El Cid: La leyenda

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.

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 .

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.

The story of El Cid has excited people for centuries; unfortunately, the movie will not. This piece of animation from Spain is overly long, lacks a gripping storyline, is not funny, and the animation is spotty at best. The characters are not very well drawn (forearms which are supposed to be muscular are replaced by drawings of what seem to be big balloons), the background does not evoke the beauty of Spain, and it all seems to be monochromatic. One particularly distasteful detail is that all the 'good' Muslims have Spanish accents while the 'bad' Muslim has an Arab accent. My son was bored and my daughter commented: 'We came to see the wrong movie'. That says it all.

It is a fun little tail of Spanish history that I have never heard before, and character designs certainly stains out.

I like the story It's a fun. But it has no breathing room is just so fast pace. It doesn't feel like we had any moment to really think about what's happening.

But what did less in pacing it has in music. Oh my god, it has some of the most epic Music I've seen in a cartoon. The manly character design just works, small head big muscle and cool animations.

The animation is solid and the fight animations looks really good. That backgrounds are so tall.

But it cannot be understated just how fast this movie is. It feels like they took a really long historical tail and cut it down to just way too much. Characters that appear like we are supposed to know them. Historical figures that feel way too undercooked. I feel like the main characters friends just appear and do stuff and I don't know who they are.

Fun little Spanish cartoon that I found a long time on DVD. Would recommend.