Rated: PG
Directed by: James Bobin
Story by: Tom Wheeler and Nicholas Stoller
Screenplay by: Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson
Produced by: Kristin Burr p. g. a.
Executive Produced by: Julia Pistor, Eugenio Derbez, John G. Scotti
Starring: Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, Adriana Barraza, Temuera Morrison, Jeff Wahlberg, Nicholas Coombe, Madeleine Madden, and Danny Trejo.
A good fun peppy adventure teen-movie.
It’s hard not to at least have come across Dora the Explorer at some stage – I remember waking up with a self-inflicted sore head on Boxing Day or Christmas morning to a painfully cheery voice as a young nephew watched an excited Dora exclaiming Spanish words on TV.
So, I wondered what a movie adaptation would make of a little girl teaching Spanish – can you say, Dora The Explorer not the cartoon version but human?
Yet the film immediately charms by referencing Dora’s teaching behaviour with Dora’s parents (Michael Peña and Eva Longoria) looking around confused, trying to figure out who Dora is actually speaking to – ‘She’ll grow out of it.’ Says archaeologist, professor dad (Michael Peña hilarious in this role).
So I felt the adaptation had something going for it if the writers have turned the film into a meta conversation while having at laugh at itself.
And Isabela Moner as Dora was well-cast as the warm-hearted teen who has learnt everything she knows about life from the jungle.
But it’s time for Dora to find friends her own age (and species); it’s time, for Dora to move to the city and start High School.
This is a film aimed at a younger audience as peppy Dora fights to be herself while also trying to fit in.
But it’s a kid movie made with sophistication, with montages of polaroids depicting Dora’s journey as a cut-out aeroplane moves across a map, the film reverting from live people to cartoon characters, the continued self-referencing – ‘Let’s make a song out of it!’. And the soundtrack was pretty cool as well.
What I really liked about the film is how the teen-learning-life-lessons turns into an adventure movie.
It took a while to get going, my nephew telling it how it is asking, ‘Why is she called Dora The Explorer if she’s not exploring?”
Then, the search for Parapatas (The Lost City Of Gold) heats up.
So instead of trying too hard with the jokes (that didn’t always hit the mark, for me, anyway), there’s more clever and adventure while solving ‘jungle puzzles’ and making friends, flipping the film from teen, to cute (see Mr Boots, so obviously an animated puppet, yet still very entertaining), to cartoon Dora, to full action adventure – mind altering spores included.
So the film brings the adults on-side while keeping the kids entertained with the rest of it.
I’m not saying the film was mind blowing, but in the end, I had some fun watching this one.