Story Line: The Road to El Dorado begins in Spain in 1519, where a schemer and a dreamer -- Tulio (Kevin Kline) and Miguel (Kenneth Branagh)-- team up and set forth to find their fortune. Stowaways on a Spanish ship, they endure harsh treatment and brutal conditions at sea before washing ashore on a sandy stretch of paradise.

With the help of a map that improbably survives their perilous trip, they discover a gleaming city of gold. They are quickly proclaimed gods by the native people -- a myth kept alive with the help of seductive sidekick Chel (Rosie Perez). When Spanish sailors on the prowl for gold threaten the city, the daring duo must choose between saving their adopted city or escaping with a boatful of gleaming loot.

Animation: Just as good as Prince of Egypt. On a par or superior to Disney's best efforts. The 3-D animation is impressive; ocean sequences feature great depth and scale, allowing moviegoers to truly feel lost on the stormy seas with the characters.

Music: Elton John and Tim Rice create a few memorable tunes, but don't come close to matching the intensity of Phil Collin's Oscar-winning efforts for last year's Tarzan (Disney).

Problems Executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg deliberately chose to depart from the tried-and-true formula of putting a handsome hero in the lead. Dare I suggest he shouldn't have?

"I've always thought it would be a great idea to take the secondary characters - the dysfunctional losers, the comic relief - and send them off on some big adventure of their own," Katzenberg says in Dorado promotional materials. Trouble is, Tulio and Miguel still play like supporting figures brought onto center stage, and that dilutes the strength of the movie. No Hercules or Pocahontas here, and the scoundrels aren't scripted well enough to replace the larger-than-life figures needed to carry off a big story on the big screen.

I was also disturbed by how the film portrays the Mayan villagers as hook-nosed natives running wild on the screen. They were either stupid and fearful or sly and untrustworthy. However, Rosie Perez is on record as saying, "I think the Latin community is going to be very happy with this one." Olmos says, "I love that the film and the cast have so much cultural diversity."