The Appeal Of Dora The Explorer

To be honest, most children’s television shows are off the air before long. Oftentimes, a show is started to catch in on a fleeting craze, or else the appeal of the concept just isn’t that timeless. Once in awhile, though, we get a show like Sesame Street, The Wiggles (perhaps one of the most popular franchises in Australian toys and television), or Howdy Doody, which winds up hitting upon just the right idea at just the right time, and becoming not just a flash in the pan half hour of daily entertainment, but an integral element of the cultural landscape.

As anyone with a daughter, granddaughter, little sister, or niece knows by now, Dora the Explorer is probably going to be one of those shows. Having first aired in 1999, the show has run for nearly a decade by now, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. In 2004 alone, the franchise made $1 billion in revenue from television and toys.

The appeal that Dora the Explorer has for children, and especially young girls, is quite simple. If you want princesses or Beverly Hills party girls, you can take your pick from any number of dolls and TV shows. The glamorous hair and makeup gals are, quite honestly, a dime a dozen. Dora the Explorer has found a tragically unexplored niche in the fact that there really just isn’t much out there for young girls who want some action and adventure in their lives.

Most adventure toys and shows are marketed at boys, but if you think about it, that’s kind of silly. Girls love Indiana Jones just as much as boys do. In fact, when the boys toys sword and sorcerer cartoon series He Man and the Masters of the Universe aired, it quickly developed a huge following of young girls, simply because there was so little available for adventuresome girls at the time, and He Man offered plenty of female action heroes to root for.

For some adults, Dora the Explorer brings to mind memories of exploring the parks and forests around our childhood homes. We would turn a stick and an old shoelace into a bow and arrow, imagining ourselves as Errol Flynn or Harrison Ford. As children, we want to explore and imagine ourselves as heroes on some incredible journey. For girls, there is very little on television and in toys to encourage this, and Dora the Explorer is not only a great idea, it’s long overdue.

What’s more, Dora the Explorer has a well developed cast of wonderful characters, and that’s important for any long running children’s show. Dora herself is fearless and capable, the excellent adventure hero, while her sidekick, Boots the monkey, is funny and helpful. Swiper, the masked fox who gets his kicks by “swiping” people’s treasured keepsakes is generally pretty harmless, providing just enough of a threat to keep kids on the edge of their seats, but not quite enough of a threat to be scary. Displaying Dora’s heroic character further, she’s generally optimistic and kind to all of the other characters, even to the point that she does not hold a grudge against Swiper. Such values are often missing in children’s entertainment.

It’s interesting to note that, while Dora the Explorer is typically aimed at a female audience, there are plenty of boys who love the show as well (not that they’d ever admit it to their friends), prompting the producers to launch the spin-off, Go Diego Go, about Dora’s equally adventuresome cousin, Diego, allowing boys to join in the adventure without having to admit that they like a girls show.

By: Chang Lim

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