User Reviews

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.

I'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!

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.

I paid US$3 for the DVD and it was too much!

Here what is bad about it:

(1) The 3-D animation is very fine in certain scenes and very coarse in others (probably the movie was done by different groups/companies).

(2)The main character looks suspiciously like a blue-eyed version of "Donkey" from Shrek (they even make a reference to Shrek at the beginning of the movie).

(3) Most of the music was not composed for the movie, they just recycled some oldies.

Bottom Line:

If I had seen this movie on Netflix at no cost other than my regular membership fee I would still have felt disappointed.

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.

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

Over 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.

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 .

Please 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.

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 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

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.

From 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.

Obscene and vulgar film at times, and, although faithful to a large extent to the original work, it does not entertain it for long due to its narrative confusion.

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.

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.

First of all, it IS a good entertainment!

The characters are lovable, the jokes and gigs are really funny.

And this movie needs some education to understand and enjoy it. It is full of references to literature, and squeeze the other "big" films out totally.

Nevertheless, it is true, it has some flops. The music score -except the symphonic parts- are really disturbing, nothing to do with the story... Also, it tries to compete with high-budget US movies, in style, attitude, and so on. And this is a failure. It could have been a really nice, and meaningful, funny and entertaining NOT Hollywood movie. I never understood, why it is necessary to force jokes or fake funny parts into every movie, not to take anything seriously...

However, despite these, it is still enjoyable, and entertaining. And there are interesting twists...:)

So, to sum up, it is great for older children, or never grown up adults...:)

My son really likes this movie, probably because of the animals and because there is a lot of action, there is always something different happening, few scenes have dialogue only. My son is more interested in this movie than in other animated movies, including lots of Pixar animations.

I didn't like this movie at first, but after having seen it about 20 times now I started to enjoy it. It is true that the plot isn't easy to follow, it is unusual in many aspects, but for some reason the movie gets better every time you see it. For people with young children, who watch a movie over and over, that is a must!

Although the graphics may seem crappy at some parts and the characters intentionally look like others (the movie poster and DVD read: "From the same directors that watched Shrek") the story is really interesting.

Unlike many previous comments, this story makes a lot of sense and even has some literature jokes in it. But since this is NOT the story "Don Quijote" some narrow-minded people may find hard to understand a story based on one fairly complicated book that they have NEVER READ BEFORE.

These characters won't stop the movie to explain you what went before it in what is known to be one of the most popular pieces of literature in the world, they assume that you at least know what its about.

And for those of you that criticized the plot line and the story, it is way better than some other very linear and predictable movies like "Planet 51", "Antz" and Pixar's "UP" and its characters have a better development throughout the movie.

If your 8-year-old offspring does not understand this movie, it is nothing to be alarmed, but if you are a grown-up person and didn't understand it....... well... "Man of La Mancha" is something of universal cultural knowledge