The Road to El Dorado

[School of Movies 2022]

Back at the turn of the century Dreamworks were going after Disney hard. The first lasting challenge to the mouse monopoly of animated cinema in the west involved a similar hand-drawn traditional style to match their 90s Renaissance. Notably that was a period of amazing achievement following mediocrity, thanks in no small part due to Dreamworks very own Lord Farquaad, Jeffrey Katzenberg.  

The four films in this soon-abandoned endeavour were The Prince of Egypt, which did gangbusters, horse-botherer Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, the box office pirate shipwreck, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and this one, released in 2000, about a pair of ne-er-do-well conmen finding the fabled lost Aztec city against the disturbing backdrop of the arrival in Mesoamerica of Francisco Cortes. But all of these were releasing at the dawn of the Shrek Age, and they themselves represent a now-fading culture conquered by merciless superior technology.  

Guests:

Mackenzie & Nathan Eastram  @KenziePhoenix @bertnerdtram of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod and Video Game: The Movie: The Podcast  @VGTMPodcast