The Road To Eldorado

First there was a mouse. Then a duck, then a theme park, then a multi-million-dollar global franchise. But now there are pretenders to the animation throne, coming from the likes of Fox's studios, and now, with this spirited offering from Spielberg's home studio, DreamWorks.

The Road to El Dorado is not about the making of a certain TV series, which had all the luck of the Titanic, but is instead billed as a sassy, fun and funky alternative to 'traditional' feature-length animations. Considering the slightly harder undertones and faintly adult-level jokes in some of Disney's latest features, this could be quite a tall order to overcome, but The Road... certainly attacks the challenge with great aplomb and a stellar pedigree. For a start there are the vocal talents of Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, who bounce their way through a script of quick-fire jokes (and obligatory romance) with tremendous energy and chemistry, the musical stalwarts Tim Rice, Elton John and Hans Zimmer (hot from scoring Ridley Scott's sweaty swords-and-sandals epic this summer), director Jeffery Katzenberg (who directed Lion King) and apparently a baker's dozen or two of re-spected animators nabbed from Disney.

The plot is simple; two likely lads, Tulio and Miguel, win a map to the lost City of Gold, El Dorado of the title, and decide to set out to find it and generally make their fortune there. They embark on a fast-paced adventure and treasure hunt through the jungles of South America, complete with a pretty cool horse and some really cute little animals (awwww). They reach the city, where they are promptly taken for gods, and soon our gold-hearted dynamic duo are up to their necks in adventure, scheming high priests, a rather forward missy called Chel, and some really naughty Spanish pirates.

A funky end-of-week flick to chill out over.