I didn’t even grow up with Dora the Explorer, yet Dora and the Lost City of Gold brought me so much joy. This movie works. It works because it knows it’s based on the preschool show that breaks the fourth wall – it’s 100% in on the joke, and it runs with its silly premise with full commitment.
The Lost City of Gold jumps 10 years ahead of the Nickelodeon show. Dora (Isabela Moner) is now at an age where her parents (Eva Longoria and Michael Peña) decide to send her to high school. But just when she stepped out of the jungle, Dora is quickly pulled back in when she, her cousin Diego, and a group of teens are suddenly kidnapped by mercenaries and forced to help locate her parents and find Parapata, a lost city of Incan civilization… and of course gold.
Honoring and “Fixing” Dora
I may not have seen that much Dora the Explorer when I was little, but there’s one thing I do know for sure: Dora as a character is obnoxious.
From start to finish, The Lost City of Gold is as if the filmmakers are comforting me by saying, “We know.” See, the film understands that Dora is annoying. Yes, she’s upbeat, happy, knowledgeable, smart, and confident, and those are all good traits of any explorer. But we all know that Dora turns that dial way past eleven.
Here, the script finds a clever way to balance that annoyance with legitimate fun and entertainment. By dropping Dora into the city, her personality becomes a hilarious fish-out-of-water archetype. Now everyone is judging her, and she has no clue. Now when her peers express disgust in her upbeat nature, it’s funny because it’s somewhat understandable! Even Diego tells her to knock it off. But then again, how could you be mad at Dora when she’s so eager to learn and help?
Isabela Moner is Dora. Period.
The film’s unapologetic embrace of Dora’s character is further elevated by Moner’s performance, who spends more than half of the film smiling, ooh-ing and aah-ing, and (shudders) singing. But it’s okay because the second she starts, someone tells her to stop. The result is a cross between Donkey from the Shrek series and Amy Adams’ Giselle in Enchanted. Annoying? Yes. But it’s all kind of irresistible because it’s well-intentioned and good-natured.
Moner drives home that exaggerated caricature, and thankfully the rest of the film operates on the same wavelength. Though the film is live-action, it most definitely plays like a cartoon. That being said, both the film and Moner sell the important moral lesson to kids and parents alike – being knowledgeable, upbeat, kind, and confident are all awesome traits that will win over anybody in the long run.
Honoring the Show with References and THAT Scene
Even as a person who never grew up with the original show (I know this is the third time I mentioned it), I could tell that the people who made this film love the source material. The fourth wall breaks are still here, offering some well-timed jokes, the script gives Boots the Monkey more room to play around in than that other live action adaptation of a fictional monkey, and Swiper the Fox shows up enough times for the kids in the theater to yell, “SWIPER! NO SWIPING!”
And then… there’s THAT scene…
All I can say is for a theater packed with kids, I laughed the loudest.
There Are Problems, But Who Cares?
With the cartoonish tone in the writing, it becomes really easy for me to forgive its typical problems, such as bad CGI and cliché plot points. Boots and Swiper look awfully weightless and clean, in terms of live animals. Then again, the film doesn’t hesitate to just let Swiper walk like a human (since he walks like that in the show), so it falls into a strange middle ground that reminds me of Space Jam.
The supporting characters are often there to drop humorous lines every once in a while, and while I myself didn’t find them as funny, the kids certainly had a good time. Madeleine Madden and Nicholas Coombe embrace their character tropes with no hesitation, while Mexican star Eugenio Derbez is clearly having a lot of fun.
As for plot, it’s your typical Indiana Jones plot-line where the characters are seeking something magical while proving they are worthy of its greatness. Familiar, yes, but it’s got all the necessary pieces to make it work – delicate production designs, elaborate traps, fun puzzles, exotic symbols, and a sense of excitement and awe whenever the characters are one step closer to their destination.
Essentially, Dora and the Lost City of Gold is Indiana Jones for kids who still find Indiana Jones too scary and perilous, and that’s okay!
Dora and the Lost City of Gold: No Joke, Give me a Sequel
I defended this film since it released its first trailer back in March. Here I am happily pointing at you through the screen and saying, “I told you so.” Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a lot of fun for the whole family, striking a delicate balance between making fun of the original show and honoring the healthy lessons it wanted to share to kids. With Moner comfortably leading this cast, and the script being so tonally confident, I am declaring here and now that I am ready for a sequel.
Did you see Dora and the Lost City of Gold? What did you think of the film? Share below!
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