Alright, so when I was in elementary school I absolutely loved this movie and I decided to watch it again today just for the memories. I still love it. There is definitely a difference between Dreamworks and Disney or Pixar, they seem to be allowed to put in a bit more *ahem* mature stuff. Not that anything in it was super innapropriate, it's just stuff that doesn't mean anything to anyone under 11. So this is the story of Miguel and Tulio, our two conmen who find themselves a map to the city of gold. The title suggests that this would be the story of their adventures on the
road to Eldorado but it's mostly the Road from Eldorado. The natives mistake Miguel and Tulio for gods, they fulfiled one of their ancient prophecies, and treat them as such. They keep their cover as gods for awhile with the help of a native girl, Chel. Tzekel-Kan, the "speaker for the gods" and the sadistic religious leader demands that the gods bring about the prophesied "age of the jaguar" whose history will be written not in ink but blood. A conflict of interests comes up when the gold hungry swindlers have to explain their way out of bringing judgement upon the people of Eldorado. A psycotic magician a living jaguar statue and a fall through Shebulba (a giant whirlpool) later our heroes have to find a way to save the sacred city from Cortes and his men. A lot of possibly superfluous but great montages in this movie are set to Elton John's singing, and Tulio and Miguel make a very amusing team of extortionists. All in all this is a great movie as long as you won't be offended by the fictional (or maybe not..?) Aztec religions.
**** (4 stars)
