Dora and the Lost City of Gold
Directed by: James Bobin
Runtime: 102 Minutes
I’ll be honest here by saying I did not grow up with Dora the Explorer. By the time it was on my radar, I was too cool for school and couldn’t marvel in the adorable Spanish lessons and the explorative adventures of a female lead, which definitely would have been up my alley as a young girl. Sadly, by this time, I had moved on to classics such as; Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z and didn’t look back. Now, as I deal with kids, I always hear stories of the troublesome Swiper, Backpack and learning how to count to five in Spanish. I had no expectations of the film (other than maybe feeling a little too old to see it) but I was pleasantly surprised at how I left this film feeling entertained and happy. How could you not with Dora’s ridiculously positive nature in a modern high school setting?
The storyline for the film was adapted well from the original cartoon, explaining her love of the rainforest and lifelong desire to be an explorer. Naturally, something goes wrong for Dora’s parents and only she can summon the courage and knowledge of the dangerous amazon to save her parents and discover the secrets of the lost city of gold. However, it wasn’t just her exploring that drove this film but the development of Dora as a teenager. Covering a very real issue for plenty of 21st Century parents, they start to worry about her anti-social behaviour and lack of human friends. With this concern, her explorer parents decide to send her off to her cousin Diego (who has been separated from her for quite some time) and attend a regular high school in Hollywood, Los Angeles. This is where the plot gets cute though. Between her adorable grandma and Diego’s loss of childhood innocence, the film attempts to pull at our heartstrings by giving us characters we can all relate to and appreciate their relationship with Dora (an ever-optimistic childlike teen). I couldn’t help but fall in love with Dora and her adorably sweet nature from the original cartoon shining through a depressing high school setting. This was a minor part of the film though as Dora and her new-found companions/enemies are transported back to the forest to find her parents.
This is where this film plays jump rope with reality versus ridiculous antics. It feels as though it is at this point that the film remembered it was Dora and that fans would be pissed if there weren’t enough references and callbacks. While the film does start with a nice nod towards beloved characters Map and Backpack (no, I am not making this up), it is soon revealed to be a fake-out as the characters come back to reality. Initially, this is where I thought they’d set the tone for the entire film; This is Dora the Explorer but in a modern world. And to a degree, this is true. However, there are numerous events that require me to believe in the unbelievable, taking me out of reality and putting me back into the cartoon world where death is impossible and talking animals are real. For instance, the character Swiper (voice amazingly by Benicio Del Toro) exists, much to my surprise after the opening scene, and they offer no explanation of how or why a masked talking fox came to be. Similarly, towards the conclusion of the film as they are nearing the treasure, the token ‘villains’ seem to find a side entrance to the fortress, avoiding all the obstacles of the main characters. However, this could always be forgiven in the fact that it is indeed a kid’s movie. The film seems to realise this and pokes fun at itself, allowing you to enjoy –- guilt-free.
One of my major gripes with the film was that the CGI budget definitely could have been higher as a lot of the animals such as Boots and Swiper looked freakishly fake and the explosions or ‘threats’ to the characters looked unbelievably bad. However, when you are making a live-action version of a 2D cartoon, a lot of forgiveness can be given for its poor quality and I slowly adapted to it and could laugh it off. The final scene of the film is literally a song and dance which I guess is only fitting for a kid’s film. However, I did find this ending could have been left out as the sweet ending of Dora exploring the indigenous people of Hollywood was cute enough and the dance number just made me feel like a creep in the cinema, as the children sang along and danced in the isles.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a sweet film with a loveable, yet strong, female lead and adorable life lessons sprinkled throughout to make any adult reflect on their world views and constant pessimism. While the intended audience is targeted at the very young, Dora has some adult humour hidden beneath the surface for anyone to smile and enjoy… and, sometimes, it just makes absolutely no sense. Can you say ‘delicioso’?
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