j* Movie Reviews 2019

Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019)

BOOM! I reckon this is it, my least expected rave review of the year.

I thought this would be good, but I didn't know it would be spectacular. I wanted to see Dora in cinemas because it looked pretty cool and Isabella Moner (now Isabella Merced) is on my "actors to watch" list. But that opportunity came and went for reasons. And I am so disappointed I missed it big screen, with a crowd of kids. I don't think I've laughed quite as much in any other movie this year. Shout outs to CGI voiced by Benicio Del Toro and Danny Trejo, and the up-and-coming Australians in supporting roles - this is made in Australia.

DC/Marvel/anime nerds will be pleased to know that I maintained my dedication to not getting involved in the "old testaments" of this character either. I know of Dora, I know she is an explorer, but I've never seen a whole ep. And as an outsider to "the cannon" and "the universe," I think this did an excellent job of getting me in. No, I won't go back to the old stuff, but if there's another Dora film I will definitely be big-screening it.

What's the premise? Dora is like if Lara Croft was a dorky PG teenager, smart and jungle savvy but socially inept. There are not enough dorky characters as heroes and it is gorgeous to watch, and in a rarity, she isn't transformed into a cool kid by the end, just a bit more accepted. Like I said, I've been digging Isabella Merced for a while now, but she usually plays the somewhat surly end of the teenage spectrum. Dora is off-tap with "relentless positivity." I have never seen such epic cartoon-eye-acting in live action. Her face seems to have hundreds of different forms of smile. She radiates pure joy and unbridled optimism in such a wondrous, contagious way. She embodies cartoon in human form, and the film somehow manages to walk a line of 200% self-awareness whilst committing to 300% "out of our way we're doing a thing!"

If you want tone here, I'd say think George of the Jungle meets The Goonies. This really manages to balance the realities of live-action with the unbelievable nature of cartoon, I'd say it nails this in ways I have never seen another film manage. We have over-the-top characters, hilariously borderline dialogue, fourth-wall breaks that made me nearly piss myself "can you say death by neurotoxicity?", some whacky CGI animal characters and hilarious cartoon solutions when you least expect them. It makes the new Jumanji(s?) feel like a nature documentary filled with realism. This is so, so wild. I was surprised so many times by out-of-nowhere cartoon-world madness and it just felt so right. That frog! That monkey, Boots! That swipey, swipey fox! Quicksand! Jungle puzzles! Their solution to honouring the cartoon-source material of Dora mid-film was glorious.

The mayhem is so pleasant the plot is not that important. But the gist is jungle-teen Dora is sent to the big city where she struggles to fit in (think Crocodile Dundee in red shorts). Her parents are off to explore - there are repeated messages here about "exploring good, treasure hunting bad" which I found pretty entertaining, and plenty of jabs at "treasure hunters" of the past. Then on a school excursion Dora and her oddball group are abducted by baddies who are clearly treasure hunting types. Then they're saved by a goody who recognises her as, well obviously, Dora-the.... Abducted Teenager! Then we have an epic "find the parents" in the jungle section which is just awesome jungle-gag after awesome jungle-gag. One of the best "shitting in the woods" scenes ever, it came with a song, and they called it doing a "poo" - Australia fights back! The ultimate endings are both obvious and obviously satisfying. The singing and dancing outro had me back in stitches.

There is an awful lot of Dora in me, I identify with her way too much. We were only about twenty minutes in when I knew it was getting four stars. And by the end I knew I'd laughed way too much, been surprised way too much, thoroughly entertained too much... I wouldn't be being true to my intense love of this gorgeously dorky character and epic sense of fun if I gave it less.

Dora is full of gold.

J* gives it 5 stars.

PS. The monkey work by Boots (Trejo) makes me super-positive about Captain Planet. When we finally get it, it could be just the lost gold we need.

PPS: "Can you say delicioso?"