9/8/20 Dora And The Lost City Of Gold? (Hulu movie)

     I read some of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes because it felt weird to think this and I wanted to see if I was alone, but apparently most reviewers I saw seem to say the same thing.  This little gem of a comedy is way better than it is supposed to be.  Dora, as we all know even if we never actually sat and watched an episode, is a little "explorer" in the cartoon world.  Her biggest foe is a fox, Swiper, who tries to swipe her stuff but always fails, and then she has her trusty backpack which seems to have a never ending supply of necessities, including even a Bowie knife, and a shovel to bury her poop in the jungle.

    The movie starts off ten years earlier and we see a young Dora and Diego (her cousin) playing in adventures in a jungle setting.  We learn the parents are professors and explorers played by Michael Pena and Eva Longoria.  I am a big fan of his, he tends to play smart aleck roles which fit him nicely.  We quickly get to see that Diego and his family are headed to the United States so he can go to school and be "normal."  Dora stays behind growing up alone for another ten years with only Boots, a loyal and cute-ish monkey sidekick, for entertainment.  There is an incident which scares her parents and she is suddenly cast as the fish out of water as she too is sent to the US to live with Diego's family.  At this point, she is in high school, and maybe 15-16, she is still sporting the "Dora" look with the bangs and her trusty backpack.  She does her best to fit in and be liked, but of course, with shitty high school kids, that is never the right way to approach things as one is supposed to be "cool" in high school.

    I don't want to give away any of the plot, yes there are some twists and turns, even if they are predictable, it is still a fun jaunt.  The parents have been in search of the lost city of Parapata, which is supposedly filled with more gold than the rest of the world, combined.  This is why the parents have been in the jungle all these years and of course there will be bad guys to try and get at that gold.

    The movie is carried pretty much on the shoulders of the young actress, Isabela Merced, who provides just the right amount of energy (over the top), and lack of insecurity.  She attacks every problem with confidence and carries her and her friends to safety and eventually helps save everyone, but it is based on a cartoon, so you already knew that.  The movie pokes fun at itself, mostly in the beginning when Dora sits to have lunch and attempts to break the fourth wall by telling us to repeat whatever word she just said.  The dad quietly asks the wife "who is she talking to?" and "she'll outgrow this, right?"  It was a totally fun and cute movie that never takes itself too seriously.