Wherein Dora the Explorer is pitted for being stupid!

The BBQ Pit
1

Ahhhh, the irony. Way back in July 2003, Dangerosa pitted Dora, and now I, Dangergene find I too must pit the li’l darling.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Dora, and my son (at 16months) will tolerate it for a while (he’s the one who’ll turn it off more often than not, clever kid!). But how can you make an educational kids show that’s so stupid? it’s just so damn out of whack!

I know it’s fantasy, and I know there’s no such thing as talking monkeys with red boots (no, all the talking monkeys wear blue boots! It’s common sense) and the multi-lingual stuff is cool (although I’d like a bit more than just english and spanish. After all lots of the world speaks other languages!).

No, it’s the fucked up stuff, the plain STUPID stuff.

When I finally counted three fucked up THINGS I knew it was time to post (granted it took me a while to count it up, which in many ways speaks well for the show, but the stupid stuff is SO STUPID!).

Ok, maybe this is a Cafe Society thread, but it disturbs me, and it needs pitting, so here it is.

  1. When Dora and Boots went looking for berries, they found the berry trees on the hill where Swiper lives. Instead of asking Swiper could they take some berries, they complained that Swiper would steal the Berries.

Now wait one minute young miss, those are Swiper’s berry trees! Who’s the one swiping? Surely there was a moral lesson missing there about theft and misguided swiping? I know Swiper is supposed to be the villain, but he was the victim here and STILL he slunk away in shame when thieving Dora and Boots shouted ‘Swiper no swiping!’. Now, if I’m three years old, this tells me that I can enter my neighbours yard and take apples. If the neighbour complains, I simply tell them to go away?

  1. As per every episode, Dora needs something from THE BACKPACK. In a recent epsode we are shown all her backpack crap and there was a friggin’ icecream cone in her backpack! This was enough to make Mrs Dangergene shout at the TV.

Now I’m just imagining a slightly older Master Dangergene receiving an icecream from his dad.

‘Young sir, where is your frozen treat? Finished so soon?’
‘Is in m’backpack daddoo!’
‘gadzooks son, you can’t do that! It’ll melt and make a mess, and what about the map? You’ll get ice-cream on the map’
‘but dah, Dora puts ice-cream in her backpack all the time’
… etc etc etc.

  1. (and this one was from this morning’s episode). Dora and Boots went with the hispanic Firetruck (like many of the vehicles, the truck only spoke spanish, which is cool, but why is it the vehicles only speak spanish? Where are the Chinese tractors, the Korean helicopters, the Hindu motorscooters or the Dutch bicylces?) …uh, where was I? Hispanic firetuck, yes …to rescue a ‘ki-en’.

What’s a ki-en?

Apparently a ki-en looks and acts a lot like a kitten. Now, isn’t pronounciation a key element in teaching kids to talk? And isn’t teaching kids vocabulary a primary function of Dora’s manifesto?

I’ve done a lot of voice work in my time, and I KNOW it’s easy to fall into verbal ruts when you create a vocalisation for a character, but you always, always, ALWAYS enunciate clearly. You do not say, ‘Let’s save the ki-en’ and leave it at that, you re-record the damn line until you get it right!!!

Blah!

Ok, this is a pretty piss-weak, but I figured there would be others who feel the need to unload the inane un-learnings on kids TV. Not the dumb songs or ugly characters, or whatnot, we all know kids TV is full of that, I mean the stupid behaviour and such on supposedly educational shows. This isn’t Bevis and Butthead setting fire to a house and being copied by a dumb teenager, B&B are not intended to teach anything, they’re intended to be funny and should be viewed as such, if kids are watching it, parents know to have a guiding hand in the process. I’m talking about supposedly trustworthy educational kids’ TV.

I mean, this is ‘educational’ Dora puting icecream in her backpack for Og’s sake!

‘I’m friggin’ backpack’ indeed!

2

Obviously the truck is not saying “ki-en.” It’s pronounced “key-yen” so he’s saying the word “killin’,” but with a Spanish accent so he says the double-L as a Y. The truck’s a murderous psycho, Christine’s big brother from the barrio, and that cat’s as good as dead once Dora turns away. Stay in the tree, ki-en!

3

Oh, it gets worse. For instance:

[ul]
[li]Dora’s mother has no problem with her little darling facing giant crocodiles on a weekly basis[/li][li]‘Sticky tape’ can fix anything, even hot-air balloons releasing air at great pressure - and they can patch from the outside. Sticky tape will also hold together backpack straps.[/li][li]Big angry bears that chase you across an icy river will stop, almost at the shore, and cheerfully wave goodbye if you beat them there.[/li][li]Red boots are very helpful while swinging through the trees[/li][li]Dora’s mother gives her a delicious snack of 10 blueberries! Not enough to fit on the palm of her hand. And this is considered a good snack?[/li][/ul]

The physics errors, the logical errors…gah. Oswald the Octopus was actually worse, but seems to have vanished into the mists of time. I’d sit with my kids and say “Do strawberries grow on trees? Do tomatoes grow on trees? Nooooo.”

4

Well, I know I make sure my son watches only documentaries and Bergman.

:rolleyes:

Fuck’s sake, it’s supposed to be stupid. Change the channel or turn the idiot box off. Is this difficult?

5

I forgot about the bear. Hot damn that was a wierd episode. Dora and Boots were TERRIFIED of that bear, and the bear was all set to have some li’l girl for brunch. When they crossed the river and the bear stopped at the 7/8 mark I figured, ok, maybe the bear will be washed away or he’d stop and float ‘a spell’ or something. But then he TURNED AROUND AND SWAM BACK TO THE OTHER SHORE!!! So the bear doesn’t have the strength to swim 1/8 of the way to shore (for dinner), but does have the strength to swim 14/8 of the way across the river (fer nuttin’). Stupid bear!!!

And you’re onto something with Dora’s mum. She doesn’t care WHAT Dora gets up to! And just WHY does she want Dora out of the house all the time? Aiyiyi! (did I say that right?).

heh heh, Brahe methinks you’re onto something there! Although it was Dora who was planning to ‘save the ki-en’ and given her proclivities for speaking in Spanish, mayhaps she had ordered a hit on the kitten. The firetruck was merely an anthropomorphic ‘Cleaner’, or mayhaps Dora was ‘saving the killing’ for Boots enjoyment or somesuch!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

6

And I think the character designs are bland and uninteresting…

7

In all fairness, Dora the Explorer is aimed at very young children (three and under), who don’t have a framework of what’s logical and what’s illogical. This stuff drives us nuts only because we adults know the world doesn’t work that way. Idiotic characters – such as the Scarecrow who felt guilty about scaring a baby blue bird – are there merely to advance the so-called “plot.”

And all the vehicles speak Spanish because the show teaches Spanish as part of its gimmick. If the show were proporting to teach Vietnamese, or German, or Esperanto, then I imagine the vehicles would have a more diverse vocabulary.
Finally, I have to say that Tico the Squirrel rocks. The guy is absolutely unflappable, has a vehicle or a device for any situation, and approaches everything with a grin and a waggling eyebrow. Tico es magnifico!

8

rjung I’m not concerned with the illogical stuff, it’s amusing, but not really an issue. After all, I didn’t expect the bear to actually EAT Dora et al. It’s the bad learning content that irks me. The stuff that little kids may take on board along with all the good stuff (to its merit, the good stuff is most of the show). It’s only a very small amount of stuff that is stupid, but it’s enough to concern me.

And yeah, I was just taking the piss with the multifarious languages. The show is American and I read somewhere on these boards that Spanish is the US’s second most used language (is this correct?) so it does make sense. But I find the idea of different vehicles speaking different languages amusing, and imagine Dora speaking all those languages! Go Dora!

You’re also on the mark with Tico, he’s serioulsy got it going on! Oh, and the insect band that randomly walks through scenes. They’re very cool!

9

Gee, when I was a kid, stuff like this was called a teachable moment. Say I was sitting with Mom watching Dora put an ice cream cone in her backpack. Mom would say, “Isn’t that silly” and I’d say “what’s silly, Mommy, what’s silly?” Mom would answer, “where did Dora put that ice cream cone?” “I know, I know!” I would scream, “she put it in her backpack and that’s silly 'cuz it will melt!” And together we would say, “Silly, silly Dora.”

Okay, so maybe that would only happen during a psychotically induced flashback to my favorite imaginary show Beaver Watches TV With His Bachelor Father, but the theory is sound. My mom did point out silly stuff in the books she read me and ask me what was wrong with the picture or what would happen next. Using the episode about Swiper to discuss ownership may be a bit difficult with the kids the age the show is aimed at, but you could say, “hey, Dora was wrong, those were Swiper’s berries!” You have more authority with your kid than TV, and it’s never to early to model good viewing skills–like not taking everything on TV as the truth or the “right” thing.

And kids are better at spotting silly stuff than you think.

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y’know Ms Kallessa, I could think you were following me around threads :smiley:

Actually, you’re right, and this is indeed what we did (learning moment).

Although we didn’t say, ‘silly, silly Dora’, we said something like, ‘Dora, you’re a friggin idjit! Icecream in a backpack? Indeed!!!’ and ‘Dora, say hello to the big house cos you’re goin’ down for STEALING!’.

The young master proceeded to mumble something that sounded like, ‘Boowehoo’ (he doesn’t say real words yet, but he might start saying ‘ki-en’), turned off the TV and went to play with his Fisher-Price little people ™.

11

Slight hijack but if Sesame Street (a show which I love, by the way) is an educational show, why do so many of its characters have friggin speech impediments? Elmo won’t use pronouns, Cookie monster apparently doesn’t like verbs. Ok, he doesn’t like any word that doesn’t start with C and end in Ookie. Baby Bear has that annoying r-w lisp thing going, etc…

Seriously, I had to convince my daughter that Baby Bear’s hat was indeed Red, and not some strange offshoot of red called “wed.”

12

The entire Swiper No Swiping drives me batty.

I just wait for the day Dora pulls out a .357 and blows his thieving head off.

Tell me I’m not crazy has brought up a most excellent point. Seasame Street has a plethora of speech impedimented puppets. Cookie MOnster eats only carbs and should be in a diabetic coma right now. Elmo is clearly ADD and ADHD with personal space issues. The Count suffers from OCD. Baby Bear has a hair lip or something. Snuffleupagus has chronic sinus infections and nearly everyone speaks in third person. I dunno, maybe it comes from having a hand jammed up their ass.

My favorite speech impedimented puppet is still The Swedish Chef.

::::::hun do der der Bjork, bjork bjork!::::::::::salad goes flying.

13

I only see Dora when my niece visits (about once a month), and it’s been a while since I saw this one, but weren’t those blueberries about the size of an apple?

Yeah, Dora’s crime-stopping technique leaves a lot to be desired.

14

That is TOO funny!

I thank Og every day that Aaron goes to daycare and so has never been exposed to much children’s TV besides Teletubbies (which deserves its own Pit thread), Boobah (which has had one), and Sesame Street (ditto).

Robin

15

If that stuff bothers you, dangergene, don’t even watch Spongebob Squarepants.

16

Oh yeah. Keep on trucking.

Thomas the tank engine was my nemisis. Written by a minister! The child was addicted to the holier then thou trains.

The trains often spouted shit…then often told the child good things. I’m glad the child didn’t then nor does now rely on tv for his good/bad.

We DELIBERATELY watched a doc tonight. The doco was why Texas is the fattest state. The child could stand to be less fat (much like me at the same age) we watched the programme and discussed issues as they came up. He’s 12. He’s up for such conversations.

Four years olds like to see trains/telly tubbies/wiggles etc because they are fun. I really do think we put too much value on what our little people watch…not that they should watch adult tv…but little people tv has more messages that we see then what they see.

17

Ah, but Spongebob gets the B&B dispensation: it’s supposed to be stupid. Or rather, it’s one of those ostensibly “kid” shows that are really meant to allow some adult to let all the silliness hang out (“Bikini Bottoms” indeed).

As for the current crop of kids’ shows, let’s just say that if there’s a large grizzly bear inside your big blue house you’d better be outside with a big high-caliber rifle :stuck_out_tongue:

As for Dora, yeah, “Swiper no swiping” is lame. But then again I don’t think “¡Cojan a ese ladrón H.D.P.!” (Spanish for “Grab that thieving S.O.B.!”) would go down too well :wink: Of course, if we wish to further deconstruct the particular show mentioned in the OP, the lesson that even if it’s on Swiper’s land, the goods are NOT Swiper’s, would indicate it is presumed he can’t possibly be the rightful owner; which makes you wonder how a future Dora will feel about being stopped by the cops/la Migra for “Driving While Mexican”. Either that or Dora and Boots belong to some sort of neo-socialist land-reform movement and they were collectivizing Swiper’s orchard. :smiley:

I once drew a web-toon based on her – one about what might happen 15 or so years down the road when a grown-up Dora is washed out in children’s TV and seeks to update her image by appearing in “Maxim”…

18

WE KNOW YOURE THE MAP DAMMIT!!

He says it 15 times, by the way.

I loved the Echo Bush.

We don’t watch it anymore, but they did show a wonderful part of Reno 911 where one of the cops blasts a Dora pinata.

19

Don’t you dare dis Spongebob! In a world of insanity, a babbling high pitched sponge and his brain damaged gentle friend starfish make perfect sense.

20

Well, I fear that the criticism of the backpack is misplaced. The backpack is magic, as is clear from the episode in which Dora’s parents give her the backpack. They explictly say that it’s a magic backpack, and its abilities are described anew each and every time it’s used:

(Emphasis added).

The whole point of backpack is that it has inside it whatever is needed in a given situation. To cavil about the presence of an ice cream cone is foolish.

  • Rick