A trailer for Dora played before The Lion King. My BFFF turns to me. “That looked surprisingly good. I might actually wanna see it” to which I replied “I’m probably going because I really like the adults in the cast (Michael Pena, Eva Longoria, Eugenio Derbez)” “That’s how you know you’ve grown up. When you go to a kids’ movie for the parents” But really tho, it actually looked good. My weekend looked like it could only fit in one movie, and that’s what I chose.
I think we’ve all got a passing familiarity with Dora the Explorer. I’m just a tad too old to have been raised on her, but I def know who she is and some of the basics about her. Now she’s all growed up and exploring her next jungle: high school. That is, until her parents go missing in the South American jungle and things happen that put her on their trail with some new potential friends.
I’m saying this with only that bit of Dora knowledge, but I think this was a brilliant way to bring her to the big screen. Her cartoon-y characteristics were addressed (talking to the screen, anthropomorphic objects, her penchant for bursting into song) but all of them were done in a way that was appropriate for the real world. And the way she interacted with the world was appropriate too. Yes she would be getting funny looks, but they don’t bring her down. She’s still positive and upbeat and maintains that spirit that makes Dora Dora.
Isabella Moner captured that spirit beautifully. She was a big part of why I was intrigued to see this because she owned Instant Family and was one of the stronger parts of Sicario 2. She really did feel like a cartoon brought to life. The adults I was looking forward to seeing were fantastic as well (including one voice cameo that I was waiting the whole movie for).
Most of all, this movie was fun. My screening was filled with a lot of little kids clearly up past their bedtime who were laughing hysterically at all of the slapstick kiddie humor. But I was laughing pretty hard too because there was a great balance of meta humor for us big kids. It’s a perfect family movie because while it’s clearly aimed at the little ones, it’s enjoyable for us bigger ones, esp when some of those bigger ones were originally the little ones watching the cartoon.
Can you say “divertido”?
Dora and the Lost City of Gold – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/