SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Offering kid-friendly fun that’s more than tolerable for adults too, Dora’s live-action debut is mostly carried by Isabela Moner’s excellent performance.
The biggest question I had when the time came for me to watch a live-action adaptation of Dora the Explorer is “is it weird for a guy past his teens to go see this?” Even as someone who doesn’t mind going to the movies alone and doesn’t understand why the stigma of going to the movies solo exists, that question was more prominent in my mind than usual. It isn’t exactly the kind of stuff the regular unaccompanied adult watches. Then again, Dora doesn’t make any pretensions of being more than a good kid-friendly comedy. It’s not a film that lends itself well to adult critics picking it to pieces and giving its flaws the third degree. So ultimately, it all boils down to the question of whether the kids will like it. And the answer is most definitely yes, and even adults and parents will find that they won’t wind up suffering nearly as much as usual.
A live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s immensely popular Dora the Explorer cartoon, Dora and the Lost City of Gold sees a teenage Dora (Isabela Moner) moving out of the jungle home she shared with her parents (Michael Peña and Eva Longoria) to the city to live with her extended family including her abuela and her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg). While Dora attends high school for the very first time, her parents go deep into the Amazon rainforest in search of a lost Incan city. The legendary city, supposedly overflowing with treasure, soon attracts the attention of ruthless treasure hunting mercenaries who kidnap Dora and a band of teens from her school. Stuck in the rainforest, Dora and co. must work together to save her parents and find the lost city.
Anyone who’s seen a movie on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel will already have a good idea of what to expect. The plot is easy to follow for its target audience and there’s a cheesy teen romance that doesn’t really work, plus a few cringeworthy lines and scenes. Our characters are never in much real danger. A rhythm where our characters encounter new puzzles and solve them is quickly established. Potty humour is also fairly abundant, including a sequence where the movie is temporarily put on hold so everyone, adults included, can have a good giggle about how quicksand makes fart noises. I could go on. However, much like a G-rated Indiana Jones, it’s practically impossible not to be just a little charmed by this movie, unless you’re a stone-hearted statue unfamiliar with the concept of joy.
The film is a little lacking when it comes to effects, and it’s particularly obvious on the talking animals, but again it’s essentially on par with the aforementioned TV movies. If nothing else, this film’s creators embrace all the silliness of the cartoon, of talking maps and backpacks, and of mask-wearing foxes (Swiper no swiping), and on occasion, Dora actually does surprise. Cartoon Dora shows up in a sequence that’s both wacky and genuinely imaginative, and the film also briefly introduces a live-action young Dora, as a further nod to the cartoon and as a way to ground this adaptation for those fans still unsure about the character being aged up.
And aging up has proven to be a good move. Isabela Moner is a genuine delight to watch as she effortlessly captures the character’s youth in spirit and remains perpetually upbeat and chipper from start to finish. Dora has grown older without growing up and lost none of her childhood pep in the process. In a film about being true to yourself, it’s fitting that Dora herself cares less about fitting in, and more about being herself, no matter how weird others might find her to be. Moner is well-aware of the comedy of her character’s adventures, delivering a perfectly layered performance with spot-on comedic timing and an infectiously positive sing-a-song attitude while displaying plenty of emotional range. It’s no exaggeration to say that she carries the film; Michael Peña and Danny Trejo, who voices Dora’s monkey Boots, appear too infrequently to be properly noteworthy, while Dora’s friends and enemies are unfortunately never unexpected in the same way as she is.
Unfortunately, Moner’s performance isn’t quite enough to make this film a must-see for adults, even if it represents decent kid-friendly entertainment. On the other hand, it’s easy enough to accept Dora for what it is, simply because the film itself doesn’t waste time trying needlessly to be more than the things that made the series popular all over the world. The people behind it know that that’s enough, and for once, the end result is a kids’ film that adults can actually enjoy rather than simply tolerate.
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