The Legend of the Big Red Chicken

Episode Info

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The Legend of the Big Red Chicken (also known as "The Big Red Chicken") is the first episode ever of Dora the Explorer from Season 1, as well as the series premiere.

Click and Create: The Big Red Chicken.

Characters[]

Dora (debut)
Boots (debut)
Backpack (debut)
Map (debut)
Swiper (debut)
Fiesta Trio (debut)
Señor Tucán (debut)
Big Red Chicken (first appearance)
Tico (seen in intro)
Isa (seen in intro)
Benny (seen in intro and the Character Find segment/1st appearance in credits)

Summary[]

Dora and Boots set out in search of the "Big Red Chicken", after reading a story about him, to find out if he is real.

Plot[]

The series premiere opens with Dora, the daughter of the Márquez family, introducing herself to the viewer, and then asks him/her what his/her name is and how old he/she is. Then, Dora thought his/her age is big and asks "guess what?" to him/her and then she says that it is Storytime. Then, her best friend, Boots the monkey came from the tree and gets excited to hear the story. First, they had to get it out from Backpack, who explained that the kind of book Dora and Boots wanted to read was a big red book. A blue cursor hovers around different books of different colors and sizes while Backpack keeps asking “Is this a red book?” to the viewer. first It finds a big green book, then a small purple book, and then a small red book and then finally a big red book. After finding the big red book, Dora can now read it to Boots. Dora opens the book, titled "The Legend of the Big Red Chicken." The book is in Spanish, so Dora starts reading in English as a translation for Boots. The story started with a little red chicken who lived on a big red hill. The little red chicken was very little, so little that he could not run as fast as his friends and had to be very careful or he could get stepped on, which leads him to not like his own size. one night, the little red chicken saw a group of stars shaped like a big chicken, and he made a wish on the stars that he would be big. When he woke up the next morning, he had grown to be a big chicken, who was as big as a house. Big Red Chicken did his own chicken dance by flapping his arms and stamping his feet. The ending says that he is real. Boots then tells Dora that he wants to find the big red chicken, Dora does too.

They then set out in search of the Big Red Hill so that Boots can see the Big Red Chicken. Boots wondered where the big red chicken was. Dora reminds Boots that they can find him on the big red hill. Dora and Boots check Map for directions on how to get there for the first time. The map tells them that they had to go across the bridge, through the gate to get to the big red hill to find the big red chicken. Dora and Boots got going and then Boots scampers up a tree and gets out a banana for himself and one for Dora. After that, they heard a rustling sound nearby. It was a fox named Swiper; who's an evil, sneaky fox that always tries to swipe the stuff of everyone around him. Dora and Boots do not want Swiper to swipe their bananas. They keep a sharp lookout. Dora and Boots see Swiper and say "Swiper no Swiping" 3 times. Swiper snaps his fingers, says “Oh, Man!”, and runs away. After their banana snack, they threw the peels away in a trash bin. Boots still wonders if the Big Red Chicken will be at the big red hill. Dora hopes so and asks the viewer for their hope. After that, they got going until they reached to the bridge. They were about to go across when they saw some pieces missing. The missing pieces for the bridge were down in the water. Suddenly, they see a toucan. Dora tells the viewer that his name is Mister Toucan, but she and her friends call him Señor Tucán. Boots tries to ask him in English, but he did not understand. Señor Tucán went "¿Que?" as in "What?" in Spanish. Dora explained to Boots that Señor Tucán only speaks Spanish. Dora asks in Spanish and Señor Tucán replies "Sí" for yes. Dora teaches the viewer 2 Spanish words that will help them fix the puzzle bridge. The Spanish words were "Grande" for big and "Pequeño" for little. The viewer tells Señor Tucán "Grande" for the first hole, "Pequeño" for the second hole, and "Grande" for the third hole. After fixing the bridge, Dora and Boots slowly go across the bridge and thanked Señor Tucán for fixing the puzzle bridge for them and said goodbye to Señor Tucán.

Dora and Boots continue down the winding path until they reached the gate. Boots tried to open the gate but it was locked. Dora and Boots stopped and had a thought. The gate was locked and wondered what they should use to open a lock, and Boots knew the answer which was a key. Sure enough, there was a key hanging on a hook. Dora picks it up. Dora counts out the points on the lock and it had 4 points. She then counted the points on the key and there was four. Boots wanted to try opening the lock. It was heavy but managed to get the key into the lock. They were about to open the lock on the gate when they heard Swiper again, he sneaks up behind Dora and Boots and swipes the key. He then throws it in a pile of keys and runs away. Dora told Boots not to worry, they can find the key. All they knew is it was big and had 4 points. Dora and Boots decided to look through as many keys as they can and count the points on them until they find the right one. After multiple attempts, they finally find a key that had four points. They put the key into the lock. Boots struggles with the key but then it starts turning around slowly. After the key turned around in a complete circle, the lock opened and then Dora and Boots go through the gate.

So far, Dora and Boots went over the bridge and through the gate. They were getting closer to figuring out if the Big Red Chicken was still at the big red hill. Dora and Boots held hands and started walking up the hill saying "I hope he's there" many times. The viewer joins in. After Dora and Boots got to the top, they did not see him. Dora had an idea, the big red chicken loves the chicken dance. Boots joins in and together they start the chicken dance by flapping their arms. Dora encouraged the viewer to join in by standing up for the next part. Now, they had to stamp their feet and flap their arms at the same time. Then, they said "cluck-cluck-cluck". As they were doing the chicken dance the big red hill starts to move. Dora and Boots realized the big red hill was really the big red chicken. They soon realize that it is not just a story, and that the Big Red Chicken is indeed real. Dora and Boots introduced themselves to Big Red Chicken. Boots remembered that he saw him in the big red book. Big Red Chicken was glad to meet Dora and Boots. Soon after celebrating, Dora and Boots ask the viewer what his/her favorite part is. After his/her response, Dora and Boots talk about their favorite parts. Dora says that she and Boots couldn't have made it without the viewer's help. She then says "Thanks for helping!" as the episode ends.

Places in this episode[]

Puzzle Bridge (referred to as just "bridge")
Gate
Big Red Hill

Sub-Places[]

The tree where Dora and Boots read the book about the Big Red Chicken
Bananas

Song[]

The Silly Chicken Dance

Books in Backpack (clockwise starting from the top)[]

Little yellow book
Big red book (correct item)
Little blue book
Little purple book
Little red book
Big green book

Trivia[]

This is the 1st episode of the entire series, as well as the first episode of the classic Dora the Explorer.
Both this episode and Lost and Found aired back-to-back as the series premiere.
- However, cable listings say Lost and Found aired first, when this episode is the true series premiere as it was presented in a way to introduce the show.
This was the 1st episode to use the sound of the places without music during the Map segment.
This is the first time Swiper was stopped and failed to be stopped in the same episode. It will happen again in Beaches.
This episode premiered on Nickelodeon. at 11:00am eastern time. At the time the show premiered, it instantly became the highest rated show in Nick Jr. history until PAW Patrol premiered.
This is the first episode in which Dora and Boots don't clap when they ask "Where are we going?" during the Travel Song until the Season 2 episode "The Magic Stick" and to just say the place immediately after that question.
There are some differences in this episode compared to not just the rest of Season 1, but later episodes of the show as well (likely to introduce the show):
- In the opening theme for this episode, the lyrics "Boots and super cool exploradora" and "¡Vámanos!" use different vocals. This is the only episode to use these vocals and it is unknown why. It was most likely a prototype or demo version of the theme song.
- The animation of this episode and the next use a cruder style that's far different than the rest of the show. It's most noticeable with Dora's facial elements changing consistently.
- Since this is the series premiere, After Dora introduces herself, she asks the viewer what his/her name is. She then asks for the viewer(s)' age.
  - Dora does not ask for the viewer's name again until Dora in Wonderland.
- After finding the big red book in Backpack, instead of the object in question flying away to Dora, it goes inside Backpack with the other objects. After the Backpack segment, it's only then thrown outside of Backpack to Boots. Starting with the next episode, the correct item with fall from the sky to Dora.
- There was no flash of light that goes off at the start of the Backpack segment. The first episode in which it occurs is Beaches and it will be put to permanent use as of Big River.
- The sky in this episode looks like how it is during sunrise or sunset, but starting with the next episode, the sky will be blue and look like daytime.
- The Map's background has no shadow.
- When the Fiesta Trio played their fanfare, the frog played a horn (this will later be used in School Pet of going through the jungle, The Shy Rainbow and A Crown for King Juan el Bobo), the grasshopper played the drum, and the snail played the cymbals. This happens again in some other episodes, but starting with the next episode, the frog plays the drum and the grasshopper plays the accordion. But the snail still plays the cymbals.
- When the 3 square pictures appear in front of Dora, the blue cursor does not click on the first square to the first place Dora and Boots are going, Dora instead reviews what they have to do to get to their goal. This will happen until León, the Circus Lion.
- All 3 pictures popped up at the same time just after Dora and Boots went past the first two places.
- Dora does not yell "Come on, say it with us!" to start the travel song.
- During the travel song, Dora and Boots sing the places four times (first time) and twice (second and third time) in warp speed. In later episodes, they sing the places four times (or sometimes just twice) in normal speed.
  - Also, when it was sung the first time, Dora lists the places by herself first, then Boots does the same. After that, Dora and Boots together list the places the third and fourth time.
- At the end of the chicken dance, Dora said, "You can sit down now!". She says that again once more time in Lost and Found after doing Boots' monkey dance to cheer up Baby Blue Bird. Starting with Hic-Boom-Ohhh!, she no longer says that anymore because the viewers already know when to sit back down.
- During the favorite parts, the theme music was heard. This happens in the next episode. In later episodes, that starts at the beginning of the character find/credits.
- Dora doesn't say "We couldn't have done it without you.", she instead says "We couldn't have made it without you."
- When Benny is found at the end of the credits, he laughed. In later episodes, he yells, "Yay! Woo-hoo!"
Benny, Isa, and Tico did not appear in this episode, but did in the "Dora the Explorer Theme Song" opening titles.
This is Dora, Boots, Backpack, Map, Swiper, Fiesta Trio, Señor Tucán, and the Big Red Chicken's debut.
This is the first time the show uses the 1999-2005 Nick Jr. Productions Logo.
This is the first episode for the end credits to have the Comic Sans MS font style. Beginning with the episode "Surprise!", a new font style will debut.
The voices of Benny, Tico, and Isa appeared in the end credits, but they don't appear in this episode.
This is the first to be broadcast in 4:3 standard definition.
Even though Benny appeared at the end of the show's credits, he will later appear in the episode after next.
This is the first episode where Boots tried pulling a locked gate or door, which becomes a running gag throughout the series.
This is the first episode where Dora tells the viewer what to say by using her frown mouth. It was used on later episodes.
This is the first episode to technically have four places, although there are actually three, as the Banana Trees are not on the map (because it is a sub-place) and it may not count. However, the actual first episode with four places is Dora's Fairytale Adventure.
This is the first episode to find Benny.
This is the first episode to have a Character Find.
In a scene from the episode, Swiper swiped the four-pointed key. This would later become a running gag throughout the show, starting with Beaches.
After Dora and Boots sing We Did It! at the end of the episode, the blue cursor does not click on Dora at the end, it instead clicks on Boots' hand.
Dora and Boots do not jump in the book in this episode. It would be useless to do that anyway because Boots really wants to find out if the Big Red Chicken is real.
- However, the first episode where they jump in a book is Dora Saves the Prince.
When Dora and Boots arrive at the puzzle bridge, Boots tries asking Señor Tucán to fix it in English and he responds "¿Que?" which is also a question in Spanish because Dora tells Boots that he speaks Spanish and "¿Que?" is the Spanish word for "what." Dora didn't translate to Boots that "¿Que?" means "What?" in Spanish to avoid rudeness.
Dora's first line is "Hi, I'm Dora".
- Boots' first line is "Storytime, Storytime, Storytime".
This episode, along with "Doctor Dora" and "Whose Birthday is It?", are the only episodes that have never gotten a home media release.
- However, these episode got a home media release in China, in which "Doctor Dora" and "Whose Birthday is It?" got two different distributors' release: Beauty Media Inc. and Art-Land Human.
The walking animations in the Travel Song when Dora and Boots say "Come on, vamonos" and "Where are we going?" will be reused in all subsequent Season 1 episodes until We All Scream for Ice Cream, while the animation of Dora and Boots spinning in a circle is also used in Beaches.
This is the first episode where the theme music plays before the closing credits start.

Goofs/Errors[]

Although the book that Dora reads to Boots is a Spanish book, she reads it to him in English. The actual Spanish words in the book can be heard in the Spanish version of Dora the Explorer.
When Dora and Boots fails to prevent Swiper from swiping the key, Dora's audio is misplaced and her mouth is frozen.
On streaming providers, such as Amazon or iTunes, this episode is titled as "The Big Red Chicken". The words "The Legend of" are left out.
When Dora asks the viewer if he/she sees Swiper, the bush is on the bottom left corner. However, when Dora and Boots fail to stop Swiper, the bush on the bottom left corner somehow disappears.
In the opening, the first three woodblock notes are cut out.
- This happens again in Lost and Found and the DVD version of The Lost City.
Swiper throws the key straight into the pile, however Boots manages to pick it up from the ground below.

Availability[]

As of the late 2000s-early 2010s, this episode doesn't air on television anymore and has been removed from the TV airwaves. And it hasn't been released on VHS & DVD in the USA, either. However, it is available on YouTube and streaming providers like Amazon Prime, iTunes, etc.

Character Find[]

Benny the Bull

Watch Episode[]

This episode is available on the NickJrPlay YouTube channel. Watching this episode needs payment or a subscription.

Dora the Explorer Season 1