Clever dialogue and appealing characters don't quite overcome the basic flaws of this movie, though they do keep Road to El Dorado from amounting to a complete waste of our spent time and money. The basic story line is exceedingly simple and cliched, the two 'bad guys' (Cortez and Tzekel-Kan) are very standard fare and not well developed in either character or motivation, and the movie suffers from the director's evident inability to commit to an effective target audience. The largest and most difficult barrier to enjoyment of this film, however, was the music. It seemed purely a nod to the apparent modern convention that animated movies must have a certain number of perky songs inserted at regular intervals throughout in order to please the juvenile crowd. The songs seemed stamped from the same mold, were musically uninspiring to say the least, and were an annoying interruption to the flow of the story rather than providing narrative or character development, or serving as an enjoyable interlude. The songs seemed a mailed-in afterthought on Elton John's part, and less than that on Tim Rice's; not one stood out, provided a laugh, or inspired child or adult to hum along or tap a toe. The director would have done better to have provided the economic opportunity to some starving neophytes who might have cared about the outcome.
Review of The Road to El Dorado
