Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado

image for Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado

Short takes

Not suitable under 7; parental guidance to 10 (violence, scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado
  • a review of Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 19 August 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 7 Not suitable due to violence, scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 7–10 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 11 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes, violence and some scenes may scare young children. Flashing lights and strobing patterns might affect photosensitive viewers (OC).
Length: 93 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

In a slightly more mature, standalone adaptation of the Dora the Explorer franchise, Dora (Samantha Lorraine) and her cousin Diego (Jacob Rodriguez) set out on an adventure to find the lost treasure of Sol Dorado – where they can make one selfless wish. However, the cousins find themselves teaming up with Naiya (Mariana Garzón Toro) and her little brother Sonny (Acston Luca Porto), in order to find the treasure before Dora’s former childhood hero-turned-enemy Camilla (Daniella Pineda) and her team of raiders. Dora and her friends must learn about themselves and trust one another to find the treasure in time, or risk losing the treasure they have all worked toward!

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Adventure; Exploration; Growing Up; Family Relationships; Latinx representation.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • On several occasions, a character threatens another character with a knife or sword.
  • Camilla physically grabs and yells in the face of one of her raiders.
  • Camilla verbally berates and insults her raiders, including calling them a bunch of meatballs.
  • Customers treat Dora poorly, including throwing food at her and verbally berating her.
  • One of the raiders hits a character in a llama costume with their car, however, the person gets up and is fine.
  • Diego is knocked unconscious from a sleep dart, and smacks his head on the seat in front of him.
  • A character threatens to cut off Diego’s arm, but as he attempts to do so a bracelet works as armour and prevents it.
  • Camilla scares Dora, making her scream and fall backwards off a cliff where she rolls down and is knocked unconscious.
  • A character hits another over the head with a rock, knocking him unconscious.
  • A character threatens Dora and her friends with a sword.
  • Camilla and another character engage in a sword fight.
  • A character tries to make off with some gold, before falling off a platform to his death; you can hear screaming the whole way down.
  • Camilla jumps on a scale to sacrifice herself and plummets into a void, but is saved at the last minute.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Boots, the Monkey has a splinter in his paw.
  • Dora and Diego go into a scary dark cave, with screeching bats flying around and dark, ominous music.
  • The characters walk into a booby-trap, acting as a jump scare as it springs up with a scary-looking skeleton attached.
  • The camera pans between a tarantula pit and snake pit.
  • Dora drops her map and it falls into the fire. She is shown deeply distressed by this.
  • On several occasions, Dora or Diego’s head snaps back and they have a vision, with a loud swell of music and flashing between several locations.
  • Hundreds of creepy insects are shown crawling all over the walls, floors and ceiling of a tomb, accompanied by a creepy, loud swell of music.
  • The camera cuts to a close-up of a skull, with a swell of scary music, acting as a jump scare.
  • Diego has to complete a puzzle where he is swinging between vines over a pit of spikes.
  • Dora wakes up to the jungle at night, visibly frightened, with a loud swell of ominous music and spooky animal noises.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Characters walk into a burial ground, where there is a mass grave full of skeletons. The characters are forced to leap into it as walls close in on them.
  • Dora and Diego have lost their Abuelo (grandfather), and are shown to still be grieving and missing him.
  • Dora grabs onto a vine that collapses, and she falls into a giant pit with spikes, before being saved by Diego.
  • Dora falls through the floor into a cave, before getting caught in a booby-trap that catches on fire. She is saved at the last moment by Diego.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Music swells between two characters, who are said to have dated previously. They flirt with each other and argue about their breakup throughout the film.
  • Diego gently tucks a female character’s hair behind her ear while romantic music swells, and she kisses him on the cheek.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • “Hey Skunk face, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle or I’ll cut them off.”
  • Freakin’
  • You suck!

In a nutshell

Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado is a fun, live-action Dora the Explorer story that is entertaining and engaging for the family. However, this film contains more violent and scary scenes and themes than traditional Dora cartoons, and is therefore more suited to slightly older children, with parental guidance recommended for ages 7 to 10.

The main messages from this movie are the importance of teamwork and working together toward a common goal, while being considerate of how other people may feel; and that it is okay to make mistakes – you just need to keep moving forward.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Second-chances
  • Optimism and positivity
  • Trusting in yourself and your abilities.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Dora was so focused on her and Diego being explorers together, she hadn’t thought about what Diego would want. Why do you think it is important to try and think about what other people would want?
  • What do you think Dora could have done differently to make Diego feel like he was being listened to?
  • Dora was very upset when she found out that Diego wanted to go on an internship and expressed that she was scared of losing him. Parents may want to discuss with their children the importance of respecting the choices of your loved ones, while also holding space for your own sad feelings.
  • Parents may want to know that the movie is portrayed by a majority Latinx cast and includes Spanish dialogue, similar to many other adaptations of Dora the Explorer that served as a basic Spanish-language teaching tool.