Film Review: "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" (2019).

"Unleash Your Wild Side" with Dora and the Lost City of Gold. This adventure comedy film directed by James Bobin, written by Nicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson, and based on the Nickelodeon television series Dora the Explorer (2000-19). Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle, nothing could prepare Dora for her most dangerous adventure yet - high school. Accompanied by a ragtag group of teens and Boots the monkey, Dora embarks on a quest to save her parents while trying to solve the seemingly impossible mystery behind a lost Incan civilisation.

In late October 2017, a live action adaptation of the television series was announced with Bobin in the director's chair, Stoller and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel were hired to pen the script, and with a August 2, 2019 release date. In May 2018, Isabela Moner was cast to play a teenage version of the titular explorer. By early August, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, Jeff Wahlberg, Temuera Morrison, Danny Trejo and Benicio del Toro rounded out the film's cast. Around the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early December. Filming took place in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

The film stars Moner, as the titular character, Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Eva Longoria, Jeff Wahlberg, Temuera Morrison, Danny Trejo and Benicio del Toro. Though the cast, and their performances, stayed true to the nature and personalities of their original cartoon counterparts, it was disappointing and not funny. And it doesn't exactly help to have Moner, Trejo and del Toro camping it up as the cartoon characters come to life in the most cringeworthy way possible.

While Dora and the Lost City of Gold continually teeters on the brink of abject corniness, it never quite topples off. Though the film stays true to the nature of the original cartoon, the script is disappointing and not funny. There's just not enough depth of thought to sustain it onscreen for 102 minutes. All of this adds up to a story we don't care about with nothing particularly involving and about two laughs both in the first ten minutes. It has sledgehammer whimsy, and it's not talking to me. For the most part, the film fails, with predictable complaints stemming from the same stretch marks that plague the original series and all the features based upon it. Its status as an event picture and insistence upon live action mar what should have been a delightful romp. After The Last Airbender, I thought it would be over now. What did we do to deserve this? So unrelentingly bad on so many levels. The film doesn't so much celebrate the old series on which it's based as cause you to wonder why you look back on it with affection in the first place. It just might be the new millennium's Howard the Duck. But if you even remotely liked the cartoon series upon which this film is based, you might just like this film. Kids will enjoy it, even if the jokes escape them.

Simon says Dora and the Lost City of Gold receives:

Also, see my review for Alice Through the Looking Glass.