Donkey Xote (2007) Reviews

• What the ?

  lover1012010-04-23

  My ten year old daughter and I just keep looking at each other in disbelief throughout this whole movie. The plot is awful, hard to follow, thrown together, and a big pile of crap, really. Attempts at humor are thrown in, random, and unfunny. This movie is BAD, and not in a good way. The animation is fairly decent, but as this kind of technology becomes more readily available for low budget producers, more junk of this kind will continue to be put out. It all seemed forced. They forced to get a plot line, they forced to get some humor, and they forced to create an emotional story that would draw the viewer in. I have to tell ya, they fail on every count.

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• Acceptable computer generator cartoon inspired by immortal novel written by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

  ma-cortes2012-10-24

  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 .

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• Who the hell wrote this?

  dex_902008-10-05

  While the animation and style of the movie aren't half bad, in fact (besides of background stuff and vegetation not exactly moving much and the characters seeming lifeless every now and then) it seems better than a lot other animated movies (except anything by Pixar or Dreamworks of course). That said the writing is horrible, mainly because the story doesn't seem to make any sense WHATSOEVER. From what I gathered it seems to play a few years after Don Quixote's fight against the windmills and all of his adventures and the movie is to about 50% about Sancho's Donkey (thus called Donkey Xote). The actions and traits of the characters deviate from one scene to another and the story even gets into the bizarre at times. For example we got a "bad guy", that isn't really evil... more conflicted or confused cause he wants to get famous. And he seems to be the kind of guy that believes the best way to make you leave a city would be to make everyone else disappear so you feel unwelcome, then block all the rivers and burn all the food so you'll have to leave after a while instead of say throwing you out directly... and while that might have some sort of style it's illogical and this movie is riddled with similar stuff. Also there's some of his minions that want to kill some of the protagonists at one point and after the heroes managed to save themselves, there doesn't seem to be any grudge and both parties just walk away. With a decent script this could've been a nice animated movie similar to say Shrek but as it stands right now it's somewhere between a 3-4 for me.

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• Utter disappointment

  admiral_andrews2008-05-13

  I decided to watch this movie with my girlfriend as we are both animation fans, but in the end I almost fell asleep as midway in the movie my interest in it had faded to nought. In terms of animation, Donkey Xote is not bad, but that's pretty much the only thing it's got going for it. Characters lack a certain charisma and that's painfully obvious when the collage to Shrek is more notorious, namely with Rucio. This donkey could well be, well, Donkey's twin and I wonder how many kids will get fooled and then disappointed since Rucio pales in comparison. The story itself is weak, feels rushed with some plot devices ending in seconds, others with a purpose that doesn't seem to exist. Everything also feels dumbed down, with only a few moments where the jokes don't feel cliché and hugely predictable. The characters are thrown at you with little in the way of introduction, their rich background quite absent, and I feel you really don't get many chances to end up relating to most of them. Sure this movie will be passable for kids, but the beauty of movies like Shrek is that the plots were deep enough with some more adult jokes thrown in to appeal to older audiences. That is something I found this movie quite lacking. Another thing is that Donkey Xote also missed a great opportunity to give children a taste of one of humanity's most brilliant literary works, replacing it with something rather flat.

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• Poor story

  csagne2008-10-19

  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.

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