Starring the voices of Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Rosie Perez, Armand Assante, and Edward James Olmos, the film follows two con artists who, after winning the map to El Dorado in Spain, wash ashore in the New World.

At sea, they are caught and imprisoned and are condemned to slavery in Cuba, but they break free and steal a rowboat with the help of Cortés' mistreated horse, Altivo.

Their boat reaches land, where Miguel begins to recognize landmarks from the map, leading them to a totem marker near a waterfall that Tulio believes is a dead end.

When the guards see Tulio and Miguel riding Altivo as depicted on the totem, they escort them and Chel to a secret entrance behind the falls into El Dorado.

The pair are mistaken for the twin 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 Chel.

Tulio and Miguel manage to outwit the jaguar, causing him and Tzekel-Kan to fall into a giant whirlpool, thought by the natives to be the entrance to Xibalba, the spirit world.

Miguel decides to stay in the city while Tulio and Chel board the completed boat, before they see smoke on the horizon and realize Cortés is approaching.

Shortly before the public announcement of DreamWorks SKG in October 1994, former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg met with screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and gave them a copy of Hugh Thomas's book Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico, desiring to make an animated film set in the Age of Discovery.

By the spring of 1995, Elliott and Rossio devised a story treatment inspired by the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road to... films with self-interested, comedic anti-heroes who would set out to find the Lost City of Gold after acquiring a map to its location.

This version of the story had Miguel initially conceived as a raunchy Sancho Panza-like character who died, but came back to life so much that the natives assumed he was a god, as well as steamier love sequences and scanty clothing designed for Chel.

[10] Elliott compared their script to the 1999 war comedy Three Kings, in which the ending dealt with the destruction of the Aztec Empire from Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.

[7] However, while The Prince of Egypt was in production, Katzenberg decided that their next animated project should be a departure from its serious, adult approach, and desired for the film to be an adventure comedy.

"[10] Finn and Silverman left the project in 1998 following disputes over the film's creative direction,[8] and were replaced by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron and Don Paul.

"[14] Unusual for an animated film, Kline and Branagh recorded their lines in the same studio room together, in order for the two to achieve more realistic chemistry.

[14] Early into production, a team of designers, animators, producers, and Katzenberg embarked on research trips to Mexico where they studied ancient Mayan cities of Tulum, Chichen Itza, and Uxmal in hopes of making the film's architecture look authentic.

Co-producer Bonne Radford explained, "We were trying to break free of that pattern that had been kind of adhered to in animation and really put a song where we thought it would be great... and get us through some story points.

The Backstreet Boys provided uncredited backing vocals on "Friends Never Say Goodbye",[20] the group is "thanked" by John following the credits in the CD booklet.

[22] The DVD release includes an audio commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, music video of "Someday Out of the Blue", production notes, interactive games, trailers and television spots.

"[29] Lisa Schwarzbaum, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, remarked that "this trip down The Road to El Dorado proceeds under the speed limit all the way.

He acknowledged that although The Road to El Dorado is not "as quirky as Antz or as grown up as The Prince of Egypt", it is "bright and has good energy, and the kinds of witty asides that entertain the adults in between the margins of the stuff for the kids.

"[33] Joel Siegel, reviewing on the television program Good Morning America, called it "solid gold," claiming the film was "paved with laughs.

"[34] Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel stated "The Road to El Dorado is borderline entertaining, I suppose, with animation that is, at times, truly impressive.

Olin Tezcatlipoca, director of the Mexica Movement, argued that the movie portrays Chel as a "sex toy" for the two Spaniards, and that the representation of them as saviors from the barbarity of human sacrifices and from indigenous collaborationism with Hernán Cortés "has no respect for history.

[2] Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado is an adventure video game developed by Revolution Software for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation.