History Trivia / TheRoadToElDorado

* WorkingTitle: the project was humorously and begrudgingly named "El Dorado: The Lost City on Hold" to symbolize [[TroubledProduction its hell-ish production staduse.]]

* NonSingingVoice:
** {{Averted|Trope}}; the main characters have the same voice actors for speaking and singing.
** Played awfully straight in most foreign dubbings.

** An early design for Chel had her wearing a poncho with nothing underneath. It was probably abandoned when they realized that she wouldn't be able to bend over without flashing everyone.

** An early design for Chel had her wearing a poncho with nothing underneath.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Dreamworks' first bomb. Budget: $95 million. Box office draw: $76,432,727.

* OldShame: Almost everyone who worked on the film views it as this. Hell, even today DreamWorks wants almost nothing to do with it.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:

-->"Great crew - fantastic dedication of talented people but a doomed mess from concept on. I "directed" on it for almost 3 years but resigned ultimately. The movie has its moments but as a piece of entertainment it's [[SoOkayItsAverage utterly innocuous and forgettable]]. Yet unless you were there you'd never know the sheer madness and bloodbath it was to make. If they made a movie of the making of it it would be a cross between ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'' and ''Film/TheProducers!''"

-->"Part of my opinion of the movie is tied in with the crazy-making of it. I have no particular fondness for it. It was a big missed opportunity as far as I'm concerned. The MAKING of it would make a much more compelling film!"

-->"For me, there were two major problems with ''The Road to El Dorado''. First, it was a period piece set in Latin America — I thought at the time that that combination would be box office poison. There are certain settings and time periods that I don’t think modern audiences are interested in, even if the film is fantastic. Second, the film didn’t know what it wanted to be. Buddy movie? Action-adventure? Romantic comedy? Musical? Historical tragedy? Romance? For adults? For kids? I think the project was like the proverbial elephant being examined by the blind scientists. Different directors, writers, and producers all tried to make different movies, and it ended up a mish-mash."

* EarlyDraftTiein: Chel's attempt at being a sacrifice was shown in various tie-in media.

* ''EarlyDraftTie-in'': Chel's attempt at being a sacrifice was shown in various tie-in media.

* EarlyDraftTie-in: Chel's attempt at being a sacrifice was shown in various tie-in media.

* EarlyDraftTiein: Chel's attempt at being a sacrifice was shown in various tie-in media.

** The film was going to have more profanity and innuendos so it would earn a [[UsefulNotes/RestrictedRating R]] rating, but executives removed most of them.

** After previously composing the ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', the disappointing performing of this film botched the collaboration of singer and composer Music/EltonJohn and lyricist Creator/TimRice. They have mainly stuck to theatre since, only reuniting for the 2019 [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019 remake]] of ''The Lion King''.
** In addition, this was the first in the set of dominoes that made Dreamworks give up on hand-drawn animation until 2015, starting with ''WesternAnimation/DawnOfTheCroods''.

-->"For me, there were two major problems with The Road to El Dorado. First, it was a period piece set in South America — I thought at the time that that combination would be box office poison. There are certain settings and time periods that I don’t think modern audiences are interested in, even if the film is fantastic. Second, the film didn’t know what it wanted to be. Buddy movie? Action-adventure? Romantic comedy? Musical? Historical tragedy? Romance? For adults? For kids? I think the project was like the proverbial elephant being examined by the blind scientists. Different directors, writers, and producers all tried to make different movies, and it ended up a mish-mash."

** Animator Will Finn, who directed a bulk of the film, has spoken at length about how much he hated making this film and that he still has nightmares about it to this day. He hated the script and brought it to writer David Swift in the hopes of punching it up, later admitting that he agreed with Swift when he said, "You're never going to make a good movie with shit like this for writing!". He fought tooth and nail to keep the game sequence in the film because it was one of the few actual references to real Native American culture, and the higher-ups could give him no rational reason as to why they wanted it removed. He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere jumped ship late in production to return to Disney]] and had his name removed from the credits, leaving Don Paul and Eric "Bibo" Bergeron (and even an uncredited Jeff Katzenberg and Creator/DavidSilverman) to finish the job.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Dreamworks' first. Budget: $95 million. Box office: $76,432,727.

** Before Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney and took this and other ideas with him, it was listed among Disney's upcoming animated features under the name ''The Man Who Would Be King'', the plot of which is transplanted to the Age of the Conquistadors.

* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: The movie was originally conceived as an R-rated comedy, which explains some of the dirty humor and near cursing.

-->"Part of my opinion of the movie is tied in with the crazy making of it. I have no particular fondness for it. It was a big missed opportunity as far as I'm concerned. The MAKING of it would make a much more compelling film!"
** Kevin Koch, an assistant animator on Chel's character, mentioned on his Synchro Lux blog that he had mixed feelings about the final film, particularly that the films direction was unfocused [[TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup due to a case of it having too many cooks in the kitchen.]]
-->"For me there were two major problems with The Road to El Dorado. First, it was a period piece set in South America — I thought at the time that that combination would be box office poison. There are certain settings and time periods that I don’t think modern audiences are interested in, even if the film is fantastic. Second, the film didn’t know what it wanted to be. Buddy movie? Action adventure? Romantic comedy? Musical? Historical tragedy? Romance? For adults? For kids? I think the project was like the proverbial elephant being examined by the blind scientists. Different directors, writers, and producers all tried to make different movies, and it ended up a mish-mash."

* StillbornFranchise: If this film had made its money back, we could have a whole franchise of them by now. They deliberately sprinkled the film with sequel hooks, and were already in the early stages of plotting out the sequels. One alternative ending to the film actually had them InMediasRes in their next adventure.

** After previously composing the ''Disney/TheLionKing'', the disappointing performing of this film botched the collaboration of singer and composer Music/EltonJohn and lyricist Creator/TimRice. They have mainly stuck to theatre since, only reuniting for the 2019 [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019 remake]] of ''The Lion King''.

* DuelingMovies: [[Series/{{Jeopardy}} Answer: Daily Double!]]. ''The Road to El Dorado'' is noteworthy for dueling thematically with not one, but two Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon films, with ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' being the first (in the buddy-comedy in pre-colonial Latin America arena), and ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' being the second (in the hidden city with riches/MsFanservice lead arena). ''El Dorado'' managed to lose to both (it was a clear-cut victory with ''The Emperor's New Groove'', but not so much with ''Atlantis'', which is in the exact same critical range as ''El Dorado''. ''Atlantis'' was also a BoxOfficeBomb, but did end up making more money than ''El Dorado''.

* CreatorCameo: Animator Duncan Marjoribanks also voices Tzelekan's servant.

** After previously composing the ''Disney/TheLionKing'', the disappointing performing of this film botched the collaboration of singer and composer Music/EltonJohn and lyricist Tim Rice. They have mainly stuck to theatre since, only reuniting for the 2019 [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing2019 remake]] of ''The Lion King''.
** In addition, this was the first in the set of dominoes that made Dreamworks give up on hand-drawn animation until 2015, starting with ''[[WesternAnimation/DawnOfTheCroods Dawn of the Croods]]''.

** In a good way--Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline were actually in the recording booth together (which is rare; actors usually record their lines alone with someone else filling in the other characters) so they could play off each other and banter. It worked beautifully.
** Armand Assante went shirtless like his character for half a recording session because the mike kept picking up the ruffles of his shirt as he acted.

* StillbornFranchise: This movie was supposed to be the start of a film franchise.

* VoicesInOneRoom: Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh recorded their lines together, providing effective chemistry.

** If this film had made its money back, we could have a whole franchise of them by now. They deliberately sprinkled the film with sequel hooks, and were already in the early stages of plotting out the sequels. One alternative ending to the film actually had them InMediasRes in their next adventure.
** It was also going to be revealed at the end that Bibo was an angel/spirit sent to help Miguel and Tulio. This makes sense when you think about it, considering all the crazy stuff that happens with it around, including pretty much flying through the ball hoop.
** The movie was originally conceived as an R-rated comedy, which explains some of the dirty humor and near cursing.

** After previously composing the ''Disney/TheLionKing'', the disappointing performing of this film botched the collaboration of singer and composer Music/EltonJohn and lyricist Tim Rice. They have mainly stuck to theatre since, only reuniting for the 2019 [[Film/TheLionKing2019 remake]] of ''The Lion King''.

* UrbanLegends: There's a rumor that in the original script, there were strong hints that Miguel and Tulio were a gay couple which [[ExecutiveMeddling the higher-ups didn't like so they added Chel to replace such content]], but the fact that Chel is included in rough model sheets and early test footage has debunked this rumor.