Dora and the Lost City of Gold

Starring: Isabela Merced, Michael Pena, Eva Longoria, Benicio Del Toro (voice), Jeff Wahlberg, Eugenio Derbez, Danny Trejo (voice), Madeleine Madden
Directed by: James Bobin
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Dora (Isabela Merced) must venture into a dangerous jungle to search for her missing parents (Michael Pena, Eva Longoria).

Review:

Tim: I have to say, I'm quite frankly stunned by how much I enjoyed Dora and the Lost City of Gold. I was familiar with Dora the Explorer, but I never spent any real time watching the show. I was just vaguely familiar with the character. Director James Bobin (helped by a great script) created an entertaining, humorous, exciting adventure that pays tribute to the original cartoon, while also updating the character for 2019. This movie is good (no where close to great), but that's a huge achievement.

There's a bunch of things I really enjoyed about the script. First off, having Dora as a teenager makes so much sense. People who watched the show when they were younger will connect much better with this older Dora. It continues her story and expands the character to new, more grown-up adventures. I also loved that the film pokes fun at the character and the cartoon. This might be done through showing how out of touch with modern civilization Dora would be (considering she grew up in a remote jungle), or through an absolutely hilarious hallucination scene where everyone shows up as the animated character. It really was a brilliant take on this character. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed the movie so much. A live action, PG-version of Dora the Explorer should never have worked in a million years. It's a terrible idea. And yet, watching this movie, you realize that the writers cracked the film. They found a way to tell a new story while staying true to the original. I don't know if all viewers picked up on how incredibly difficult this feat was to pull off.

It helps that the movie cast Isabela Merced as Dora. She's going to be a star. She gives such an incredible performance. She balances the character perfectly- she displays her over-the-top earnestness while also seeming like she's in on the joke. Her performance is far better than you'd expect from someone in the role like this. She was energetic, funny, and charismatic. I can't say enough about how wonderful her performance was- you almost believe she's a grown-up Dora. Merced absolutely makes this movie.

The film gets help from supporting performances by Michael Pena and Eva Longoria. Pena is wonderful in literally anything and he doesn't disappoint here. He was quite good as Dora's dad. Longoria might not do much that's memorable, but she works well in her role. I didn't really see the appeal of Benicio Del Toro and Danny Trejo's voice work. Both characters felt a bit hard for me to follow. I know this comes from the show, but not being a viewer of that, this was the most inaccessible part of the entire movie. I simply didn't understand this aspect. I know it stayed true to the original cartoon, but it felt like that aspect of the film was one of the weakest. It might appeal to fans of the show, but it felt unnecessary to me.

Now, as much as I like this movie, it's not like it was a great film. The source material really doesn't lend itself to a feature length film, so even though it had a great script, it does often run up against those limitations. Too many aspects of the film felt too childish, even for younger viewers. The movie asks you to suspend disbelief a bit too often. The script also had a number of overly obvious moments. Still, while these things hold the film back from bigger things, it takes nothing away from the movie.

I have to admit, when I sat down to watch Dora and the Lost City of Gold, I seriously wondered what I was doing. It was too mature for my four year-old son and I'd never watched much of the show. Why on earth was I subjecting myself to this? I was so pleasantly surprised that not only did the film feel like it wasn't a waste of time, but that I actually enjoyed it for its own merit. This is a good movie and one of the more pleasantly surprising films of the year.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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