you
Elliman I didn't see the road to El
Dorado when it phrase came out because
it just sort of looked cheesy and in
some ways yeah that's kind of what it is
and in other ways it's actually really
smart but in other ways the animation is
a little lacking but in other ways it's
fantastic
in other ways maybe it would have been
fair as a live-action film but in other
ways animation is the perfect way to get
across on this comedy and oh boy let's
just look at the story - con man played
by Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh come
across a map for the city - El Dorado as
luck would have it they wash across the
shore where apparently the city is
located follow the map and wouldn't you
know it they discover the lost city but
it's also inhabited and two of the high
priests of course confuse the two for
God's not wanting to overlook what could
possibly be the greatest con of their
time they of course play the part of the
gods and see if there's a way for them
to make a boat and take as much of the
gold as possible a young thief named
Schell discovers their secret and she
plays along in the facade trying to show
them the ways of the culture while never
revealing who they really are the ready
for this movie is very good actually it
reminded me a lot of the Princess Bride
in fact it felt eerily similar a lot of
comedy a lot of jokes but also still
trying to get across an action-adventure
my problem with the film I'm really
gonna sound weird for this but the
animation is actually too good what do I
mean by that well Princess Bride was
funny because it's live-action people
acting like cartoon characters in my
theory is that if the road to El Dorado
was actually live-action it would have
been funnier now what sense does that
make you have an animated movie where
characters are acting like animated
characters can that be ideal well the
animation looks very similar to Prince
of Egypt in that it's very pretty and
it's very nice-looking but that doesn't
always translate into comedy the weakest
part of the Prince of Egypt was the
comedy but that's okay it wasn't
essentially meant to be a comedy first
this is if you're gonna do comedy and
animation you better have some damn
funny comedic animation this is where
you need warner brothers to come in you
the fast pace you need the over-the-top
reactions they never allowed them to get
really big goofy over-the-top reactions
I think they were more concern about
making him look handsome for the most
part is pretty restrained
I don't know that totally comes down to
them being good-looking though because
gels pretty good-looking g-get some
really funny reactions but I think in
order to make something like this work
you need the team from say the Iron
Giant or Hotel Transylvania the people
don't move realistically enough for us
to mistake them for human but they don't
move cartoony enough in order for us to
laugh at them but with that said I don't
think it's a total abject failure either
like I said it is written very well and
some of the lines do get a good laugh
can you or not god you're not a god how
dare you particularly any point where
they have to talk really deadpan that
seems to work we expected you to be
staying with us for the next thousand
years well as we say in the spirit world
there's your plan and then there's the
gods blend hmm the action-adventure
stuff seems to work pretty well and it's
good to look at but again it's not quite
as big or grand and say something like
Prince of Egypt
it's impressive don't get me wrong but
when you really want big grand moments
you need some big grand animation it's a
big grand angles and yeah it's okay what
could be stronger the songs are by Elton
John and Tim Rice the same team that
brought The Lion King and I think I feel
the same way about this as I do about
the lion yeah if you know what I thought
about the Lion King that's not that
great but where I liked at least two
songs from Lion King I can't think of
any songs I like from this one he'll I
barely even remember and even that sort
of strange because the heroes sing one
song it's obviously a musical number but
then they never sing any of the others
it's just Elton John singing it so it's
really out of place and odd though I
will admit it's tough to be a God will
be in my head for weeks but in the same
way Hakuna Matata will be and yeah you
know what I think of that
but if you get the people's God blessing
people sweet that's our inside
I suppose in many respects I probably am
being too harsh to this film because
it's innocent enough it's got some
likable characters it's Brian its
colorful some of the jokes work you can
just tell though this film is trying
hard to make you laugh often and they
really wanted that to work they really
needed some different animation but it's
a beat it's well written it's got some
good stuff I think you could even argue
there's some good commentary with the
gods trying to play the priests against
each other and how religions work and no
no I think there's something there maybe
in the end that's the best way to
describe it there's something there it's
just not fully realized but for what it
is I'm glad I saw it I don't think a ton
of my time has been wasted or anything I
was kind of immune by kind of a good
movie and that's kind of all I gotta say
about it and see if you're looking
around the video store and there's no
other movies you can find this one might
be good to look at but only a Princess
Bride
Oh