February 2012
A rant about 'The Road to El Dorado'.
so i’m watching the road to el dorado (which is awesome) and i find it funny that the thing that always irked me about the movie when i first watched it continue to irk me to this day: when tzekel-kan attempts/mentions sacrifice, miguel and tulio freak out, as any outsider would, but then so does the entire city. sacrifice was a very common occurrence in cultures like the aztecs, mayans, etc back in that time. so why does the city gasp at the mention of it in the movie?
eventually miguel and tulio “change” the ideals of the people, like when they refuse to let the losing team be killed to their glory, and that’s all fine and dandy. but it’d be more moving/powerful and realistic if they, as the city’s gods, decreed that sacrifice needed to stop. they’d not only change the ideals, but the morals, and general outlook the society has on itself and each other. they’d make a savage way of worship into a pleasant one.
and then, instead of making tzekel-kan be this super evil villain who does evil things evilly, he’d have a much more grounded motive: he’s been living this way his whole life, believing that sacrifice truly is what the gods want. but when his gods tell him differently, he can’t handle it and so that’s why goes off the deep end and becomes a stone jaguar. motives, dreamworks, motives. they’re important and need to be realistic and come from a real place.
and speaking of motives: “you’ve got your reasons <to leave el dorado>, and i have mine. let’s not make this personal, okay, it’s just business.” we NEVER learn about chel’s past, even remotely, and this makes me a tad miffed. i imagine that there was some kind of intimate scene between chel and tulio or chel and miguel or chel and the both of them in which she tells them about herself but it got cut because of time. screw that.
other things that make me scratch my head in no particular order: why does tzekel-kan and the chief hate each other so much? why does chel choose tulio over miguel? did he do something for/to her that miguel didn’t? why does the chief completely dismiss the fact that miguel and tulio are not gods? he lets on that he knows but why doesn’t he do anything? oh, and let’s not forget that non-existence language barrier…
but seriously, i love this movie to death, even with it’s problems. it’s beautifully animated, especially the backgrounds (OMG THE BACKGROUNDS). altivo always make me crack up, the music’s catchy, the culture is well represented (mostly), and miguel and tulio have fantastic chemistry, both the characters and the actors. and, of course, i ship them. i ship them hard.
i feel like the deeper i delve into this film major, the more easily i can pick apart movies and reveal the flaws for what they are. this may be a bad thing for the movies of my childhood, but at least i’m learning the mistakes from movies/companies that i respect wholeheartedly.
Generally I do not condone smoking but this is rather provocative Mr. Kelly
The only man I’d allow to blow cigarette smoke in my face.
HOT. DAMN. i’ll have to add that to my very, very, very long list of reasons why i want to steal a tardis and go back in time have sizzling hot tea with one Gene Kelly.
just hot tea. nothing else. nope…..
