Dora & The Lost City of Gold

Yes, this is obviously aimed at kids – but it’s a surprisingly self-aware adventure-comedy, that’s actually packed full of meta-humour for the adults. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that this comes from the writing/directing team behind the recent Muppets movies.

Premise: Because 16-year-old Dora (Isabela Moner) has lived her entire life in the jungle with her explorer parents Cole (Michael Peña) and Elena (Eva Longoria), they decide to send her to LA to learn from other kids her age. But when her parents go missing while searching for the fabled lost Inca city of Parapata, Dora and her classmates soon find themselves following her parents’ trail through the Peruvian jungle.

Review:

I’ll be honest, I totally dismissed this feature length, live-action adaptation of the (pretty awful) animated kids show Dora The Explorer as soon as I heard about it, and none of the advertising for the film did anything to change my mind. However, had I known that this version came from the writing and directing team behind 2011’s The Muppets and 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted, I may have reconsidered.

Right from the start, this film is full of knowing winks aimed at the adults in the audience. The opening sequence is a cringe-inducing cheesy sequence where the 6-year-old Dora goes on an adventure with her talking backpack and talking map (just like in the animated series), that will fill all parents with a sense of panic as they brace themselves for another 90 minutes of this rubbish … but then it’s quickly revealed that these events are just happening in the imagination of Dora, as she sits in a cardboard-box jeep and plays with her soft toys – phew!

“…the emphasis is really on the comedy in this adventure-comedy, & it provides plenty of it…”

There are many more moments like this, such as when 6-year-old Dora looks straight at the camera to address the audience (just like in the animated show), but it then cuts to her parents wondering who she’s talking to, and if this is just a weird phase she’ll grow out of. The film is full of in-jokes and meta-humour aimed at the adults and parents in the audience, as well as more slapstick humour aimed at the children. The emphasis is really on the comedy in this adventure-comedy, and it provides plenty of it.

Story-wise, the film is in two sections. Firstly, Dora goes to LA to attend “normal” high school with her estranged cousin Diego, where she’s a complete fish out of water due to her social isolation. This plays out a bit like a cross between Crocodile Dundee and Mean Girls, and has some quite amusing sequences, such as when Dora’s backpack is examined by the school’s security officer.

“…there’s always plenty of humour to keep the adults amused…”

Things then step up a gear when Dora and three of her classmates find themselves in the Peruvian jungle, searching for Dora’s parents (who disappeared while searching for the lost city of Parapata), while also evading the treasure-hunting mercenaries led by Temuera Morrison’s villain. They’re helped by a former colleague of Dora’s parents’, Professor Alejandro Gutierrez (Eugenio Derbez), but he’s clearly out of his depth in the field, leaving it up to Dora to help the group survive in the jungle.

What follows is a fairly standard adventure plot, but the comedy is what really elevates the material. Whether it’s Dora singing a cheerful song about digging a jungle latrine, or the group being dosed with hallucinogenic spores, or the kids arguing about whether “jungle puzzles” are real or just in computer games, there’s always plenty of humour to keep the adults amused.

“…if you’re looking for some family-friendly entertainment, this really is a hidden gem…”

Kids will be enthralled by the story and the characters, while the humour keeps the adults engaged – so by the time a talking fox does eventually turn up halfway through, you just go with it! It helps, of course, that Swiper the Fox is voiced by Oscar winner Benicio del Toro, who is clearly having fun with the material, just as Michael Peña is as Dora’s dad, and Danny Trejo is in his cameo. In the lead role, Isabela Moner (who was great in Sicario 2: Soldado) does a great job of playing Dora with an innocent over-enthusiasm which works comedically without ever becoming annoying.

All in all, Dora & The Lost City of Gold probably isn’t a film that many adults will choose to see without a child, but if you’re looking for some family-friendly entertainment, this adventure-comedy really is a hidden gem.