Johan Padan discovers South America. Yes, this is the name of this Franco-Italian opus in the original. And, you know, there's no mention of El Dorado here. And there's a bit of a weirdness here, at least from my point of view. This cartoon was once shown on the Bibigon channel, but the fact is that I remember the cartoon vaguely and not in the most positive form. Just some jungle with monsoon rains and a hopeless end. And I desperately wanted to forget him. So everything that was related to Eldorado, I tried to avoid. Therefore, when the STS channel showed a rather bright and witty cartoon from the DreamWorks studio with the same name “The Road to Eldorado”. I refused to watch it because I didn’t want to see the ending. But I overcame the residue. It turns out that this is a completely different cartoon. What am I saying? These are two completely different works!
To some extent, the attitude to the cartoon will be different if you perceive it under different names. And also how you feel about the original "Eldorado" (Dreamworks).
If we consider this cartoon as an independent work (with the original name, of course), then the cartoon is quite nothing. It has a rather pleasant drawing animation, an unpretentious and interesting plot. The cartoon is based on the book by Dario Fo about a guy Johan Padana, nicknamed Son of the Moon, who learned all the adversity in his own skin (although he can be called a coward or a scoundrel, because he escaped and did not save his gypsy girlfriend - although she is not an important character and appears only at the beginning of the cartoon, she was most likely burned as a witch at the stake, despite the fact that she was turned to for predictions by the same rich scum); how he became the protector of the local population of America from the ruthless Spanish warriors. And although Padan is not the most pleasant hero, he treats people perfectly. The cartoon is somewhat mundane and semi-historical, since it involves an unattractive Spanish queen (presumably Isabella Catholic or Juana Mad). I do not know how close the cartoon is to the book, but the idea of extermination, racial discrimination and slavery showed well.
If we consider it as a kind of “craft” to the American cartoon from DreamWorks. And, to some extent, it is. Johan Padan is a more mundane and grim version of The Road to El Dorado. More casual and realistic. But at the same time, more pale and childish. Yes, Padan in a humorous form can and tells the aborigines about the never-existing “creation of the world” (which, obviously, does not suit children), but the wit, colorfulness and energy in it is not. Songs honestly leave much to be desired (the visual part is very good). There are few bright moments in the animated film, but that doesn’t go well with the rather bright part of the film. Episodes with muted or dark (alarming) strokes are not many and not few (about a third for the entire timekeeping of the film).
And yet this winner of the 2002 Venice Film Festival deserves attention. It may be inferior to the American counterpart in fascinating, colorful, songs and characters, yet this animated version of “Lost” produced by France and Italy for more mature viewers will one day find its fans. For me, the cartoon is a little dull and with an unpleasant sediment.
5 out of 10