…because there are all those memes that reference it. And I have to say… it’s surprisingly non-problematic, considering the premise (which I suppose is why people on Tumblr still make references to it).
First of all, on the issue of white men being mistaken for gods by indigenous people of the Americas: it’s really just the fanatical priest who drives the misidentification; everyone else just kind of goes along with it once the priest has decided that these guys are the fulfillment of a prophecy. But ultimately, the white guys end up being a proxy battleground for a power struggle between the priest and the chief (which is something we heirs of European history can definitely understand). I was ready to be bothered when Miguel commands that there be no more human sacrifice, suggesting that the barbarous natives need the civilized European to come in and enlighten them with humanism… but then we see that (1) the people already opposed the custom of sacrifice, and (2) the chief already knows that they’re not really gods. Once again, they’re a tool in the chief’s struggle with the priest over control of social customs; and we already saw that the chief favors paying the gods tribute in gold (which they have a ton of) rather than human life. Ultimately, the two white men are only really helpful when it comes to stopping the invasion of other white men, which seems fine. After all, only they know about guns and can therefore say with authority that the people of El Dorado can’t fight them, and their best chance is to block the way in. Oh, and they do stop the priest’s jaguar monster thingy… by pulling exactly the same con that they already did on the Spanish authorities at the beginning.
Second, regarding The Woman, Chel: this had the potential to fall into a lot of sexist clichés, but it avoided just about all of them. The visual presentation isn’t promising: she’s wearing skimpy clothing and is animated with prominent cleavage, plump lips, and enormous hips. But then she reveals herself to be a con artist like our two bumbling heroes, and she blackmails them into getting what she wants very early. Now, there are two clichéd narratives that I thought she might play into: (1) The (Failed) Honeypot, who seduces the hero because she wants something else out of him, but usually also falls in love despite herself (like Megara in Disney’s Hercules); and (2) The Love Triangle, where the two male heroes compete for the affections of the one woman. Both are neatly sidestepped: (1) because Chel has already secured what she wants without any recourse to sexual wiles, and (2) because she makes known pretty early that she’s attracted to one of the guys but not the other. The way that was handled was actually quite remarkable: Miguel expresses attraction to her shortly after they meet her, but he and Tulio agree that she’s off-limits because of their delicate situation relative to her – namely, she’s a semi-antagonistic collaborator, working with them only because she has successfully threatened them into promising her something she wants. So neither of them pursues her; instead, she initiates romantic advances toward Tulio – again, amazingly, not because there’s something else she wants and she’s using her Feminine Wiles to get it (knowing that men are helpless before a woman’s sexual presence), but just because she’s attracted to him and she wants to get some. That’s it.
That said, it is utterly implausible that they made it to the shore of the Americas at all (in a fucking rowboat, with a horse – and why did they never consider eating the horse?), and the songs are terrible.
Loki is the Philosopher King 