Dora and the Lost City of Gold
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 "Unlock the mystery. Unleash your wild side."
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Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a 2019 American adventure comedy film directed by James Bobin. It is a live-action adaptation of the Nick Jr. animated television series Dora the Explorer as well as the Nickelodeon animated series Dora and Friends. The film stars Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, and Eva Longoria, with Danny Trejo as the voice of Boots. The titular Lost City of Gold is based on the legendary Inca city, Paititi. It was produced by Paramount Players and Nickelodeon Movies in association with Walden Media, MRC and Burr! Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
A live-action Dora film was announced in 2017, and Moner was cast in the title role in May 2018. Most of the other lead cast members were hired throughout the rest of the year, and filming took place from August to December 2018 in Australia and Peru. This film is set after the events of the animated original television series and was also the first film based on a Nick Jr. series.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold was theatrically released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on August 9, 2019, the same day in which the final five unaired episodes of the original series aired on Nick Jr.
Plot
Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle, nothing could prepare Dora for her most dangerous adventure yet -- high school. Accompanied by a ragtag group of teens and Boots the Monkey, Dora embarks on a quest to save her parents while trying to solve the seemingly impossible mystery behind a lost Incan civilization.
Why It Explores The Lost City of Gold
- It is considered the ultimate in adventure film parodies. It surprisingly homages the most popular adventure movies of the '60s, the '70s and '80s.
- Dora develops as the film progresses, as she starts off resembling her animated counterpart in a parody-like way but then becomes more accepted by her classmates as the film progresses.
- Unlike the Dora the Explorer TV series, this film is more entertaining, as it is perfectly aimed towards pre-teens and young teens.
- The film is very self-aware, addressing things in the Dora cartoon in a very humorous way, such as Dora's know-it-all personality and the fake interactivity is also hilarious.
- It's the action-oriented influence of the Indiana Jones franchise, combined with the fun of the Bob Clampett-esque slapstick, Tex Avery jokes, and the Nickelodeon-influenced humor.
- Thanks to James Bobin, Nicholas Stoller, and Walden Media, it turned the Dora the Explorer franchise from a preschool-oriented franchise into an action-comedy franchise, aimed at tweens and young teens, and Nickelodeon did that so well!
- Impressive soundtrack, including the epic, heroic orchestral version of the Dora the Explorer theme song.
- Great acting overall which makes you hear the best sound that comes from a good-to-decent videogames.
- Isabella Moner does a great job as Dora, and Dora is surprisingly entertaining in the movie.
- Benicio Del Toro as the voice of Swiper is a perfect casting choice, and while his role in the film is limited he is entertaining.
- The CGI animation on Boots and Swiper is impressive, going for a cartoony look that resembles the show but also managing to look realistic.
- It has a nice animated sequence, where it goes back to the TV show.
- Memorable quotes are still superb, and very faithful to the TV show.
- The opening sequence recreates the show and the way it is revealed to be Dora and Diego pretending is funny.
- The character interactions are great, with Dora's know-it-all-all and annoying personality allowing for some great character moments.
- While the movie parodies the source material, it also caters to the people who grew up with it via some great references.
- Several funny moments, as well as the golden-age slapstick comedy moments.
- On top of that Dora's fourth-wall jokes can be funnier, compared to the TV show.
- Memorable characters, including Boots the Monkey, and the anti-hero Swiper the Fox.
- Well-written storyline such as the little girl named Dora, who goes on an adventure to explore the lost golden city.
- For a PG rating, it could be more adventurous, but more slapsticky than a TV series.
- Tons of hilarious action such as from the airplane with hangouts of Dora & Diego.
- Boots' personality is very funny, nearly just like in the show.
- The jungle settings are pure wild & look canny for an environment.
- Tons of good references, especially from the Indiana Jones franchise.
- The special effects are very realistic for the 2019 standards.
- It is the only live-action Nicktoon movie that didn't fail miserably.
Bad Qualities
- Sometimes, the actors can overreact due to the fact the microphone wasn't set up.
- The "twist villain" cliche is used when some of the scripts are rush-written.
- Some bad jokes.
- Swiper, while entertaining, barely gets any screen time in this movie.
- Surprisingly poor marketing caused many props in this film to appear to be generic.
- The CGI on Boots (and to some extent, Swiper) can sometimes look very uncanny.
- The morals are weak/underused which is considered being less educational than the actual original show.
- It's not very faithful to the show since some other characters don't appear from the original.
Reception
Dora and the Lost City of Gold received positive reviews, who praised Moner's performance and the self-aware humor. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Led by a winning performance from Isabela Moner, Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a family-friendly adventure that retains its source material's youthful spirit.". Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported that adult and children filmgoers gave it an average of 4.5 and 3.5 stars out of 5, respectively.
Videos
Trivia
- It is the first film from Nick Jr.
- Michael Bay originally produced this film, but it turns out it was false.
- Upon the announcement of a live-action Dora movie, comparisons to the CollegeHumor spoof trailer Dora the Explorer and the Search for the Infinity Orb naturally sprang up.
- The scene where Dora's shown to have held a knife in her backpack has especially spawned some jokes on how dark this movie is compared to the original show.
- "Oh, look, Dora bought a knife on the field trip, everybody."
- Once Swiper's design was revealed, a lot of jokes about him being the new design for Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog popped up. Most agree that he looks better than the widely mocked initial design for Sonic.