Character Find

Character Find is a game that is shown at the end of Dora the Explorer episodes from seasons 1 to 4 (Benny to Map). In the game, a character on the television series hides behind an object, (most often Boots, Swiper, The Grumpy Old Troll, Tico or Benny) but sometimes another character like Map, Señor Tucán, Wizzle, Santa Claus, Baby Red Fish, Azul, Isa, and Baby Blue Bird. The blue cursor on the screen will try to find the character. While the game is played the shows credits are shown, the game's backgrounds can range from a deep jungle/forest, a banana tree grove, a lake/pond, underwater and the mountain railroads. Split-screen airings don't have this segment. In Seasons 3-4, the Character Find has been replaced by an Explorer Star mini game. Finally, in season 5-8 (the end), everything was been torn down by a traditional credits with text sequence.

Character and Locations

• Map - Deep within the forest. Many plants and leaves of many sizes are seen in this area. At the top of the screen, there is a dark red branch that Map likes to hide on top of.
• Boots - Like Map's, but reversed. Boots can hide behind the big palm tree with vines or swing using one. (However, he has another setting. It takes place in a small forest area. There are many plants. The most noticeable one is the big pink flower in the top right corner).
• Baby Red Fish - Under the ocean. Many dark blue rocks and ledges. A red-pinkish clam is seen here.
• Benny - A clearing with a large red tree in the center. There is also a small pond nearby.
• Tico - Like Benny's, but it is of smaller portion (Not all of the scenery is shown, including the little pond).
• Baby Blue Bird - Like Benny's, but most of the foreground is replaced with a yellow path.
• Isa - A little lake with many plants in the foreground. In the background, there's a tiny waterfall with many rocks. Behind that is a green, grassy hill which leads down to a little dock for boats.
• Swiper - A grove of many flowers and many fruit trees.
• Grumpy Old Troll - On the ground, with a giant bush of leaves on the left and half of a viney tree on the right. A rock and some other plants are in the foreground.
• Señor Tucan - Appearance is similar to the Grumpy Old Troll's, but seems to be set higher in the trees. Lots of bright green leaves are seen here as well as some flowers and a branch with a purple leaf bundle.
• Wizzle - Find the Wizzle by a pond. Around there lies a red tree, many plants and some rocks.
• Santa Claus - Santa rides his sled in the air over the snowy hills. Some snow covered trees are seen on the left and right. Santa only gets a Character Find once because there are a few Christmas episodes.
• Azúl - Takes place in the mountains. Many tunnels with railroads leading in and out of them are seen. This is only way Azúl can move from place to place because he is a train.
• Little Star - Little Star hides in a forest clearing. There are dark trees and bushes surrounding.

Unknowns

• Dora - Though her picture is always shown, she doesn't have a Character Find. Her picture is there most likely for logo purposes because Dora's icon is bigger than the others and her name isn't shown underneath, however, Dora is seen in her name on her picture waving to the viewer.
• Backpack - Her picture is sometimes shown along with the other four possible characters, but sadly, just like Dora, Backpack doesn't actually have one. It even seems functional.
  • The closest where one could see a Character Find of Backpack is to play the game on the Nick Jr. Website. However, it has been removed and the page no longer exists.

Trivia

• The first episode to feature the character find was The Legend of the Big Red Chicken. And the last was Dora Saves the Mermaids.

• Sometimes, when Map's character icon is shown, his blue and white coloring is back.

• Dora has never been the one to be chosen for the character find, as well as Backpack or Fiesta Trio.
• Some of the character find backgrounds give away the pilot backgrounds.
• In the character finds, the Dora The Explorer Theme Song music from Seasons 1-2 plays with the beginning part truncated and the end part excluded. The middle part loops until the character is found.
• Big Red Chicken never gets character find either just like Dora, Backpack and Fiesta Trio.
  • However, an icon for the Fiesta Trio exists, but it was never seen in any episodes. Although they never got a character find in the first place, their icon was exclusively shown at the beginning of the character find segment at the end of the personalized version of Whose Birthday is It?. In the original version of said episode, the icon where it would be has Baby Red Fish in it instead.
  • Also, underneath the icon for the Fiesta Trio, it just says "Trio".
• Even though Backpack never gets character find, her picture is sometimes seen on-screen during the start of the end credits.
• Dora's picture is always seen on-screen during the start of the end credits even though she never gets character find, her picture is seen above her friends' pictures because it's used as logo purposes and it's bigger than everyone else's pictures, her icon is not really meant to be clicked on as well as her name is not seen under her picture.
• Dora's usual catchphrase at the beginning is, "This is my friend, (character's name). Find (said character)." However, there are few times Dora says something else.
  • For Swiper, she says, "Ooh, Swiper the fox! Find Swiper!"
  • For the Grumpy Old Troll, she says, "It's the Grumpy Old Troll! Find the Grumpy Old Troll!"
  • For Boots, she says the regular catchphrase in the first episode to find him. But in the later episodes, she says, "Hey look, it's Boots! Find Boots!"
  • For Santa Claus, she says, "Hey look, it's Santa! Find Santa!"
  • For the Wizzle, she says, "This is my friend, the Wizzle. Can you find the Wizzle?"
  • For Baby Red Fish, she says, "It's Baby Red Fish! He likes playing hide and seek. Find Baby Red Fish!"
  • For Azul, she says, "There's our friend Azul! Try and catch Azul!"
    • In the personalized version of Whose Birthday is It?, she says, "Look, it's Azul and you! Let's play hide and seek!".
  • For Little Star, she says, "Look, it's Little Star! Find Little Star!"
• Diego and Baby Jaguar never get a chance for character find, and their pictures are never shown.
• In Treasure Island, Little Star and Te Amo, Map's white and blue coloring is reversed when his character icon is shown at the beginning of Baby Blue Bird's Character Find segment. This is fixed in Lost Map and We're a Team!.

  

• On the old Nick Jr. website, games replicating Map and Swiper's Character Find existed. A game for Backpack was there, too.
• In A Present For Santa, Santa Claus only gets Character Find once. That’s because there are only a few Christmas episodes.
• Benny is the first character getting Character Find and Map is the last.
• Swiper is the character with the most Character Find segments (11), and Santa Claus is the character with the least (only 1).
• Split-screen airings don't have character find segments.
• The Lost City is the only Season 2 episode Character Find is not featured due to it being produced as a Season 3 episode which features an explorer star mini game at the end during the end credits.
• There are only three Season 3 episodes featuring Character Find: Rescue, Rescue, Rescue!, Journey to the Purple Planet, and ABC Animals.
• In Season 4, Character Find is not always featured at the end of every episode during the end credits, there are some Season 4 episodes featuring an explorer star mini-game, especially if there are no explorer stars in that episode.
• Season 1 is the only season with all the episode featuring Character Find, due to The Lost City being featured in Season 2 and does not end with a Character Find.
• Character Find is never featured in later episodes during the end credits in Season 5-8, because it features different end credits with 4 clouds showing clips from previous episodes such as normally Season 1-4 and sometimes Season 7-8 which makes the Blue Cursor never to click on Dora at the end of every episode from now on because of a fade in fade out effect and even if it still did click on her, then that's how the original end credits pop up and there wouldn't be a fade in fade out effect and the Season 1-4 end credits never feature with a fade in fade out effect.