Donkey Xote Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Follows Don Quixote, his "squire", Sancho Panza (Quixote's best friend and the wealthiest man in town), Sancho's donkey, Rucio (who wants to be a horse) and a real horse, Quixote's faithful steed, Rocinante (who hates leaving his stable) on their adventure to duel the "Knight of the Moon" where, if Quixote wins the duel the true identity of Dulcinea will be revealed.
| Andreu Buenafuente | Sancho |
| David Fernández | Rocinante |
| José Luis Gil | Quijote |
| Jordi González | Narrador |
| Sancho Gracia | Sansón |
| Luis Posada | Rucio |
| Sonia Ferrer | Dulcinea |
| Jose Pozo |
5.40 out of 10 (511 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Who the hell wrote this?
posted on 27 Mar 2009While 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.
Utter disappointment
posted on 05 Mar 2009I 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.
Poor story
posted on 18 Oct 2008Another 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.
Sheer Entertainment
posted on 14 Sep 2008Considering 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!
watch something else instead
posted on 31 May 2008Please forgive my ignorance, but I've never even heard of Don Quixote. (sorry!) Unfortunately, this movie failed to ignite my curiosity or enthusiasm for the legend. The English dubbed version is very weak and I found ALL the voices rather annoying.But I can see how this story has become a Spanish favourite. The ideas of chivalry and adventure are always popular and this story reminds me of a crap Spanish version of say.. robin hood, king Arthur or the french three musketeers story.Anyway, this film is dismal and fails to capture the imagination or produce any laughs from it's lame comical moments. The soundtrack is also poor but the animation is 'ok'. If you decide to watch this film then I will not be held responsible for your inevitable regret.
Truly crap
posted on 27 Apr 2008I've just seen the English dubbed Spanish DVD. With Pixar raising the bar and Disney and others raising their game to produce high quality animated movies with great stories it is hard to comprehend how this got made. The animation is fine but the story ... oh dear. Set some time after the well known story of Don Quixote this follows the same group as they try to find Dulcinea but the story is told from the point of view of their steeds - a brave donkey and a cowardly horse. Was this only made with Government/European Union taxpayer subsidies to help the Spanish film industry (a 'europudding')? I suspect so as the number of logos appearing in the credits is amazing. If you are a fan of Don Quixote you won't like this - If you aren't a fan you still won't like this!
Who's The Real Don Quixote?
posted on 27 Feb 2008From Spain's Barcelona comes a charming and hilarious animated film called 'Donkey Xote'. The title is a reference to Don Quixote (one of the oldest romance-adventure novels). The film has been dubbed in several languages and it is done wonderfully. The plot is a bit strange but the characters are very likable, especially the animals. I feel that a comedy loses much of its humour when dubbed (due to lost in translation) but here it really worked. 'Donkey Xote' works excellently as an English language film but I prefer to watch it in the original Catalan language. The adult humour and other situational comedy provide some laugh out loud moments. This film probably might have done good business internationally, had it been marketed that way. The animation isn't of Pixar or Dreamworks quality but there's plenty more other things to keep one thoroughly entertained. I also loved the numerous references to other movies and pop-culture and the way they were used in the story. The makers were clearly inspired by 'Shrek' (the makers mention it) but much of 'Donkey Xote' even exceeds the charm of its source of inspiration. The last few animated films that I have seen of Spain have been of average quality at best but 'Donkey Xote' is a film with heart and it shows potential that Spain may not be too far behind in the animated films market when compared to America and Japan.
Who is Don Quixote
posted on 02 Jan 2008I 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
If Ed Wood made 3D animation
posted on 09 Dec 2007Seriously, 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.
Deent...
posted on 21 Nov 2007After watching many of Hollywood's production. I came to conclusion that many of their movies are a crap. I didn't expect to much from this animation movie, but it's surprisingly good. Although it is a Spanish production I managed to obtain an English synchronized version. This is an old story of Don Quiote pictured on an unusually funny way. If you are full of Hollywood's crap give it a chance, you can't mistake. I know what i like when i see it. Many times I saw some bad comment's and thought i"It's a bad movie", but to some of them I gave a chance and saw that these comments are very subjective nature. As I don't have to much to say and I have to had some 10 lines (admins might reconsider to change that rule), I am no allowed to publish this comment. OK, maybr it's time to set up some alternative to IMDb, something like Wikipedia, but only for movies.
Possibly the worst CGI movie - ever
posted on 06 Apr 2009Over the Christmas period we've taken our sons to see quite a few movies. I thought we reached the bottom of the barrel last October when we went to see 'space chimps' but that was long before Donkey Xote (DX). Let's start with the positives. The animation isn't bad whatever some reviewers here may have written. It's not cutting edge and is a little on the simple side maybe but it's easy on the eye. That's it. Everything else is simply awful. I don't know if the original Spanish version makes more sense but the plot is is over complicated, the dialogue impossibly convoluted and the acting voice overs appalling. Watching it is a little like reading obscure eastern European poetry. It seems to be as much an exercise in proving what an intellectually clever chap the director is but in trying so hard to do so shows actually that he's completely clueless. There are characters cropping up in the film that are utterly pointless, don't add to the story and serve to confuse the audience. The script is largely read as if your listening to the kind of live translation service that you hear at news conferences or during UN addresses. some of the voices are so irritating you could easily feel like screaming. The voice over for Don Quixote's horse is, possibly, the most excruciating that I've ever heard. It pains me to say that my boys (aged 3 and 7) enjoyed it. That said they didn't really have a clue what was going on and they will happily sit in front of any cartoon in any language without any complaint. If you're a sentient adult please, please, please give this movie a miss.