Donkey Xote

this movie SUCKS. yeah it does. not for children, it makes crude jokes about a woman. that is not all. the animation is poor at some times and nice at others. like they have more than one studio. now it has a bad guy which is not really bad. he was trying to get popular and tries to get rid of him, but not telling him to get out, so in reality he is nice. in the beginning of the movie they make a reference to shrek. so choppy cat. over all this movie SUCKS.

This is an amusing and entertaining adventure comedy in C.G. animation . The donkey named Rucio, Sancho' s donkey , tells the actual tale of Don Quixote and defends the idea that he wasn't nutty , but in reality, Quixote was a very smart , prudent and sensible . We then follow Don Quixote on their adventures , his squire Sancho Panza and a real horse named Rocinante , Quixote' s faithful steed who hates leaving his stable and his chickens . All of them being deceived in dark schemes by the wealthiest man in town nicknamed 'El Bachiller' and his hoodlum named Avellaneda (who wrote another famous book , a rip-off titled ¨El Quijote de Avellaneda¨) . Meanwhile , Quixote and Sancho take on numerous dangers and adventures . Quixote and Sancho are double-crossed by a nasty duke and a hysteric duchess . After that , Sancho goes to the island of Barataria , but on the road he returns to help his friend Quixote . Later on ,they head Barcelona, there will take place a definitive tournament against El Bachiller , Avellaneda and the Knight of the Moon and if Quixote wins the duel the true identity of Dulcinea will be revealed.

The movie is an enjoyable animation film , fitting in minimum part to ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ by Miguel Cervantes y Saavedra. It deals with a Donkey which wants to be a horse , the enthusiast , passionate knight Don Quixote , his fellow squire Sancho , Quixote's best friend and the feeble Rocinante . The film is quite amusing with emphasis on cartoon spectacle and influenced by ¨Shrek¨ but perhaps don't appeal little boys because there are some sexual references and is more adjusted a parents guide . There are several silly scenes and a lot of anachronisms as when they travel surrounded by recent wind mills and when they get to Barcelona, in the tent there is a spring clothespin holding up a modern mirror . Film direction by Jose Pozo is nice , Andrea Guerra's music is first-rate and very spectacular . This sensitive soundtrack is splendidly performed by London Symphony Orchestra . Production by Julio Fernandez, ruling of Filmax Productions and Fantastic Factory is fine . He has become one of the most important producers of the country . Actually, the position of his organization responds fully to the opportunities of the European and international markets in the leisure sector, emphasizing on the fantastic genre, through Fantastic Factory and animation with Filmax Animation, to the global market on home video, television and also theatrically . He has produced successful cartoon films as ¨El Raton Perez I and II¨ or "The Hairy Tooth Fairy", ¨Gisaku¨ , ¨El Cid : the legend¨ also directed by Jose Pozo and ¨Goomer¨, among others .

¨DonkeyXote¨ results to be another of uncountable versions dealing with the unforgettable novel ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ by Miguel Cervantes y Saavedra . Other renditions are the following : ¨Don Quijote De La Mancha¨ by Rafael Gil with Rafael Rivelles, Juan Calvo and Sara Montiel ; ¨Orson Welles' Don Quijote¨ with Akim Tamiroff , ¨Don Quijote Cabalga De Nuevo¨ by Roberto Gabaldon with Cantinflas and Fernando Fernan Gomez ; ¨Man of Mancha¨ by Arthur Hiller with Peter O'Toole and Sofia Loren and ¨El Caballero Don Quijote¨ by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon with Juan Luis Galiardo and Carlos Iglesias . And for TV : ¨Don Quijote¨ by Peter Yates with John Lightgow and Bob Hoskins and ¨Don Quijote De Miguel De Cervantes¨ by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon with Alfredo Landa and Fernando Rey .

As has been said by the previous commentators, the best thing about Donkey Xote is the animation, which is at least decent and the one component that shows any signs of effort. The character designs are rather derivative (especially the blatant one for the donkey Rucio) and plastic, but there is a good amount of vibrant colour, some of the landscapes are quite gorgeously rendered for low-budget animation and there is evidence of detail and depth in the backgrounds, with the standouts being the nocturnal visuals and a reasonably effective dream sequence.

Unfortunately, that is it for the positives for Donkey Xote. The music does have its rousing moments and sense of adventure, but those moments are too far outweighed by the number of times the music is inappropriately used or misplaced and the pop songs just don't gel with the setting or the story (it was like those involved had completely forgotten what the time and place were) and I just didn't see the point in including them.

With the characters, they are either gross distortions of the characters in the book, being the complete opposite of what made them so appealing memorable (what is done with Sancho Panza is so bad it's almost offensive), or incredibly annoying, especially the too prominent and quickly irritating Rucio, who has absolutely none of the irreverence and wit of Shrek's Donkey. It was interesting to have the story told from the viewpoint of Rucio, but it did feel too much and went off on a tangent more than it did telling a succinct story.

The voices are very uninspired and often sound under-rehearsed or bored, Quixote having very little of his touching dignity. It's the writing and the story that really make Doneky Xote as bad as it is. The script does try to have the vibe of Shrek, but contains none of its wit, clever humour or charm. Everything here feels muddled and leaden, with some very poorly timed and childish jokes, lines that hold no relevance to the story and only adds to the confusion and it feels very anachronistic.

The story chiefly suffers from trying to tell a very long and difficult story (also one that very few children will be familiar with) in 90 minutes, it is hard enough compressing and adapting it for live action but while it is laudable it just doesn't translate well for animation of this length and budget. It contains themes that will go over youngsters' heads (and this is not intended to be patronising, this is coming from a person who think children's taste and intelligence are often underestimated), subplots come out of nowhere, are introduced and skimmed over even quicker or are completely unnecessary to the story and it is so rushed and jumps around so much that the film feels really convoluted, some parts incomprehensible, and numerous times it's difficult to tell who's who.

Overall, laudable try, considering the nature of the Don Quixote story, but only has the animation going for it. Instead it feels like a mess of Don Quixote and a Shrek rip-off while forgetting all of the ingredients that makes Don Quixote and Shrek as good and memorable as they are. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Another reviewer wonders whether this is just drinking up EU subsidies, and I have to admit that a rare Spanish venture in animation ended up in a disaster.

One - animation is decent, although animals look like old Pixar and Dreamworks, or clones of them * especially the donkey, who is 99% Shrek's Donkey, and the hen, very much like in 'for the birds'.

Two - a very complex storyline, based on a very long book with a difficult plot and many subplots... that wasn't a good idea for a cartoon, which gets lost Three - some good second level jokes and some good first level jokes.

Overall... too hard for kids, too long, too convoluted. Pity they hired decent animators but poor editors and script writers.

I have read a comment about this movie, and the author confess that he doesn't know who was Don Quixote (or Don Quijote in modern Spanish). I suppose that this gentleman is British, because he lives in the UK. In order to illustrate his knowledge, Don Quijote was the very first novel or romance in the whole world, and was written by Miguel de Cervantes Zaavedra. This book was published for the first time in Madrid, in 1605. The first British version of Don Quijote was made by Thomas Shelton. This translation was written in 1612 and also was the first translation to other language. I may suggest the reading of the English version. It Is not easy to read because it is a very extended book. I have several editions of Don Quijote in Spanish, and every one has more than one thousand pages. The character of Don Quijote de la Mancha is very complicated, but I could say that he represents that kind of people who believes everything that is written in the chivalry books. He believes in characters like those of the round table, or the Spanish character Amadis de Gaula, and he try to be one of those knights-errand. In fact, the first English translation of Don Quijote is: "The History of the Valorovs and Wittie Knight-Errant Don Quixote of the Mancha". The writer, Miguel de Cervantes Zaavedra, is to the Spanish speaking people the same as William Shakespeare is for the English speaking people. And that's all