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Dora and the Lost City of Gold

Dora and the Lost City of Gold: ‎Has its Moments

cairo Cairo cinema cinema cinemas Dora the explorer egypt film film review films
  • Eugenio DerbezIsabela Moner...
  • Action & AdventureFamily
  • James Bobin
reviewed by
Yasmeen Mamdouh
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Dora and the Lost City of Gold: ‎Has its Moments

If there is anything that should not be complicated, it would be communicating with a child, or else the efforts will have gone to waste. The makers of Dora and the Lost City of Gold definitely should have used a much simpler language to convey their message.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a spin-off Nickelodeon’s children’s hit show Dora the Explorer. The film follows Dora on a new adventure, except its ten years later and she is now sixteen. Dora (Isabela Moner) is sent to live with her cousin, Diego (Jeff Wahlberg), in the city so she can interact with more kids of her age, while her parents (Eva Longoria and Michael Pena) are on a secret expedition to find Parapata, the lost city of gold.

When mercenaries try to kidnap Dora to lead them to her parents and Parapata, she has no choice but to go back to the jungle and try to get to Parapata before they can. Dora has the help of Diego, two schoolmates and Alejandro (Eugenio Derbez), an old friend of her parents. But can they reach them in time?

The plot is somewhat messy, starting with young Dora, then fast-forwarding ten years to the teenage Dora in the jungle, then briefly moving to Dora in high school and the attempted kidnap, then back again to the wilderness, where the adventure starts.

The constant jumps in the plot’s flow is confusing, especially for younger audiences. It takes away from the story itself, while it could have been much more simple.

The comedy is inconsistent but has some treasures, including the take of Dora’s father on rave culture, Dora’s asking the audience to say “delicioso”, and anything Alejandro does. The comedy is what really carries the film and makes it watchable since the plot is messy and largely predictable.

For the acting, Isabela Moner was definitely able to capture the naïve positivity that is expected of Dora’s character, and make it somewhat plausible and not over the top. Michael Pena’s role was short, but you lit up every time he was on screen because his performance was so effortlessly funny.

Eva Longoria and Jeff Wahlberg’s performances were just adequate, with barely any standout moments. Eugenio Derbez’s performance was hilarious. Playing Dora’s classmates, Madeleine Madden and Nicholas Coombe’s performances were majorly hindered by their mind-numbingly cliché characters.

 

Dora and the Lost City of Gold’s comedy moments make it worth watching, even if the plot is chaotically mushed-up.

 

Like This? Try

Toy Story 4 (2019), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), and The Lion King (2019).

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