Summaries

Synopsis

Deep in the Peruvian jungle, Dora (Isabela Mone) daughter of explorers Cole (Michael Pena) and Elena (Eva Longoria), spends her days going on adventures with her monkey friend Boots, her cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg), and imaginary friends Backpack and Map while thwarting the fox thief Swiper (who is always trying to steal Dora's map). When Dora and Diego are six and seven-years-old (they are inseparable), Diego leaves to be with his family in Los Angeles, while Dora's family remains searching for the hidden Inca city Parapata. Legends say that Parapata has more gold than the rest of the world combined.

Ten years later, Dora's parents decipher the location of Parapata (based on an artifact discovered by Dora inside a cave that was recently uncovered after a rock-slide) but choose to send Dora to Diego's school in LA while they travel to the lost city. Elena says that Dora is not ready to face the dangers of exploring just yet. Cole also tries to tell Dora about the dangers of rave parties in the city.

Staying with Diego's family aunt Sabrina (Pia Miller) and uncle Nico (Joey Vieira), Dora meets fellow students Sammy (Madeleine Madden) (class president and the smartest girl in school) and Randy (Nicholas Coombe) (a fat boy who is into astronomy but is beaten up by bullies) at school.Sammy is threatened by Dora' intelligence and her views which are unique as she was home-schooled till this point in her life.Dora is in touch with her parents over a satellite phone and keeps track of their progress as they make their way towards Parapata. But then all of a sudden, they are not contactable over phone.

Diego considers Dora an embarrassment as Dora is hyper excited and has weird mannerisms that don't go well in the city landscape. Dora travels to school with an entire jungle survival kit in her backpack.Dora's eccentric behavior culminates in mocking and name-calling by some of her new classmates when she publicly dances to a Conga song at the school dance. Embarrassed, Diego tells Dora that she is no longer in the jungle, which leads to a fallout between them.On a class field trip to a museum, Dora and the others (Sammy, Randy and Diego) are lured to its off-exhibit archives, where they are captured by mercenaries led by Powell (Temuera Morrison) who fly them to Peru in a crate inside a cargo plane.

When they land, a man named Alejandro (Eugenio Derbez), who claims to be a friend of Dora's parents, helps them escape from the crate and Powell and his men. In the process the mercenaries, aided by Swiper (Benicio Del Toro), steal Dora's map. Alejandro reports that Dora's parents have gone missing, and that the mercenaries are searching for them in hopes of getting into Parapata and stealing its treasures. Alejandro had the diary of Dora's parents where they had captured all of their research.Dora resolves to find her parents first with Alejandro's help, while the other teens come along in hopes of being rescued.

Dora picks up her parent's trail where they entered the jungle and left clues to their progress as they went deeper into the forest. Following the trail Dora finds her parent's abandoned and ransacked campsite. At the campsite, Dora is reunited with Boots.Sammy hates it in the jungle, while Randy is just afraid that he will die from an unseen danger in the jungle. Sammy takes out her frustration on Dora, who does not know how to deal with it as she has never been around other children. Diego comforts Dora and says that she is doing the best she can. Dora figures out that Diego is attracted to Sammy.Dora figures out that the route to Parapata had 3 markers on the way in the shape of houses.The group travels through numerous obstacles, including rolling logs, quicksand (Dora knows the technique to get out of quicksand without any external help), Inca ruin puzzles, and attacks from forest guards of Parapata.Along the way they meet an old woman (Isela Vega) who says that anyone who seeks Parapata is cursed, and offers them a path out of the jungle and to safety.

Sammy and Randy have a chance to return to civilization but decide to support Dora when Diego also refuses to abandon her alone in the jungle.

After numerous hazards, Dora reaches her parents just outside the borders of Parapata, but Alejandro reveals he was working for the mercenaries all along and captures them. The other teens are caught as well but Boots the monkey (Danny Trejo) helps them escape. With Dora's parents still prisoners, the teens decide to find the way inside Parapata in hopes of acquiring treasure that they can use to bargain for Elena and Cole's release.

Inside the hidden city, Dora and the others solve its temple's puzzles and dodge its traps, bringing them to the center shrine. Alejandro turns out to have been following them, and attempts to steal its central idol himself, but instead falls into a trap. The soldiers guarding Parapata, led by their queen (Q'Orianka Kilcher) (Turns out the old woman they met earlier was the Queen in disguise) defeat the mercenaries and confront the teens. Dora speaks to them in Quechua, assuring that the teens only came for her parents and to learn. The Inca permit the teens and Dora's family to leave, allowing them a glimpse of their greatest treasure, a huge idol of a monkey made of solid gold.

The teens and Dora's parents arrive at Dora's jungle home. Her parents discuss going on another expedition as a whole family, but Dora decides to return to school in Los Angeles. She and the other teens celebrate at a party while Alejandro and the mercenaries remain prisoners in Parapata.