El Cid: La leyenda (2003) Reviews

• A good animation film upon historic Spanish hero

  ma-cortes2004-07-14

  The historical events in which this story are based result to be the following : Rodrigo Diaz of Vivar, alias Cid, was a legendary 11th century warrior-hero, he was born in Burgos(1043) and died in Valencia(1099). Being dead Fernando I succeeded Sancho of Castilla . But Sancho is killed by Bellido Dolfos and Alfonso VI rules over of the kingdom. In the church of Santa Gadea, Cid ordered to King Alfonso VI swear haven't murdered his brother Sancho. Cid is banished as punishment. Then, the Almoravides's Spain invasion commanded by Ben Yusuff and defeat of Sagrajas, did the king Alfonso VI forgot the humiliation of Cid and asked him the command of troops against Moors. The Spanish medieval hero vanquished to Muslims in Cuarte(1094) , Bairen(1097) and Valencia that lost and retrieves. Cid married Jimena and were born two daughters : Elvira and Sol. The movie is an enjoyable animation film , fitting partially to historic deeds. The film is quite amusing with emphasis on cartoon spectacle but perhaps don't like little boys because there are a bit violence and strong shots and is more adjusted a parents guide. Direction film by Jose Pozo is nice , Oscar Araujo's music is of first-rate and very spectacular . Production by Julio Fernandez, ruling of Filmax Productions and Fantastic Factory is fine. Rating :7/10, acceptable. Well worth seeing .

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• Good first act

  dkproject2008-08-27

  I found this movie to be quite enjoyable. I loved the stylized characters, the sense of weight of their bodies design. The dialogs in Spanish are smart and funny, although there are several parts were too many facts are compressed into long sentences. I have mixed feeling on the presentation of Rodrigo (the Cid) as a youngster: on one hand I liked the reveal that he turned indeed into the Cid, but on the other hand there isn't enough screen time for us to know he will be the protagonist. One mayor disappointment was the lack of battle scenes. The one battle (Valencia) is shot beautifully using a mix of classical and 3d animation. But the rest of the battles are narrated on a paper-cut style. This being the story of a warrior, it surprised me that he was shown, for the most part, as nothing more than a skillful sneaker. Also, the final confrontation with the antagonist does not make justice to neither of the characters. Having said that, I must insist that the whole royal drama during the first 30 minutes of the movie are highly recommendable, particularly thanks to well crafted parallel stories at the end of the first act. The movie somehow decays during the rest of the film and too many problems are solved by the Cid's pets.

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• Missed chance

  ilBuono2004-08-04

  I don't understand really why this is not as good as it could have been. The production looks very nice, the backgrounds are wonderful and use sometimes inconvenient colors, the animation is nice, the style of drawing is nice (with exception of the villain, who is really very badly drawn), the gigantic arms add an own touch to it. But what the movie lacks is a decent screenplay and most of all, originality. The whole picture feels like made of pieces you have seen thousands of times before, it has nothing new to bring (except the beautiful backgrounds I mentioned before). The beginning, with the two young fools racing against each other feels like a real ripoff of Prince of Egypt. The villain is some kind of poor Jafar-ripoff. And as said before, it all isn't that involving and funny. Another thing that really disturbed me is the editing. Normally I don't notice often bad editing, but here it really annoyed me at times. So, this is a movie that looks excellent, like it could have been made by Disney or Dreamworks, but it misses almost everything what makes this two companies great. Too bad.

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• Spanish animation hero for desperado viewers

  peepingvertigo2003-12-21

  Decent animation film from Spanish Big Studio Filmax, but painfully unfunny. Technically miles above other Spanish animation films from recent years, including this Christmas "Los REYES MAGOS", but lacking a good script. Some of the original voices (supplied by Spanish stars like Natalia Verbeke or Sancho Gracia) are fine, but others simply got to my nerves.

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• Boring animated historical tale

  Juni78ukr2004-06-01

  This is not a very good movie. Story can be interesting but it wasn't. It looks only boring, don't funny and predictable both for adults and kids. Characters didn't very well drawn, sometimes animation looked simply miserably. You can't find here good characters development (like in charming Disney's masterpiece), dialogs sometimes become annoying and stupid. Maybe it was good enough for Spanish viewers and critics (it have won award for best Spanish animated film of the year) but for anyone else I can't recommend this film. Only one good thing, what I have found in this disappointment, was a final song. It was pretty good. My grade: 4,4 out of 10. You can find a better way to pass 1,5 hours of your life. I was really disappointed. Sorry for my bad English.

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