The Road to El Dorado (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album composed by Hans Zimmer and John Powell, with songs written by Elton John and Tim Rice, for the film of the same name and released by DreamWorks Records on March 14, 2000.
Contents
Background and release
Marylata Jacob, who started DreamWorks' music department in 1995, became the film's music supervisor before the script was completed. Consulting with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jacob decided the musical approach to the film would be world music. In 1996, Tim Rice and Elton John were asked to compose seven songs which they immediately worked on. Their musical process began with Rice first writing the song lyrics and giving them to John to compose the music. John then recorded a demo which was given to the animators who storyboarded to the demo as the tempo and vocals would remain intact.
Eventually, the filmmakers decided not to follow the traditional musical approach by having the characters sing. 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." On February 20, 1999, before the release of Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, it was announced that ten songs had been composed for El Dorado, and the film's release date had been pushed to March 2000.
The instrumental score was composed by Hans Zimmer and John Powell. John, Rice, and Zimmer had previously collaborated on the soundtrack to Disney's The Lion King (1994), another animated film. Zimmer had also previously composed the instrumental score to DreamWorks Animation's previous film The Prince of Egypt (1998).
In some instances (such as "The Trail We Blaze"), the songs have been altered musically and vocally from the way they appeared in the film. A "Cast & Crew Special Edition" recording of the soundtrack exists, but was a promo-only release. It includes the theatrical versions of the songs, including "It's Tough to Be a God" recorded by Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh (performed on the soundtrack by Elton John and Randy Newman), and several of the score tracks by Hans Zimmer. The Backstreet Boys provided uncredited backing vocals on "Friends Never Say Goodbye", the group is "thanked" by John following the credits in the CD booklet. The Eagles members Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit are credited as background vocalists on the song "Without Question".
Reception
Reviewing for the Chicago Tribune, Michael Wilmington gave a negative review, writing: "The John-Rice score isn't as rousingly on-target as The Lion King." Paul Clinton of CNN also unfavorably compared the Elton John–Tim Rice songs to those in The Lion King.
Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel stated "And if the six Elton John/Tim Rice songs are thoroughly forgettable, they lack sufficient distinction to actually become annoying." Caroline Cao of /Film said, "the songs by Elton John feel phoned in."
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes: