Dora’s Colorful Adventure

In Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom, Dora reads Boots a story about a kingdom whose colors come from a magical crystal. When a selfish king steals the crystal, the world begins to fade to black and white. Storybook character Ali will search until she finds the crystal, but she can’t do it alone. Will Dora help her? Well, yes. The result is a double-length episode, which means two things. One: more songs and one more destination from Map en route to save the kingdom. Two: It’s worth buying on DVD, because your kid won’t see it on TV every two weeks. It also means dedicated product tie-ins, including books, a Wii game, and a doll. That sounds like a condemnation, but the Dora franchise is a decent one overall, and a franchise is what it is. Grandma could do far worse than to package this one up for the holiday. The episode includes a girl knight riding a dragon and a supremely heavy-handed lesson about sharing. Somewhere, it skips the lessons about primary and secondary colors that you might expect from a color-themed kid’s show.

Fear Factor: (There’s usually some suspense in a Dora episode, here from the wicked king throwing rocks and spells. Some very sensitive toddlers may be frightened.)
Heart: (It may just be that I’m over Dora, but I see more cynicism than heart in these specials. If Dora changes her clothes, we can sell a new doll!)
Attitude: (Well, I got some from my 8-year-old, who’s begun to notice some inconsistencies in the Dora oeuvre.)
Psst: That’s Richard Kind (Paul from Spin City, among other things) voicing the king.
If you like this: Dora Saves the Snow Princess is a similarly plotted double episode—but then, if you like this, you probably already knew that.