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'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' Is a Fun Movie That Doesn't Quite Rise Above the Standard For Its Genre

No spoilers!

By Jonathan SimPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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I was not the target demographic for this movie. You know why? Because I was expecting Dora and Diego to kiss. Then I remembered that they were cousins.

So... I'm just gonna sit in the corner now.

Here We Go!

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is an adventure film written by Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson, and directed by James Bobin. So, if you've ever wondered what a Dora movie would be if it was written by the guy who wrote Sex Tape, and the guy who wrote Monster Trucks, you've come to the right place.

This movie is a live-action adaptation of the children's educational TV show, Dora the Explorer, and it stars Isabela Moner as a teenage Dora who gets kidnapped on a school trip with her friends, and must go an adventure to save her parents.

As I said earlier, I am not the target demographic for this movie, so as usual, judging this movie will be a bit harder than judging others. I didn't watch that much Dora growing up, but I'm pretty sure those who did will find some enjoyment in this movie.

This movie is pretty fun. It's a family-friendly Nickelodeon adventure that kids can watch and have fun with. The best thing this movie has to offer is Moner's performance, who brightened the screen with her optimism and quirkiness as her character, really bringing the character to life.

And besides Moner, most of the performances are good, but my problem is that some of them can feel very Nickelodeon-esque and childish.

Madeleine Madden's performance comes to mind because even though she nailed an American accent, her acting felt like it was very child-oriented, and so I had a hard time buying into her character.

This movie does have some fun in a lot of the action sequences. It kind of reminded me of Indiana Jones, but with kids as the heroes and the target demographic.

But I feel like this movie wasn't as good as it could have been because of the issues this movie had. First off, the humor almost never lands. I was in a theater full of kids, and there were almost no scenes where people actually laughed at the jokes, because 95 percent of them just aren't very funny.

The characters also aren't very interesting. We don't get any more development for them besides their basic personalities. The biggest disappointment is Nicholas Coombe's character of Randy, who was given so little to do in the story, and so little backstory that he could have been removed from the film and it wouldn't have changed anything.

He cracks a few jokes, none of which are funny, and it seemed like he'd end up in a relationship with Dora, but it never came to fruition.

Also, not all the characters don't have any real arcs. Dora doesn't have one, and the only ones that do are Diego and Sammy, but they're sloppily done. It doesn't really feel like they change BECAUSE of the events that occur in the film, and because of that, their arcs can feel unearned.

The story is pretty average, and there's a twist in the movie where virtually the only piece of foreshadowing is when the twist is explicitly told to us, but we're supposed to just dismiss it until the actual reveal.

I also thought the CGI characters looked really bad. I might be more spoiled now since the "live-action" Lion King was just released, but Boots, Backpack, and Maps all just looked really fake to me.

Because of all these issues, this movie can feel like a Nickelodeon TV movie that got a theatrical release. It's a movie that could have a bit more maturity, but is instead just forgettable by the end of it. But if you love Dora or you're under the age of 12, you should enjoy this movie.

I'm gonna give 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' a 6/10 (C).

Man, I can't wait for Oscar season. Thank you for reading.

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About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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