Animated feature from DreamWorks (with a brief Jaws tribute as a nod to Big Chief Spielberg). Kevin Kline sounds like Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh sounds like Kenneth Branagh (i.e., very British), Rosie Perez sounds like a thorn in Spanish Harlem, and the songs by Elton John and Tim Rice ("Look out, New World, here we come,/ Brave, intrepid, and then some!") sound like "Philadelphia Freedom" with a Latin percussion unit. None of this sounds right for a picaresque buddy picture (is the title a conscious evocation of the Hope-Crosby "Road" movies?) about a pair of 16th-century Spanish rapscallions who find their way to the legendary City of Gold, bring enlightened and civilized values to the bloodthirsty natives, and leave the place in better shape than they found it. (The long entrance to the hidden city is pretty well done; the hasty exit from it is a mess.) The formulaic funny business is apparently assumed to be automatically freshened in the mouths of cartoon characters, but the absence of flesh-and-bone actors only serves to draw attention to the formula. (2000) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.