Dora And The Lost City Of Gold

Having grown up on a steady diet of Nickelodeon shows, I hold a certain degree of regard for the orange house. With that being said, Nickelodeon is a mixed bag when it comes to feature releases (they've made both "Rango" and "The Last Airbender"). As the ruder and cooler family alternative to Disney, there is an expectation that a Nick (that's what the cool kids call it) production will have some kind of edge to it. So the choice to make a teenaged "Dora the Explorer" movie isn't so much unexpected as it is puzzling. Yet, "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" shows promise before becoming buried in tedium.

Dora has grown up deep in the Amazonian jungle. Her first 16 years of life have been chock full of animals, an archeologically rich education, and, of course, exploring. But when Dora discovers a key piece of the puzzle to the search for the mysterious lost city of gold, Parapata, she is forced to move to the city while her parents continue their quest. While Dora is navigating the treacherous waters of high school, her parents go missing. Now it is up to Dora and her new friends to save her family.

"Dora and the Lost City of Gold" starts almost shockingly strong. I sat down fully expecting to not understand any of the references (as a 30-something with no children, I know little of Dora's world) and just be generally bored. But there is something delightfully endearing to the earnestness with which Dora is portrayed. Imbuing the formally animated character with real-world energy is Isabela Merced in a performance that is delightfully disconnected from reality. She captures all of young Dora's excitement for education and life without crossing into the land of grating annoyance. Along with Michael Pe�a's sweet portrayal of Dora's father, Cole, I cannot recommend the movie's first 30 minutes more enthusiastically. Unfortunately, as soon as Pe�a is sidelined, Merced is left to contend with a cast of generic characters in trite set pieces.

The other teenage characters are written as if a 50-year-old used '80s-era high school stereotypes and then got a quick glimpse of Instagram to update them to the present day (i.e., not update them at all). It's disappointing but no more disappointing than the presence of Swiper, a masked fox known for stealing things from the animated show, who is voiced by Benicio del Toro (not a joke). It is one of the strangest things I've seen in a movie this year, and at no point is it even remotely addressed. (Seriously, I need a 1000+ word deep dive into why people just talk openly to Swiper but Boots is over here playing charades.)

The Blu-ray release is pretty standard for a kid's movie. There is a set of bloopers, deleted/extended scenes, and a handful of fairly minor featurettes. They are cute, but not exactly anything to get excited about. Although, I'm sure there aren't many hardcore "Dora the Explorer" fans clamoring for an in-depth exploration of the machinations of this live-action version. "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" is a cute but largely forgettable family adventure with spots of surprisingly smart humor. Now I'm off to research just how Benicio del Toro prepared to become Swiper.

"Dora and the Lost City of Gold"
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital
$19.96
https://www.paramount.com/movies/dora-and-lost-city-gold