The Road to El Dorado

There's a certain hollowness to The Road to El Dorado that eludes me. I'll give Dreamworks credit for competing with the animation monopoly that is Disney, but the edge right now is in animated features that appeal to both children and adults without relinquishing depth or intelligence. On that matter, no one has been able to beat Disney's Pixar division, creators of the superb Toy Story movies, although Randy Newman's songs don't exactly blow me away.

I'll dispense quickly with the plot. Two bumbling Spaniards, Almodovar and Banderas-no, wait-Tulio and Miguel find themselves on a ship sailing for the New World in search of gold. The ship is, of course, helmed by the infamous and looming Cortes, who, being a Spanish explorer, is inherently evil. The idiots (voiced by Kenneth Branagh and Kevin Kline, eager to rid themselves of the shame of Wild Wild West) discover the Lost City of Gold and continue to bicker between themselves while the natives worship them as gods. Some supernatural hijinks provided by an evil shaman are thrown in as the weak main conflict.

Elton John and Tim Rice have been banking on their tune-writing popularity ever since they won an Oscar for The Lion King. I'd appreciate it if Elton John didn't find the need to sing all the songs in this movie, as fun as they are. Remember the good old days when the actual characters sang the songs instead of the disembodied voice of a gap-toothed Brit? At least Branagh and Kline sing the best song of the lot, "It's Tough to be a God."

Maybe the hollowness comes from a hurried script and a less-than-meaty story. We flit from one adventure to the next in a kaleidoscopic blur without even the benefit of a chattering horse and armadillo.

Shut Branagh and Kline up, and bring on the talking dillo. He stole the show.

-By Angela Fernandes