| Dora and the Lost City of Gold | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James Bobin |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by |
|
| Based on | Dora the Explorer byChris Gifford Valerie Walsh Valdes Eric Weiner |
| Produced by | Kristin Burr |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Javier Aguirresarobe |
| Edited by | Mark Everson |
| Music by | |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $49 million[1] |
| Box office | $120.6 million[1] |
Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a 2019 Americanadventurecomedy film directed byJames Bobin and written byNicholas Stoller and Matthew Robinson. Loosely based onthe animated television series, it is the first feature film intheDora the Explorer franchise. It starsIsabela Moner,Eugenio Derbez,Michael Peña andEva Longoria, withDanny Trejo as the voice of Boots. The "Lost City of Gold" is based on the legendaryInca city,Paititi.
A live-actionDora film was announced in 2017, and Moner was cast in the title role in May 2018. Filming took place from August to December 2018 inAustralia andPeru.John Debney andGermaine Franco composed the film's score.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 9, 2019, byParamount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, and was a moderate box office success, grossing $121 million against a budget of $49 million. A reboot,Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado, was released in 2025.
In the Peruvian jungle, 6-year-oldDora Márquez, daughter of jungle explorers Cole and Elena, goes on adventures with her monkey friend Boots, her 7-year-old cousin Diego, and imaginary friends Backpack and Map while thwarting Swiper the thieving fox. One day, Diego and his family leave forLos Angeles while Dora and her parents remain searching for the hiddenInca city of gold, Parapata.
Ten years later, Cole and Elena decipher the location of Parapata and send a now 16-year-old Dora to stay with Diego's family in Los Angeles while they travel to the lost city after she unintentionally proves she's not ready to face danger while exploring. At Diego's high school, Dora meets fellow students Sammy Moore and Randy Warren. The former sees Dora as a rival due to her intelligence, while the latter develops a crush on her. Dora's eccentric behavior culminates in mocking and name-calling by some of her new classmates when she publicly dances to a conga song at the school dance. Embarrassed, Diego tells Dora that she is no longer in the jungle, which leads to a fallout between them.
On a class field trip to a museum, Dora, Diego, Sammy, and Randy are lured to its off-exhibit archives, where mercenaries, led by a man named Powell, capture them and fly them to Peru. When they land, a man named Alejandro Gutierrez, who claims to be a friend of Dora's parents, helps them escape, but the mercenaries, aided by Swiper, steal Dora's map. Alejandro reports that Dora's parents have gone missing and the mercenaries are searching for them in hopes of getting into Parapata to steal its treasures. Dora resolves to find her parents first with Alejandro's help, and the other teens agree.
The group travels through attacks from soldiers who guard Parapata known as the Lost Guardians, quicksand, hallucination-inducing spores that turn them into cartoon characters in the style of theoriginal animation, and an Incanpuquio. During the journey, Sammy warms up to Dora, who reconciles with Diego and notices that he has a crush on Sammy. Dora and her friends finally reunite with her parents outside the borders of Parapata, but Alejandro reveals himself to be the real leader of the mercenaries and captures them, saying he will free them once he claims the gold. However, Boots helps the teens escape and restores Dora's confidence by communicating with her through imagination. Realizing that the mercenaries are planning to kill Cole and Elena once they have served their purpose, she resolves to find the way inside Parapata so they can use its treasure to bargain for her parents' release.
Inside the hidden city, Dora and the others solve its temple's puzzles and dodge its traps, bringing them to the central shrine. Alejandro, having secretly followed them, arrives as the group reaches its final test, thinks that the gold is the right answer against Dora's warnings and falls into a trap. The Lost Guardians, having apprehended Dora's parents and the mercenaries, confront the teens, but Dora speaks to their queen inQuechua, assuring that the group only came to learn about the ancient civilization. Dora figures out that the answer to the test is water, and the Incas allow her and everyone to have a single glimpse of their greatest treasure until Swiper appears and steals the smaller idol, thus angering the gods. As Alejandro and the mercenaries are taken away, Dora regains the idol and puts it back into place.
After the group leaves, Diego and Sammy become a couple and Dora's parents and the teens arrive at her jungle home. Cole and Elena discuss going on another expedition as a family, but Dora decides to return to school in Los Angeles, where she and her friends perform a high school dance to celebrate their victory.
On October 24, 2017, a deal was struck for a live-action version of the television series to be made, withJames Bobin directing.Nicholas Stoller and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel were hired to pen a script.Michael Bay'sPlatinum Dunes was announced as producer, though Bay and the company were ultimately not involved.[2]
The film depicts a teenage version of Dora[3] (cf.Dora the Explorer and the Destiny Medallion, a 2013 "unauthorized"CollegeHumorparodyweb series starringAriel Winter as Dora).[4][5] It was issued an initial release date of August 2, 2019.[6] In May 2018,Isabela Moner was cast to play Dora.[7]Eugenio Derbez began negotiations to join in June,[8] and was confirmed to appear in July. Micke Moreno was originally cast to play Diego, but withdrew and was replaced by Jeff Wahlberg.[9][10]Eva Longoria andMichael Peña were cast as Dora's parents that August.[11][12]Madeleine Madden also joined the cast of the film.[13] In October,Q'orianka Kilcher was added to the cast,[14] and in November,Pia Miller was set to play Dora's aunt Sabrina.[15] In December 2018,Benicio del Toro joined as the voice of Swiper,[16] and in March 2019,Danny Trejo announced that he had been cast as the voice of Boots the Monkey.[17]
In an interview withForbes, Moner stated that she learnedQuechua language for the character. She said that the film would "take audiences to Machu Picchu" to "explore theIncan culture," and commented that "Dora is very cultured and she knows everything about everything," and that she "doesn't have a defined ethnicity."[18] Filming began on August 6, 2018, on theGold Coast, Queensland, Australia,[19][20] and concluded on December 7, 2018.[16] On May 3, 2019, it was revealed that Marc Weiner would be reprising his role as the voice of Map from the animated series.[21]
Visual effects were provided byMill Film,Moving Picture Company and Cheap Shot VFX, under the supervision of Lindy DeQuattro, Andy Brown, and Richard Little. Visualization services were provided by Proof Inc., with 2D animation provided byBlink Industries.[22][23]Previsualization incorporated a process called “SketchVis,” in which 2Danimators created rough drawings over the visual effects plates toblock and time animated characters’ movements.[24] This provided more expressive reference for the 3D animators, while the brevity of the process allowed for experimentation and earliertest screenings.[24][25]
The film was released on August 9, 2019, the same day that the2000 animated television series ended.[26] It was previously slated for August 2, 2019.[19]
Dora and the Lost City of Gold was released on Digital HD on November 5, 2019, and later onDVD andBlu-ray on November 19, 2019.[27] The film is also available onAmazon Prime[28] andParamount+.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold grossed $60.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $60.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $120.6 million against a production budget of $49 million.[1]
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongsideThe Kitchen,The Art of Racing in the Rain,Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark andBrian Banks, and was projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,500 theaters in its opening weekend.[29][30] The film made $6.7 million on its first day, including $1.25 million from Thursday night previews. It went into debut to $17 million, finishing fourth at the box office behindHobbs & Shaw,The Lion King andScary Stories to Tell in the Dark; 46% of its audience was Latino, while 32% were Caucasian, 11% African-American and 10% Asian.[31] It dropped 51% in its second weekend to $8.5 million, finishing sixth.[32] It then made $5.3 million in its third weekend and $4.1 million in its fourth, and $2.7 million in its fifth.[33][34][35]
Onreview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 156 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Led by a winning performance from Isabela Moner,Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a family-friendly adventure that retains its source material's youthful spirit."[36]Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[37] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, whilePostTrak reported that adult and children filmgoers gave it an average of 4.5 and 3.5 stars out of 5, respectively.[31]
Peter Debruge ofVariety wrote, "Whereas most of the cast (and especially Derbez) play broad, borderline-slapstick versions of their characters, Moner has the wide eyes and ever-chipper attitude we associate with Dora, but adds a level of charisma the animated character couldn't convey."[38]
On February 15, 2022,Paramount+ announced the development of a live action series, said to be "in the same spirit as the recent live action film for older audiences".[39]
In July 2025, a live-action film,Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado, was released onNickelodeon and on Paramount+, as a second instalment of the Dora the Explorer series. However,Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado is considered to be a reboot of the original Dora the Explorer storyline, as the film establishes a new origin story for Dora and features a different cast.[40] The two films notably differ in thatIsabela Moner was replaced bySamantha Lorraine in the role of Dora, and Alberto Belli replaced James Bobin as director.[41]
