Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado[a] is a 2025 Americanaction comedyadventure film directed by Alberto Belli and written by JT Billings. The film is loosely based on theDora the Explorer franchise, and starsSamantha Lorraine, Jacob Rodriguez, Mariana Garzón Toro, Acston Luca Porto, Christian Gnecco Quintero,Gabriel Iglesias, andDaniella Pineda. It recreates the characters and reboots the story of an explorer named Dora and her cousin Diego, who are in search of an ancient magical fallen star through a jungle, while facing an archaeologist with the similar mission.
After about two years of development, the film production took place across locations in Colombia, including jungle, theme parks, and a studio, during the summer and fall of 2024. The film was released simultaneously onParamount+ andNickelodeon on July 2, 2025, to generally positive reviews.
Ten years earlier, Dora and Diego's grandfather used to tell them Incan stories. He told aboutSol Dorado,[a] a fallen magical star that has the power to grant a selfless wish. Dora was given the Map, which she believes guides her on adventures, and loves to explore the Amazon rainforest with Diego. She rescued a monkey and named him Boots.
Presently, Dora is on another adventure to search forSol Dorado. Despite being resistant, Diego joins only for the last adventure. Inside a cave, she interprets aquipu leading to an ancientsundial. However, abooby trap sets off a fire in the cave. Diego activates his Rescue Pack to save Dora, who eventually loses her Map in the fire. Heartbroken, Dora assumes she is nothing without the Map, before she is diverted by the Jungle World's new manager, Camila, whom Dora had admired for years.
At Jungle World, Dora becomes a guide on the ride with annoyingly scripted puns, where Diego holds the show of his cockatoo, Mango. There, they discover that Camila is searching the Emperor's Bracelet, the key toSol Dorado. Diego calls this a myth, but Dora sneaks intoTesoro Inca[b] and unlocks a box using the sundial, from which the bracelet binds to her hand and gives her a vision of three entrances towardSol Dorado. Camila finds the box empty, suspects Dora of theft, and commands her men to stop Dora from escaping, but the bracelet helps Dora avoid them. On the tram, Dora discovers that Diego had a girlfriend, Naiya, who is driving them during the escape and encounter with the henchmen. Eventually, they crash in the middle of the jungle, potentially leaving Camila behind.
From her Backpack, Dora gives Diego his Rescue Pack and Naiya amedical kit to continue their adventure. Dora has a vision of the first location,El Gran Valle de la Muerte,[c] and tries leading the way on her own and with the help of Boots. There, after deciphering a quipu, they find a lead into the graves before the walls could crush them. Eventually, they get a clue toward the Macaws of Cinchona, through another vision Dora gets for the second location. At night, Swiper the Fox traces the group and swipes away Dora's Backpack, making the track easier for his owner, Camila.
Dora wakes up heartbroken over losing the Backpack, so Diego calls off the mission before the bracelet binds him back. He opens up about his opportunity for an internship that led to his unwillingness to co-explore. Moving on to the location, a math puzzle guides them through a set of quipu swings. While Naiya, asudoku player, solves the puzzle, Diego swings over spikes below to unlock the bridge leading them to another clue. Dora has an emotional breakdown over not wanting to lose Diego, so he comforts her and gets a vision of the third location, the Temple of Light. Outside, Camila captures the group and follows thetipline, while Dora falls off the cliff during the encounter.
Dora regains consciousness under the full moon and discovers she is the actual map herself. Shereads the stars to find the exact way, activates the Rescue Pack against Camila's group, and uses the sundial to open the Temple. However, Camila tailgates Dora's group and opens up about her career failure, which led her to selfishly search forSol Dorado.
Inside, Dora and Camila decode the quipu together, leading them to weigh the gold on the scales to open the gateway ahead in return. There was not enough gold for the last scale, so Camila sacrifices herself to open the gateway before the bracelet rescues her. They connect the third clue, and Camila opens theSol Dorado using the bracelet as the key. Camila and Dora commit to having found their true selves, the Crusader and the Explorer, respectively, so they selflessly use the wish to prevent Diego from losing his internship.
Diego and Naiya reconcile during the adventure and vow to stay connected. Diego bids farewell before leaving forNew York City. Dora finally sees thegreen flash as Diego gives her the new Map, prompting another adventure.
Samantha Lorraine asDora Márquez While the character stops frequently breaking thefourth wall, Lorraine explained her version of Dora to be more "smart" and "quick-witted", who would go through low times in her life and lose her important things, before finding her true inner-self. She does not like to sing much and instead usescatchphrases, unlike previous versions of Dora.[5][6][7][8] At the age of 16,[9] she still sees the world as an adventure.[10]
Jacob Rodriguez asDiego Márquez More involved with Dora,[3][12] this version of Diego is presented as more nervous and risk-averse.[5] At the age of 17,[9] he transitioned into the real world by getting a job. Having grown up together, Dora wants to spend more time with Diego, so he hesitates in sharing his life goals with her.[3][10][13] TheSol Dorado[a] wish is finally used for him, so he can visitNew York City for an internship in the College of Zoology to pursue his own adventure.[14][15]
Mariana Garzón Toro as Naiya, Diego's girlfriend[11] She is introduced in a phase where she had lost interest in her work-life and love-life.[10] It is, however, changed after she had a satisfactory adventure with Dora's group.[14][16]
Acston Luca Porto as Sonny, Naiya's younger brother[11]
Daniella Pineda as Camila, an archaeologist She is presented as the star of a former TV show,Camila the Crusader, whom Dora had admired, until realizing her intentions to be in opposition. She had lost her reputation after facing humiliation on live television after failing to locate a treasure. She now has a pet fox, Swiper.[5][15][17]
Christian Gnecco Quintero as Beetle, a henchman[11] His team is hired by Camila to dig out the Incan treasure and help her find the way toSol Dorado. While he is only in greed of gold, he even tries having a sword fight with Camila as she turns away her side.[20]
Valentina Latyna as Sabrina Márquez, Diego's mother[21]
Additionally, the Map is depicted only as Dora's belief. Similarly, the Backpack and the Rescue pack also do not have subjective roles. Boots and Swiper cannot speak to depict the reality of the animals. Only Dora talks with Boots in monkey language, which is occasionally translated into English for the audience only. Similarly, Dora's group does not know how to stop Swiper because they have never interacted with him before.[5][25] The film pokes fun at classic dialogues from the original series in an unusual way.[3][13]
Dora misses her grandfather after his death and waits to see the green flash of light at sunset, as she believes that he will send a message through it, until she finally sees it one day. There are references toAtahualpa, the last Incan emperor, with his depiction in the film as he had left a magical bracelet.[15][26] The film highlightsayllu, and shares a message to be selfless and not selfish.[4][5][14][27] Dora and Diego have a secret handshake, and they can speak Quechua and interpret quipus, inspired by the ancientInca mythology.[3][6][8][28]
The director Alberto Belli had shared a concept about the Incan ayllu with the writer JT Billings. For about two years, they were up to recreating a story in theDora the Explorer franchise,[13][27][29] originally created byChris Gifford, Valerie Walsh Valdes, and Eric Weiner.[30] It is the second film followingDora and the Lost City of Gold (2019), but is termed as a reboot of the original franchise with redefined characters.[22][31] It draws inspiration from theIndiana Jones franchise,[f] and adds the elements of action sequences within the adventure storyline.[13]
In May 2024, the film title was revealed asDora and the Search for Sol Dorado, with Samantha Lorraine in the eponymous role,[34] which the filmmakers had finalized after conducting auditions in multiple countries for about two months.[35] She is termed as the sixth Dora of the franchise.[19] Jacob Rodriguez was cast as Dora's cousin Diego the following month,[36] making his feature film debut.[37] In May 2025, the roles of Mariana Garzón Toro, Acston Luca Porto, Daniella Pineda, and Gabriel Iglesias were also revealed.[38] Iglesias shared that he was cast only on a direct phone call offer to voice the character of Dora's pet monkey, Boots.[18]
Chelsea Ellis Bloch and Marisol Roncali served as thecasting directors.[39][40] In June and July 2025, the roles of further cast members were also revealed, including María Cecilia Botero, George Slebi, Óscar Rodo, J. Santiago Suarez, Jacqueline Obradors, Christian Gnecco Quintero, Valentina Latyna, Valentina Acosta, Scarlett Spears, and Tiago Martinez. Some of them were selected based on their Colombian nationality, and some made their feature film debut as well.[g] María Cecilia Botero's role of Abuela is compared to her similar role in 2021 animated filmEncanto.[14][44]
Filming began in July 2024[47] and was held for about four months in several locations in Colombia,[9][35] includingBogotá, Cundinamarca,Antioquia Department, Doradal, and Girardot,[1][33] with about 53 days ofprincipal photography.[24] The cast and crew were actually in the jungle, Reserva Natural Río Claro, and they had to be careful of the challenges like hot weather, rain, mosquitoes, snakes, and scorpions. Asnake handler assisted them throughout as well.[25][33][35][48] A lizard, a snake, and a capybara also appeared in the film, andwranglers from theAmerican Humane Society assisted the cast in handling them. A scene had a live scorpion, real cockroaches, and glued stuffed bugs, including centipedes and beetles. After filming, a container of the bugs was refilled and taken back. The filmmakers had studied and recorded the behaviors of a monkey before creating the character of Boots a completeCGI.[25][49] A stuffed monkey and a tennis ball were also used as stand-ins on set to portray Boots.[19]
This film was practically two films in one: half in the studio, with absolute control, and the other half in the jungle, with very little control.
Federico Cantini served as the cinematographer, and the cameras he used wereSony VENICE 2 withLeicaSummilux at Super35 to capture 5.8K footage, andSony FX3. The team had amulti-camera setup across the two units, usingSteadicam, Rialto,camera dolly, ortechnocrane.Film speed was kept at ISO 800 for the major part, while some scenes required ISO 3200.[33][46]TIS Productions hired 401 crew members from Colombia as well, and two stages inside their studio were used to build up the sets,[24][50] which had practically moving parts, portrayed in the film as the fire traps, moving walls, swings, and the weighing scales, and the sets had security emergency exits as well.[6][25][29][46] The set designs were reviewed and modeled inSketchUp, and the team usedintelligent lighting with jelly strips. Thepre-production had taken around nine weeks, and to save onpost-production costs, each set was redesigned to give it a fresh look and lit up differently by modifyingCTO and CTB, and a scene also hadLED screens to create the background. Todd Cherniawsky served asproduction designer, Juan Manuel Barreto asgaffer, and Walter Volpatto ascolor grader.[33][46] Some of the scenes were also filmed at Cuevas la Danta.[24]
For this film, I wanted to capture the essence of Dora's innocence, charm, and humor, but also give the film a tension in the moments of the trials she was facing. My first cuts almost felt like a different film at times – a horror Dora film. I think I was able to tone it back for all audiences.
While a few scenes had requiredbody doubles,[35] Lorraine and Rodriguez performed most of the stunts in the film themselves. A tram chase scene required Toro to have a fake drive through the parks, with hundreds ofextras behind.[6][7][29][51] Two trams, one for each unit, were remodified and made adjustable after inspiration from a Chinese van, and were used in two parks for filming,Hacienda Nápoles andParque Mundo Aventura [ceb]. Thesecond unit includedstunt coordinator Brycen Counts and cinematographer Sebastián Cantillo, and they also usedMōvi Pro steadicam andInspire 3 drone camera.[24][46] Adam Bonnett and Jonathan McCoy served asexecutive producers, along with the creators Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh Valdes, while Kristin Burr, Benjamin Tappan, and Carolina Arciniegas served as thefilm producers.[1][3][43] Evan Ahlgren served as the film editor and he usedMedia Composer,[52] while SpinVFX provided the visual effects.[53]
The soundtrack album consisting of 26 tracks was also released byRepublic Records on July 2, 2025, via multiplemusic streaming services. It was accompanied with a single "View From Here" byCharity Daw,Dora the Explorer theme "Dora y Diego" by Shila Olinda Farahani, andfilm score. All music is composed by Kenny Wood.
Thefilm premiere event was held in Los Angeles, California, on June 25, 2025.[27]Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado was released in the United States on Paramount+ on July 2, 2025, during the 25th anniversary of the original series,[30][54] and it premiered simultaneously on Nickelodeon. It was released internationally on July 4 by Paramount+ andNickelodeon Movies.[1][3]
Callie Hanna wrote in FandomWire that the film is "far from perfect, often rushed", but the "charming characters" and "compelling adventure scenes" work out.[56] DeVonne Goode wrote inParents that with a "more straightforward narrative", the film has "plenty of humor, action, and great displays of teamwork".[9] Rosana Maris Arias called the "story and dialogue" to be "lighthearted", but noted its inaccurate representation of the Spanish community, in a review atThe Nerds of Color.[40] Brennan Klein wrote inScreen Rant that the film "has some solid merits and a few major faults, but it's mostly a featureless, smooth blob of family entertainment".[37]
Carlos Aguilar ofVariety called it a "flawed family-friendly movie" which might have a "great value beyond its artistic shortcomings".[3] John Serba ofDecider reviews that the film "breaks new ground" with "some modest fun and a handful of laughs, and [ends] up in the black creatively".[8] Cath Clarke ofThe Guardian called it an "inoffensive adventure story" which has the "action sequences looted fromRaiders of the Lost Ark".[57] Jane A. of Absolute Geeks reviewed it as a "blandly competent" and "fast-paced" but "forgettable" film, having enough "to avoid sinking" but not "to shine".[45]
^The inspiration is noted by the cast and crew, including the lead actress,[30] the editor,[32] and the cinematographer;[33] as well as the reviewers, including inVariety,[3]Decider,[8] Music City Dive-in,[13]ScreenRant,[14] and United Press International.[16]
^Cast names, nationality, and debuting information are extracted from the sources such asScreenRant,[11] Infobae,[41] 90.4 F.M Laud,[42] Radionica,[43]The Hollywood Reporter,[19] andVariety.[24]
Full album oniTunes
"Dora y Diego" onInstagram