter with his real brother and sister, Moses learns that he is not Egyptian, and is in fact a Hebrew. After this, Moses starts to really see the suffering that the Hebrew slaves experience in Egypt. Confused and angry, Moses escapes into the desert to be alone, although he actually finds himself in Midian, where he meets High Priest Jethro and falls in love with Jethro’s daughter Tzipporah. Moses is then chosen by God to free the Hebrew people from Egypt, a task he feels he is not worthy to undertake, but dedicated to the cause, Moses pleads with Rameses to let his people go, and when that doesn’t work, Moses must endure the guilt he feels as he watches The Ten Plagues devastate Egypt. Moses is committed to delivering the Hebrews to the Promised Land, to the point he ruins the relationship he had with his brother, and becomes someone completely different to who he used to be.

Val Kilmer was chosen to voice Moses, and was also the voice of God. Kilmer is known for his role as Iceman in Top Gun (1986), a role he reprised in the sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022). He also played Madmartigan in the fantasy film Willow (1988) in the 1980s. After that, Kilmer was cast as Batman in Batman Forever (1995). The Prince of Egypt was not the only time Kilmer voiced a character for an animated movie, as he later came to Disney to voice Bravo in Planes (2013). Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in the mid-2010s, later writing and producing the documentary Val (2021) about his life and career, where he discussed his health struggles. Kilmer passed away in April 2025 at the age of 65.

Rameses is a real prince of Egypt and is to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt, a role he feels much responsibility to undertake well, even though he lets himself be talked into Moses’ childish schemes and pranks, which gets them into trouble with their father. With Moses gone from the palace, Rameses then becomes a hard-hearted Pharaoh, promising to follow in the footsteps of his father, ensuring their legacy continues to be built. Although Rameses is clearly pleased to be reunited with Moses many years later, he is saddened to find that Moses no longer feels they can be brothers. Rameses refuses to let the Hebrews go to keep with “tradition”. Despite the plagues causing destruction to Egypt, Rameses continues to hold strong on this – up until his eldest son is killed by the final plague, leaving him devastated. He tells Moses he and the Hebrews may leave, only to turn up with his army in a bid to slaughter them all on their journey. Rameses’ plan is thwarted by God and he is left alone on the rocks by the Red Sea, uncertain of his future.

Rameses was voiced by Ralph Fiennes. In the 1990s, Fiennes was known for his roles as Amon Göth in Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993), for which he was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, and for playing Count Laszlo de Almásy in The English Patient (1996), where he was once again nominated for an Oscar, this time in the Best Actor category. Fiennes did not win either award, although both films did win the award for Best Picture, amongst many others. After The Prince of Egypt, Fiennes was cast in numerous films of many different genres, including as Christopher Marshall in the romcom Maid in Manhattan (2002), alongside Jennifer Lopez; as Justin Quayle in the thriller The Constant Gardener (2005); and of course, as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, starting with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). In more recent years, Fiennes has been cast as M in the James Bond movies, first appearing in Skyfall (2012) and played the characters Orlando, Duke of Oxford in the Kingsman prequel The King’s Man (2021) and Chef Julian Slowik in The Menu (2022). He was also nominated for another Oscar in 2025 for his role as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence in Conclave (2024). Fiennes is set to reprise his role as Dr. Ian Kelson in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and play Coriolanus Snow in the prequel The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping in 2026. The Prince of Egypt was also not Fiennes’ only voice role for an animated movie, as he also voiced Victor Quartermaine in Aardman Animation’s Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).

Tzipporah is Moses’ wife, although from their first meeting it does not look like they would end up together. Tzipporah is brought to the palace as a “gift” for Rameses after he is named Prince Regent, but she has no respect for Egypt and wishes to return home. After a tussle with Moses, she is sent to his room, but she escapes, returning to the desert. The two are later brought back together in this same desert as Moses finds his way to her home and community. After some time together, they fall in love and get married. When Moses is chosen by God to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews, Tzipporah goes with him as support, ensuring he continues with the mission and never loses faith.

Michelle Pfeiffer was cast as Tzipporah. Pfeiffer has been nominated for an Oscar on three occasions, for her roles as Madame Marie de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Susie Diamond in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), and Lurene Hallett in Love Field (1992). She is also known for being cast as Elvira Hancock in Scarface (1983) and as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992). In more recent years, Pfeiffer played the character Janet Van Dyne in the Avengers franchise, beginning with Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and she was cast as Caroline Hubbard in Murder on the Orient Express (2017). Pfeiffer may also be familiar for such roles as Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray (2007) and Lamia in Stardust (2007). She returned to DreamWorks to voice Eris in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003).

Miriam is Moses’ sister. She saw Moses being sent away on the river by her mother and has been praying for him to return and free all the Hebrews for all the years since. Miriam has much more faith in Moses than even he has in himself. Moses has no idea of his past until he meets Miriam by the well on that night, and she goes some way to convincing him of his real identity, even risking being punished by the guards, since Moses thinks she is simply delusional. Miriam stays by Moses’ side during his conflict with Rameses, much like Tzipporah does, being another supportive person in his life.

Miriam was voiced by Sandra Bullock. Bullock has had various roles over the years, with one of her most famous in the 1990s being Annie Porter in Speed (1994) and its sequel Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). After The Prince of Egypt, she went on to play Gracie Hart in Miss Congeniality (2000) and its 2005 sequel. Bullock is also known for her roles in romance movies such as Two Weeks Notice (2002), playing Lucy Kelson; The Lake House (2006), playing Dr. Kate Forster; and The Proposal (2009), playing Margaret Tate, with her “leading men” in these movies being Hugh Grant, Keanu Reeves, and Ryan Reynolds respectively. She is also known for more serious roles, such as portraying Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side (2009) for which she won the Best Actress Oscar amongst other awards, and playing Dr. Ryan Stone in Gravity (2013), where she won various awards including a Critics’ Choice Award. More recently, Bullock played Debbie Ocean in Ocean’s 8 (2018), Maloria Hayes in Netflix’s horror Bird Box (2018), and Maria Beetle in Bullet Train (2022).

Aaron is Miriam and Moses’ brother. He is uncertain whether to reveal that they are family to Moses on the night that Miriam does, pleading with Moses to take pity on her, claiming her to be ill and not know what she is saying. Aaron also turns on Moses after Moses’ first attempt to reason with Rameses does nothing, with Aaron accusing Moses of only caring about the Hebrews after finding out he was one of them. Aaron takes some convincing that Moses will eventually free him and the others, but Moses succeeds, and Aaron is just as grateful to him as everyone else.

Jeff Goldblum was chosen to voice Aaron. A very popular actor, Goldblum has had roles in hit films such as his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park (1993), a character he returned to for The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), as well as David Levinson in Independence Day (1996). Goldblum has also made appearances in various Wes Anderson films, including as Alistair Hennessey in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004); Deputy Vilmos Kovacs in The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014); and voicing Duke in Isle of Dogs (2018). Most recently, Goldblum played The Wizard of Oz in Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025). He also hosted his own documentary series for Disney+, The World According to Jeff Goldblum (2019-22) and starred as Zeus in Netflix’s series Kaos (2024).

Jethro is the leader and High Priest of the community in the desert that Moses joins, Midian. He is also Tzipporah’s father, as well as that of the three girls that Moses helps by distracting the men trying to steal their sheep. Jethro is kind-natured and very welcoming to Moses. He is also knowledgeable and wise, telling Moses a life worth living just needs to be filled with joy and kindness towards others.

Jethro was voiced by Danny Glover. He had already voiced Barbatus for DreamWorks in their movie Antz (1998), which came out before The Prince of Egypt. He is also known for his role as Marty Madison in the musical Dreamgirls (2006) and for his role as President Thomas Wilson in the disaster film 2012 (2009). In television, Glover portrayed Nelson Mandela in HBO’s television film Mandela (1987), being nominated in the Lead Actor category at the Emmys, and later played Joshua Deets in the miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), being nominated for another Emmy in the Supporting Actor category. Recently, Glover was cast as Milo Walker in Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), and also played Santa in Disney Channel’s The Naughty Nine (2023).  

Pharaoh Seti and Queen Tuya are Rameses and Moses’ parents. Pharaoh Seti is quite strict with Rameses in particular, as he knows Rameses will take over as ruler after he is gone, but doesn’t know if he is willing to accept that responsibility if he continues to let Moses lead him astray. Seti rules Egypt with an iron fist, making Hebrews work as his slaves to construct his empire, even going so far as to order mass killings of new born children to ensure the Hebrews cannot rise up against in. This is the type of leadership he expects from Rameses, and it is exactly how Rameses ends up being. Seti must’ve been so proud…

Sir Patrick Stewart was cast as Pharaoh Seti. Stewart has had a career that has spanned both stage and screen, being cast in Shakespeare productions in his early career. In the years after that, he became known for his lead role as Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise, beginning with the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94), reprising his role when required. He also played Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, starting with X-Men (2000). Stewart has voiced characters for other animated movies too, including Mr. Woolensworth in Disney’s Chicken Little (2005); Bill Shakespeare in Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) – and Poop in The Emoji Movie (2017). Maybe I should’ve skipped that one…

Queen Tuya actually finds Moses in his basket, as it floats into a pond by the palace, instantly choosing to bring him up as their son alongside Rameses. Queen Tuya later goes to Moses telling him that just because he may have Hebrew heritage, they still consider him their son, feeling he has no need to be questioning his identity. Queen Tuya seems to be a caring mother to her boys, although she is aware of Rameses’ responsibility as the next leader, and her husband’s wariness about whether he will ever be ready for it.

Helen Mirren voiced Queen Tuya. Dame Helen Mirren is a much-acclaimed actress, beginning her career acting with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. On screen, some of Mirren’s film credits include being cast as Mrs. Wilson in Gosford Park (2001); Alma Reville in Hitchcock (2012); and Hedda Hopper in Trumbo (2015). More recently, she played Dorothy Bunton in The Duke (2020) with Jim Broadbent. She also played Elizabeth Best in The Thursday Murder Club (2025) for Netflix. Mirren won the Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Actress, amongst many other award wins in her career, for portraying Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006). In series, Mirren appears as Maeve Harrigan in MobLand (2025-present) for Paramount+. She later voiced Dean Hardscrabble in Monsters University (2013) for Pixar.

Huy and Hotep are the Pharaoh’s advisors, both Seti’s and Rameses’, and are also High Priests, worshipping the Egyptian gods. They are arguably meant to be the comic relief in The Prince of Egypt, although they are definitely not overused in this way and do not take away from the seriousness of the story. Their funniest moment is when Moses drops wine on them from an upper balcony, with Rameses being blamed for it. Their other key moment is when they try to disprove the powers that Moses brings to Egypt, such as the river water turning to blood, and his staff turning into a snake. Eventually, even their powers cannot mimic some of the other horrors that come to Egypt, leading Rameses to believe that Moses has indeed been granted power from a higher being.

Huy and Hotep were voiced by comedians Martin Short and Steve Martin respectively. Together, they both first appeared in ¡Three Amigos! (1986) with Steve Martin playing Lucky Day and Martin Short playing Ned Nederlander, becoming close friends ever since. They have also both starred in the movies Father of the Bride (1991) and its 1995 sequel with Martin playing George Banks, and Short cast as Franck Egglehoffer. They continue to tour the US with their joint comedy show and currently star in the Hulu murder-mystery-comedy series Only Murders in the Building (2021-present) with Selena Gomez. Short plays Oliver Putnam and Martin plays Charles Hayden Savage.

PRODUCTION

To talk about how The Prince of Egypt film came to be, I need to mention how DreamWorks was created – and to do that I just have to go back to Disney Animation.

Back in 1984, Walt Disney’s son-in-law, Ron Miller, was removed as CEO from The Walt Disney Company. Frank Wells, who had previously worked at Warner Bros., and Michael Eisner, coming from Paramount Pictures, took over as 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, with the official title of Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, also taking the reins at Disney Animation.

During this time, Katzenberg oversaw the turnaround of Disney Animation from the major flop of The Black Cauldron (1985) all the way into the 1990s with their “Renaissance Era”, which began with The Little Mermaid (1989). Things seemed to be going well, although some felt that Katzenberg promoted himself as much as he promoted the movies he was involved in, which rubbed some up the wrong way.

Katzenberg’s Disney Legend status was not to be though, because after Frank Wells tragically died in a helicopter crash in April 1994, it soon became clear that Katzenberg wanted Wells’ job. This annoyed Michael Eisner, who did not like this, nor did Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew and chairman of the animation division. 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[1].

But that didn’t slow him down, as Katzenberg simply joined forces with acclaimed director Steven Spielberg and film producer David Geffen to found their own studio, DreamWorks, also known as DreamWorks SKG, referencing their surname initials. The studio was founded in October 1994, so Katzenberg didn’t waste any time!

Katzenberg had plans to create animated movies at this studio, which would mean going up against his former employer. He clearly relished the challenge, as DreamWorks Animation’s first film was Antz (1998), released in October 1998 to rival Pixar’s A Bug Life (1998), which came out just a month later Antz was a fully computer-generated animated movie, like Pixar, but now was the time for DreamWorks to go head-to-head with Disney Animation specifically, by creating their first traditionally animated movie.

Katzenberg had reportedly wanted to adapt The Ten Commandments story at Disney Animation, but this option was never considered by Disney, potentially because the material was not as universally appealing or as “safe” as using a fairy tale as a story basis. Katzenberg was able to bring his idea to his own studio instead, making The Prince of Egypt a bit of a passion project for him. Apparently, Spielberg was the one to suggest that they turn the Book of Exodus into a brothers’ story, with their movie focusing on how the relationship between Moses and Rameses evolved, from growing up as children, to their bond being completely destroyed by Moses’ mission from God.

The Prince of Egypt had three directors. One of these was Brenda Chapman, who by directing The Prince of Egypt became the first woman to direct an animated feature at a major studio. Chapman had previously worked as a story artist at Disney Animation, on such movies as Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), before moving to DreamWorks on Katzenberg’s request. After The Prince of Egypt, Chapman worked as a story artist on The Road to El Dorado (2000) and Chicken Run (2000) for the studio, before being invited to move over to Pixar in 2003 by her friend Joe Ranft, who became Pixar’s Head of Story in 1992. The two worked together on Pixar’s Cars (2006). Chapman was then set to write and direct Brave (2012) for Pixar, which began its life under the title The Bear and the Bow. Although this was Chapman’s initial idea, and she remained credited as a co-director on Brave, Chapman was not able to see her project through to the end. She was taken off the project in 2010 and replaced with a different Pixar employee, Mark Andrews. Chapman stated that she was struggling to put across this female-centric story in a company that she described as “a boys’ club”, plus Joe Ranft died in a car accident in 2005 which shook everyone up at Pixar and she did not get on particularly well with John Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at both Disney and Pixar at the time[2]. Most recently, Chapman directed the fantasy drama Come Away (2020).

The other two directors were Steve Hickner and Simon Wells, both long-time employees at DreamWorks Animation. Hickner was a story artist on such DreamWorks movies as Shark Tale (2004), Over the Hedge (2006), Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014), and Home (2015), as well as co-directing Bee Movie (2007) with Simon J. Smith. Simon Wells had previously directed An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and Balto (1995) for Amblin Entertainment, which was absorbed by DreamWorks, then becoming a story artist for DreamWorks, on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), Flushed Away (2006), The Croods (2013) and its 2020 sequel.

Wells was initially concerned about how they would be able to tell the story of Moses in The Prince of Egypt, wondering whether it would end up being too sanitised. Katzenberg and Spielberg both said that they had to go beyond what was expected, and be able to talk about those serious subjects and moments, such as Moses killing the Egyptian guard. Kelly Asbury, co-head of story with Lorna Cook, remembered being told those same things, and how they couldn’t avoid tackling the slavery aspect or the plagues, otherwise there would be no point in adapting this story. The Prince of Egypt adapts the first 14 chapters of Exodus[3].

Asbury had been a story artist on Pixar’s Toy Story (1995), before coming to DreamWorks, where he worked on various movies, including directing Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, with Lorna Cook, and co-directing Shrek 2 (2004). Asbury later directed Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), which was distributed under Disney’s label Touchstone Pictures in the US, and was also a story artist on Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Frozen (2013). He later directed the Smurfs live-action film reboot Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017). Asbury passed away in June 2020. Lorna Cook worked in story on DreamWorks films like Madagascar (2005), Flushed Away, and The Croods, having also worked as an animator on Don Bluth’s An American Tail (1986) and on Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The screenwriter for The Prince of Egypt was Philip LaZebnik, who was also a co-writer for Disney’s Mulan (1998), which won an Annie Award for Achievement in Writing, and Pocahontas (1995).

Although The Prince of Egypt tries very hard to accurately adapt The Book of Exodus for the screen, there were some changes made to suit the brothers story that DreamWorks wanted to tell. Some of these include the fact that in the original text, Moses is actually found by Pharaoh’s daughter, not his wife, and that Moses knew he was a Hebrew during his childhood, not being raised as if he were a prince of Egypt and Rameses’ brother. Characters are also omitted from The Prince of Egypt, such as Moses and Tzipporah’s children, and the role of Aaron, Moses’ actual brother, was reduced.

To prove that DreamWorks did make the effort to be inclusive and as accurate as possible whilst still considering the story they wanted to tell, DreamWorks contacted various religious leaders as consultants on the film. Religious broadcaster Jerry Falwell said he got a call from Jeffrey Katzenberg asking for Falwell to put together a group of evangelical leaders to look at the film, although Jewish and Islamic leaders were also consulted. Some were amazed at how much time Katzenberg spent on attempting to maintain ethnic sensitivity and the Biblical accuracy on this film. But in all movies based on source material, changes are always made; it’s just more controversial when it is a biblical story being adapted[4]. 

In order to ensure that the animation of the Ancient Egyptian kingdom was accurate, DreamWorks producers, animators, directors, etc. took a research trip to Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. It helped to see the buildings up close, like the Valley of the Kings and St. Catherine’s Monastery, located at the foot of Mount Sinai, to get a feel for the environment by walking through the same locations from the story. The background artists went somewhere slightly less exotic, to Death Valley in Nevada. This was for inspiration for the desert sequences, so they could get an idea of what it would have been like to journey through the vast landscape and the heat, as well as to depict the importance of light, and the ratio of sky to land, in that environment. Other reference material for the animation was gathered, including recordings of traditional dancing, and seeing camels and sheep up close to animate the animals in this story[5].

For the 2D animation of the characters, DreamWorks wanted to create their own distinct style for these human characters. DreamWorks has more of a reputation for creating animal characters in their movies, or their later humans, like in Shrek (2001) have more of a caricature-quality to them, meaning they don’t look authentic to real people. Disney has their own way of drawing human characters, but they had been doing that for years, and created their own style. DreamWorks’ human characters in The Prince of Egypt, and in others like The Road to El Dorado, are more stylised, with sharp, angular edges to them instead of the softer look of Disney’s characters.

The use of technology was hugely important in The Prince of Egypt despite the focus on traditional 2D animation, since some sequences would be hugely difficult to animate by hand. Some examples of these include the various plagues. It would be inconceivable for animators to have to draw millions of locusts, and the pestilence plague shows insects crawling on surfaces and inside food items, so that would be difficult to achieve by hand too, and would be incredibly time-consuming. These effects were computer generated. There was also the hail fire from the sky, and turning the water to blood that was done this way, along with the final plague, the “Angel of Death”, which appeared in a vaporous form.

For the chariot race early on in the film, this combined both 2D animation with the 3D world thanks to new software tool called the Exposure Tool. This allowed for cameras to be placed into the 3D set, with the camera able to follow them freely as though it was being shot like a live-action movie, where the camera could chase the action. This meant the sequence took only a few days to make as opposed to several months. Also, the chariots in this sequence were computer-generated, showing further blending of animation techniques. The computer-generated hieroglyphic dream sequence is also a highlight of the movie, for its stylisation and impressive use of computer animation.

The group scenes required some computer animation too, with this being noticeable in the sequence of the Hebrews leaving Egypt as well as the crowd shots of the Hebrews as slaves. Here, each character was animated individually on the computer to ensure they looked as close as possible to the 2D animated characters and didn’t become a strange-looking, identical crowd. I can’t say I even noticed, so they must’ve blended well together[6]!

The parting of the Red Sea was potentially the most difficult sequence to create, although it was considered to be quite special to be animating a great miracle. There was some pressure though since this had already been done in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), which was an inspiration throughout the production process on The Prince of Egypt. This had to be a big moment. They decided the walls of waters had to be huge, rising out of the water, as well as the image of showing Moses and the staff in the water, before the staff comes down and causes water to rush in all directions, leaving him on a dry section of the seabed. Concept artists helped created this sequence, by coming up with the initial idea, which helped the animators create this incredible moment. A whale shark was also included, swimming by the Hebrews as they walk along, to create atmosphere and to remind the audience that the Hebrews are walking under the sea right at that point. This sequence required a mixture of 2D and 3D effects to create it[7].

Overall, The Prince of Egypt took a large team of dedicated people four years to finish, combining multiple different departments and very talented artists and story people. 

MUSIC

For me, the best part of The Prince of Music is undoubtedly its music.

The soundtrack consists of the six original songs from the film, the instrumental tracks from the score, plus songs that don’t appear in the film and re-recorded versions of some of the movie’s songs.

The songwriter on The Prince of Egypt was Stephen Schwartz. Schwartz had previously been the composer and lyricist on the musicals Godspell, first performed in 1971, and Pippin, first performed in 1972, before going to Disney Animation to work with composer Alan Menken on the music for Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Schwartz won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (1995). Schwartz had actually written three songs for Mulan but left to work on The Prince of Egypt for DreamWorks. This led to Disney threatening to remove Schwartz’ name from the publicity for the two Disney movies he had worked on[8]. But the animosity didn’t last too long, as Schwartz was once again teamed up with Alan Menken to work on the music for Disney’s live-action movie Enchanted (2007), and its recent sequel Disenchanted (2022). Schwartz is also famed for writing the music Wicked, which first came to Broadway in 2003. He later returned to work on the 2024 film adaptation and its 2025 sequel, with each film covering one act of the musical. Schwartz contributed new material to the sequel, with two new songs, “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble”, which have both been nominated for awards. He has also won three Grammy Awards, one for “Colors of the Wind”, and the other two for the score for Godspell and the album for Wicked.

Stephen Schwartz was invited to work on The Prince of Egypt by Jeffrey Katzenberg, having both worked at Disney Animation. Schwartz says he really learnt the importance of music in animated movies from his time at Disney, and was able to apply what he’d learnt to this film. He wanted the movie’s music to feel accessible to modern audiences, but with the music feeling rooted in the time and place of Ancient Egypt, so the songs are not commercial or typical Broadway-style songs. There was even the inclusion of some lyrics in Hebrew, for example, in “Deliver Us” and “When You Believe”, to maintain authenticity of the characters.

The opening song of The Prince of Egypt is “Deliver Us”, a powerful number, detailing both the pain of the Hebrew slaves and the despair of a mother having to give up her child in the hopes he can find a new life elsewhere. It starts with a chorus, before moving into the lullaby from Moses’ mother, which is reprised by Miriam, his sister, as she watches Moses being taken in by Queen Tuya. The song finishes again with a chorus. It was performed predominately by Ofra Haza, an Israeli singer-songwriter, being basically the voice of Moses’ mother; a character we never see again. Haza had previously represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1983. She sadly passed away in 2000 at the age of 42. Eden Riegel provides the singing voice for Young Miriam here, going on to be cast as Bianca Montgomery in the soap opera All My Children (1970-2013) from 2000 to 2013. “Deliver Us” is also reprised briefly at the very end of the film.

The next song is “All I Ever Wanted”, performed by Amick Byram as Moses. This takes place as Moses questions his identity and wonders how he can live like a prince of Egypt when he isn’t one at all. Queen Tuya later sings in this number, as she tries to convince Moses that she will always be her son, regardless of where he came from. Queen Tuya’s vocals are provided by Linda Dee Shayne. I really like this song, even though it is quite short. Byram has performed in numerous musical productions including the 90s production of Sunset Boulevard, playing Joe Gillis, and as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Following that is the upbeat “Through Heaven’s Eyes”, performed by Brian Stokes Mitchell as Jethro. This song plays during the sequence of Moses being welcomed into the community by Jethro and falling in love with Tzipporah. This song is all about how you should measure your life, not through material things, but through happiness and community. Brian Stokes Mitchell has also performed in numerous musicals, including as Fred Graham / Petruchio in Kiss Me Kate on Broadway between 1999 and 2001, and as Inspector Javert and Sky Masterson in performances of Les Misérables and Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Then, there is “Playing with the Big Boys”, a song performed by Steve Martin and Martin Short as Huy and Hotep. This is when the duo are using their powers from the Egyptian gods to try and disprove the powers that Moses has brought to Egypt, to show that their gods are mightier. It’s the least serious song in The Prince of Egypt, but it still has a dark element to it, with a chorus creating an atmosphere of mystery.

Following that is “The Plagues”, performed by Ralph Fiennes and Amick Byram as Rameses and Moses. In this number, Moses is unleashing The Ten Plagues on Egypt, whilst pleading with Rameses to let the Hebrews go if he wants to stop the destruction. Rameses refuses to back down. I really like the vocal battle between the two, and how their voices blend together; it’s another powerful song, plus there is a similar chorus to “Playing with the Big Boys” which starts off the sequence to create an ominous mood. Schwartz has said that he regrets not being able to write a brothers song for Moses and Rameses that would’ve taken place earlier on in the film, potentially as the second song. He gave it a few attempts but nothing was working and he couldn’t figure it out[9]. I’m assuming it was meant to be more of a playful song, because The Prince of Egypt technically already has a “brothers song” with “The Plagues”, it’s just not a carefree one!

“When You Believe” is the final song, all about miracles and hope. It accompanies the Hebrews leaving Egypt full of relief and hope for the future. It was meant to be like the anthem of Moses’ journey. It was performed mostly by Michelle Pfeiffer as Tzipporah and Sally Dworsky as Miriam. Dworsky was had previously provided Adult Nala’s singing voice in The Lion King for Disney.

The End Credits features a cover of “When You Believe”, with additional lyrics from writer-producer Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, performed by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. The song charted well in numerous countries, hitting No. 15 in the US Billboard Hot 100; No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart; No. 2 in Greece; and No. 4 in Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands. It was so popular that the song was used for the 2007 The X Factor final in the UK, where Leon Jackson and Rhydian Robert battled it out, each performing the song. As I didn’t watch the final, I don’t know if they referenced it as a song from The Prince of Egypt or whether it was just a song by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. I’m not sure many people know this song is originally from a film, much less a DreamWorks Animation film. The fact the song was so popular away from the film probably has something to do with it being released as a single in October 1998, almost two months before the film came out.

Outside of that, “I Will Get There”, written by Diane Warren and performed by Boys II Men is the second End Credits song, an original song for the soundtrack. “Through Heaven’s Eyes” was also recorded by R&B duo K-Ci & JoJo for the soundtrack, as was “River Lullaby”, performed by Amy Grant. It seems to be an extended version of the lullaby in “Deliver Us”. Another song included on the soundtrack is “Humanity”, written by Louis Brown III and Scott Parker, and performed by Jessica Andrews, Clint Black, Shirley Caesar, Jesse Campbell, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Boyz II Men, Kevin Max.

The soundtrack also includes tracks from the score. My favourites of the score are “The Burning Bush” and “Red Sea”, simply because they are quite emotional moments, accompanied by some truly emotional music. Hans Zimmer was the composer of the score for The Prince of Egypt, having previously worked on The Lion King (1994). Zimmer later returned to compose for its 2019 live-action remake. Outside of that, Zimmer has collaborated with DreamWorks on various others films, including The Road to El Dorado; Shark Tale; the Madagascar series and the Kung Fu Panda series. Zimmer also composed the music for such films as As Good as It Gets (1997), Gladiator (2000), Inception (2010), and Dunkirk (2017). Zimmer has won the Oscar for Best Original Score for both The Lion King and Dune (2022), as well as the BAFTA for Dune, and the Golden Globe for both films’ scores. He also won a Golden Globe for his music on Gladiator. At the Grammys, Zimmer won the award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for Visual Media for both Dune: Part Two (2024) and The Dark Knight (2008), amongst many others.

The Prince of Egypt soundtrack as a whole peaked at No. 1 on the US Billboard Christian Albums chart and hit No. 25 on the Billboard 200 chart. It also was nominated for many awards, most importantly winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “When You Believe”. The score was also nominated here, but lost to Stephen Warbeck’s music in Shakespeare in Love (1998). “When You Believe” also won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Original Song. Outside of that, the song was nominated at the Satellite Awards, losing to “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith from Armageddon (1998). It was also nominated at the Golden Globes, as was the score, but did not win. Instead, the score to The Truman Show (1998) and the song “The Prayer” by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli from Quest for Camelot (1998), an animated film from Warner Bros, won. The score was also nominated for Best Music at the Saturn Awards, but lost to John Carpenter’s music in Vampires (1998). Finally, at the Grammys, both the soundtrack album and “When You Believe” were nominated in the respective categories. The winners were Disney’s Tarzan (1999) and “Beautiful Stranger” performed by Madonna and William Orbit for the second Austin Powers film.

RECEPTION

After a premiere on 16^th December 1998, The Prince of Egypt came to theatres on 18^th December 1998, reportedly being released both in the US and to international markets on the same day, which is not that common, however, with the release so close to Christmas, it was felt it should be enjoyed by people all around the world over this festive time.

However, it could not be enjoyed by everyone, because The Prince of Egypt was banned in certain countries, most notably in Muslim countries, due to its depiction of Islamic prophets, which is forbidden in Islam. DreamWorks went to great efforts not to offend any nationality or anyone of any religion, but by choosing to make this grand adaptation, I’m sure it was expected that the movie would be banned in those countries, including Egypt itself. Egyptians had further complaints, saying that it distorted the history of Ancient Egypt and was biased against Arabs and Muslims. DreamWorks stated that they had consulted with experts, including religious leaders in Islam and Egyptologists to avoid offence[10]. 

For those that did get to see The Prince of Egypt, there were a mixture of opinions, however, those who did not mind the creative licence taken in the development of the story have called The Prince of Egypt an animated masterpiece, and say it is one of DreamWorks best films, and even one of the best animated movies ever made. The Prince of Egypt certainly deserves to be on that list of the best animated movies of all time, for both its story, music, and animation, but there are other animated movies I rewatch much more often than The Prince of Egypt, because sometimes you need more carefree, less intense movies!

Specifically, audiences liked how the storytelling was free of silly jokes and theatrics, avoiding that comic relief that accompanies most animated films, as a way of keeping the kids entertained or distracted from the dark themes that may’ve crept in to their movie. Even the traditional comic relief characters, here, Huy and Hotep, are used minimally. The Prince of Egypt maintains its serious tone throughout the movie, accompanied by some stunning animation and atmospheric backgrounds. The use of a mixture of 2D and computer-generated effects and characters was also appreciated by many; the hieroglyphic dream section, where Moses sees his early life and his mother’s sacrifice to save him from the same fate as other Hebrew newborns, was a particular highlight. The music was another point that was praised by viewers overall. It was seen to be a mature animated movie, that surprised some by just how good it was, impressing even the most non-religious of people.

However, on the other hand, because The Prince of Egypt feels very different to other animated films, especially in the 1990s when families were used to see the Broadway-style fairy-tale musicals from Disney, DreamWorks did struggle to find a specific demographic to target. It was considered too intense to suit children, and it was already a well-told religious story to some adults, with older generations potentially not seeing the merit in an animated adaptation of a Biblical story. Others complained about how the Book of Exodus was altered for The Prince of Egypt, saying it was not accurate. But it really is worth stating that on the whole, the positive reviews did outweigh the negative ones.

As The Prince of Egypt was released in December 1998, it avoided any direct competition with a new movie from Disney, or their affiliated studio Pixar. Mulan, Disney Animation’s 1998 release, came out in June of that year. But DreamWorks had already started a battle with Disney over their release of Antz, in October 1998, just a month before Pixar released A Bug’s Life. Despite both films doing well at the box office and with audiences and critics, the toxicity between the two studios was obvious to the press, as public digs were made between the feuding sides[11]. The battle was going to the box office, and DreamWorks was not the big winner. A Bug’s Life became the highest grossing animated film of 1998, with over $360 million, and Disney’s Mulan didn’t feature too far behind it with a little over $300 million. A Bug’s Life finished 1998 at No. 5 on the Worldwide Box Office list, and Mulan was just one spot below. Antz sat at No. 22, but The Prince of Egypt did fare better, finishing up at No. 16, having grossed a total of around $218 million.

1998 was a good year for cinema in general, as Armageddon topped the worldwide box office, following by Saving Private Ryan, Godzilla, and There’s Something About Mary taking the top four positions. Others above The Prince of Egypt included The Truman Show, You’ve Got Mail, and Shakespeare in Love, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year and just so happened to star Ralph Fiennes’ younger brother, Joseph.

There was some speculation about just how much DreamWorks had spent creating The Prince of Egypt, how much they had spent marketing it, and whether or not they were happy with their early figures at the box office. It made $14.5 million in its opening weekend, which DreamWorks claimed was in line with their expectations, as the weekend before Christmas is a historically slow period for movie-goers, with many choosing to head to the cinema in the days after Christmas. There was also questions around how much The Prince of Egypt would need to make to be considered profitable, especially since there were no McDonald’s toys, or other merchandise tie-ins because it simply didn’t fit the serious nature of the film. There was a lot of competition at the cinema at that time of year for family-friendly films, with A Bug’s Life still playing, alongside The Rugrats Movie and Babe: Pig in the City[12].

In the end, The Prince of Egypt didn’t do amazingly well financially, but it did well enough across the domestic and international markets. It didn’t really matter too much anyway to DreamWorks, allegedly, because they were proud of the movie they made. They wanted to show that animation could be a fine artform. To be fair, I think Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was the first to prove that, but I see their point!

The Prince of Egypt was nominated for various Annie Awards after its release, including for Best Animated Feature, but it lost out to The Iron Giant (1999), directed by Brad Bird. This was also the case in the categories of Animated Effects, Directing, Storyboarding, and Voice Acting, where Ralph Fiennes was nominated for his role as Rameses. The Prince of Egypt did, however, win the inaugural Best Animated Feature Award at the 4^th Critics’ Choice Award, although it was a tie with Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. That must’ve been awkward… At the Youth in Film Awards, The Prince of Egypt won the award for Best Family Feature Film: Animated, as well as another for Best Performance in a Voice-Over in a Feature or TV: Best Young Actress, which went to Aria Noelle Curzon for her voice role as Jethrodiadah, one of Tzipporah’s little sisters. She also voiced Cornchip Girl in Disney animated series Recess (1997-2001), and Ducky in The Land Before Time franchise. The Prince of Egypt won a few other awards including Best Animated Film at the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards, and was nominated at other ceremonies in the Best Animated Film category, like the Satellite, where A Bug’s Life won. Not all major award ceremonies had this category in 1998, such as the Academy Awards or the Golden Globes, although The Prince of Egypt was nominated at the Saturn Awards in the Best Action or Adventure Film category, but it lost to Saving Private Ryan.

In 2025, The Prince of Egypt’s record for best opening weekend box office numbers for an animated faith-based movie would be beaten by a new movie, The King of Kings, which earnt around $19 million on its opening weekend, putting the independent film in second place at the US box office, behind A Minecraft Movie[13]. The King of Kings is loosely inspired by the children’s book The Life of Our Lord, written by Charles Dickens and published in 1934. It details the life of Jesus. The movie features an all-star voice cast with names like Kenneth Branagh, Ben Kingsley, Uma Thurman and Mark Hamill. This just goes to show how difficult it can be for certain genres of films to make money. DreamWorks was brave to make The Prince of Egypt and in many ways, the risk did pay off for them.

LEGACY

The Prince of Egypt doesn’t quite finish the full story from the Book of Exodus, ending quite simply, with Moses holding a stone tablet, which states The Ten Commandments, seemingly ready to announce this discovery to his people.

DreamWorks told the key part of the story though, having the Hebrews freed from Egypt, making their way to the Promised Land, so there wasn’t likely to be a sequel to The Prince of Egypt. However, this was not the end of DreamWorks adapting Biblical stories, because the studio did create a prequel of sorts to The Prince of Egypt.

This prequel was the direct-to-video movie Joseph: King of Dreams (2000). This film adapts the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis, following Joseph through his brothers selling him to Egypt, and becoming a trusted servant of the Pharaoh, where his skill of interpreting dreams is realised, and becomes key to the saviour of the Egyptian empire from potential famine. Joseph also later reconciles with his brothers and invites them and their families to live in Egypt with him. The movie ends with the Hebrews entering Egypt, which is where the story of The Prince of Egypt would then pick up.

I have only seen Joseph: King of Dreams once, and I didn’t particularly like it. Although it benefits from some good casting, like Ben Affleck in the title role and Mark Hamill as Judah, the music was not as good and the animation didn’t have the same quality asThe Prince of Egypt either. I thought it was just ok, and if I want to watch an adaptation of this same story, I’d personally rather watch Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

Many years later, as can be the case with certain popular animated movies, a stage musical was then created based on the story and music of DreamWorks’ The Prince of Egypt, but its path to the stage was anything but simple. There was initially a concert performance of the first act of the show presented at The Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor in New York in 2015, with a further performance of the musical due to take place in 2016, however, the concert was later cancelled, with an announcement made on 28^th July 2016. This cancellation was deemed necessary amid controversy surrounding the casting of the musical, with concerns about a lack of diversity[14]. A year later, in 2017, the World Premiere for The Prince of Egypt musical finally happened at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, which was directed by Scott Schwartz, son of the film’s songwriter Stephen Schwartz. It ran for roughly a month, between October and November.

The Prince of Egypt musical then made its debut at the West End’s Dominion Theatre in London in 2020. It opened on 25^th February 2020, set to run until 31^st October that year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to shut many entertainment venues, the musical was forced to close on 17^th March. It reopened in July 2021, and ended its run in January 2022. Although the animated movie has some extraordinarily positive reviews, the reviews of this musical were fairly mixed. Where the animation helped to enhance the story, it was felt some aspects of this adaptation simply did not translate well to the stage. The expanded story to fill the typical two hours or more that is needed for a stage musical was also not received well. Others didn’t enjoy the new music, or the altering of the originals, although it was felt that the vocal performances were still good. And most of these reviews were coming from fans of the original movie. Based on this, it would seem that The Prince of Egypt may not be making a comeback to the West End anytime soon, or a transfer to Broadway, but a recording of this stage musical was released to the public in 2023, both theatrically and digitally. 

Also in 2023, The Prince of Egypt celebrated its 25^th anniversary. To celebrate this anniversary, DreamWorks released a series of making-of videos, discussing select scenes, for those interested in the movie’s development to enjoy, alongside a remastered music video of their award-winning song “When You Believe” in 25 different languages.

Naturally, given the serious nature of the film’s story, and very unlike Disney, there is not much by way of official merchandise available to purchase, although it does look like there were a series of dolls based on the characters produced back in 1998.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The very start of The Prince of Egypt shows a disclaimer, saying that although the film is based on The Book of Exodus from the Bible, some historic and creative licence was used in the retelling of the story. For some, this was an issue that caused them not to like the film. For others, The Prince of Egypt was simply not something they could or wanted to see.

Since I’m not particularly religious, though I wouldn’t class myself as an atheist, and had only heard the story of Moses from Religious Studies classes at school, the potential lack of accuracy here didn’t bother me. Regardless of whether you believe it to be true or not, The Prince of Egypt tells a very poignant, moving story on a grand scale.

My point here is that even non-religious people can enjoy The Prince of Egypt, because it is a story of humanity. At its most basic level, it reminds us that humans are more similar than we are different, and that no-one should consider themselves superior than anyone else. We are all just people, living on the same planet, trying our best to get by.

At least, that’s what I took from it.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Don Hahn, Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009).

[2] Credit: Petrana Radulovic, ‘Prince of Egypt director Brenda Chapman: ‘We wanted to do something that reached more adults’, Polygon.com, 17^th December 2018.

[3] Credit: Michael Lyons, ‘Sacred Storytelling: The 25^th Anniversary of “The Prince of Egypt”’, CartoonResearch.com, 1^st December 2023.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #390’, CartoonResearch.com, 23^rd November 2018.

[5] Credit: DreamWorks, The Prince of Egypt: From Dream to Screen (1998)’, VHS BTS YouTube Channel, 28^th March 2019.

[6] Credit: DreamWorks, ‘The Making of The Prince of Egypt (1998)’, from The Prince of Egypt (1998) UK DVD (2012).

[7] Credit: DreamWorks, ‘The Prince of Egypt 25^th Anniversary: Parting the Red Sea’, Animation World Network YouTube Channel, 26^th December 2023.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Remembering “Mulan”’, CartoonResearch.com, 26^th August 2022.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Animation Anecdotes #158’, CartoonResearch.com, 2^nd May 2014.

[10] Credit: Mona Eltahawy, ‘Egyptians disown celluloid ‘prince’’, TheGuardian.com, 17^th April 1999.

[11] Credit: Michael Lyons, ‘Small Wonder: The 25^th Anniversary of “A Bug’s Life”’, CartoonResearch.com, 24^th November 2023.

[12] Credit: Claudia Eller and James Bates, ‘Water Don’t Part for DreamWorks’ ‘Prince of Egypt’’, LATimes.com, 22^nd December 1998.

[13] Credit: Benjamin VanHoose, ‘The King of Kings, Starring Oscar Isaac as Jesus, Breaks a Box Office Record Set by 1998’s Prince of Egypt’, People.com, 14^th April 2025.

[14] Credit: Andrew Gans, ‘Scott Schwartz Details Reasons for Cancellation of Prince of Egypt Concert’, Playbill.com, 30^th July 2016.

1. BACKGROUND
2. PLOT
3. CHARACTERS & CAST
4. PRODUCTION
5. MUSIC
6. RECEPTION
7. LEGACY
8. FINAL THOUGHTS
9. REFERENCES

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 16^th and 17^th 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 16^th 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 12^th 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 20^th 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 31^st 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, 2^nd October 2013.

[5] Credit: Willie Drye, ‘El Dorado’, NationalGeographic.com, date unknown.

[6] Credit: Lorenza Munoz, ‘Bumpy Road to ‘El Dorado’’, LATimes.com, 29^th 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, 18^th January 2022.