- It’s derivative, but neatly done, well paced, and everything adds up. The story is exactly what you’d expect from the title
- Isabela Moner, playing a now teenage Dora, overcomes the similarities with Indiana Jones films and the Lara Croft character
3.5/5 stars
Unspooling like a female version of Young Indiana Jones, the charming Dora and the Lost City of Gold offers quality fun for children and young teenagers, and is breezy enough to be enjoyable viewing for their adult guardians too.
Although it's based on the long-running American educational television series Dora the Explorer, carried on the Nickelodeon channel, there have been some significant changes, not least of which is that the movie is live-action rather than a cartoon.
The heroic Dora, played enthusiastically by the 18-year-old Isabela Moner, is a teenager rather than a child, and the film is more about entertainment than education. Then again, Dora's personable character doesn't deviate from that of the original incarnation. The story is exactly what you would expect from the title, but it's neatly done, the pacing is perfect, and everything adds up at the end.
While they are between adventures in the jungles of Peru, Dora and her explorer parents (Michael Pena and Eva Longoria) discover a map they think will lead them to a lost Inca settlement, the City of Gold. Dora wants to go on the expedition, but her parents deem the trip too dangerous, and send her to Los Angeles to attend high school with her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg).
Dora has trouble acclimatising to an urban environment, but as a confident kid who's true to herself, she takes the problems in her stride. Then Dora, Diego, and Dora's schoolmates are kidnapped by a criminal gang who want to get to the City of Gold before mum and dad " but are they a match for our intrepid teenage heroine?
The film is certainly derivative, being a noticeable mix of the best two Indy movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark (sans Nazis) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with Inca royalty replacing the medieval knights of the latter. There are even indirect jibes at the "jungle puzzles" of Raiders, although the sacrilegious remarks come back to haunt the characters later in the film.
The treatment of Dora also owes something to the tenacious Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. But Moner, who was exceptional in last year's Sicario: Day of the Soldado , overcomes all the similarities to make the character her own. Not only is the indefatigable Dora a great role model for young girls interested in science, she is kind, too, and hates misfortune to befall even her sworn enemies.
Although it's a live-action movie, the animated monkey and fox remain from the cartoon series, and the animations often clash with the style and tone of the work. But even so, this is still a superior kid's film.
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