Dora Marquez is the main protagonist of the Dora the Explorer television series. She is an adorable, sweet, young and tomboyishly beautiful girl who embarks on a trip in every episode in order to find something or help somebody.
Age
She is indicated to be 7 years of age for the first 4 seasons, and in the season 5 episode Dora's Big Birthday Adventure she turns 8.
Description
Dora has relationships with all of the characters she meets, failing even to hold a grudge against the mischievous fox, Swiper. Despite her cuteness, sweetness and beauty, she hates villains only when it seems that compromise is impossible, and even in these cases, fails to display actual anger. She gives others a chance to try their hands at tasks even when she herself might have an easier time with them. Dora values her family, whom she loves openly, though she spends little time indoors at home with them. She tries to introduce her traditions and customs, subtly and without compulsion, to those who are not familiar with them. Dora is fond of Boots, who became her best friend when she saved his beloved red boots from being swiped by Swiper.
Family
She is stated as being the cousin of Diego, which would make her the niece of either Diego's mom (possibly named Melanie) or dad (possibly named Mark), which one isn't clear. Whichever of the two it is, they would be sibling to one of Dora's parents.
Interests
Dora enjoys sports. She played on a baseball team with Boots and her other partners and was coached by her father (who has never been depicted as having other employment). She loves and excels at soccer. Dora is also a musician, skilled at playing a wooden flute and the guitar.
Voice of Dora
The character was voiced by Kathleen Herles for the 1st 4 seasons until she was replaced by Caitlin Sanchez for season 5 & season 6 and replaced with another voice actress Fátima Ptacek who snagged the role for a little bit of the season 6 episodes, for all of season 7 & season 8.
Trivia
Dora is a Latina. Early concepts of Dora had her as a blond girl of European ancestry. The character was originally based on a niece, Lilli, of Rick Velleu, one of the creators of the show.
Looks
Dora has dark peach skin, causing it to appear almost orange. She has brown eyes as well as brown hair. The character is often shown wearing a pink t-shirt, orange shorts, frilly yellow socks and white Velcro shoes with pink trim along with other outfits. She wears a yellow bracelet with a blue flower on it that she wears on her right wrist and it happened to be a birthday present when she was four. Otherwise, if you see a Dora the Explorer kaleidoscope promo airing on Nick Jr, you see a partial portion of Dora's orange shorts as part of a picture of Dora going up, twirls around, and drops down under a video clip of Dora holding still in a kaleidoscope/mirror format.
Appearances
Dora appears in every episode of Dora the Explorer. Her first appearance was in The Big Red Chicken.
Within Go, Diego, Go!, she appeared in:
- both parts of the episode Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue
- Linda the Llama Saves Carnaval (also with Boots)
- Chito and Rita the Spectacled Bears
- Diego's Wolf-Pup Rescue
- Sammy's Valentine (a picture of Dora on a valentine card)
- Diego and Dora Help Baby Monarch Get to the Festival
- Save The Giant Tortoises
- part 2 of The Great Polar Bear Rescue