Chel is the deuteragonist and Tulio's love interest/girlfriend in The Road to El Dorado. She is voiced by Rosie Perez.
Physical appearance[]
Chel is a young and beautiful indigenous woman. She has brown skin, brown eyes, full coral pink lips and long, straight thigh-length black hair with flat bangs and sideburns that go partially down her ears. She also has a non-prominent nose, and her most distinctive feature is her well-pronounced hourglass figure - having rather voluptuous hips and thick thighs.
Chel's attire consists of an off-white tube top with a thin red stripe below the thick pink stripe, along with a matching off-white loincloth and turquoise bracelets on both her wrists. She also dawned a set of large diamond-shaped earrings the same color as her bracelets - though at times, she replaces them with golden earrings with small turquoise diamond shapes on the center. She is also often barefoot.
Personality[]
Chel is cunning and clever and acts akin to the femme fatale of her village: she sneaks around, trying to gather information on the two visitors, and even though she discovers that Tulio and Miguel are not gods, she keeps their secret, hoping to use them and their riches to fund her own escape.
Her local knowledge is key to keeping up the Spaniards' façade for as long as possible. She also appears to be naturally good with children. She compliments Miguel and Tulio's characters well, as she is smart, brave, adventurous and a natural con-artist, just as they are and prefers to do things without any set plan in mind. She dreams of leaving her village and adventure into the outside world.
Eventually, she grows to care for the us two con men and values them for who they are and not what she can get out of them. She eventually also becomes attracted and genuinely infatuated, from previously developing a crush on, with Tulio, after a short initial flirtationship with him throughout the film.
Over the course of the movie, Tulio as well becomes attracted to Chel, due to her young figure and personality, and two decide to become a couple.
Her caring side also comes out when she is around children and animals.
She also has a bit of a teasy personality too, the main example of this being her wide hips, thick thighs and big butt that she likes to jiggle a lot, she wobbles them almost constantly, whenever she’s dancing, gets excited or when she’s around Tulio.
Background[]
Little is known regarding Chel's background. She is obviously unhappy as Tulio and Miguel meet Chel when she is fleeing El Dorado after stealing the golden head of a statue. She is purposefully vague when asked why she would want to leave, stating only "You've got your reasons... and I've got mine." As many of the villagers wear gold jewelry and none of Chel's original jewelry is gold, this could signify that she was poor or in a low societal position. Her parents and other family members are never mentioned or seen, hinting that she is an only child, and her parents are long deceased.
The Deal[]
After overhearing Miguel and Tulio celebrating too early over their scam, Chel quickly strikes a deal with the two: She will use her local knowledge to help make the scam work in exchange for leaving El Dorado with them. Tulio and Chel later argue over what her cut of the treasure should be.
Relationship with Tulio[]
Tulio leads Miguel to the realization that mixing Chel into their plan could be troublesome and they both agree that "Chel is off limits." Regardless of this, Chel successfully initiates a relationship with Tulio. She sees that in a moment that he is stressed and, takes advantage of it. She starts massaging him, and he is able to initially resist, but is lured into massaging her, when realizing her actual intentions. The two are later seen on the floor, with the room completely messed up, with what is implied to be them having a sexually intimate moment, and that they might be making out. Chel pleases Tulio, until Tzekel abruptly interrupts to find Tulio, and they quickly stop. Afterwards, Chel's pursuit of Tulio, though likely initially to be an attempt to con herself into a better and more secure position to escape, rather evolves. She develops genuine feelings for Tulio and begins to love him, and the duo share a kiss and become a couple.
Miguel finds out[]
When Miguel finds out about Chel and Tulio's relationship, it tears a rift between him and Tulio. Miguel presumably thinks Tulio was double-crossing him when he insisted Chel was off limits and cheated him out so he could have her for himself. However, throughout the film, Chel is mainly friendly with Miguel throughout the film, but is shown to be very vexing towards Tulio, wanting him romantically unlike with Miguel. Miguel decides to stay in the city while Tulio and Chel choose to leave. But during Tulio and Chel's departure from El Dorado, they run into trouble with their ship. Miguel steps in to help and decides to go with them. The trio escape El Dorado, and head back to Spain, much to the satisfaction of all members, most predominantly with Chel & Tulio.
Trivia[]
- Recently, over twenty years later after the film's release and growing popularity, Chel has been voted 1# as the "best animated girl in film history" among fans and other media that make these polls. This technically means that Chel is now regarded as a famous character in modern films. Chel has recently began to appear in memes. Though unlike the memes used of the film as comedy, the memes that place Chel are used in describing either her physical appearance or how one remembered Chel from their childhood.
- There is an alternate version of Chel known as “Goth Chel” that has gained popularity on the internet at some point. Goth Chel doesn’t look much different from Chel. Only wearing a black tube top and loincloth, Fishnet tights, and black makeup on the eyes and lips. Goth Chel has gained enough popularity that cosplayers are able to replicate her appearance.
- Chel has often been compared to Kida from the 2001 animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire from Disney. With some even pairing them due to their similar wardrobe. The main reason for this pairing is because the films these two characters come from, follow a similar theme: Discovery of a lost civilization, and guided by a native of said civilization.
- Though unlike Chel, Kida wasn’t designed with a sexualized appearance. Kida is a Princess while Chel was hinted to be a slave of some kind. One major difference is that Chel appeared before Kida. As The Road To El Dorado came out a year prior to Kida’s film in 2001.
- Chel signaling “The hip, the hip” has been deemed her most iconic scene in the film overall. As stated earlier, she jiggles them very often from time to time.
- Another iconic scene in the film was when Chel appeared over Tulio during their private moment. However, this scene has been heavily controversial during and since the film's release. With many even outside of fans calling it the most adult moment in a children movie. This can be considered Chel’s infamous scene due to its interpretation.
- In the novelization it was stated Chel was indeed going to be sacrificed by Tzekel-Kan but was stopped, therefore being her “reasons” she wanted to flee El Dorado to begin with. Many on the internet have theorized this, but it is unknown if the novelization is considered entirely canon or not.
Gallery[]
Video[]
The Road to Eldorado - Chel Pleasing Tulio ;D