Dora and the Lost City of Gold: Movie Review

Dora and the Lost City of Gold follows Dora as a teenager who has been sent to the big city to get the full high school experience, but when her parents get lost in the jungle, she must go help save them. Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a cute movie younger audiences will enjoy, but it does have some false religion references and some politically correct comments.

The beloved character, Dora, from the hit television show Dora the Explorer is now coming to the big screen, in Dora and the Lost City of Gold . Dora loves playing in the jungle with her cousin, Diego, but Diego is moving to Los Angeles. The next day, Diego makes the move, but, before he leaves, the two promise they will have another adventure together one day.

Years later, Dora is now a teenager and runs through the jungle trying to find adventure everywhere. When her parents tell her they’ve discovered the mystery of where the Lost City of Gold is located, she’s ecstatic. They want to go find the lost Incan city, since all their research points to one location. The only catch is, they think Dora should go to Los Angeles instead and socialize with children her age. Saddened, Dora would rather go with her parents than be sent away to high school in Los Angeles.

Once arriving in Los Angeles, Dora is joyous about seeing her cousin, Diego, once more. When it comes to Dora’s first day of school, she’s positive about meeting everyone and being able to learn. However, when she gets there, everyone else seems to be a downer. Dora meets Sammy, the class valedictorian, who is snobby and is unhappy that Dora seems to be intelligent and may be competition for her. Dora also meets Randy, a nerdy type, who has the same interests as Dora but is also interested in Dora.

When Randy, Sammy, Diego, and Dora are on a field trip to the Museum, a docent leads them in to a back room to show them a special exhibit. However, the docent traps them in a large shipping container, puts them to sleep and takes them to the South American jungle. The group is being captured so they can find the Lost City of Gold, but instead, they are able to get away with the help of Alejandro, who says he’s friends with Dora’s parents. The group must figure out the clues to find out where Dora’s parents may be, which also is most likely the location of the Lost City of Gold.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold  is an entertaining movie, but it’s hard to determine the movie’s targeted age group for this movie, because the original Dora the Explorer was geared to a much younger age group, and this movie seems more geared toward teenagers, like the tween version that Nickelodeon introduced in 2009. Increasing the confusion is that the movie seems a bit too cheesy for teenagers.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold  has a strong moral worldview with a positive portrayal of family and parenthood. The parents are supportive of their daughter and help her foster her creativity and intelligence. Also, the character of Dora is positive, kind and smart. That said, Dora makes a few politically correct comments about “cultural appropriation,” a phony left-wing idea. The movie also mentions multiple gods when it discusses an ancient temple where sacrifices were made in the past. This reference to false religion is done in a lightweight way, however, like the Indiana Jones movies, though the Indiana Jones movies usually have some positive Jewish and Christian elements that refute the false religion references. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for Dora and the Lost City of Gold .