Doraand the Lost City of Gold is a self-aware kids film that will definitely appeal to kids but its cheesy material, overly derivative and predictable nature, and incredibly annoying lead performance by Isabela Moner make it a tough watch and something more fitting for a straight-to-video offering. Kids films are a tricky thing as they must MovieReviews; Movies by the Decade; Screenings CITIES A – K :: MORE Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a surprisingly fun film Anendearing part of the movie was how the script found a way to crack jokes about the original Dora show without parodying it — the song-for-every-situation, and Dora asking viewers to repeat new words, and then pausing. Updated: August 12, 2019 1:18:33 pm. Doraand the Lost City of Gold focuses on a young hispanic girl, and teaches audiences the power of positivity and leadership. Parents will notice a few famous voices in the movie, with Benicio del Toro voicing Swiper the fox and Danny Trejo voicing Boots the monkey. The film maintains some of the most adored parts of the animated show, such as Sofar, so basic. Still, it's important to keep in mind that the target audience won't have seen the countless jungle adventure movies that "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" is actively recycling Vay Tiền Nhanh Ggads. Swiper No Swiping Dora and the Lost City of Gold feels like a niche film for a very specific audience. If you’re part of that audience, this is likely to be a wildly entertaining and hilarious family adventure. What it does, it does incredibly well with plenty of in-jokes from the cartoon and a handful of well written, goofy jokes that help keep the tone suitably light and adventurous. However, the lack of explanation around key Dora the Explorer concepts like the map and Swiper, along with very basic character arcs make this a film designed specifically for families and children who have grown up with Dora, rather than the average movie-goer. Beginning with a brief prologue including Dora and cousin Diego, the film skips forward in time as we see Dora separated from her cousin where he leaves the rainforest and heads off for the concrete jungle in Los Angeles. Growing into an adventurous but naive young woman, Dora is taken away from the rainforest at the request of her parents to stay with cousin Diego, who’s very much acclimatized to the harsh realities of the real world. Dressed in bright, vibrant colours, our naive young explorer finds herself struggling to adapt to this harsh, new world before being thrown back into the jungle again to save her parents from a greater threat that appears. From here the film sees Dora and a handful of misfits band together to try and save Dora’s parents, all whilst navigating treacherous traps, quicksand and a number of other nasty additions to the jungle. Dora and the Lost City of Gold reminds me of old family-orientated adventure films like Flubber, Jumanji and Small Soldiers. The concepts may be different but that cheesy style combined with self-aware comedy and basic characterisation shine through and give the film some depth and personality. Dora settles into its groove early on and throughout the film, the pacing is perfectly poised between fast action pieces and slower, comedic segments. The balance is handled really well here and throughout this 100 minute film, Dora never feels like it drags on unnecessarily. If you’ve grown up with kids obsessed with Dora the Explorer, Nickelodeon’s latest animated adaptation is for you. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone and failing spectacularly, Dora defiantly sticks to its target market and is all the stronger for it. It’s a classic, fun-filled family adventure with plenty of goofy jokes and well-written action pieces to keep things interesting. It’s certainly not for everyone and at times the special effects do feel cheaper than they perhaps should for the big screen. However, there’s enough jokes and subtle nods toward the source material here to make this the perfect example of how to adapt an animated children’s show whilst keeping the integrity and spirit of the original in check. Parents and kids will certainly love this but perhaps everyone else may not take to it quite so fondly. Click Here To Go Back To Our Film Reviews Review of Dora and the Lost City of Gold on You may be dreading the prospect of having to schlep with your kids to the multiplex to see “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.” The idea of sitting through a big-screen version of the long-running Nickelodeon series “Dora the Explorer” probably sounds like pure torture—even more facile messaging, rudimentary animation and sing-songy delivery for the littlest viewers. Sure, the show means well, and its emphasis on Latinx culture and bilingual education is essential, but a little goes a long way. At home, you can tune out, check your phone, fold some laundry, do anything else besides actually watch an entire episode of “Dora.” But I am here to tell you that you will be shockingly entertained. “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” manages to ride a fine line between being true to the characters and conventions of the series and affectionately skewering them. Director James Bobin and co-writer Nicholas Stoller, who previously collaborated on the most recent “Muppets” movies, achieve a similar sense of humor and tonal balance here. They’re making fun of the inherently surreal nature of the show without tipping all the way over into parody or cruelty. They recognize how insane it is that Dora’s friends include a talking backpack and map, for example, or that her chief adversary in the jungle, Swiper, is a fox wearing a bandit’s mask. But they also see the importance of celebrating a strong, confident little girl with a kind heart, resourceful mind and fearless spirit. Pulling off this tricky feat at the center of it all is the actress playing Dora herself, the magnetic Isabela Moner, whose performance is reminiscent of Amy Adams’ thoroughly delightful work in “Enchanted.” She’s giddy and guileless—borderline manic at times—and she has an unflappably sunny demeanor no matter the scenario. Whether she’s encountering a deadly, poisonous frog or digging a hole to help a friend relieve herself in the wilderness, she’s got a can-do attitude and likely a song for every occasion. But Moner is also in on the joke, bringing expert comic timing and just the right amount of a knowing wink to these perky proceedings. Following supporting roles in films including “Transformers The Last Knight” and “Sicario Day of the Soldado,” this is a star-making performance—so much so that it makes you wish the whole film were as good as she is. Dora has grown up in the Peruvian rainforest with her zoologist mother Eva Longoria and archaeologist father Michael Peña. It’s an idyllic existence that has sharpened her wits and fostered her curiosity, but it hasn’t exactly made her street smart. In fact, she’s never really had any other friends her age—or human friends, period—besides her cousin Diego, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a little girl. Now that she’s a teenager, her parents have decided to send her to Los Angeles to attend high school with Diego Jeff Wahlberg while they go on a dangerous mission to find the elusive, mysterious Parapata, the lost city of gold. Adriana Barraza, part of the strong Latinx cast, brings grace to the role of Dora and Diego’s abuelita. Dora’s fish-out-of-water antics are quickly and consistently amusing, whether she’s offering a cheery hello in English and Spanish to every stranger on the street or navigating the pitfalls of public-school adolescence. She’s so darn innocent and earnest, you can’t help but root for her—or at least hope she’ll survive. Wahlberg brings a deadpan humor as the increasingly mortified Diego, while Madeleine Madden plays the bossy queen bee who’s threatened by her smarts and Nicholas Coombe is the self-deprecating nerd who’s enamored of them. If only the story had remained in There’s plenty of material to mine there as Dora strives to find her way in such a vastly different environment while still staying true to herself. But the script from Stoller and Matthew Robinson contrives to send Dora, Diego, and their friends back to South America for a series of “Indiana Jones”-lite adventures. There, they team up with the frantic and grating Eugenio Derbez as a fellow explorer who’s also searching for Parapata. A series of “jungle puzzles,” as Coombes’ character calls them, causes the film to fall into a steady and episodic rhythm, which is a bit of a letdown compared to the lively and subversive nature of the first half. But if you’ve ever wondered what to do if you should find yourself stuck in quicksand, Dora has the answer to the dilemma—and every other one, for that matter. Christy Lemire Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here. Now playing Film Credits Dora and the Lost City of Gold 2019 Rated PG for action and some impolite humor. 100 minutes Latest blog posts about 7 hours ago about 10 hours ago about 11 hours ago 1 day ago Comments Dora the Explorer was 7 years old when audiences met her on television, a sing-songy polymath who traveled the map seeking answers and solving puzzles, accompanied by a big-mouthed backpack and an equally loquacious monkey, Boots. Nearly 20 years have passed since the adventure show first aired enough to cultivate a massive global awareness, but only 10 in Dora’s world, which means her live-action debut, director James Bobin’s “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” gives audiences of all ages the chance to see the character — whose unquenchable thirst for education knows no bounds — face the ultimate test adjusting to an American high school. If that sounds like a pretext for a snappy, self-parodying TV-to-film adaptation — something in the vein of “21 Jump Street” or “The Dukes of Hazzard,” perhaps — think again. Yes, the movie is postmodern enough to acknowledge that there’s something odd about Dora’s penchant for breaking the fourth wall as when she turns and asks the audience, “Can you say delicioso’?” and composing spontaneous songs for any occasion. But the most endearing quality of Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson’s script — not counting that they didn’t try to whitewash their Latina heroine — is the way it permits Dora to remain indefatigably upbeat no matter what the situation, whether navigating treacherous Incan temples or facing an auditorium of jeering teenage peers. Even Indiana Jones gets nervous. But not Dora played here by Isabela Moner, who quips, “If you just believe in yourself, anything is possible,” before plummeting down a dangerous chasm, effectively demonstrating that positivity will only take one so far. Raised in the jungle by a pair of archaeology professors Eva Longoria and Michael Peña, Dora is sent off to attend high school in Los Angeles with her cousin Diego Jeff Wahlberg just as her parents set out to find the legendary city of Parapata. She would rather join them on the expedition, but for the film’s purposes, it’s far more interesting to see how Dora handles what we might call the “real world” — which is to say, public school metal detectors, a modest teen-friendly makeover and the humiliation of hazing. By confronting Dora with such indignities, the movie cleverly illustrates what she’s made of, while also giving her the chance to assemble a small posse of fellow outcasts, including formerly undisputed class smarty-pants Sammy Madeleine Madden, who’s instantly threatened by Dora’s intelligence, and the ultra-awkward Randy Nicholas Coombe, a typically Nickelodeon stereotype with weird hair and a virtually asexual screen chemistry. Together with Diego, these three wind up kidnapped and shipped back to South America, where a trustworthy adult named Alejandro Eugenio Derbez helps them escape. Now all the kids need to do is find Dora’s parents before the bad guys get to Parapata. So far, so basic. Still, it’s important to keep in mind that the target audience won’t have seen the countless jungle adventure movies that “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” is actively recycling — and even then, the genre dates back so many decades, even the previous generations’ reference points be they Allan Quatermain and Indiana Jones movies or more recent “Jumanji” and Tarzan remakes were effectively pieced together from earlier examples of the same. More important for them will be the question of how this live-action adaptation chooses to treat their favorite elements of the cartoon. How, for instance, do you handle a talking backpack? The answer Treat it as a bottomless utility sack, but scrap the ability to speak. Preschoolers love Swiper, the series’ sneaky fox antagonist voiced here by Benicio Del Toro, but will older audiences accept a computer-animated version of this silly character? And what’s the best way to reboot Boots, Dora’s simian companion? Unlike Disney’s recent “Aladdin” update, in which a too-realistic Abu wasn’t nearly as cute as his cartoon counterpart, the new-and-improved Boots maintains the original’s blue fur and exaggerated features, but looks right for the hyper-stylized jungle environment. Though DP Javier Aguirresarobe “Thor Ragnarok” makes those fantasy landscapes appear suitably lavish, director Bobin has wisely decided not to strive for realism here — an artistic choice that makes the frequently unconvincing visual effects seem more endearing than disappointing. That pays off particularly well in a field of enormous pink flowers, which trigger a hallucination many will consider the film’s high point. Whereas most of the cast and especially Derbez play broad, borderline-slapstick versions of their characters, Moner has the wide eyes and ever-chipper attitude we associate with Dora, but adds a level of charisma the animated character couldn’t convey. Previously featured in “Instant Family” and “Transformers The Last Knight,” the young actress shows obvious star potential, to the extent one hopes this film will be enough of a hit that we can watch her grow up to be a more naturally proportioned — but no less exciting — role model than Lara Croft. “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” goes out of its way to establish that the character isn’t a tomb raider or a treasure hunter, but rather an explorer, risking her life for the love of knowledge. That ranks her as perhaps the most “woke” big-screen adventurer since the invention of cinema, making Indy’s indignant “That belongs in a museum!” seem so 20th century by comparison. As Dora and her friends sing over the end credits, “We came together; that’s the real treasure.” Sure, it’s nice to see Dora make some friends she always got along fine by herself in the jungle, but discovers loneliness when she moves to Los Angeles, but that corny lyric all but dismisses their entire adventure. Even so, there’s something to be said for the way the movie rewards not just intelligence but cultural curiosity, while never making a big deal of race. Dora just so happens to know a lot of things, including three languages English, Spanish and Quechua, the indigenous tongue spoken by the guardians of Parapata. It’s a welcome surprise to see Native actress Q’orianka Kilcher, who played Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s “The New World,” pop up as one of these Incan stewards. The “Dora the Explorer” TV show is famous for its puzzles, during which Dora demands the audience’s participation. The movie is relatively weak in this department, serving up “National Treasure”-esque riddles and “Goonies”-like water slides for kids too young to have seen those movies. But when it comes time for Dora to solve the climactic test — she’s asked to make a sacrifice “of that which is most valuable” — we realize just how solid her values are. While the film may be rudimentary in many respects, it would also be fair to say it represents a certain hope for the future When interacting with younger generations, it can be encouraging to discover that they haven’t necessarily been indoctrinated with the same biases as their parents, and in many cases, they seem instinctively more sensitive as a result. Maybe we could learn something from Dora after all. Isabela Moner deftly updates the animated heroine in a film that, after a shaky start, hits the right notes of fun and cultural specificity Paramount When “Dora the Explorer” made her debut on Nickelodeon in 2000, she not only became the first animated Latina character in a leading role but also birthed what would become the longest-running American TV show that featured characters speaking Spanish. The show is still running on Nickelodeon with new episodes. Nineteen years later, Dora gets the live-action treatment in “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” and despite an awkward first act, the film harkens back to the family-adventure genre that today’s parents can recall from their own childhoods. Dora Isabela Moner, “Instant Family” and her parents Michael Peña and Eva Longoria have lived in the jungles of South America for all of Dora’s life. The jungle is her home, her school and her playground, and like many young teenagers she runs through her life documenting everything with a GoPro strapped on, speaking to an invisible audience about the wonders of exploring the rain forest. For over a decade, in between homeschooling Dora and creating a family life in the jungle, her professor parents have been searching for the lost Incan city of Parapata and have just found the key to its location somewhere in the jungles of Peru. Watch Video New 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' Trailer Ends on Fart Jokes Wanting to keep Dora safe while they set off on a months-long exploration and also worried that perhaps she is a little socially inept, having never been around kids her own age, they send her to stay with her once-best friend, her cousin Diego Jeff Wahlberg, and his parents in Los Angeles, with only one piece of advice “Just be yourself.” And she tries. But the dangers of living among deadly animals and insects is a piece of cake compared to dealing with other teenagers. Feeling more isolated than ever before, Dora keeps in touch with her parents via a two-way radio that they use to update their daughter with their latest coordinates whenever they can. Suddenly, after months of constant communication, her parents go radio silent, which doesn’t alarm Dora until she, Diego and two kids from school end up getting kidnapped by booty-hunting mercenaries who want to use Dora to track her parents and, ultimately, to lead them to Parapata’s long-lost treasure. Watch Video 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' Trailer Shows the Explorer Facing the Jungle of High School The entire first act of “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” plays as though screenwriters Nicholas Stoller “Night School” and Matthew Robinson “Monster Trucks” couldn’t decide what they wanted the film to be Is it coming-of-age story? A fish-out-of-water tale? A by-the-book play on the original TV series? Or is this supposed to be “Mean Girls” for Gen Z? The tone is so uneven at times that the Spanish which Peña, Longoria and Moner all speak fluently sounds forced — as if the screenwriters wanted to make a statement “See? This is a Latino family!” It’s only once the script remembers that the character started out as a little girl who loves to explore new places — and who just happens to be a Latina — that the film begins to breathe, making room to embrace zany characters like the mysterious Alejandro Eugenio Derbez, the fox Swiper voiced by Benicio Del Toro and the monkey Boots voiced by Danny Trejo, among others. Also Read Eva Longoria on ABC's 'Grand Hotel' and Flipping the Upstairs, Downstairs Genre on Its Head It’s then that director James Bobin shifts the film into something that simultaneously honors the original show while waxing nostalgic on 1980s kid-friendly adventure films like “The Goonies,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and even “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Thanks to his experience directing both “The Muppets” and “Muppets Most Wanted,” Bobin is no stranger to creating a world where it’s completely natural to have a bandana-wearing fox roaming around swiping things for a living. But much credit is due to Oscar-winning production designer Dan Hennah “Lord of The Rings”, who creates a South American jungle that can both serve family adventure and bend to a hyper-reality with an animated monkey on a whim. While the entire ensemble is fun to watch, it’s Moner who sells “Dora and the Lost City of Gold.” I’m no “Dora” expert, but I did spend many hours a day oh, so many watching the animated series with my daughter during her toddler and preschool years, so there’s an emotional connection between the character and my daughter’s childhood that I wasn’t certain Moner could maintain. Also Read Michael Peña to Play Mr Roarke in 'Fantasy Island' Film The biggest challenge of an actor in any live-action update of an animated character is to make an audience that is already loyal to the original fall in love with a newer rendition. And that’s exactly what Moner does; her Dora has the DNA of everything that made the original so special while offering a fresh take for newer generations experiencing the character for the first time. She captures Dora’s wide-eyed innocence with aplomb while also allowing her to be just a teenager. In the second half, the film not only deploys Spanish but also Quechua, an indigenous language of the Quechua peoples who live mainly in Peru. It may be a small thing, and one only someone of Peruvian heritage like myself might catch, but if Quechua hadn’t been spoken by the indigenous people Dora meets in the film, I am not so sure I would have been convinced by the story. Offering indigenous representation, especially in language, opens eyes to the origins of Latinx cultures, free from an Anglo or Westernized perspective, allowing characters like Dora and her family to become something Latinos of all ages can revere and enjoy. Starring Adriana Barraza, Alice Lanesbury, Benicio Del Toro, Caillou Pettis, Carol Walker, Christopher Kirby, Danny Trejo, Dee Bradley Baker, Eric Cortez, Eugenio Derbez, Eva Longoria, Haley Tju, Isabela Moner, Isela Vega, Jeffrey Wahlberg, Justin Joseph Bieber, Lyric Wilson, Madeleine Madden, Madelyn Miranda, Malachi Barton, Marc Weiner, Michael Peña, Micke Moreno, Natasa Ristic, Nicholas Coombe, Q'orianka Kilcher, Sasha Toro, Temuera Morrison Summary Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, nothing could prepare Dora Isabela Moner for her most dangerous adventure ever – High School. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots her best friend, a monkey, Diego Jeffrey Wahlberg, a mysterious jungle inhabitant Eugenio Derbez, and a ragHaving spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, nothing could prepare Dora Isabela Moner for her most dangerous adventure ever – High School. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots her best friend, a monkey, Diego Jeffrey Wahlberg, a mysterious jungle inhabitant Eugenio Derbez, and a rag tag group of teens on a live-action adventure to save her parents Eva Longoria, Michael Peña and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost city of gold.… Expand Genres Action, Adventure, Family Rating PG Runtime 102 min

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