Review of Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) by Furternator — 15 Sep 2019

Dora the Explorer doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Throughout the movie Dora is developed to be the cartoon character, but in real life, a fun take on the character, especially when she turns to the audience and asks them to spell out a word.

Showing this character get to grips with high school was very funny and interesting. But then they start changing what they want it to be. Love plots appear out of nowhere, with Dora's cousin Diego falling in love with stuck-up top of the class girl stereotype, and one other strange one with nerd boy stereotype falling in love with Dora, but nothing ever actually happens because of this, all the cast seem to ignore it.

They try to make the film funny, and succeed some of the time, but then also try and force morals down the audience's throats. The cast is brilliant, Isabela Moner captures Dora's constant upbeat attitude perfectly, and Diego becoming a regular teenager is very well done.

Dora's dad is played by Michael Pena, who I think the makers of the film saw being funny in Ant-Man and other films so cast him and left big holes in the script that probably said "MICHAEL DOES FUNNY THING HERE".

Because of this, he's wasted on a really unfunny joke where he explains what rave music is to Dora. I think with a clearer idea/plan and some slightly better writers, Dora could make for a really good movie.