Dora and the Search for Sol Doradoimmediately intrigued me because it is the first live-action feature set in the world ofDora the Explorersince the 2019 movieDora and the Lost City of Gold, which was insubstantial, yes, but wholly charming.
I was curious if a movie withan entirely different cast and an almost entirely different production teamwould be able to maintain that tone, or potentially even improve upon it. There was certainly room for improvement — the original is hardly an unimpeachable masterpiece.
ThenewDoramoviefollows a teenage Dora (Samantha Lorraine) asshe races to find the mythical Incan artifact Sol Doradobefore Camila (Daniella Pineda), a former TV star who has since turned sour and selfish. Along for the ride are Dora’s cousin Diego (Jacob Rodriguez), his girlfriend Naiya (Mariana Garzón Toro), and Naiya’s brother Sonny (Acston Luca Porto).
Dora And The Search For Sol Dorado Is More Generic Than Truly Bad
However, It Does Make Some Major Missteps
Unfortunately,The Search for Sol Doradooccupies a tedious middle ground between good and badthat gives it a lot less texture than2019’sDora and the Lost City of Gold, which has its fair share of flaws but is unquestionably the superior live-actionDoramovie.
Generally,the things it retains about the previous installment are its worst aspects, most notably the dodgy CGI effects used for the iconic characters Boots (Gabriel Iglesias) and Swiper (no voice actor, because he is depicted as an actual fox in one of the movie’s many stabs toward “realism” that make things infinitely less interesting).
The actors are forced to contort their bodies in strange ways…
Boots, in particular, is a Lovecraftian abomination whose mere existence forces every scene featuring him to be staged using bizarre non-Euclidean geometry. The actors are forced to contort their bodies in strange ways that are clearly attempting to hide the fact thathe exists on an entirely different visual plane from the live-action elements, and the effect is deeply unsettling.
The Cast Of Dora And The Search For Sol Dorado Is Commendable
They Are Committed Despite A Spotty Screenplay
There are a few bright spots. For one thing, theDora and the Search for Sol Doradocastis entirely competent and able to inhabit the movie’s heightened, slightly cartoonish universe.Samantha Lorraine and Jacob Rodriguez, in particular, do justice to their iconic characters, even though the script asks Diego to behave in ways entirely unlike his previous depictions.
Dora and the Search for Sol Doradois Jacob Rodriguez’s debut feature.
The major highlight is Daniella Pineda, whose unique approach to her villain role sees her portraying Camila as a snotty teenager more than a hammy, mustache-twirling baddie. This acting choice is the only one that feels like it is transformative, adding something in the translation from page to screen rather than merely bringing the screenplay to life.
That said,I don’t think even Oscar-winning actors could have delivered all ofSol Dorado’s dialogueconvincingly. Most of it is genericIndiana Jonesboilerplate (“Spikes! Why did it have to be spikes?"), which is bad enough, but at least it’s leaps and bounds better than the original material, which mostly just regurgitates misunderstood Gen Z slang into unappetizing piles.
At one point,Mariana Garzón Toro is forced to say “bad guys have entered the group chat,“and, frankly, I think being able to deliver that line without looking visibly embarrassed is more of a challenge than anything Meryl Streep has ever done.
Dora And The Search For Sol Dorado Is At Least Not Terrible
It’s A Mostly Decent Diversion For Young Audiences
This balance between better-than-it-had-to-be and slightly appalling ultimately all comes out in the wash, leavingDora and the Search for Sol Doradofeeling likea largely featureless, smooth blob of family entertainment. It doesn’t honor the source material in any particular way, but it also doesn’t poke fun at it, and altogether it is largely unobjectionable.
For families and kids who don’t mind watching a predictable formula being followed mostly adequately (which is a pleasure in and of itself, if the genre suits you), they could do much worse thanDora and the Search for Sol Dorado. However, I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone who used their Paramount+ subscription to rewatch a classic likeLabyrinthfor the millionth time instead.
Dora and the Search for Sol Doradois now available to stream on Paramount+.
