This article is about the character. For the episode, click here.
Backpack (or Mochila in Spanish) is a friend and special helper to Dora who helps her on all of Dora's adventures. Just like Dora, Backpack can speak both Spanish and English. Backpack is a real go-getter with a can-do spirit. As Backpack says in her signature song, "Anything that you might need, I've got inside for you." From binoculars to sticky tape, Backpack's loaded up with everything Dora might need for her quest, though it is up to the viewer to pick out the item(s) that will solve the problem at hand. Just like bothMaps, she opens her own segment (the helping segment, known as the backpack segment). They also live in her side pocket.
Dora: (after Boots was desperate about losing something) No, Boots! I put it in my backpack for safe keeping!
"Where can we find (insert something here)?"
"Backpack!"
"Backpack, right."
Dora: (I need your help.) Will you open/check my Backpack to/and find (insert something here)? You have to say "Backpack"!
Boots (and other characters together): Say "Backpack"! (2x, sometimes once)
Dora/Boots (sometimes together): Louder!/Dora: I think you have to say it again!
During the Segment
(¡Hola/Rápido! (Soy (Backpack/Mochila)!/I have lots of stuff/(insert group of objects),) but) Dora (and Boots) need(s) to (insert something here).
Will (this object) (rest of the description)?/Is this the (insert object here)?/Does (this object) (rest of description)?
No/Oops! That's (wrong object)!
(Sometimes) No/Oops! That's silly!
Do you see the (said object(s))?
Yes/Right! There it/they is/are! (Sí, allí está.)
At the end of the segment
Smart looking!/Good thinking!/¡Muy bien!
Yum-yum-yum-yum-yum, ¡delicioso! (her main phrase)
If the correct item is a rope, and it got stuck: Oh, no! The rope got stuck! Rapido, I need your help. Put your hands out in front of you and pull the rope. Pull the rope! Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull, pull! Good pulling! ¡Muy bien!
Description
Backpack and Dora when they first met.
In the flashback episode Backpack!, it's revealed that Backpack was present for Dora from her mother and father. This would replace Dora's explorer's kit from Dora's First Trip. In the context of the game world the show takes place in, Backpack is the item inventory screen. Like other Object Helpers, Backpack can be opened when the viewers at home say "Backpack". At the start of her segment, she sings her song, after which she and the viewer select among the various items the correct one(s) that Dora needs. The remaining items return inside Backpack through her flap as she says "Yum-yum-yum-yum-yum, ¡delicioso!"
In Dora the Explorer, Sasha Toro provided Backpack's original voice for Seasons 1-4 (and reprised her role for the live-action movie) as well as Go, Diego, Go!, until she was replaced by Alexandria Suarez, who voiced Backpack in Seasons 5-7. Sofia Lopez succeeded Suarez for Season 8 only. For the remainder of Dora and Friends: Into the City! post-Season 1, (starting with Return to the Rainforest) Backpack was voiced by Breanna Lakatos.
Backpack with Bud, Map, and Dora, after Kate mended her.
Backpack is a purple flap backpack, a type of backpack that opens into one large main pocket with a flap accessible at the top. Throughout Dora the Explorer, Backpack consisted of two purples: a lighter purple for her flap, face, and straps, and a darker purple for all the other sides and her two side pockets, either of which houses The Map. Her flap is also shown to be able to hide her face which has two circular white eyes with black pupils, all underneath two yellow eyebrows. The inside of her mouth is colored burgundy.
In Dora and Friends: Into the City!, while Backpack's original design was seen slightly tweaked in a flashback, it became different when she got mended by Kate after being saved by Dora and Co. on Tallest Mountain. She retains her original shape, but her primary color is now a light purple with no secondary purple shade. Instead, her "accent color" is pink, as seen on the lining of her flap and Backpack's bottom, which now has a floral pattern. Her face has also been redesigned with slightly smaller eyes that are now round-shaped and have visible eyelashes. Her eyebrows are now a darker purple instead of yellow. Above all else, Bud became integrated into Backpack, with whom he acts as a co-host during her segments after his debut.
In the live-action film Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Backpack's design was completely different which gave her really unnecessary details such as the zipper for her mouth and front pocket. She also lost her ability to speak in reality, along with Map, except in Dora's imagination in the beginning and the hallucination scene.
In Dora, Backpack reverts back to her Dora the Explorer design with a few extra features. The lining of her flap is a multicolored strip pattern, she has a hanging ornament on her pocket, and her straps now have black strap adjusters. In regards to her facial features: her eyebrows are yellow again and she now possess light brown irises with black pupils. She once again has visible eyelashes. Backpack's mouth color is dark purple instead of burgundy.
During her segment in the Pilot, Backpack is more rectangular than her later designs, almost akin to a paper bag with thin straps on her back. All her facial features, her colors and their placements remained constant with her original 2000-19 design, however, the inside of her mouth is a more magenta color than a burgundy one. Outside her segment as seen on Dora's back, inanimate, Backpack can be seen with a zipper by her flap, which translated to the 2019 movie. The ripping sound her flaps makes when she opens (literally) her segment may imply Backpack's flap is held to her face by hook-and-loop fasteners, known more colloquially as Velcro.
Appearances
Backpack appears in almost every episode of Dora the Explorer. Her first appearance was in "The Legend of the Big Red Chicken". Starting with season 5, her face doesn't appear as often, and has made a non-speaking cameo appearance during the We Did It! song in "Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure" as an example of her lessened presence.
Backpack's native language might be Spanish. She knows English, but may not have pronounced English so well.
Backpack suffered a broken strap in the episode "Sticky Tape", but Dora taped the strap back together with the use of the sticky tape. Due to cartoon logic, the yellow tape on the strap disappeared in the episode after it ("Bouncing Ball"), making Backpack's strap completely purple and all fixed.
In the early episodes (Seasons 1 through 6), the items stop rotating around Backpack after finishing her song. But in the CGI segments (Seasons 7 and 8), the items continuously rotate around her for the duration of the segment.
Backpack takes all the items out at the same time in Season 1 and all episodes where she shortens her song. Starting in Season 2, if she sings the full song, she dispenses one item at a time (with a few exceptions, such as Dora's Dance to the Rescue, Dora's World Adventure!, and Dora Saves the Mermaids).
Backpack has appeared in almost every episode of the first four seasons. Starting with season 5, her face doesn't appear as often.
Backpack is proven to an allergy to confetti as seen in the episode "The Backpack Parade", wherein it's the cause of her sneezing.
Usually whenever Dora is asking the viewer to check Backpack, she turns around to show Backpack to the camera. The only episodes where Dora does not turn around to show Backpack when asking to check her are Beaches (second time), A Letter for Swiper (first time), Roberto the Robot (second time), and Daisy, La Quinceañera.
Backpack is oddly missing her right side pocket throughout the entirety of Season 4, in addition to always having the star pocket in its place. **conflict*
When Backpack is asked for help on HD episodes, she becomes a computer-generated imagery character just like Map.
Backpack was the second character to be swiped by Swiper after Little Star.
Backpack never does a Character Find. There exists a game of finding her online on the original Nick Jr. game website before it disappeared.
In the episode of her name, Dora and Boots checked her six times, which is the most times she was called upon (in one whole episode) in the entire series.
In The Big Piñata, Backpack had a spinner where the viewers had the find the two spaces with the same shape, which both had some popcorn behind them. All the other shapes had nothing, so that was the only segment that doesn't end with a "¡Yum-yum-yum-yum-yum, delicioso!
In Boots' Special Day, Backpack's background was darkened, and instead of items circling around Backpack, she had three doors each with a fruit/vegetable (all beginning with B) crown behind them. The light would be towards each crown. The music is also modified to include some piano for Jazz Style.
If there is more than one segment, the items sometimes change, as seen in Three Little Piggies, Dora Saves the Prince, and Roberto the Robot (in this one, there were no helmets during the first segment, but there were during the second).
She is one of the characters who can be woken up by saying "Wake up, (character's name)!". The others are Map, Sloth, Grandpa Panda, Baby Bear, and Boots.
In the movie's hallucination scene, Backpack is more rectangular shaped; less rounded, with sharply defined corners. This may be an homage to Helena Giersz's original design as seen in the Pilot.
With the exception of The Backpack Parade, she is inanimate throughout the episodes.
Special
Backpack is a type of backpack, called a "Flap Backpack", aptly named since she opens with a flap instead of a zipper. The Paramount shop website sells a special zipper backpack based off of her.
