• Condition: New

• Format: DVD

• Animated; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; DVD; Widescreen; NTSC

Dreamworks SKG's second feature-length animated film blends comedy and drama in an unusual historical adventure. Two genial swindlers working as stable hands stow away with Cortez, the legendary Spanish conquistador, as he searches for El Dorado, the lost City of Gold. Luck smiles on the two con men, and they happen to find a settlement in Mexico that they believe is El Dorado; however, while the two exotic strangers are at first embraced by the Mayan people, they've also arrived just in time to be offered up as the next human sacrifice. The Road to El Dorado was directed by Don Paul, who helmed the first DreamWorks animated feature, The Prince of Egypt; Will Finn, a featured animator on Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin; Bibo Bergeron, who worked on Ferngully: The Last Rainforest; and David Silverman. It features new songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, and the voice cast includes Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Rosie Perez, Edward James Olmos, and Armand Assante.

But do make a note of this: the movie is an excellent movie! It is hilarious, and is one of the rare cartoons that you can really dissect and discuss as if it were literature. The animation is excellent; I've never seen a cartoon so accurately portray human facial and body expression like this movie. You will appreciate how much detail is given to the animation, plot, and to the unity of the entire film: everything is explained.

It's a definite must for your collection, but again, I would not recommend it for any child under 11.

26 of 32 found the following review helpful:


Pay attention to rating - adult themes, but otherwise ok  Sep 29, 2003
For me, the story on the whole is pretty good and the people (especially the two main characters and their horse, but others as well) are quite funny. I was a little frustrated with parts of it, and I didn't really care much for the leading lady, but on the whole, I was entertained. For an adult, I'd say go ahead and buy. But before buying it for your children, just be aware that the PG rating is for a some pretty frightening supernatural scenes near the end, a "mooning" scene, and a suggested sex scene.

To give you a better idea of what the sex scene is all about, it goes something like this: The leading lady seduces one of the main characters in order to keep him from following the other main character, she massages his shoulders from behind as he sits on a sofa, she puts her hands far down the back of his shirt (at one point, he yells "ow!"), he resists her and they switch places, but she tells him that she is "free now" and pulls her hair aside from her shoulders to expose them better, then he gives in and massages her shoulders as a drunken smile comes over his face, then the scene cuts to something else, but it later returns to their voices and an empty sofa where, on hearing the voice of the villain, she pops up from the floor all worried about being found with him, she pulls her leg over 'something' to sit up, then he sits up with the drunken smile still, and she straightens his clothes and shoos him to meet his visitor -- they are clothed all along (her always rather scantily anyway), but they were obviously laying on the floor, and she was fairly obviously laying on top of him. Also, it may be inconsequential to some, but the suggested sex is outside of marriage or a present love relationship of any kind in the movie. Gotta say I was pretty shocked at this being in an animated DreamWorks film (PG-rating and all), even though the two do end up inlove which then didn't seem believable as there was not much more to their relationship than a mutual friendship of convenience.

If you don't mind your kids seeing that (and you won't always know if a child totally missed it, is curious but just doesn't want to discuss it, or for an older kid, has a pretty good idea and is now being influenced by its acceptability in the film) or the scary supernatural scene, I'd say go ahead and buy because it's worth seeing otherwise. But don't let Hollywood desensitize you (or other reviewers bully you) into thinking you have to accept what makes you uncomfortable or you're just an old prude -- think for yourself and use your own best judgment ESPECIALLY when it comes to your kids.

See all 117 customer reviews on Amazon.com