Dora is a kid. I’ve never been fond of kids. They are nice and all, I just don’t get them. But hey, back to Dora. I grew up watching the show and it was nice, until after a point it all felt repetitive. The constant “Do you see the Swiper?” and those awkward stares were a tad creepy. Despite all of THAT, there was some comfort there – in knowing that there was no surprise. That every time I’ll put Dora The Explorer on TV, she’d stare at me with those big brown eyes.
This is her now:
We must address the obsession of makers trying to ‘better’ these cartoon characters. They think bettering them means making them look different. This new Dora has a chiseled face and shaped eyebrows…? Way to feed unrealistic beauty standards to little kids. Also, when you change a character feel, you’re taking away the comfort that comes with it. And please, we can have an opinion here. Just not liking how a character has changed is good enough reason to not like it.
So, some executives sat down and decided that they needed to fix how Dora looks. Nobody cared about feedback to change how she talks or stares blankly, when that should’ve taken priority. Of course, these are still better special effects than Adipurush, but then again, that is not the bar. This ‘glow up’ is also such a mausi thing, as if they wanted her to look a certain way to “enhance” appeal. It’s like Sanjana’s life from the second half of Main Hoon Na. TO DO THAT TO KID, OF ALL.
People will come at me to say that I’m making it a bigger deal than it is, and there was no ‘bad’ intent here. So I have got logic, as well. At some point or the other, we all bought bed sheets, towels or accessories as fan merch from our favourite cartoons. Certainly, Dora also made it to this fan merch. Now, what do we do with those things when the OG doesn’t even exist. It sounds sadder as I talk about it.
Seriously though, think it like this. The OG Dora felt like a safe space, the new one looks unreliable. Even if she sat me down and told me that she can be trusted, I just wouldn’t. You can’t take away the essence of the character and expect us to feel the same way about them. Makers really need to THINK. The sad part is, this is not even about just Dora. It’s a constant practice now – shows changing things that are sacred to kids – and eventually making it less about the kids.
At this rate we’ll end up with petitions to bring Dora back.