The donkey, Rucio, tells the true story of Don Quixote and defends the idea that he wasn't insane, but a very intelligent, passionate and enthusiastic fellow.
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Yes, it is a children's movie, but to be honest I LOVED it. My 5-year-old sister and I watched it and it was honestly quite entertaining. It was sort of Shrek-meets-The Tale of Desperaux. It is a little bit cheesy, and the animation was different, but I liked it. It was appropriate (they don't really cater to the adult viewers I mean, they assume you will enjoy the parody of the true story Don Quixote and that will be enough). This being said, it may not be as enjoyable if you are unfamiliar with the story, dislike children's animations, or are looking for some kind of slapstick humor. I would also say that I think the best age group for this would be grade school children, as my sister did get bored around the middle.
Seriously, if you want to enjoy this movie, and I really mean this, watch this at like 3 in the morning when you're half tired but just CANNOT get to sleep. It really enhances the bizarreness of it all, the Pythonesque presence of Spanish text mixed with the fact it's hard to tell it's a dub, the fact that the Spanish don't need to make films so you wonder what's up anyway, the near-David Lynchian quality of insanity. Still, it's a hole lot better than vomitous Shrek, and they made three of those urinary-tract-infecting things so far.It was night impossible for me to tell just what exactly was this movie's technique. It dawned upon me after a while that this movie is an expert at making inaction seem like action. Things almost happen until a character makes a complete 180 turn to detour everything to a halt. This sort of leads the movie to being told in almost episodic fashion. Although the movie almost touches on interesting aspects, details are nigh on impossible to follow, especially when you try to get to know who any of the characters are. The best scene to explain the bizarre behavior of the characters is when Sancho and QuiXote are being smacked across the face repeatedly without questioning why.There are so many bizarre moments that will stand out in your memory as you watch this movie. It's as though this movie just comes AT your face. Primarily there's the scene with the horse enjoying himself just WAY too much at relieving himself, the manic ditzy girl grabbing her own boobs, Ed Wood's horse, the seemingly inappropriate insertion of dated pop songs, and still more.The plot made as much sense as an episode of Twin Peaks, and the dialogue was like talking to a character from an Ed Wood film. But unfortunately you need to be able to understand these things before you'll get this movie. It's a good thing this was dubbed and not subbed, because otherwise you could just chalk everything up to mistranslation, and listening to Spanish would just make things even more confusing.Just tell yourself one thing as you watch this: This movie's from Barcelona.
Considering I'd never heard of the studio and it was a Don Quixote production i'd never heard of this was surprisingly great a movie. Setting this story at the beginning of the second half of the Don Quixote Saga, this story tells its own version of the tale of Quixote and the Knight of the Crescent Moon.A very smart film with many references to the books and various incarnations of the Don (see the queue of fake dons for example) this is a pretty clever film, which avoids simply retelling the original story by showcasing it through the viewpoint of the two steeds, giving them their own subplots (or is that main plot to the humans subplots?) and so combining the traditional with the unusual to bring a fresh take to an old tale. A nice example is the opening narration being interrupted by the main character who then argues with the unseen narrator as to how it really happened.A nice Hollywood style adaption that is family friendly whilst not being dumbed down in any way, this really is a great Quixote story. And in the end, thats all that matters!
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.