Dora And The Lost City Of Gold Behind The Scenes May 2026

Director James Bobin ( The Muppets , Alice Through the Looking Glass ) knew he needed an actress who could handle physical comedy, dramatic moments, and action. Merced trained for weeks in stunt choreography, learning to swing on vines and slide down muddy slopes. But Bobin says her secret weapon was her sincerity. “Isabela never winks at the camera. She plays Dora completely straight. That’s why the jokes land.” While the film takes place in the lush, dangerous Peruvian Amazon, the majority was shot in Cairns, Australia, and on soundstages in Los Angeles. Production designer Mark Tildesley faced a unique puzzle: how to make a fake jungle look real enough for a high-stakes adventure, but vibrant enough to feel like Dora’s world.

“I grew up watching her,” Merced revealed on set. “But I wanted to make sure she wasn’t just a cartoon. She’s a kid who has been homeschooled in the jungle by explorer parents. Of course she talks to a monkey and a backpack—that’s her reality.” dora and the lost city of gold behind the scenes

“We wanted Boots to feel like a real animal, not a cartoon sidekick,” says Bobin. “But for the dream sequences and a very special hallucination scene, we brought in a Jim Henson Company puppet. That puppet was so expressive, the actors started performing to it like a real co-star.” Director James Bobin ( The Muppets , Alice

“It was chaos,” laughs co-star Jeffrey Wahlberg (Diego). “Isabela would be giving this heroic speech, and then a mechanical flower would sneeze powder in her mouth. We had to do, like, forty takes because we kept breaking character.” One of the biggest behind-the-scenes questions was: How do you handle Boots? In the cartoon, Boots is a talking monkey. In a live-action film, a talking monkey felt... risky. The solution? Boots is a real, trained monkey for most of the film (a cheeky capuchin named Baby), but he doesn’t talk. Instead, Dora interprets his chattering. “Isabela never winks at the camera

To create Swiper’s signature blue-and-black mask, the effects team designed a practical suit covered in subtle blue LEDs. Del Toro would creep through the jungle set, completely silent, while the actors had to react in fear. “He’s this Oscar-winning actor, and he’s full-on sneaking behind a fake bush in a spandex suit, whispering ‘Swiper, no swiping!’” recalls Merced. “It was surreal and amazing.” In one of the film’s most memorable sequences, Dora teaches her city-slicker cousin Diego how to escape quicksand. On screen, it looks terrifying. Behind the scenes? It was a giant pool of oatmeal.