The Road to El Dorado

Factual error: Hernando Cortes is featured as the main background villain. Only thing about his appearance: according to the history books, he never actually ventured into South America to do any conquests; his actions were limited to Cuba, Mexico and California.

Factual error: The real El Dorado (Spanish for "the gilded one") civilization was in South America. Specifically, El Dorado is a legend coming from the Muisca people of Colombia. The art scheme of the film is Mayan, a Central American civilization, as are the names of the Indian characters. The ball game, too, although not restricted to the Mayas, is, culturally speaking, Central American (and more specifically, and technically, Meso-American). In addition, the Mayan architectural elements found in the movie are typical of the Mayan culture of the Classic Period (c. 250-900 C.E.), roughly 600 years before the arrival of the Spaniards.

Continuity mistake: When Cortes comes to the El Dorado island, he sees that Miguel and Tulio's footprints lead directly from the boat to the jungle. But this is not what happened. Miguel and Tulio arrived to the island, bumped into two skeletons, ran back to the boat, walked around the beach for a while, and THEN went into the jungle. This is what the footprints should have shown.

More mistakes in The Road to El Dorado

Tulio: Any last words?
Miguel: I will cut you to ribbons.
Tulio: Fool! Such mediocrity! Let your sword do the talking.
Miguel: I will, it will be loquacious to a fault.

More quotes from The Road to El Dorado

Trivia: Just after the two main characters stow away on the ship, the movie cuts to a nighttime shot that firstly shows the moon, then pans down to the barrels. The moon shown is the same moon that Dreamworks (the company backing the movie) uses for their logo.

More trivia for The Road to El Dorado

Question: What is the name of the high priest?

Answer: The high priest's name is Tzekel-Kan.

More questions & answers from The Road to El Dorado

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.