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In a day and age when every property seems to be getting the silver screen treatment, it was only a matter of time before Dora the Explorer saw a cinematic interpretation and this Summer’s Dora and the Lost City of Gold gives us exactly that – taking Nickelodeon’s beloved children’s series and giving it a glossy live-action, silver screen makeover.
Having outgrown her days of being a child with an illustrious imagination and appetite for adventures, Dora (Isabela Moner) – now a teenager – is thrown into her toughest expedition yet: American high school. When her parents (Michael Pena and Eva Longoria) undertake a difficult quest to uncover Parapata – the eponymous City of Gold – Dora is sent overseas to go to school with her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg) and be a regular teenage girl. But unacclimated to this culture, she struggles to fit in and make friends; though, when she’s kidnapped alongside Diego and class peers Sammy (Madeleine Madden) and Randy (Nicholas Coombe) and they wake in the jungle, the group will have to push aside their squabbles and band together to save Dora’s parents, find Parapata and avoid the team of mercenaries after them.
Part of the show’s novelty, which I grew up on, was always Dora’s motley crew of anthropomorphic characters – from Map and Backpack to sly fox Swiper and, most notably, her best friend and partner-in-crime Boots. The film certainly finds a way to incorporate these aspects into the mix (Boots and Swiper are voiced by Danny Trejo and Benicio Del Toro, respectively), albeit in the most minuscule capacity (with Boots, in particular, only getting a single scene to chat); instead, the film swaps them out for very beige, paper-thin humans to surround Dora, leaving a lot to be desired from the characters populating the narrative. As for the plot itself, the film is at its strongest when it’s focused on the fish out of water element of Dora’s high-school experience; there’s a lot of humour to be found in those scenes but, sadly, it’s only about 10 minutes of the actual runtime – if even that. The jungle aspect feels akin to last year’s Tomb Raider in having this aspiring explorer forced to finish her parents’ mission; the thing is, Dora feels too safe to really be exciting in any way – it lacks any grandiosity or wonder for the adventure these characters are on. The action is mostly uninspired and repetitive with the film’s entertaining puzzle sequences only rearing their head towards the finale.
The film can’t be knocked for its earnest, sweet-toothed themes of friendship and… err… the joys of exploring dangerous jungles ??? There’s also a sincerity to the film’s lightness but it does begin to feel repetitive and, when Dora is going on about how friendship for the 15th time, you might find yourself starting to get a little bored and hoping the film progresses a little rather than continuing to walk around in circles.
Moner is great in the titular role though; she brings the right level of heart to her buoyant Dora, imbuing her with exuberance and innocence as well as a toughness and formidability that will make her a good role model for the young girls sure to be watching the film. She’s a great lead that keeps the whole film afloat, but you can’t help but feel she deserved a little better. Sure enough, the film is aimed at families and younger kids so, in that regard, it’s colourful with good messages and enough going on to please. But the ingredients are all there for this to have been all of that and then some; it lacks personality so, as a result, lacks stakes and any decent characters – beyond Dora – and feels a little too bland to truly shine.
Dora and the Lost City Of Gold is released in cinemas 16th August.
