Nickelodeon
In Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom, Dora reads Boots a story about a kingdom whose colors come from a magical crystal. When a selfish king steals the crystal, the world begins to fade to black and white. Storybook character Ali will search until she finds the crystal, but she can’t do it alone. Will Dora help her? Well, yes. The result is a double-length episode, which means two things. One: more songs and one more destination from Map en route to save the kingdom. Two: It’s worth buying on DVD, because your kid won’t see it on TV every two weeks.
It also means dedicated product tie-ins, including books, a Wii game and a doll. That sounds like a condemnation, but the Dora franchise is a decent one overall and a franchise is what it is. Grandma could do far worse than to package this one up for the holiday. The episode includes a girl knight riding a dragon and a supremely heavy-handed lesson about sharing. Somewhere, it skips the lessons about primary and secondary colors that you might expect from a color-themed kid’s show.
—KJ Dell'Antonia
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• Book Review: Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
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• Movie Review: Road to Avonlea
