Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Dora and the Lost City of Gold

November 18, 2019

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Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a live-action adaptation of a kids cartoon aimed at preschoolers. Is it going to entertain older kids who grew up on Dora the Explorer? Will it entertain adults? Or does it fall in that awkward space between those two demographics?

The Movie

The movie begins with a live-action rendition of the Dora the Explorer opening credits, which I admit I got a kick out of. We then see that this is actually taking place in the imaginations of a young Dora and her cousin Diego. It’s a bittersweet day, as Diego is moving to the city with his family, while Dora is remaining in the jungle with her mother and father. We then flashforward to a decade later, when Dora is 16. Her parents have continued their quest to find the lost city of Parapata. Meanwhile, Dora has become a capable explorer of her own, although she’s a little too reckless and in one case has to be rescued by Boots, her monkey friend. This is troubling enough for her parents that they decide to send her to the city to live with cousin Diego and to get a more normal childhood. It might be too late for that.

Dora’s first day of school is less than ideal. She’s not equipped to deal with high school, as she’s too, what’s the word? Enthusiastic... energetic... naïve. It’s clear she’s going to be a magnet for abuse, so Diego abandons her nearly immediately, because he doesn’t want to get hit with whatever is coming her way. You really can’t blame him. The trouble doesn’t stop there, as Dora is also really, really smart, She’s smart enough to make enemies with Sammy, who was the clearly the smartest person in school until Dora showed up. The last person they meet is Randy, another social outcast and bullying victim.

The four don’t become friends, but they are forced to work together on a scavenger hunt during a school trip to a museum. They are tasked with finding the oldest artifact in the museum. The Egyptian exhibit would be the ideal place to find such an item, but it is currently closed. A helpful museum employee offers to let them in, but it is a trap and the four get kidnapped, drugged, and flown to South America. It seems Dora’s mother and father are very close to finding Parapata and these treasure hunters are using Dora as bait to get the gold. Fortunately, they have help from Alejandro, who helps them escape and offers to guide them to Dora’s parents. He’s not a very good guide and it will take a lot of work to survive in the jungle.

Review

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a kids movie. This isn’t a complaint so much as it is a statement of fact. Because it is a kids movie, it doesn’t have the same stakes and if you are an adult fan of adventure movies, you might be disappointed by that. On the other hand, if you have kids and you want to introduce them to adventure movies, then this is a great movie to do so. It’s not quite The Goonies of this generation, but I can see it having a lot of nostalgic value for those who see it as kids.

There are many reasons why Dora and the Lost City of Gold will likely remain a favorite for a lot of kids, chief among them is Dora herself. Isabela Moner does an amazing job giving Dora the charisma needed to overcome what could have been grating enthusiasm. There are some elements that didn’t work, like having Dora turn to the camera and say, “Can you say delicioso?” The first time they used that joke, I knew it would get tired really quickly, but fortunately, they only did it a couple of times. The supporting cast is also great. I especially like Madeleine Madden as Sammy, Dora’s rival turned friend. This could have been a cliché, but Madeleine Madden and the writers managed to make her an ambitious and driven person, without making those seem like really negative qualities. Eugenio Derbez is also a near perfect mix of goofiness and later menacing as the main villain. Granted, I’m grading the menacing aspect on a curve, because it is a kids movie, but he does make a good kids movie villain.

On the other hand, I don’t think Swiper the Fox works as a CG character. Boots being a very cartoonish character works, but Swiper might have been better as a human character merely called “The Fox”. Then again, I’m not a kid and maybe its target audience will love Swiper as he is.

The Extras

Extras begin with two minutes of outtakes, while there are also nearly a dozen deleted / extended scenes with a total running time of 13 minutes. All about Dora is a nine-minute making of featurette. Can you say Pelicula? focuses on Eugenio Derbez. Dora in Flower Vision looks at the animated sequence that happens late in the movie. Finally, Dora’s Jungle House is a behind-the-scenes look at the house set used in the beginning of the movie. The combined running time is just over 20 minutes long, which isn’t a lot, but it is fine for a kids movie.

The Verdict

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is surprisingly good and I think it will be well remembered by its target audience, while more than a few parents will be using it to get their kids excited about adventure films. The DVD / Blu-ray doesn’t have a lot of extras, but enough to be worth picking up.

C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Video Review, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Benicio del Toro, Eugenio Derbez, Eva Longoria, Michael Peña, Danny Trejo, Micke Moreno, Isabela Moner, Nicholas Coombe, Madeleine Madden, Malachi Barton, Madelyn Miranda