Stream It Or Skip It?

Dora the Explorer is back(pack) back(pack) in a new live-action movie, Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (now streaming on Paramount+). Ostensibly a celebration of the multimedia franchise’s 25th anniversary – the popular animated series launched in 2000, inspiring the usual array of spinoffs, movies, books, games, toys, etc. – the film is a reboot, maybe a one-off, that re-explains Dora’s origin and puts her on an epic historical-archaeological adventure that might make Indiana Jones jealous. Unlike the zanier 2019 theatrical film Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which starred Isabela Merced in the title role, Sol Dorado is a bit scaled back and, well, more TV, casting You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah actress Samantha Lorraine as Dora, whose endless supply of zest ‘n’ positivity makes the movie a modest charmer.

The Gist: Where, pray ask, did little Dora (Scarlett Spears) acquire her thirst for adventure? From her grandfather, who used to take her and her cousin Diego (Tiago Martinez) into the Amazonian jungle near their home to tell them stories, including one about the legend of Sol Dorado, a magical treasure trove that, legend has it, will grant its finder one wish. She’s further inspired by TV show Camila the Crusader, whose title lady (Daniella Pineda) wears reams of khaki and hunts for heaps of treasure. Dora acquires a map that’s not just a map but is Map, and a backpack that’s not just a backpack but is Backpack, and meets a monkey with a sore foot so she takes the boots off her stuffed monkey who looks like Boots from the cartoon (ooooh – a meta reference!) and gives them to the real monkey (note: it’s CGI) and names him George. No! She names him Boots (voiced by Gabriel Iglesias), and kazow! She’s complete. She’s Dora the Explorer, and she and Diego trek through the jungle and have fun fun fun.

Ten years later, Dora’s 16 and played by Lorraine, and Diego’s played by Jacob Rodriguez, and they’re still farting around, solving ancient puzzles, avoiding booby traps and all that. Age has not dampened Dora’s spirit. If she were any perkier, the zeal would crack the sun open and destroy us all. She eats up excitement like a baleen whale at a zillion-acre krill farm. When a rigged-up Incan site tries to drop a giant boulder on her head, she yelps, “Giant boulder!” like she just found a trillion-dollar-bill on the ground. She’s been unfruitfully questing for Sol Dorado for years, but she keeps on going with max cheer. The greatest test of her nuclear PMA, though, comes when she gets – gasp – a crappy job as a tour guide at the theme park Jungle World. On her first day, she’s shocked to learn that the tour only offers canned jungle noises pumped through speakers, and phony mechanical animals lunging from the brush. Methinks Dora is a bit naive.

Where most main characters in movies might be crestfallen when their sheltered lives are shattered by such difficult realities, Dora remains unflappable as all hell – even when surly Jungle Worlders throw churros at her face. First development: Dora learns that Camila the Crusader also works at Jungle World, which implies that one of the mighty has fallen and might not be so happy about it. Second development: Some shady dudes – one wears a cloak, even – have been farting around behind a secret fence at the park. Hmm. She pokes here and peers there and hides behind some barrels and realizes Camila and her cadre of greasy minions – and her sneaky pet fox Swiper, oh nosies! – are searching for Sol Dorado. Dora turns up a tantalizing clue to its location and ends up tromping through the jungle once again, accompanied by Diego, a cynical Jungle World tram driver named Naiya (Mariana Garzon Toro) and Naiya’s little brother Sonny (Acson Luca Porto). Oh, and the villainous Camila and her crew are right on their tail. Will something, anything, ever wipe that smile off Dora’s face? I dunno, man. Might as well try to catch the Moon with a slotted spoon.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: LET IT BE KNOWN that Sol Dorado skews a skotche younger than Lost City of Gold, which had more meta-references, musical sequences, teen-centric comedy and, well, money in the budget. 

Performance Worth Watching: I’m running out of synonyms for “perky” and “positive” – Lorraine wins us over by rendering Dora’s imperturbability in an infectiously un-negative way.

Memorable Dialogue: Dora regularly chirps happy little quasi-catchphrases like the following: “A change in latitude will help that attitude!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Not that Dora fans will notice Sol Dorado is a tad chintzier than Lost City of Gold – they both bank heavily on the peppy charm of their leading stars, deliver some modest fun and a handful of laughs, and end up in the black creatively. Sol Dorado breaks new ground, though, since the plot conspires to strip Dora of Map and Backpack and Boots and, eventually, her human friends, so she can dig deep and find herself when she’s suddenly alone in the jungle in the dark of night. Do the corners of her mouth droop and the twinkle in her eye fizzle? NO SPOILERS. But there’s a subplot about Diego going away to college in New York City that might be the true giant boulder in her life. 

Directed by Alberto Belli, the movie keeps a lickety-split pace, balancing silly hijinks with a kiddie-lite, modernized version of 1930s adventure serials where guys in pith hats and dorky shorts stole valuable artifacts from grossly insensitive portrayals of jungle natives. Frankly, I’d love to see a sequel that pairs Lorraine with a romantic interest so they can update Romancing the Stone – oooh, maybe Dora likes girls! – and if anyone out there steals this high-potential idea, I’d appreciate it if you’d send me, like, 200,000 bucks. As for the thematic content of Sol Dorado? It’s more than worthwhile, delivering messages on the sly – no directo-to-the-noggin preaching here, thanks the gods – about the folly of greed and the value of selflessness as Dora quests for one thingy after another after another and kinda accidentally seems to find a goodly chunk of her young identity. May her PMA never wane.

Our Call: If this take on Dora isn’t a one-off, that wouldn’t be so bad. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.