I now know that there are two ways to say the phrase: "This movie annoys me!" The original version of this phrase meant that a film reaches levels of arrogance and impotence that it makes a Michael Bay film tolerable. This can be films that keep shoving some really bad element at you, like Jar Jar Binks, the Minions from Despicable Me, the songs in The Lorax, or every movie Dane Cook, Larry the Cable Guy, and many other annoying yet somehow profitable actors that exist just to spite me. And then I watched The Road to El Dorado for the first time since I was a little kid. In this film, I watched a film that was both one of the most entertaining animated films I've ever seen and one of the few films to make me have a major psychotic rant in the middle of watching it. There is now officially a new version of a classic phrase and I haven't been this pissed coming away from an animated film in a long time, yet I somehow feel it was a bit unwarranted. I don't know...
Plot: In 16th century Spain, two con men win the map to the lost city of gold, El Dorado in a fixed gambling match. The con men (Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh) are discovered and hunted through the streets of Spain by guards and ultimately stow on the boat of the conquistador Hernan Cortez (Jim Cummings). After escaping Cortez's clutches, the two arrive in Mexico and follow the map to the lost city of El Dorado, where they and a young woman named Chel (Rosie Perez) are taken to the Lost City, which is surprisingly inhabited by people. The locals mistake the con men, Tulio and Miguel as Gods and begin worshiping them.
Although the two are enamored with the mountains of gold being given to them and cannot wait to pull off a con of this kind of magnitude, Miguel begins to really enjoy his time in El Dorado and even begins to grow second doubts about hurting these people who seem very much to enjoy the presence of these deities. But an evil high priest seeks to prove that the two are not gods and assume his own place of power in El Dorado, while Cortez slowly begins to lurk nearby.
What's Bad?: From 2000 to about 2004, film animation departments in America hit snags. While a few good films would be released in theaters during that time, most of the animated films released in this era would be very mediocre and more often than not would bomb at the box office. They often either missed the mark in certain areas (more often than not critical areas of an animated film), or were just not good enough to warrant as much praise as the 1990's gave to animation.
The Road to El Dorado is the perfect example of one of these films that misses the mark. There are definitely a few things that do not work for this film's advantage. And oddly enough, I have to start with the musical structure. Almost the entire musical team behind one of my all time favorite movies (The Lion King) is behind the music in this film, as Elton John, Tim Rice, and Hans Zimmer collaborate once more to make the music in this film. But unlike in The Lion King, where the characters are the ones who sing the songs, only one song in this film is sung by the characters (and it's ironically the best song). The rest of the music follows in Tarzan's footsteps and has Elton John sing the songs. And although Elton John is 100x the singer Phil Collins will ever be, having the outside singer in a universe like this is very odd and unravels the movie for me the same way Collins did in Brother Bear. But "It's Tough to Be a God" is a very catchy song. I like the songs, I just wish they weren't in this movie.
Actually, I don't think this film should have had songs at all. This seems like one of those adventures that did not need to have songs in it to be good. I know The Prince of Egypt's songs were great, but musical animated films were out of touch by 2000 and were probably doomed to failure.
There was also way too much going on in this world. I wouldn't have minded if the film kept us focused on Tulio and Miguel and their enjoyment of both their newfound riches and this magnificent city. But we still cut away to this evil High Priest and Cortez and all this other stuff that makes the film less than enjoyable to me because these villains just aren't interesting to me. The leads are definitely engaging, but not these villains.
But my biggest gripe with this film is the film's tone shifts throughout the film. It goes from an adventure story, to an epic Atlantis styled discovery movie, to a Cars/Slumdog Millionaire story and then back to the big sprawling musical numbers. For animation that is this beautiful and up to snuff with Disney's at the same time (maybe even better), the best movie should have been made. Instead, we get a clustered film with moments of decent comedy and fun action and discovery, but none of it is consistent enough.
What's Good?: And yet this film managed to surprise me with how engaging Kline and Branagh are in these roles. While I can clearly tell that Tulio and Miguel are being portrayed by star actors, they actually do take on the roles of these characters, a lot like how James Woods and Robin Williams take over the characters they did for Disney. These two are hilarious and do have some of the best lines in the whole movie. The sheer enjoyment they get out of conning the people out of their gold is quite refreshing from all of the goody goody heroes Disney has given us.
The animation is also some of the best of the era. While not quite in the same vein as something like The Prince of Egypt or The Lion King, it does still manage to give me an epic and unique retelling of the historical lost city of El Dorado and even gives us the same animation style as The Prince of Egypt, which you all know I loved. The colors and fast paced timing of the animation is almost as good as Aladdin's and it really did open my eyes to a film that I haven't seen in years.
Overall: Like the Disney films of old, what's good about this film is really really good. I just don't get into the villains, the music, or the constant tone shifts that bugged the living crap out of me. I love this film almost as much as I hate it. This was animation at it's highest quality at one of it's lowest times. It was definitely good, but not anything too special to brag about. Go see it for yourselves, but bring some tranquilizers. You may need it.
Final Grade: 84 or B
Next Review: Chicken Run
Then: Joseph: The King of Dreams
Later: Shrek
Finally: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
No comments:
Post a Comment