This is Isabel Moner. She stars as Dora in the live-action film of Dora and the Los City of Gold, based on the cartoon, Dora the Explorer. We didn’t watch a lot of Dora when my kids were young but we watched it occasionally so I am familiar with it. The cartoon took Dora on a variety of scavenger hunts through the jungle with her trusty sidekick, Boots the monkey, a seemingly bottomless backpack and a map. Not just any map, but a map that felt compelled to announce his arrival through a theme song that consisted on one line, “I’m the map” that repeated over and over and is such an earworm that I just got stuck in my head as I wrote this -argh! Stupid Map! Anyway, the first trailer dropped so let’s give this a whirl, shall we?
If you haven’t heard me say it before: every movie should cast Michael Peña. I find him delightful. It’s looks like he and Eva Longoria are well matched in this. I’ll be honest, the plot is much more complex than I would have guessed for a Dora the Explorer film. I didn’t expect all the layers like sending Dora to regular school because the jungle is too dangerous, only to redeposit her back in the jungle but now she has to look after some “regular: kids. It also looks like there are some cute winks and nudges like the fact the parents disappear, because you spend a lot of time wondering where the hell they are during the cartoon. That and someone finally questioning the safety of this young lady walking around with machetes and pickaxes. I am interested in what they will do with Diego. He’s kind of her mentor in the cartoon right? Dora’s nemesis is a red fox named Swiper who keeps trying to steal things she needs to complete her adventures. He’s not in the trailer but he’s voiced by Benicio del Toro in this, that should be amusing. I had zero interest in a live action Dora movie before this trailer, but I’m in now. It comes out August 12th.
I swear to God, if they try to sneak that damn map song in there, you’ll hear my wails from the West Coast.
Michael Peña with his Narcos co-star, Diego Luna, who is not in Dora but should be because yum
Danny Trejo voices Boots
Photo credit: WNN Photos and YouTube
Danny Trejo as Boots will make this worth it. My kids aren’t into Dora at all but I’ll make them watch it because it was filmed near us and I am pretending to support the local film industry.
But really, Danny Trejo.
No. Plus this concept of ‘Lost Gold’ feeds into a colonial mentality. If gold artifacts are found they belong to the nation in which they were found. Not to the person who found them. Also Livingstone was an explorer. What did he find. Africa? I dont think so. Those 2 trail makers headed West. But the lands were already lived in by Native Americans. Why would a childrens author try to infantilise & romanticise that kind of history.
But I’m probably being too serious. After all I consider that Trolls movie that Justin Timberlake did to be about cannibalism & depression. I was so shocked. Put me off seeing kids movies like forever.
I enjoyed the HELL out of your thoughtful comment!!!!
You are not wrong – my first thought was it looked like Indiana Jones, so theft and appropriation from Native people. I agree that I wish the storyline was different b/c the cast and rest of the concept look like fun (the kidnapping is a little dark).
All the kids in my life are out of the “Dora demographic” now. Is she still big? Looks cute. Diego’s looking a bit rough, teen years can be brutal. 😁
Michael Peña is a delightful actor so it breaks my heart that he’s one of Xenu’s lackeys. Yet another Scientologist. I can’t hope for his bigger success when I know where his money goes.
That’s why I think it was smart to make her older (freshman, I think). It hits the group that was raised on Dora, but updates it to where they are.
I think I’ll pass. I’ve successfully avoided shows like Dora, Peppa pig and a lot more as my 2 year old son only watches most of the programmes shown on Cbeebies. I wasn’t a fan of Teletubbies but as my son likes them (he call them telebabies) I don’t mind them so much now.
Aw, my son liked Teletubbies, too, so I’ll always have a soft spot for them. I even got him a Po doll for Christmas and it was his absolute favorite toy for a long time. It’s one of the few I’ve saved, and my son is almost 20 now! Enjoy these precious days with your kiddo!
Awwww! I’ve never been a fan of Teletubbies when I was growing up, probably because I was in my teens when I became aware of them but I kind of like them now. A lot of the shows (In the night garden, moon and baby, abney and teal, etc) to me are weird or creep me out but that’s because I’m not their target demographic whilst my son loves them.
Omg, my family still says, ‘Swiper no swiping!’
Haha. My son was a very late talker and when he was being evaluated by a speech pathologist he said “oh man” in response to something. She commented about how it was a funny but appropriate response and I had to tell her he was just scripting from Dora.
Yes! Oh man with a finger snap. So many cartoons in our history, it’s amazing we keep em straight lol.
Good, now Gina Rodriguez can stop harassing black people re: shows with Latin@ leads.
My kids were never into Dora, but we are always looking for family friendly movies, so we may see this. Isabela Moner is adorable and worth watching.
it looks cute. hope it does well. wonder why they didnt cast someone a lil younger though and made her go to like..6th grade instead of high school. if this movie is a hit and requires multiple sequels the actress playing dora will age out of the role. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I hated this show because it almost ruined my beautiful name at its peak but I haven’t heard Go Diego Go in years so I might even watch this to support a Hispanic led film.
Watched the trailer with my ten-year-old and she’s totally into it. I wasn’t not convinced that a full-length Dora movie would work b/c while I liked the show for my kids, it wasn’t exactly narratively interesting. I am cautiously optimistic.
I will buy the Blu ray to support, but my kids are over Dora and would resort to playing on their phones during the movie! My baby is 8 and would rather watch the nature channel or craft videos on youtube kids.
It looks like good family fun, and I would love to have my kids see a Latino cast like this, so yeah, I’d see it with my kids. I like the comments about imperialism too, and would use it as a teaching moment about that as well.
The actress cast as Dora looks perfect.
I didn’t understand who the demographic for this was, but the trailer looks amusing. But i won’t watch it. My kids are too little to watch it with and I personally don’t care enough about Dora. But for the kids who grew up with her and are tweens now would probably like it.
Nope, not here for this. I have four kids and have been watching Dora for more than a decade. Dora is 5-7 years old, not a teen. She doesn’t explore the jungle with knives and weapons.
If they wanted to make a movie for tweens, fine. But that’s not Dora. That’s not even the terrible older version of Dora from Dora and friends.
Apparently I am a Dora purist.
Agreed. Dora is about 7 and gets everywhere she needs to go in 3 easy steps. Always 3, no more, no less.
Dora and Friends is truly awful.
It looks a heck of a lot better than the Kim Possible movie, at least.
I’ll see your “I’m the map” song and raise you a “backpack, backpack! Backpack, backpack!”