When 8-year-old Evelyn Morales immigrated to Hampton Bays, N.Y., from Argentina with her family, she couldn't speak a word of English. School, she says, typically included tears of frustration and various excuses to hide out in the nurse's office. That is, until she discovered the Nickelodeon cartoon series "Dora the Explorer," about a young Latina who embarks on whimsical adventures while teaching her viewing audience how to speak Spanish and English.
"I give Dora a lot of respect and credit for me learning English," says Morales, 25, who graduated from LIU Riverhead with a degree in communications and now works as a nanny and part-time entrepreneur. "I just repeated things, even though I didn't understand. I would say a word, and people would start to understand me. And then I'd realize I was doing it right."
The animated, bilingual explorer is making her big-screen debut with "Dora and the Lost City of Gold." It's a live-action adaptation that seems sure to appeal to Dora's young fans, though the character is no longer a little girl but a high schooler played by Isabela Moner (Broadway's "Evita"). Perhaps most importantly, "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" marks the rare Hollywood release with an almost entirely Hispanic cast. Moner's co-stars include Michael Penna and Eva Longoria as Dora's parents; Eugenio Derbez as a hapless adventurer; and Benicio Del Toro as the voice of Swiper, the thieving fox.
