Dora and the Lost City of Gold focuses on the title character, played by Isabela Moner, as a teenager and being sent to live in Los Angeles with her cousin Diego, played by Jeff Wahlberg, while her parents - played by Michael Pena and Eva Longoria, respectively - search for the titular lost city known as Parapata. Dora struggles adjusting to life in LA though she and Diego soon find themselves kidnapped by a group of mercenaries and sent to Peru, along with two of their classmates. They’re soon rescued by a mysterious man named Alejandro, played by Eugenio Derbez, who claims that Dora’s parents are missing, and the group sets out on a rescue mission to find them.
Playing like a kid-friendly version of the Indiana Jones movies, this adaptation of the Nickelodeon series Dora the Explorer is surprisingly a lot more fun than one would think it would be. The film is a fast-paced series of adventures as Dora and her friends encounter obstacle after obstacle while traversing the jungles of Peru. The encounter quicksand, have to solve ancient puzzles, and even have to escape various attacks from the mercenaries set out to recapture them. A lot of these scenes are shot exceptionally well, with a lot of great set pieces, and an intense soundtrack that make many of these moments exciting to watch.
While the film is fast-paced, it never feels rushed, nor is there really a disconnect between many of these scenes. There’s still an overarching story that gets repeatedly addressed throughout this film that never feels tacked on or shoehorned in. A lot of the film’s themes involve accepting others who may be different from you, as well as being able to adapt and mature in new surroundings. And this film does a great job addressing these through the relationship between Dora, Diego, and their two classmates Sammy and Randy, played by Madeleine Madden and Nicholas Coombe, respectively. The chemistry between all of them feels believable and the bond they all form as the movie goes on feels earned.
This is a film that feels genuine and has a heart. Most of the characters aren’t necessarily portrayed as being cartoonishly over-the-top. These are all characters that feel real and believable, at least as real as it can get for a kids movie about a group of teenagers having to survive the jungles of Peru. The protagonists don’t feel like they can always do no wrong, while the antagonists simply don’t rub it in the face of the audience with how evil they are. The protagonists are flawed, while the antagonists have enough of a personality that makes them enjoyable to watch.
At the center of it all is Isabela Moner, whose performance is by far one of the best things about this movie. She gives an extremely committed performance here, but knows how to have fun with the role, knowing exactly what she needs to bring to a movie of this nature. She’s charming, funny, quick-witted, and is full of energy that she’s almost instantly enjoyable to watch from the moment she’s on screen.
And she has a solid supporting cast backing her, with Michael Pena and Eugenio Derbez being the two standouts from the rest of the cast. Derbez brings the right air of mystery to Alejandro, while never laying it on too thick, and still managing to work well with the rest of the cast. Pena, meanwhile, though only in the movie briefly, manages to get a lot of great laughs in the short time he’s on screen. Many of his scenes involve him rambling about various topics that give off a hint of the stories he’d tell in the Ant-Man films, even if they’re not necessarily as fast-paced.
The film’s humor in general is easily another one of its most commendable elements. There is a lot of self-aware humor in this film, with a lot of it skewing many of the elements that made the original Dora the Explorer such a hit when it was first released. In the TV series, Dora constantly broke the fourth wall, asking audience members where a certain object was or how to pronounce a certain word. This film will make multiple nods to this, with Dora seemingly talking to the camera and another character commenting on that fact, or having Dora ask to spell a certain word that’s way too difficult, and these are often very funny, with the laughs coming at a consistent pace. And not only is it really funny, but it also shows off how the film is actually a lot smarter than it initially lets on, and doesn’t pander to its target audience.
There are times in which the humor doesn’t work, mainly when it starts delving into scatological humor. For a film that contains a fair amount of really intelligent jokes, it’s a bit unfortunate to see not one, but multiple scenes revolving around poop jokes that don’t really work. They’re not in the movie often, but they’re definitely in there one time too many, and feel like they were added in as a fallback in cast younger audiences couldn’t really connect with some of the wittier jokes.
There are some other minor issues with the film, one of which being a few instances where the CGI is definitely way too obvious and makes the movie come off as hokey. There’s a sequence in which a bunch of scorpions are attacking one of the characters, and they look really fake. For a movie that has plenty of great instances of CGI, it’s disappointing to see these few so out of place.
Also, the inclusion of Swiper the Fox seems a bit off-putting, especially as he’s seen teamed up with mercenaries, with little to no explanation, as well as the fact that he’s only seen a handful of times in this movie. While Benicio del Toro is very funny as Swiper, it would have been nice to see him add a little more to the story rather than just shoehorn him in through the most convoluted means possible, especially given he’s such a prominent character in the show.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold is probably one of the year’s biggest surprises, and it’s easily one of the most entertaining movies released this summer. For the most part, it’s a much more intelligent film than it lets on, with a lot of great self-referential humor and witty dialogue exchanges that even adults will be able to enjoy. And it has a great sense of adventure and fun, with a quick pace and tight screenplay, that rarely feels rushed and doesn’t lose its heart. And at the center of it all is a great performance by Isabela Moner, who shines as the title character with a fantastic sense of energy that keeps audiences engaged till the very end.
Recommendation: Watch It
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