Year:  2009
Genre:  TV series, Cartoon, Kids
Country:  United States
Languages:  English, Spanish
Starring:  Caitlin Sanchez
Creator:  Eric Weiner
Run time:  98 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment
Related reviews:  Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom, Super Babies Dream Adventure, Catch The Stars, Nickelodeon’s Animal Friends, Nickelodeon’s All Star Sports Day, Dora’s Christmas

     I had a moment, watching Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure (out January 18th from Paramount Home Entertainment), that I can describe only as “surreal”.  Normally, Dora has a song in each episode.  Usually, that song is a simple tune with repetitive lyrics, so that even the most functionally challenged children can sing along.  Here’s an example of the lyrics to a standard Dora song:

  “I’m the map
  I’m the map
  I’m the map
  I’m the map
  I’m the map
  I’m the map
  I’m the map,
  I’M THE MAP!!!!”

     That’s it.  Catchy, huh?  Then along comes Big Birthday Adventure and…a really, genuinely terrific song!  And I wasn’t on mushrooms or anything!  I actually, really, enjoyed the song Dora sang about her birthday.  Seriously.  Not joking.  It was a revelation, like seeing a supermodel working at Wal-Mart.  Now, this may have been a case of comparison shopping – let me explain.

     You know how sometimes you go into a McDonalds, and there’s a girl behind the counter and you think, holy crap she’s hot!  And then you realize, if you see her outside the McDonalds, that she’s just average.  But IN the store, surrounded by all kinds of ugly, she looks sensational.  And it could be the case with this song.  It may have just been SO unusual that it appeared better than it was.  I really don’t know.  And I’m not going to watch the DVD again to figure it out because the rest of it was the usual suck.  I’m the map…

     Anyway, if you want to figure out whether or not you agree with me about this particular song, which sounded almost like it could have been written and performed by Lights or somebody good, you’ll have to pick up the DVD.  I’ve searched the internet as best I can, and have not been able to find it.  And now I’m about to delete my browsing history so my wife doesn’t find out that I spent four hours searching Dora the Explorer online.

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