RD: When did you first realize that Dora had become a phenomenon? It was something that was definitely more of marketing toward the parents. But once the show became popular, Nickelodeon has relationship with celebrities through its Kid's Choice Awards and stuff so we could get them. Celebrities aren't interested in a new pre-school show.
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We didn't have any big names in the beginning. Was that something you wanted to do from the beginning? VWV: RD: There were some big names involved in the voice cast. So when a challenge comes he's like "What are we going to do?" He gets frantic. We see him as modeling the behavior of a small child, so he's not in total control. He's almost like a little brother to Dora.
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So even if she turns the corner and there is a giant mud puddle that she can't get through, she reacts by trying to figure out how to get around it without throwing a temper tantrum or melting down.īoots is sort of a sit-in for the viewer. It's not that Dora is completely unaffected, but it's that she figures a way out of it. VWV: I'm pretty sure that on Ni Hao they have an emotional curriculum where they are dealing with feelings. RD: Dora seems in stark difference to some of the characters on a show like Ni Hao, Kai -Lan where the characters get upset with the obstacles where Dora doesn't seem to get affected by them. So we felt that having a character that says, don't give up, you can ask for help and that there is no obstacle that you can't overcome was a core to the character. Little kids have obstacles that they encounter all day long like turning on a light switch or pouring cereal in a bowl. VWV: That was the idea of having a problem-solving show right from the beginning. Was that something that was there from the beginning? RD: Dora never seems phased by anything the villains do on the show and it seems to go to the core of the show's lesson of working together. He's probably our oldest surviving character. He's got a little bit of an edge to him, but he's not eating the eggs, he just wants to play. So we looked at Swiper as the fox in the hen house. We wanted to have someone that can dupe the kid, but not terrify them. If you're telling a dramatic story there has to be a villain. RD: Swiper, as the wily fox, seems straight out of folklore. So finding your lost toy is a huge crisis when you're three years old like finding the lost ark is when you're 30 years old. We wanted it to be big quests, but for pre-schoolers. That was very influential in her character and the kind of journey she went on, because we called it the hero's journey. We use to call her the Indiana Jones of the pre-school set. Rogers' and more recently with Blue's Clues, which was like a game show where the host had the kids find clues with him.
#DORA THE EXPLORER KIDS CARTOON TV#
That had a history in kids' TV with Captain Kangaroo and Mr. RD: What were some of the influences you had in the various stages of developing it? VWV:Įarly on we were thinking of breaking the fourth wall. So that's how Dora the Explorer was born. So we made the pilot and then the network said, "What if she were Latina?" And we said, "Oh may God, that's a curveball." So we went out and found people who could help us do that. We were going to work with motion capture. We were then given the greenlight for her to be animated, because before this it had been a live-action show. It started with a boy and his mother and then when we developed it the boy changed to a girl, because we thought it would be great if there was a strong girl character out there for pre-schoolers.
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So we paired together and our first formal idea was called The Knock-Arounds. We both wanted to make an interactive story-driven show, sort of like a CD-Rom. So it was kind of like a homework assignment.Ĭhris and I came up with similar ideas. Valerie Walsh Valdes: I was working at Nickelodeon, along with Chris Gifford, doing development with outside creators, when our exec there wanted to develop something in-house, because Blue's Clue had been developed in-house. Rick DeMott: Where did the impetus for Dora the Explorer come from? On the event of Dora's 10th anniversary, I took the opportunity to talk with one of the show's creators, Valerie Walsh Valdes, about the origins of the show and its place in TV history. Serendipitous events were afoot at Nickelodeon at the turn of the millennium that would change kids television in a big way. But the original course of what would become Dora wasn't traveling down that road. Since its debut a decade ago, from many children, learning a second language has transformed from something dreaded to something that can be cool. The unflappable adventurer has become a role model for young girls around the world and has changed the landscape of bilingual education. All images courtesy of Nickelodeon.ĭora the Explorer has become a pre-school icon in the order of Blue's Clues and Barney.