Dora and the Lost City of Gold


Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a 2019 American adventure comedy film that is a live action adaptation of Nick Jr's television series Dora the Explorer and directed by James Bobin. The film stars Isabela Moner, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, and Danny Trejo as the voice of Boots.
A live action Dora film was announced in 2017, and Moner was cast in the title role in May 2018. Most of the other lead cast members were hired throughout the rest of the year, and filming took place from August to December 2018 in Australia and Peru. This film is set after the events of the animated original television series.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 9, 2019, by Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Moner's performance and the self-aware humor, and grossed $120 million worldwide. It was also the first film based on a Nick Jr Series.

Plot

Deep in the Peruvian jungle in 2009, 6-year-old Dora, daughter of jungle explorers Cole and Elena, spends her days going on adventures with her monkey friend Boots, her 7-year-old cousin Diego, and imaginary friends Backpack and Map while thwarting Swiper the thieving fox. One day, Diego and his family leave to Los Angeles while Dora and her parents remain searching for the hidden Inca city of gold Parapata.
After 10 years of exploring, in 2019, Dora's parents decipher the location of Parapata and choose to send a now 16-year-old Dora to Diego's high school in Los Angeles while they travel to the lost city. Staying with a now 17-year-old Diego and his family, Dora meets fellow students Sammy and Randy. Due to Dora’s intelligence, Sammy sees her as her rival, but Randy is amused by Dora’s intelligence, as well as her being very nice to him, and develops an immediate crush on her. Dora enjoys her new life, but Diego is embarrassed by her immaturity and 12-year-old like behavior, which leads to a fallout between them.
On a class field trip to a museum, Dora and the others are lured to its off-exhibit archives, where they are captured by mercenaries led by Powell who fly them to Peru. When they land, a man named Alejandro, who claims to be a friend of Dora's parents, helps them escape. In the process, the mercenaries, aided by Swiper, steal Dora's map. Alejandro reports that Dora's parents have gone missing and that the mercenaries are searching for them in hopes of getting into Parapata and stealing its treasures. Dora resolves to find her parents first with Alejandro's help, while Diego comes along to look after Dora and the other teens come along in hopes of being rescued.
The group travels through numerous obstacles, including quicksand, Inca ruin puzzles, and attacks from forest guards of Parapata. During the journey, Sammy warms up to Dora and becomes nicer to everyone. Dora and Diego eventually reconcile and Dora notices Diego has a crush on Sammy. After numerous hazards, Dora reaches her parents just outside the borders of Parapata, but Alejandro reveals he was the mercenaries leader all along and captures them. The other teens are caught as well, but Boots helps them escape. With Dora's parents still prisoners, Boots gives Dora the confidence to tell the teens that they need to find the way inside Parapata to acquire the treasure so they can use it to bargain for Elena and Cole's release.
Inside the hidden city, Dora and the others solve its temple's puzzles and dodge its traps, bringing them to the central shrine. Alejandro secretly follows them and attempts to steal its central idol himself, but instead falls into a trap. The soldiers guarding Parapata, led by their queen, defeat the mercenaries and confront the teens. Dora speaks to them in Quechua, assuring that the kids only came for her parents and to learn. The Inca permit the teens and Dora's family to leave, allowing them a glimpse of their greatest treasure. After the group leaves, Diego and Sammy become a couple.
Dora's parents and the teens arrive at her jungle home, where the other teens parents are waiting and are overjoyed to see them. Her parents discuss going on another expedition as a whole family, but Dora decides to return to school in Los Angeles.
During the credits, Dora and her friends celebrate at the school dance while singing a version of "We Did It." Alejandro remains a prisoner in Parapata, Cole and Elena prevent Swiper from making off with one of their items and Dora and Randy dance together as the screen fades to black.

Cast

On October 24, 2017, a deal was struck for a live action version of the television series to be made, with James Bobin directing. Nicholas Stoller and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel were hired to pen a script. Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes was announced as producer, though Bay and the company were ultimately not involved.
The film depicts a teenage version of Dora. It was issued an initial release date of August 2, 2019. In May 2018, Isabela Moner was cast to play Dora. Eugenio Derbez began negotiations to join in June, and was confirmed to appear in July. Micke Moreno was cast to play Diego, though had to withdraw and was replaced by Jeff Wahlberg. Eva Longoria and Michael Peña were cast as Dora's parents that August. Madeleine Madden also joined the cast of the film. In October, Q'orianka Kilcher was added to the cast, and in November, Pia Miller was set to play Dora's aunt Sabrina. In December 2018, Benicio del Toro joined as the voice of Swiper, and in March 2019, Danny Trejo announced that he had been cast as the voice of Boots the Monkey.
In an interview with Forbes, Moner stated that she learned Quechua language for the character. She said that the film would "take audiences to Machu Picchu" to "explore the Incan culture," and commented that "Dora is very cultured and she knows everything about everything," and that she "doesn't have a defined ethnicity."
Filming began on August 6, 2018, on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, and concluded on December 7, 2018.
The visual effects are provided by Mill Film, Moving Picture Company and Cheap Shot VFX, supervised by Lindy De Quattro, Andy Brown and Richard Little with visualization services provided by Proof and 2D animation provided by Blink Industries.

Release

The film was released on August 9, 2019. It was previously slated for August 2, 2019.

Marketing

The trailer for the film was released during the 2019 Kids' Choice Awards on March 23, 2019. The trailer also revealed that Monster Trucks co-writer Matthew Robinson and Nicholas Stoller received screenplay credit.

Home media

Dora and the Lost City of Gold was released on Digital HD on November 5, 2019, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 19, 2019.

Reception

Box office

Dora and the Lost City of Gold grossed $60.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $60.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $120.6 million against a production budget of $49 million.
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside The Kitchen, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Brian Banks, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,500 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $6.7 million on its first day, including $1.25 million from Thursday night previews. It went into debut to $17 million, finishing fourth at the box office; 46% of its audience was Latino, while 32% were Caucasian, 11% African-American and 10% Asian. It dropped 51% in its second weekend to $8.5 million, finishing sixth. It then made $5.3 million in its third weekend and $4.1 million in its fourth, and $2.7 million in its fifth.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on 148 reviews, with an average rating of 6.48/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Led by a winning performance from Isabela Moner, Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a family-friendly adventure that retains its source material's youthful spirit." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported that adult and children filmgoers gave it an average of 4.5 and 3.5 stars out of 5, respectively.
Peter Debruge of Variety wrote, "Whereas most of the cast play broad, borderline-slapstick versions of their characters, Moner has the wide eyes and ever-chipper attitude we associate with Dora, but adds a level of charisma the animated character couldn't convey."