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THE ROAD TO EL DORADO |
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Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh
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 Tulio
(voiced by Kevin Kline) and Miguel (Kenneth Branagh), the bantering cronies
in the animated adventure- comedy The Road to El Dorado, are sort of like
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in ''Road to Rio.'' They're also a little like
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover on a ''Lethal Weapon'' outing, Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid, Timon and Pumbaa, or countless other second-banana
comedy duos who work the crowd before and after the hero sings a tenor aria
in Disney musicals. They're Everybuddies. |
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| Only
this time, they're the main attraction, they're DreamWorks creations --
and they're nobuddy special, just a couple of talkative guys with modern,
never-grow-up sensibilities, mildly embarrassed by the old-fashioned swashbuckling
required of them. Taking off from the classic legend of a lost South American
city of gold, populated with gentle natives uncorrupted by their own wealth,
this ''Road'' is a path never meant to be traveled by a couple of harmless
Spanish con men -- con boys, really -- for whom nothing matters much besides
their pleasure in each other's company. |
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| There's
also a cupcake, of course, who comes between the two amigos, as women often
try to do in this formula: Chel (Rosie Perez), in the Dorothy Lamour role
(and, for emphasis, in a sarong), is wise to the newcomers' scam, but willing
to help them, provided they'll take her, too. Personal growth takes place
-- as Chief could probably explain -- when each man recognizes and accepts
his individual destiny within a larger society. Songs are slotted in --
as Jeffrey Katzenberg could probably explain -- to describe otherwise inexpressible
inner feelings, in this case in wash-and-wear music by Elton John and Tim
Rice, the ''Lion King'' dream team. The road song is called ''The Trail
We Blaze.'' The joke song is ''It's Tough to Be a God.'' The boy-boy love
song is ''Friends Never Say Goodbye.'' The tunes are interchangeable. |
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| Tulio
and Miguel have been given the faces and physiques of traditional animated
heroes, then stretched and exaggerated -- Tulio with a long Ben Affleck
head and a soul patch, Miguel with hints of Jesus (in the hair), Peter Gallagher
(in the eyebrows), and Maynard G. Krebs (in the bebop goatee). The two enjoy
roughhousing and bathing together, as well as provoking each other with
limp taunts (''You fight like my sister!'') that cry out for exquisite delivery
from stars Kline and Branagh, something summoning up the abandon of Robin
Williams or Nathan Lane. Over-the-edge Kline in ''A Fish Called Wanda''
and beyond-the-pale Branagh in ''Wild Wild West'' would do well, too. |
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But this trip down ''The Road to El Dorado'' proceeds under the speed limit
all the way. Our Tulio and Miguel aren't big enough, nor strong enough,
nor funny enough to buckle any swashes. They're as lost to us as the lost
city into which they stumble. |
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| Grade:
C- |
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| -- Lisa
Schwarzbaum |
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| from:
Entertainment Weekly |
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© 2000
IHTML & Maria Jose All Rights Reserved.
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