Line #16 Trivia/TheRoadToElDorado


1	* ActingForTwo:
2	** Creator/{{Jim Cummings\|VoiceActor}} voices Hernán Cortés and his cook, in addition to two of the El Dorado natives.
3	** Creator/FrankWelker voices Altivo as well as the bull Tulio and Miguel encounter in Spain.
4	* BoxOfficeBomb: A first for Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. Budget: $95 million. Box office draw: $76,432,727.
5	* CelebrityVoiceActor:
6	** In the Latin American Spanish dub, Tulio is voiced by film/television actor Creator/DemianBichir and Miguel by singer Aleks Syntek.
7	** In the Brazilian dub, Chel is voiced by film/television actress Danielle Winits.
8	* CompletelyDifferentTitle:
9	** Japan: ''El Dorado Golden City''
10	** Netherlands: ''El Dorado: The Land of Gold''
11	** Taiwan: ''Brave the Golden City''
12	* CreatorBacklash:
13	** 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 Indigenous Mesoamerican culture, and the higher-ups could give him no rational reason as to why they wanted it removed. He 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.
14	--->"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 its [[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!''"
15	** Rick Farmiloe, who animated on Tulio for the film, didn't think much of the final film either.
16	--->"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!"
17	** 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 film's direction was unfocused [[TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup due to a case of it having too many cooks in the kitchen.]]
18	--->"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."
19	** [[http://mjsimpson-films.blogspot.com/2013/04/interview-ted-elliott-and-terry-rossio.html Screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio aren't proud of the final film from the many changes it went through its development, calling the final cut a dull movie.]]
20	--->'''Terry Rossio:''' "We originally intended the film to be good. And that's not a flip answer. When you work in animation, you want things to change, you want to make full use of all the talent that gets assembled. And it doesn't matter that stories or sequences or characters change, as long as it gets better. In this case, the film didn't get better."
21	--->'''Ted Elliot:''' "There is nothing in the movie which wouldn't be there if not for our original story, but everything that is there is worse ... except for the animation itself, of course. I think the animation is beautiful, even extraordinary. I just wish it had been put in service of a story which was its equal."
22	* CreatorKiller:
23	** After previously composing the ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King\|1994}}'', the disappointing performance 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''.
24	** 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''.
25	* DescendedCreator: Besides being the film's composer, Music/EltonJohn is also the film's singing narrator.
26	* DuelingDubs: There are two French dubs. The first one had Tulio, Miguel, and Chel being voiced by professional voice actors (Creator/BrunoChoel, Creator/VincentRopion, and Creator/BarbaraBeretta respectively), while the second had all three of them being replaced by {{Celebrity Voice Actor}}s (Creator/JoseGarcia, Antoine de Caunes, and Victoria Abril, again respectively).
27	* 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 ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' being the first (in the buddy-comedy in pre-colonial Latin America arena), and ''WesternAnimation/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''.
28	* EarlyDraftTieIn: Chel's attempt at being a sacrifice was shown in various tie-in media.
29	* EnforcedMethodActing:
30	** In a good way--Creator/KennethBranagh and Creator/KevinKline 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.
31	** Creator/ArmandAssante went shirtless like his character for half a recording session because the mic kept picking up the ruffles of his shirt as he acted.
32	* ExecutiveMeddling: According to [[https://ew.com/article/2000/02/11/road-el-dorado/ an Entertainment Weekly article]], Creator/KennethBranagh had said that he used pet names as Miguel towards Tulio, but this was cut from the final movie. However, some allege that these pet names [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lnfh66M6jE1qfkpwmo1_500.jpg made it into some subtitles in older DVDs of the film]].
33	--> "There was a lot of me saying to Kevin, 'What's the plan now, darling?'", says Branagh. "But they cut the 'darling's out, actually. Jeffrey would say, 'I don't think you can say 'darling'.' I'd say, 'It's affectionate.' He'd say, 'Yeah, yeah. Different kind of audience.'"
34	* FakeBrit: New Yorker Creator/ArmandAssante affects a British accent as Tzekel-Kan.
35	* KidsMealToy: At Burger King, it got toys of Chel, Miguel, Tulio, and Tzekel-kan. In addition to the main protagonists and antagonist, there were also toys of El Diablo the bull, Altivo, Bibo the armadillo (as a plush instead of a plastic toy like the rest), and Tzekel-kan's stone jaguar.
36	* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: The movie was originally conceived as an R-rated comedy, which explains some of the dirty humor and mild cursing.
37	* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos dubbed himself for the Latin American Spanish dub.
38	* PermanentPlaceholder: Creator/{{Jim Cummings\|VoiceActor}} was originally just meant to provide scratch dialogue for Cortez while doing an Creator/OrsonWelles impression, but the staff realized that his voice ended up matching the character so well that they [[ThrowItIn decided to just keep his recordings in the movie as is]].
39	* PopCultureUrbanLegends: 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.
40	* ScrewedByTheNetwork: A non-intentional example. Due to the TroubledProduction the film went through, the studio's advertisements went about trying to sell the movie as a [[ShownTheirWork historically accurate]] story about the Spanish discovery of the New World instead of the comedy it was. This played a role in the film's failure at the box-office; critics thought it was a failure at the thing the advertisements said it was, causing people to not see it.
41	* 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.
42	* TranslationCorrection: The characters mention the peseta as a currency, but it wasn't introduced for hundreds of years after the events of the film. The European Spanish dub of the film changes these to the more period accurate ''maravedí'' and ''doblón.''
43	* TroubledProduction: As mentioned above, both director Will Finn and a handful of animators have unkind memories of this film, full of stubborn executives and a script they hated. Finn returned to Disney before the movie was even finished.
44	* UncreditedRole: Jeff Katzenberg and Creator/DavidSilverman helped finish the film when Will Finn left production.
45	* VoicesInOneRoom: Creator/KevinKline and Creator/KennethBranagh recorded their lines together, providing effective chemistry.
46	* WhatCouldHaveBeen
47	** It was 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.
48	** The original plan included more sexual material and provocative clothing for Chel to secure a PG-13 rating for the film. However, the producers cut most of these elements and redesigned Chel to appeal to a younger audience.
49	** Chel was going to be a designated sacrifice victim to bring the gods to the city, but the writers didn't want to show the city too soon.
50	** An early design for Chel had her wearing a poncho with nothing underneath. It was probably abandoned when they realized that she wouldn't logically be able to bend over without flashing everyone.
51	** 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 Discovery.
52	* WorkingTitle: The project was humorously and begrudgingly named "El Dorado: The Lost City on Hold" to symbolize [[TroubledProduction its hell-ish production status.]]

Context Trivia / TheRoadToElDorado