When the series made its television debut almost 20 years ago, Nickelodeon was encouraged to design its diminutive heroine as an emissary subliminally spreading the word about the richness of Hispanic culture and the advantages of growing up bilingual. This tactic worked so well that the series has travelled all over the world.

And with this film, she’s embarking on a new adventure in ethnography. Dora and the Lost City of Gold introduces her to the tribes to be found in the Hollywood teen movie. Her parents, Elena and Cole (Eva Longoria and Michael Pena), decide she should meet children of her own age while they carry on their own work in the Peruvian jungle. She’s to go to school in Los Angeles with her cousin, Diego (Jeff Wahlberg), who was once her closest friend.

But Dora (Isabela Moner) quickly discovers that Diego the adolescent is a very different character from the one she knew as a child. He’s decidedly standoffish, cringing with embarrassment at her complete lack of interest in trying to be cool.

Fortunately, they don’t have to grapple with these tensions for long. A gang of kidnappers scoop them, together with two of their school friends, and whisk them off to Peru. Led by New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison, these desperadoes are in the pay of a treasure hunter convinced Dora and her parents can lead him to Parapata, the lost city of gold. But the kids escape and the chase is on, with quicksand, poisonous frogs and gaseous plants cropping up to test the intelligence of Dora and the audience, whom she occasionally addresses.

The film was shot on the Gold Coast and locals Madeleine Madden and Nicholas Coombe play the roles of Dora and Diego’s fellow kidnap victims, while the Queensland rainforest successfully stands in for the Amazon. Those who have grown up with Dora should enjoy the reunion and a new generation will probably be just as entranced.