Trailer
Plot summary
Con artists Miguel and Tulio win a map to El Dorado in a rigged dice game in Spain, but once the con is exposed they flee the guards and stow away on a ship bound for the New World under the conquistador Hernán Cortés. Caught at sea and condemned to slavery in Cuba, they escape with help from Altivo, Cortés's horse, and take a rowboat. On land they meet Chel, who is running from guards, and the guards lead the three of them behind a waterfall into the hidden city of gold. There the chief Tannabok and the high priest Tzekel-Kan receive Miguel and Tulio as the gods of a prophecy and give them luxurious quarters and gifts of gold.
Cast
- Elijah Chiangas Kid #1 (voice)
- Cyrus Shaki-Khanas Kid #2 (voice)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Road to El Dorado (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- An early version of the story had Miguel as a raunchy Sancho Panza-like character who died but came back to life so often that the natives assumed he was a god. That version also included steamier love sequences and scanty clothing designed for Chel.
- Unusually for an animated film, Kline and Branagh recorded their lines together in the same studio room so the two could achieve more realistic chemistry. That produced a good deal of improvised dialogue, some of which ended up in the finished film.
- Twenty years after its release, The Road to El Dorado had an unexpected rise in popularity as an internet meme, with a range of memes and GIFs of moments from the film giving it a second life as a nostalgic favorite for people who grew up with the internet.
- Indigenous rights organizations attacked the film as sexist, racist and historically insensitive. Olin Tezcatlipoca, director of the Mexica Movement, argued that it presents Chel as a 'sex toy' for the two Spaniards and shows them as saviours from the barbarity of human sacrifices, which he said has no respect for history.
