Road to El Dorado, The

Many movie studios have tried — and failed — to reproduce the successful Disney "formula" for animated musicals. Even Uncle Walt's own company hasn't been as good at it lately.

In fact, with the possible exception of Fox's animated "Anastasia," the closest anyone's come is DreamWorks, which has produced "The Prince of Egypt," and now, "The Road to El Dorado."

That's not to say that this obvious cartoon homage to the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope "Road" movies is great filmmaking. After all, the story is a little thin and the songs aren't quite as catchy or memorable as they might be, and the movie has its share of dead spots and, at times, questionable humor.

But the animation is quite good, and there's just enough goofy humor to balance out the problems.

Besides, the filmmakers have found a near-perfect comic duo in Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh, who sound like they're having a ball as they comically play off each other.

Kline and Branagh provide the voices for, respectively, Tulio and Miguel, a pair of 16th-century, Spanish con artists with an incredible string of good luck — though it doesn't quite seem that way at first.

On the run after pulling an unsuccessful scam, the two stow aboard a ship carrying Spanish explorer Cortez, who's bound for Cuba and isn't happy to discover he has two stowaways to throw in the brig.

Faced with the prospect of becoming manual laborers in Cuba, Tulio and Miguel hatch a desperate escape plan, somehow managing to get off the ship in a longboat — and with one of Cortez's war horses, Altivo, in tow.

They catch an even luckier break when their craft winds up on an island that may contain the legendary City of Gold. And guess what? Miguel has a map to the city that he scammed off one of their earlier suckers.

When they arrive, the two find themselves worshipped as gods by the local natives, including the tribal chief (the voice of Edward James Olmos) and the bloodthirsty priest Tzekel-kan (Armand Assante). They're also fortunate to find a willing accomplice, Chel (Rosie Perez), who agrees to help them in exchange for a share of the gold they're planning to steal.

Co-directors Eric Bergeron and Don Paul, both former Disney employees, have assembled a talented crew of animators, and the artwork here is as good as anything outside of the Mouse Studio.

They've also done a fine job making sure the action and jokes fly furiously, and that the musical numbers (by Elton John and Tim Rice, who worked together on the Oscar-winning songs for Disney's "The Lion King") don't overshadow the story and characters.

But as good as the other parts of the film are, the real stars are Kline and Branagh, whose easy chemistry lends the movie much-needed charm and makes even the most sluggish aspects feel more lively and energetic.

"The Road to El Dorado" is rated PG for violence (mostly slapstick), use of mild profanities and fleeting animated nudity (done for comic effect). Running time: 82 minutes.