‘Dora’ explores her way into a surprisingly fun movie

Posted on August 16, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

As I said in my preview last week, I never watched the “Dora the Explorer” cartoon on Nickelodeon. As such, I really didn’t know what to expect from her live-action debut, “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.”

The story picks up eight years after the television series, with Dora now a teenager and still living in the jungle with her parents and her trusty sidekick, Boots. The show debuted in 2000, so in a way it makes sense to age up the character for the movie, since her audience will have aged about the same amount since then.

Hollywood developed a bad habit back in the mid-2000s when it adapted a number of television series to the big screen in a very jokey, almost mean-spirited way. Since then, I always get a bit nervous whenever a series is adapted into a movie. Of course, Nickelodeon has no reason to make fun of its own property, and as such, “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” delivers a surprising amount of entertainment while still having a little bit of fun with the premise.

This movie has a lot going for it, with some decent action, some quality comedy and a lot of homages to the original series. Not everything works, though, including Swiper, a character from the show who will surely delight fans but never seems to fit into the world of the live-action movie. There is also some patented Nickelodeon low-brow humor that didn’t feel necessary

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