Dora's Pirate Adventure is one of the DVDs that the Easter Bunny left in Courtney's Easter basket this year. She's starting to really like watching Dora the Explorer on Nick Jr. and the combination of all of the characters (some old and new) and the music have made this her favorite Dora DVD.

All About Dora's Pirate Adventure

Dora's Pirate Adventure DVD is jammed packed full of great songs, has 2 bonus episodes and some great special features. I would actually classify Pirate Adventure as a musical instead of just a regular episode. As far as I know, Pirate Adventure hasn't been aired on television, where as both bonus episodes have. Pirate Adventure is double the length of a normal episode and is full of new Spanish words to learn. I'll review Pirate Adventure first and then the 2 bonus episodes plus the special features next.

Pirate Adventure ~ Dora is putting on a pirate play with Boots, Baby Jaguar, Diego, Benny, Isa, and Tico. They start off strong singing "Please Be in our Pirate Play" and everytime the cannon goes Boom! we're all suppose to say "Give us back our treasure". Little did they know, that they would be saying that for real and not just in a play. Unknown to Dora and the gang, the Pirate Pigs have laid their eyes on Dora's treasure chest and before anyone could stop them, the Pirate Pigs stole the treasure chest and set sail for Treasure Island. Dora and her friends saw the Pirate Pigs steal the treasure chest at the last moment so there was no way for them to stop the Pigs. Instead, they would now have to go after the Pirate Pigs and get their treasure back because inside the treasure chest is their costumes for the play. Without their costumes, they won't be able to put on their Pirate Play and everyone who came to see it would be very disappointed. They decide to use the ship that was going to be a prop in the play and we learn a new Spanish word as they all shout "empujón" (which means push) to help them push the boat into the water. Now they call on Map for help in getting to Treasure Island. Map tells them that they need to sail across the Seven Seas, cross the Singing Bridge and that's how we get to Treasure Island. Along the way they catch stars, including Hero Star, the strongest Explorer Star of them all. We get a visit from the Pirate Parrot who helps out as they slip into the Foggy Fog and many songs are sung along the way, including "We're Sailing to Treasure Island". They also help Baby Jaguar when he falls overboard and they help Isa out by singing "Isa Turn the Wheel" to help them navigate through the Big Bad Rocks. They finally make it to Treasure Island only to run into Swiper the Fox who wants to swipe their treasure but they stop him by saying "Swiper no swiping!" only this time they sing it and Swiper sings back to them in a very dramatic way. Just when they're about to take back their treasure chest, the Pirate Pigs show up again. Does Dora and the gang get their treasure back? Are they able to put on their pirate play or are they doomed because they have no costumes?

Bonus Episodes

The great thing about getting Dora the Explorer on DVD instead of tapes (we have both) is that the DVDs usually have 2 bounus episodes and Dora's Pirate Adventure is no exception. On this DVD the bonus episodes are Dora Saves the Prince and El Coqui. If your child is a fan of Dora, then chances are you have seen these episodes on Nick Jr. at some point in time.

Dora Saves the Prince ~ Dora and Boots are reading a book called The Prince and the Witch and the story says that a Prince named Ramon was playing with his ball when he accidently kicked it into Witches Forest. When he entered the forest to retrieve his ball, a mean witch jumped out and imprisoned him in the High Tower for trespassing in her forest. The only way Prince Ramon could be released was if someone said the magic word "Abrir" at the door of the High Tower. This would release the lock and free Prince Ramon so Dora and Boots jump into the book to help him. First things first, they need to find the way to the High Tower and Map comes to the rescue and tells them to go through the Big Gate, then over Crocodile Lake and that's how they'll get to the High Tower. Along the way they have to dodge the Witch, who is trying to thwart their efforts and they have to use the word "Abrir" through out the episode to open gates, doors and even crocodile's mouths! They finally make it to High Tower and use the magic word and free Prince Ramon from his lofty cell. Just when they think all is well, the witch shows up yet again to try and put Prince Ramon back up in the tower. However, Prince Ramon's ball that he lost in the woods is a magic ball and luckily for him, Dora and Boots had found it on their way to rescue him. They give him the ball and he captures the witch and puts her inside of his magic ball. The witch is terribly upset and wants to be released but Prince Ramon is content to keep her in there forever. However, Dora proposes that if the witch promises to be a good witch from now, she should be let back out. Does the witch promise to be a good witch? If so, will Prince Ramon forgive her and let her out of his magic ball?

El Coqui ~ Dora and Boots are relaxing and listening to a sound book. They press a button and here a cow say "moo", they press another button and hear a rooster say "cock a doodle doo" and the press the last button and hear a frog say "coqui". This confused Boots until Dora explained that the El Coqui was a special kind of frog that loved to sing. Suddenly, out from behind a bush appeared an El Coqui frog! Dora and Boots were terribly excited to see Coqui until they learned that Coqui wouldn't be able to ever sing again unless he was returned to his island where he lived with his family and friends. Dora and Boots are determined to help Coqui out and ask Map for help on how to get to Coqui's Island. Map tells them to go through the Echo Bush, go over the ocean, and that's how they'll get to Coqui's Island. The Echo Bush was a little hard for them to figure out at first but with persistence they finally got it, the ocean wasn't too hard because of Senior Tucan's help but they did have a near miss collision with another ship. By yelling "quidado" (sp?) real loud, the other ship heard them and turned just in time. They finally get to Coqui's Island but Senior Tucan can't dock at the Island because there are too many rocks around the coast. How will they get from the ship to the Island? Will Coqui be reunited with his family and be able to sing again?

Special Features

Dora Sing-a-long Songs ~ This is very much like Karaoke and has 2 songs from Pirate Adventure that you can sing with the words running across the bottom. The 2 songs are "Please be in our Pirate Play" and "We're Sailing to Treasure Island". They 2 songs can also be seen on Nick Jr at times in a commercial for this DVD.

Flash Cards ~ Say it 2 ways with Dora! You'll hear Dora describe the pictures on each flash card in both English and Spanish. Some examples are Parrot (el loro), Towel (la toalla), and Ship (el barco).

Sing the Pirate Song ~ Make your own song using the pictures on the page. Pick a pictures on each page and a song is composed.

Oobi, the friend who's always with you ~ I have to admit, this part makes no sense to me and is weird. I think it's a show on Noggin and it's about a hand with 2 eyes attached to it to make it look like a face. Since I don't have Noggin, I'm baffled by Oobi and why anyone would want to watch him.

Previews ~ What is great about Dora's Pirate Adventure is that you don't have to watch the previews. You can access them 2 ways. In the very beginning of the DVD is the option to "Watch Previews" or "View Movie". Well, that's a no brainer! I skip the previews everytime! You can also access the previews here in the special features section. On Dora's Pirate Adventure, you will find previews for Rugrats Go Wild, Nick Jr. Home Vidoes and DVDs (Dora and Blue), Jimmy Neutron Vidoes, and Charlottes Web 2.

Why We Recommend Dora's Pirate Adventure

Not only is Dora's Pirate Adventure a DVD packed full of great music and a bunch of extras but it's also EXTREMELY educational. There is so much education in here that I'm not sure where to begin!

Ok, I'll begin with the Spanish. Not only do we have the Spanish words that Dora uses frequently, like Vomanos, but we were also taught new ones like empujón. There is a lot of counting, like when we cross the Seven Seas. We learn about singing nursery rhymes when we meet up with the Singing Bridge and we even learn about animals.

The writers for Dora the Explorer didn't make up the Coqui frog. The Coqui frog is a real reddish colored frog that only lives on Puerto Rico and does indeed sound like it says "Coqui" when it sings. The writers did a great job in introducing children to an animal that they most likely never knew existed (and neither did I!).

Courtney absolutely adores Dora's Pirate Adventure! Her interest in Dora the Explorer has been slowly building in the last couple of months and this DVD was actually only the 2nd Dora the Explorer one she had (she has since acquired quite a few more). I've actually been surprised at how much she enjoys Dora's Pirate Adventure. Granted, the Wiggles are still her first love, but I think it's safe to say that Dora is almost tied for 2nd place along side Blue's Clues. It's also a good thing for me because I was running out of toys to buy her for her birthday or Christmas because she pretty much has almost all the Blue's Clues and Wiggles toys out there. Now that she likes Dora so much, I have a new shopping avenue to explore!

One last thing I want to add which I think is great is that in your list of options, you will see one that says Play All. This will play not just Pirate Adventure but also the 2 bonus episodes without you having to click on each episode when you want to watch it. If you press Play All, all 3 episodes will play back to back without you having to do anything. I do have some Dora DVDs that have the Play All option and it will only play the main episodes and not the bonus ones (which can be found under Episode Selection) so I was glad to see that on Pirate Adventure the Play All selection really did mean play all!

There are a couple of cons that I have and it's not just with this DVD but with Dora in general. First of all, it's sometimes hard to understand the Spanish words that Dora says. She either mumbles them or says them too fast. I sometimes need the Close Captioning on so I can read what the Spanish word is that she's saying. Unfortunately, we can't use close captioning with our DVD player so we rely on the Subtitles option for close captioning when we're playing a DVD. Dora's Pirate Adventure doesn't have a Subtitles option so I'm unsure if I properly spelled the Spanish words in this review. I did use an English to Spanish online dictionary to double check my spelling but even that wouldn't come up with all the words, so if I have any Spanish spelling mistakes, please overlook them!

Another thing is that it seems like Dora and the rest of the characters yell all the time. No one uses an "indoor voice" and on top of them yelling all the time, they want your child to yell and they even encourage it by saying "louder!!!". Courtney is only to happy to oblige and wow is all I can say. I'm going to have a heck of a time encouraging her to be quiet while her Daddy is sleeping after working a 12 hour night shift if Dora is on tv asking her to yell louder than she already is. I sometimes have to put in a Blue's Clues tape and avoid Dora until after Daddy wakes up. They should really think about situations like that where people need to sleep in the daytime or maybe a younger brother or sister is taking a nap, etc.....

All in all though, I just can't say enough about Dora's Pirate Adventure! Trust me, Dora the Explorer fans will absolutely go crazy over this DVD because of all the music and singing. Having 2 bonus episodes plus some cool special features is just the icing on the cake. If your child has a birthday coming up, run, don't walk, to the nearest Walmart and buy this DVD!!

Related Website

Dora the Explorer on Nick Jr. :

http://www.nickjr.com/home/shows/dora/index.jhtml

Another Dora Review

Dora's Easter Basket




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8