Guest Column - El Dorado and Disney
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El Dorado - Disney Similarities and Disney South of the Border
Prince of Egypt, which was Dreamworks’ first animated feature, was very dramatic and mature in themes. For a follow up, Dreamworks seems to have decided to do the opposite. The Road to El Dorado is fast-paced, funny and does not take itself seriously for a minute. For Disney fans, think of it as a mixture of Aladdin and Hercules with a little bit of Pocahontas thrown in.
The beginning of the movie is a musical segment about the creation of El Dorado, which is very reminiscent of Hercules’ Gospel Truth number. The creation segment uses very flat and stylized animation to create a feel of moving Mexican artwork. After the opening song, Cortez and his army set out to the New World. Cortez’ character is a much rougher Ratcliffe with a similar character design and motive, gold. Next the movie drops in on a gambling bet in progress, with Migel and Tulio using loaded dice to rake in money. Migel is an adventurous, curious person and Tulio is a sensible but greedy person. Migel and Tulio soon find themselves in an Aladdinesque scene running away from the townspeople who get on to their scheme. Eventually, they find their way onto a boat and the adventure begins. Along the way, the film delivers some classic moments and clever lines that keep the interest going to the end.
The movie does not have as many anachronisms as Aladdin or Hercules, but some modern references do come up. Migel and Tulio also use very modern speech patterns, as does Chel the female role of the movie. The film also does not have a wacky sidekick like Aladdin’s Genie or Hercules’ Phil. The comedic elements of the film rely on the two main characters playing off each other, which they do quite well. As far as I can recall, this is the first animated feature with two leading male characters since the Fox and the Hound. There is also a mute animal, a horse named Altivo, which is very reminiscent of Pegasus (Hercules), Kahn (Mulan), Achilles (Hunchback of Notre Dame) or Phillipe (Beauty and the Beast) although he has more screen time than they do.
Spielberg seems to have a strange fascination with animals spitting on people like the camel in Prince of Egypt and the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park. El Dorado continues that tradition with the horse spitting on one of the main characters. After Migel and Tulio get on the boat there is a storm sequence that is similar to Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid. Once they reach land, they begin to search for El Dorado within a mysterious jungle. The jungle backgrounds looked a lot like The Lion King. One scene when Migel, Tulio and Altivo walk on a fallen stump reminded me of the time-elapse Hakuna Matata scene when Simba is growing up. When they reach El Dorado, the natives treat them as gods. Migel and Tulio decide to go along with it to take advantage of El Dorado’s gold. Chel finds out about their scheme and decides to blackmail them to get out of El Dorado. Chel slightly reminded me of Meg from Hercules, because her speech pattern and urban attitude was similar. Tzekel-Kahn, is a character like Frollo, as he uses black magic and claims to be speaking for the gods. The head chief is very similar to Powhatan from Pocahontas in his dialogue and mannerisms although his character design is completely different.
The animation of El Dorado is excellent and provides some sparkling images inspired by Mexican art. Considering this is Dreamworks’ second animated movie, they have improved quite a bit on their style. The storyline does not give the animators numerous dramatic scenes to work with, as Prince of Egypt did, but the facial expressions for the characters are excellent and complement the humor greatly. The biggest improvement in this movie is the background artwork. Very detailed and brightly colored, the backgrounds certainly add significantly to the movie. The water animation is arguably the best ever done and although most of it is computer generated imagery, it fits in with the traditional characters very nicely. The musical numbers are similar to I Just Can’t Wait to Be King with the animation changing to be more abstract and colorful. Some of the most innovative parts of the movie come during the songs. The songs by Tim Rice and Elton John (who did songs for The Lion King) keeps the pace going. Elton John sings most of the music in El Dorado, with Migel and Tulio singing only one song, It’s Tough To Be a God. Hans Zimmer’s (who did the score for The Lion King) score is wonderful and keeps the Hispanic flavor without being too obtrusive.