Paddington in Peru may be the third movie in the Paddington film series, but it’s also part of a much larger collection spanning the entire history of cinema. The story of “El Dorado,” the city of gold, is one of the oldest and most impactful narrative traditions to come out of the Americas, and Paddington in Peru is built on it. The oldest references to El Dorado date back to the 16th century when it motivated Spanish conquistadors, but in the past 500 years, El Dorado has inspired countless adventures, both fictional and real.
Originally, “El Dorado” referred to the gold-covered king of the mythical city and was likely based on the real traditions of the Muisca people of modern-day Colombia. Based on legends of gold, the Conquistadors conquered the Muisca and looted their gold, but the real gold of the Muisca could not compare to El Dorado. In the following centuries, stories of El Dorado led to countless explorations from the conquistadors and to the death of prominent Elizabethan noble Sir Walter Raleigh. Ultimately, El Dorado was just an incredibly compelling story. As such, it’s hardly surprising it has inspired so many different movies.
1
The Road To El Dorado
Directed by Eric “Bibo” Bergeron
In the year 2000, DreamWorks released the instant animated classic, The Road to El Dorado. For many young audiences, The Road to El Dorado was an initial introduction to the lost South American city of gold. In The Road to El Dorado, the eponymous city is not the wish-fulfillment fantasy of the historical legend, but a real city with living inhabitants. Furthermore, protagonists Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (Kevin Kline) are not working for the glory of colonial Spain but are instead poor adventurers and con artists.
Another interesting divergence between the mythology in The Road to El Dorado and the historic legend is that the central antagonist in the movie is Hernan Cortes, voiced by beloved Winnie the Pooh actor, Jim Cummings. While Hernan Cortes was a real conquistador, he wasn’t in charge of a search for El Dorado in South America, but the conquest of the Aztec Empire in modern-day Mexico. Nevertheless, the all-consuming power of greed and the disparate ways in which different cultures value El Dorado’s gold means The Road to El Dorado really does serve as a good introduction to the legend.
2
The Lost City
Directed by Aaron and Adam Nee
Although the 2022 jungle adventure film, The Lost City, does not reference “El Dorado” or a “city of gold” directly, it is nevertheless clearly inspired by the legend. For one thing, the setting of The Lost City is a jungle filled with pre-Columbian ruins, which is exactly the sort of setting in which one would expect to find El Dorado. For another, The Lost City is centered on a quest for an impossibly valuable treasure hidden in a city that does not appear on any map. Narratively, The Lost City matches up with the El Dorado legend beat for beat.
No actual city could ever have lived up to the legends of El Dorado.
But perhaps the biggest and most important similarity between The Lost City and the legend of El Dorado is the role of greed in the narrative. Daniel Radcliff’s billionaire antagonist, Abigail Fairfax, is motivated by the same sort of soul-consuming greed that drove countless conquistadors to ruin in the Amazon rainforest. Furthermore, The Lost City‘s twist ending mirrors the ways in which no actual city could ever have lived up to the legends of El Dorado. So, even if The Lost City isn’t about El Dorado, it is still an El Dorado story.
3
The Lost City of Z
Directed by James Gray
In the real world, the Amazon Rainforest has still not been fully mapped out. Beginning in the 1970s, satellite imagery has improved human knowledge of the Amazon, and the rise of global positioning systems (GPS) has made navigating the Amazon rainforest easier. So it’s understandable that as late as 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett walked into the jungle in search of what he called the “City of Z,” never to emerge. As such, the 2016 biographical drama The Lost City of Z, based on the true story of Percy Fawcett’s final expedition, owes a lot to the legend of El Dorado.
Both in The Lost City of Z and in real life, Fawcett, played by Charlie Hunnam, did not believe in a literal lost city of gold. The secret advanced civilization in the Amazon that he did believe in, however, is clearly inspired by the legendary lost city of gold. A scout at the start of the movie even claims the lost city is covered in gold. And, continuing in the tradition of countless conquistadors and explorers before him, Fawcett ultimately disappeared in jungle, consumed by his quest for a legendary city.
4
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Directed by Steven Spielberg
In some ways, every Indiana Jones movie owes something to El Dorado – the model of treasure-hunting scholarship that Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) partakes in is shaped by treasure hunters who looked for El Dorado in centuries past. But the treasure-filled city of Akator in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is clearly a reference to El Dorado. The lost golden city of Akator, in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, is clearly El Dorado by another name, making Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull an interesting modern take on the legend.
5
Dora And The Lost City Of Gold
Directed by James Bobin
Dora and the Lost City of Gold did for a 2019 audience what The Road to El Dorado did for viewers back in 2000: introduced a new generation of children to the legend of El Dorado. This time, El Dorado is explored not by colonial conmen, but by the live action version of beloved children’s cartoon character, Dora. Like many other movies inspired by El Dorado, Dora and the Lost City of Gold does not call its lost city, “El Dorado,” but the hidden golden city of “Parapata” is clearly El Dorado by another name.
While Dora’s parents are archeologists in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, in the TV show, there is no evidence that this is their career.
What sets Dora and the Lost City of Gold apart from other movies based on the legend of El Dorado, however, is the emphasis the movie puts on archeology. In the real world, the discovery of El Dorado would be a major archeological breakthrough that would completely change what we know about pre-Columbian Amazonian civilizations, so Dora’s parent’s connections to archeology makes the movie feel more in line with what would actually happen if El Dorado were discovered in the 21st century.
6
National Treasure: Book Of Secrets
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
The first National Treasure movie, National Treasure, made waves as an action-adventure movie about treasure hunting set in present-day America. Nicholas Cage’s character in National Treasure hunted for a copy of the American Declaration of Independence; in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, he searches for a lost city of gold. What sets National Treasure: Book of Secrets apart as an El Dorado movie, however, is the golden of Cibola is located in North, rather than South America. This means National Treasure: Book of Secrets stays true to its roots as a uniquely American take on a classic treasure hunt.
7
Jungle Cruise
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
In some ways, Disney’s 2021 movie, Jungle Cruise, is based more on the legend of the “Fountain of Youth,” than on the myth of El Dorado. Protagonist Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is searching for the Lagrimas De Cristal tree, whose flowers are supposed to have magic healing properties. Jungle Cruise opens with a scene of a conquistador searching for the tree in the 16th century, just as real conquistadors searched for both the Fountain of Youth and El Dorado.
The Fountain of Youth, however, was rumored to be located somewhere in Florida, whereas El Dorado was supposed to be somewhere in the Amazon rain forest. The eponymous jungle of Jungle Cruise has much more in common with the legend of El Dorado than that of the Fountain of Youth, then. Furthermore, the repeated emphasis on cursed conquistadors in Jungle Cruise make the movie feel right at home among the greed-cursed history of El Dorado.
8
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
Directed by Werner Herzog
Iconic German director Werner Herzog’s 1972 movie, Aguirre, the Wrath of God is the rare movie based on legends of El Dorado that talks about the city of gold by name. Protagonist Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) explicitly searches for El Dorado in Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and is driven mad in the process. Like The Lost City of Z, Aguirre, the Wrath of God is based on a real historical expedition. In this case, however, the truth behind the movie makes its messaging about colonialism, greed, and destruction hit all the harder.
If the ultimate lesson from the legend of El Dorado is the destructive power of greed, then Aguirre, the Wrath of God is perhaps the greatest film adaptation of the legend.
The historical Lope de Aguirre was a conquistador from the Basque region of Spain, whose brutality in South America led him to claim the nickname “Wrath of God.” In the film, however, God’s wrath is made real in the madness and death that ultimately claim Aguirre in his search for gold. If the ultimate lesson from the legend of El Dorado is the destructive power of greed, then Aguirre, the Wrath of God is perhaps the greatest film adaptation of the legend.
9
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
Directed by Gore Verbinski
The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is, at this point, a five-movie meditation on greed, colonialism, and the role of law. The movie that started it all, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is perhaps the franchise’s best encapsulation of those themes. It is also a movie clearly influenced by the legend of El Dorado. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl may not feature a lost golden city or a lush Amazonian jungle, but it nevertheless has its roots in the real-world mythology of El Dorado.
During the brutal Spanish conquest of South America, it was not uncommon for indigenous groups to attempt to get rid of conquistadors by telling them that El Dorado was deeper in the jungle, giving them gold as proof. The cursed gold in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was given for the same reason, and the resulting greed of the conquistadors is what led to the curse. What Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl shows is just how influential the legend of El Dorado can be, even in stories that don’t mention it directly.
10
Paddington In Peru
Directed by Dougal Wilson
In February of 2024, Sony’s Paddington in Peru became the latest in a long line of movies about El Dorado. Paddington in Peru is another El Dorado movie that is explicit in its references to the lost city of gold. Indeed, Paddington (Ben Whishaw) is searching for “El Dorado” explicitly, and, like all great El Dorado movies, the central antagonist of Paddington in Peru is motivated by his all-consuming need for gold. But the thing that really solidifies Paddington in Peru in the long tradition of movies about El Dorado is its ending.
By the end of the movie, Paddington learns that El Dorado is not really a city made of the metal gold, but rather a secret orangery full of bears and secrets. Because the legend of El Dorado is ultimately a cautionary tale about greed, it makes sense that most movies based on the mythical city of gold do not end with a pile of treasure, but with a lesson learned. As such, the oranges at the end of Paddington in Peru make it an excellent example of an El Dorado movie.
