Dora the Explorer and the Destiny Medallion began as a CollegeHumor parody of a live-action Dora the Explorer movie starring Ariel Winter. Reaction to the trailer was so popular that it became a live-action miniseries, consisting of three episodes.
Dora and Boots are recruited by her cousin, Diego, to help solve a mystery that has archaeologists baffled to this day—the location of the famed Destiny Medallion, guarded by the Grumpy Old Troll. With the nefarious Swiper in hot pursuit of the artifact, Dora will have to use her map, backpack, and observational skills to find it before he does—but all is not as it seems...
The trailer can be found here
and the miniseries can be found here, here, and here.
This miniseries is not to be confused with Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Nickelodeon's official live-action Dora movie.
This web series contains examples of:
- Actionized Adaptation: Dora and Swiper use guns with copious amounts of Stuff Blowing Up, while the original cartoon was made for preschoolers and had little to no violence.
- Adaptational Badass: Swiper in the cartoon was about as harmless a villain as you could get, and even when he did steal things Dora always found them again. Here he's a Bad Boss who successfully captures Dora and has schemes that threaten the world.
- Adaptation Species Change: Map, Benny the Bull and Swiper are portrayed as humans, instead of the inanimate objects and animals they were in the cartoon.
- Affectionate Parody: Of Dora the Explorer, obviously, and the Indiana Jones movies.
- An Arm and a Leg: Benny gets his arm cut off after putting the wrong part into a childishly easy puzzle. While he manages to survive this, later his other arm is also cut off, then he's left to die as the tomb collapses.
- Aside Glance: Dora frequently pauses to talk to the audience a la the original cartoon.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Dora asks the audience whether they can solve the puzzle, and stands there looking at the camera waiting for them. This makes Diego call her crazy.
- The Dreaded: One of Swiper's mooks is so terrified of the Grumpy Old Troll he tries to run immediately.
- Hotter and Sexier: Diego is played by the very shirtless Adrian Gonzalez.
- Real Trailer, Fake Movie: The original trailer, Dora the Explorer and the Search for the Infinity Orb, began as this.
- Resignations Not Accepted: Swiper asks rhetorically if any of his men want to leave before going into the tomb. When one tries, he shoots him In the Back. After this, in annoyance Swiper clarifies that he'll shoot anyone who does this.
- Too Dumb to Live: Benny tries to "solve" the puzzle by putting a circular piece into what's an obviously square hole. He immediately gets his arm cut off as this springs a trap.
