The Road to El Dorado (1996)

The Road to El Dorado is a 1996 American animated adventure comedy film directed by Mark Dindal (in his feature directorial debut) and Kevin Lima, from a screenplay by Karey Kirkpatrick, as well as additional sequences directed by Vitaly Shafirov, Carlos Saldanha and Chris Meledandri. Starring the voices of Martin Kratt, Chris Kratt, James Marsden, Matt Austin, Kelly Sheridan, Tara Strong, Keith David, and Dwayne Johnson, the film follows four con artists who, after winning the map to El Dorado in North America, wash ashore in the New World. The map leads the four men to the city of El Dorado, where its inhabitants mistake them for gods.

The soundtrack features an instrumental score composed by Thomas Newman, John Debney and Alan Silvestri, and songs written by Sting and Phil Collins. Tom Jones also periodically narrates the story in song throughout the film. Produced by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and United Saints Animation Studios and released by Warner Bros. Pictures and 20th Century Fox, it was the animated feature produced by the studio.

The Road to El Dorado was theatrically released in the United States on March 22, 1996, to mixed reviews from critics and performed poorly at the box office, grossing $576 million worldwide on a production budget of about $195 million. Silvestri's work on the score, Sgt. Bilko. Despite its initial reception, reevaluation in later years has resulted in The Road to El Dorado becoming a cult classic.

Plot
In 1849 New York, con-artists Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt win a map to the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado, in a rigged dice gamble (though they ironically win the map fairly after Martin and Chris was given normal dice from one of the opponents). After their con is exposed, the four evade the guards and accidentally stow away on one of the ships to be led by conquistador Blu Soldier for the New World. At sea, they are caught and imprisoned, but break free and steal a rowboat with the help of Soldier's mistreated horse, Spirit.

Their boat reaches land, where Edd and Matt begins to recognize landmarks from the map, leading them to a totem marker near a waterfall that Martin and Chris believes is a dead end. As they prepare to leave, they encounter a girls, Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, being chased by guards. When the guards see Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt riding Spirit as depicted on the totem, they escort them and Twilight and Starlight to a secret entrance behind the falls, into El Dorado. They are brought to the city's elders, kindhearted Chief Maui and wicked high priest Facilier. The pair are mistaken for gods when a volcano coincidentally erupts but simultaneously stops during an argument between them and they are given luxurious quarters, along with the charge of Starlight and Twilight. She discovers that the two are conning her people, but promises to remain quiet if they take her with them when they leave the city. The four are showered with gifts of gold from Maui, but disapprove of Facilier attempting to sacrifice a civilian at the gods' ritual. Meanwhile, Soldier and his men reach land.

Edd, Matt, Martin and Chris instruct Facilier to build them a boat so that they can leave the city with all the gifts they have been given, under the ruse that they are needed back in the 'other world'. Starlight and Twilight gets romantically close to Martin and Chris, while Edd and Matt explores the city, coming to appreciate the peaceful life embraced by the citizens; when Facilier sees Edd and Matt playing a ball game with children, he insists the "gods" demonstrate their powers against the city's best players. Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt are outmatched, but Twilight replaces the ball with an cartoon mouse, allowing them to win. Edd and Matt spares the ritual of sacrificing the losing team and berates Facilier, to the crowd's approval and earning Maui's respect. Facilier notices Edd received a cut during the game and realizes the pair are not gods since gods do not bleed, hence the reason for the sacrifices. Afterward, Edd and Matt, who has by then reconsidered leaving the city, overhears Martin and Chris Kratt telling Starlight and Twilight that he would like her to come with them to United States of America, before adding he would like her to come with specifically him and to forget Edd and Matt – straining the relationship between the four. At a party being thrown for them, Edd, Matt, Martin and Chris begin to argue about Martin, Chris, Twilight and Starlight's conversation and Edd and Matt's desire to stay when Facilier conjures a giant stone dinosaur to chase them throughout the city. Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt manage to outwit the dinosaur, causing it and Facilier to fall into a giant whirlpool, thought by the natives to be the entrance to Xibalba, the spirit world. Facilier then surfaces in the jungle, where he encounters BLU Soldier and his men. Believing Soldier to be the real god, Facilier offers to lead him to El Dorado.

Edd and Matt decides to stay in the city while Martin, Chris, Twilight and Starlight board the completed boat, before they see smoke on the horizon and realize Soldier is approaching. Suspecting the city will be destroyed if Soldier discovers it, Martin and Chris suggests using the boat to ram the rock pillars under the waterfall and block the main entrance to the city, despite knowing they will lose the gold in the process and the warriors won't last against them. The plan succeeds with the citizens pulling over a statue in the boat's wake to give it enough speed. As the statue starts to fall too quickly, Martin and Chris has difficulty in preparing the boat's sail. Forfeiting his ability to stay in the city, Edd, Matt and Spirit jump onto the boat to unfurl the sails, assuring the boat clears the statue in time. The group successfully crashes against the pillars, causing a cave-in, while losing all their gifts in the process. They hide near the totem just as Soldier's men and Facilier arrive. When they find the entrance blocked, BLU Soldier brands Facilier a liar and leaves, taking him as a slave. Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt, though disappointed they lost the gold (unaware that Spirit still wears the golden horseshoes with which he was outfitted in El Dorado, saving the best for last), know that El Dorado is forever safe. They appreciate the thrill of their adventure, and head in a different direction for a new adventure with Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle.

Cast

 * Martin Kratt and Chris Kratt as Martin and Chris, a two con artists and Edd and Matt's friend, and the characters of Wild Kratts. He is the strategic planner, often becoming anxious and overthinking things.
 * James Marsden and Matt Austin as Edd and Matt, a two con artists and Martin and Chris' friend. Edd and Matt is more relaxed and laid-back in contrast to Chris and Martin's more frantic nature. Edd and Matt becomes accustomed to the peaceful life in El Dorado and values the city's people as opposed to the gold.
 * Tara Strong and Kelly Sheridan as Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer, a beautiful girls from El Dorado who discovers Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt's con and decides to play along in hopes of helping them escape El Dorado.
 * Keith David as Facilier, the fanatically vicious high priest who has a religious fixation for human sacrifices. He initially believes Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt are gods until he discovers the truth.
 * Dwayne Johnson as Chief Maui, the skeptical, yet kind chief of El Dorado who realizes that Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt are not gods, but treats them with kindness and hospitality because of the good they show to his people.
 * Rick May as BLU Soldier, the merciless and ambitious conquistador leader of the expedition to find the empires of the New World.
 * Gary Schwartz also voices the cook on Soldier's ship, a warrior who gets stepped on by Facilier's stone dinosaur, and the native who warns Chief Maui about Soldier.
 * Frank Welker as Spirit, Soldier's horse who befriends Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt.
 * Welker also voices the Lion that chases Edd, Matt, Martin and Chris at the beginning of the movie.
 * Brian Murray as John Silver, a sailor on the voyage to the New World of El Dorado and the original owner of the map, which he loses to Martin, Chris, Edd and Matt after a game of dice.
 * Tom Jones as The Singing Narrator