Movie review: New 'Dora' movie carries 'Indiana Jones' torch

UPI

30-06-2025

1 of 5 | Diego (Jacob Rodriguez) and Dora (Samantha Lorraine) explore the Amazon in "Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado," on Paramount+ Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Spataro/Nickelodeon/Paramount+
LOS ANGELES, June 30 (UPI) -- Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado, premiering Wednesday on Paramount+, turns the Nickelodeon animated series Dora the Explorer into a thrilling live-action adventure for families. Like 2019's underrated Dora and the Lost City, it harkens back to the best classic adventure movies.
As a toddler, young Dora's (Scarlett Spears) Abuelo (J. Santiago Suarez) tells her about the legend of Sol Dorado, an Incan treasure that grants a wish. He also gives her Map, which does not speak in this iteration.
Map seems to be blank, but fills in with crayon art whenever Dora needs directions in her adventures. This is a lovely way to visualize that Map is essentially Dora's own sense of direction; it just skips the part where she researches and draws it herself.
As a toddler, watching Camila the Crusader (Daniela Pineda) appears to be where Dora picked up the habit of looking directly into camera and asking the audience questions. As a teenager, Dora (Samantha Lorraine) and Diego (Jacob Rodriguez) have explored the Amazon rainforest but still have not found Sol Dorado.
The pair get a job at the Jungle World theme park, where Camila now works. Camila's secret excavation behind the park leads Dora, Diego, coworker Naiya (Mariana Garzón Toro) and Naiya's brother Sonny (Acston Luca Porto) on another jungle adventure.
Dora and her friends explore booby trapped caves and temples loaded with gross bugs. Their adventure is more Indiana Jones than Dial of Destiny was.
Dora solves riddles through her knowledge of Incan history. Her spirit is selfless and optimistic for the joy of discovery, not for profit. She doesn't outright say Sol Dorado belongs in a museum, but she shares the morality and sentiment of Indiana Jones.
Dora loses Map early in her quest, so the heart of her adventure becomes learning to chart her own course.
Kids going on adventures was also a Steven Spielberg staple outside of his grown-up Indiana Jones movies. This was already inherent in the animated Dora, but both live-action movies have risen to the high standard of kids' adventures.
Sol Dorado filmed in Colombia and the physical jungle is palpable in the adventure, as are interior sets of those caves and temples. The actors are hanging on vines and crouching under collapsing ceilings.
There are computer generated elements like Boots the monkey (voice of Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias), whom only Dora understands. Swiper the stealing fox belongs to Camila, but artificial characters fit way better in a practical location than actors fit in artificial worlds.
Map represents the central theme of Dora's quest, but her Backpack also appears. The film approaches its seemingly infinite contents with an appropriate nonchalance, while dismissing it as a tool to circumvent any of the adventure's challenges.
By the time Dora meets her, Camila has lost her spirit of discovery since her TV show ended. Recognizing it in Dora could be a cliche, but Dora puts it in poignant context.
Dora says, "I may have lost my map but you lost your compass." She articulates the difference between getting lost and losing one's purpose.
With this moral compass, Dora also captures the spirit of Indiana Jones better than the recent streaming film Fountain of Youth. Dora still has a sense of humor, but not at the expense of its characters' heroic qualities.
Jungle World does test Dora's patience. She begins a tram tour with the infectious enthusiasm of her real adventures, but repetition and animatronic displays wear on her quickly.
There is a fun tram chase through the park before they go back to the jungle. And Jungle World is where the audience learns Diego and Naiya used to date, adding a teen Romancing the Stone dynamic to the rest of their adventure, updated for a couple who have ghosted each other.
The English language film frequently drops in Spanish words. They are simple words like eschucha and vamanos, which may be familiar as "listen" and "let's go," even to viewers who have never taken a language class.
Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado captures Dora's inclusive spirit while using Incan legend to inspire curiosity and valuable moral lessons. If it is a success on the streaming services, more adventures with this gang would be welcome.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.