Dora and the Lost City of Gold / YMMV

Aluminium Christmas Trees: The Lost Guardians of Parapata wield European-style armour and crossbows, as the Vilcabamba Incas historically did in their final wars against the Spanish.
And You Thought It Would Fail: The initial announcement was met with some scorn, given it was taking a preschool-aged TV show and giving it a more actionized movie treatment. Much like Power Rangers vs. Power Rangers (2017), there were already even a number of parodies focusing on making a Darker and Edgier movie version of the show (CollegeHumor had even made one with Ariel Winter as Dora). The trailers caught people by surprise over how much fun it looked, and upon release critical reviews landed in the 80% range on Rotten Tomatoes. It also did reasonably well at the box office to boot, making $120.6 million at the box office against a $49 million budget.
Angst? What Angst?: While it's understandable for Dora to not be affected emotionally from the events of the movie considering that she's been living in the jungle for 16 years, the fact that Diego, Randy, and Sammy, three city-dwelling teens who have never faced a survival situation their life (unless you count Diego who lived with Dora and her parents when he was six, although he seemed to have mostly hung around the house and was never put in any actual danger unlike Dora) don't seem to be affected by PTSD of any sort is a bit more far-fetched. Among the misfortunes they face in the movie is getting kidnapped out of nowhere on a field trip and separated from their families, flown to an unfamiliar continent, forced to walk on foot through a jungle for three days with a complete stranger, getting darts shot at them, getting nearly suffocated by quicksand, being nearly drowned in an aqueduct, getting held hostage by a group treasure hunters, being nearly impaled by temple traps, and ending up with fungal infections and dysentery from it all, and yet they just share an upbeat song about the ordeal. Although one could argue that they're putting on a Stepford Smiler act.
Ass Pull: The reveal that Alejandro was the film's villain the whole time comes almost completely out of left field, with only a handful of very easy to miss hints (which could easily just be seen as throwaway jokes) being dropped prior to the reveal of his true nature.
Award Snub: The movie failed to receive any nominations at Nickelodeon's own Kids Choice Awards.
Awesome Art: The sequence where the group hallucinates that they are their animated counterparts is actually very nice to look at, with colorful and fluid animation, cute character designs, and gorgeous scenery. It definitely seems a lot more exciting compared to the animation in the original show.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Boots talks to Dora in Danny Trejo's voice exactly once late in the movie. No further reference is made to it afterward. But then again, it’s kind of funnier that way.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The Stringini Bros. have a song entitled "Dora No More" which describes Dora being mauled in various ways, one of which has Boots push her into quicksand. Unlike in the song, Dora survives the quicksand in the movie.
I Knew It!: Many people were able to guess that Alejandro was working with the mercenaries and was using Dora to find her parents and the lost city.
Memetic Mutation:
- Upon the announcement of a live-action Dora movie, comparisons to the CollegeHumor spoof trailer Dora the Explorer and the Search for the Infinity Orb naturally sprang up.
- The scene where Dora's shown to have held a knife in her backpack has especially spawned some jokes on how dark this movie is compared to the original show.
  "Oh, look, Dora bought a knife on the field trip, everybody."
- Once Swiper's design was revealed, a lot of jokes about him actually being the new design for Tails in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) popped up. Most agree that he looks better than the widely mocked initial design for Sonic.
- "Can you say 'Severe Neurotoxicity'?"
Moe: Dora becomes a Badass Adorable. Or should we say "A-Dora-ble"?
Narm Charm: You would expect a dark and serious movie loosely based off of a preschool series to be full of Narm, and it is, but it actually makes it work with the callbacks to the series and the well-written story.
Popular with Furries: This film's version of Swiper became a hit with furries due to his CGI design giving him a more anthropomorphized look.
Questionable Casting: Many fans raised an eyebrow at the casting of Danny Trejo as the voice of Boots and Benicio del Toro as the voice of Swiper. The former especially since Boots doesn't talk outside of a single scene in the movie. For the latter, many fans just couldn't get why the filmmakers couldn't have simply have Marc Weiner reprise his role as Swiper, considering Weiner did come back to voice the Map and that Del Toro’s talents as Swiper were ultimately wasted considering Swiper barely has a presence in this film.
Signature Scene: The hallucination sequence, in which the film briefly takes on the animation style of the original show.
Special Effect Failure: Boots' arm clips very noticeably through the backpack at one point.
Squick:
- The scorpions mating on top of Alejandro's head.
- The half of the candy bar that Dora split with Diego and then held on to for the whole Time Skip.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Swiper barely makes stand alone appearances in the movie. He mostly appears in group shots of the mercenaries and only two interactions with Dora. And even then, the two characters don’t acknowledge their past history. He also has a grand total of thirteen lines throughout the entire film, four of them being renditions of his catchphrase.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Backpack and Map during the film's opening scene. Granted, it's all in Dora's imagination, but imagine in real life if your backpack had a face on it and could talk...
WTH, Costuming Department?: While Dora looks exactly like her cartoon counterpart, Diego's short haircut doesn't make him look like Diego at all. It's at least partly justified by the idea that he changed his hairstyle as he got older, but it's still jarring.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: A movie based on a show created for preschoolers about a young Mexican girl who teaches kids Spanish, observational skills and whatnot has that same girl in high school kidnapped trying to save her parents from ruthless mercenaries, with occasional weapon violence along the way.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Well, not for preschoolers at least. Despite being based on a lighthearted Edutainment show, the movie is obviously geared more towards older children/teens and more akin to Jumanji or a Denser and Wackier Indiana Jones. It contains a lot of intense action scenes and peril that would frighten a small child and dialogue that you typically hear in your average PG-rated movie, but definitely not in a show for preschoolers, and considering the movie's almost parodical and deconstructive take on the Dora the Explorer universe, it's likely also meant to appeal to older teenagers and adults who love to mock how "cheesy" the cartoon is.

YMMV / Dora and the Lost City of Gold

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