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Dora Saves the Game is the 16th episode of Dora the Explorer from Season 3.

In production order, it's the 14th episode of Season 3.


Characters[]

Summary[]

Dora's cousin Daisy is playing in a big soccer game that is showing on TV. Daisy's team is one player short, and she suggested that Dora can join the team to save the game, so Dora and Boots must rush to the soccer stadium so the game can start. But they'll need the viewer's help along with Diego and Noisy Star. Run, Dora, run! ¡Corre, Dora, corre!

Plot[]

Dora and Boots are at home. And Dora's family is visiting her house. Dora introduces the viewer to her parents, her grandma, and her aunt and uncle. Dora also shows a picture of her cousins Daisy and Diego. Dora tells the viewer that Daisy is playing soccer today and the whole family is going to watch the game on TV. Dora's father turns on the TV. In the soccer game, an announcer, a female one, says that it was a battle between the red tiburónes (the red sharks), and the yellow tigres (the yellow tigers). On the red tiburónes team is all five unnamed players and on the yellow tigres team is Dora's oldest cousin Daisy and three unnamed players, who count as her partners. Suddenly, after the applause from Dora, her Mami, and the female relative, dressed in red, Dora and Boots' old friend, the referee, blows his whistle and silently tells his players to come closer to him by putting one finger in the air. Boots wonders what was going on. Dora wasn't sure, but explains that whenever the referee blows his whistle, everything stops. Dora, Boots and Dora's family listened for more information. The referee says that he is stopping the soccer game because the yellow tigres didn't have enough players, making him say that it won't start until the yellow tigres have the same number of players as the red tiburónes. The crowd was in shock. Something had to be done. Daisy had an idea on who could be on the team by telling the referee, who was in surprise. She thought her youngest cousin Dora can be on the team, making the referee smile. Daisy tells Dora over the TV that she has to get to the soccer game right now, but she has to hurry. Daisy tells Dora "Run, Dora, run! ¡Corre, Dora, corre!". Dora's family tells Dora that she's great at soccer and has a super soccer kick. Dora and Boots leave the house at once. "Run, Dora, run! ¡Corre, Dora, corre!" said Dora's family and wishes her good luck.

As Dora and Boots get going, they had a problem; they didn't know how to get to the soccer game. So they had to ask Map for help. Map says that they have to go through the jungle and across the rope bridge to get to the soccer game. He also mentions to not forget about looking stars along the way! So, Dora and Boots got going by running as fast as they could and they start singing "Run, Dora, run!" instead of the Travel Song. As Dora and Boots continued running, animals cheer on Dora as they circle around her and Boots. Some of the animals had giant hands with fingers pointing up and some had pompoms. After the cheer, Dora and Boots heard someone say: "ayudenme, ayudenme!" It was Tico the squirrel. He was pulling a cart full of balls up to the top of a giant hill. Suddenly, the balls spill out and heading towards Dora and Boots. "Oh no!", they both said. Dora and Boots had to jump over the balls. Dora takes her turn. Boots and the viewer tell Dora "Salta" for jump. Dora jumps four times. Then, it was Boots' turn Dora and the viewer say "Salta" four times as Boots jumps over the balls. Dora and Boots jumped over all of the balls. But, "uh-oh", the balls were still rolling down the hill and is heading towards the viewer. The viewer had to stand up. Dora tells the viewer "Salta" four times and the he/she jumps four times. After that, the balls stop rolling. Dora decides to use her super soccer kick to get the balls back into Tico's cart and it worked. After that, Dora and Boots had to keep going because Dora is on her way to save a soccer game. Tico cheers her on as they leave.

Dora and Boots made it to the jungle and had to go through super fast, because some crocodiles are chasing them and they're in panic. Dora and Boots saw some pits of quicksand. They had to jump over them or else they will fall and drown into the quicksand. Dora and Boots encouraged the viewer to stand up again. The viewer did so and together Dora, Boots, and the viewer jumped over some pits of quicksand. After that, a giant rock rolls behind them. Dora and Boots jump on the rock and now they had to run in place. The viewer joins in. The crocodiles were still coming. Dora and Boots get off the boulder and kept on running through the jungle. Rocky walls were up ahead. They jumped over the rocky walls. Dora and Boots stop. Boots thinks the crocodiles can't jump over the rocky walls but he was wrong; they did. Dora and Boots jump over the last rocky wall and kept going but then they saw a cliff. Dora and Boots had to grab onto the branch so they can't go over the cliff. They grabbed the branch and pulled themselves up. They did the chin-up. Dora and Boots pulled themselves up onto the branch. When the crocodiles snapped, they missed Dora and Boots, who were on top of the branch still. Suddenly, they gave up and went far, far away. After racing through the jungle, Dora and Boots go down a tall slide carved from a tree. As soon as they do, they hug their knees like they were doing cannonball dives. Dora and Boots get back on their feet and continued running. The same animals circle around Dora and Boots as they head to the soccer game.

After the cheer, Dora and Boots stop to see that three horses were coming through. "Stop, horses!" shouted Dora and Boots but the horses were so loud of their galloping, they couldn't hear them. Dora has a whistle she can use to get their attention and asks the viewer to check her Backpack for one and quick! The viewer did so and says "Backpack". A flash of light goes off. Backpack had four pompoms of different colors. The first one was red, the second one was white, the third one was blue, and the last one was yellow. The viewer had to play a listening game to figure out which colored pompom has the whistle. The viewer hears a "quack-quack", a siren wail, a long tweet, and a "boom" sound. The viewer looks under the blue pompom and there was the whistle. After that, the viewer gets a look on what was under the other pompoms. There was a duck under the red pompom, which went "quack-quack". There was a siren under the white pompom, which went "whoo-whoo". And there was a drum under the yellow pompom, which went "boom". Dora catches the whistle. The horses were still charging towards Dora and Boots. Dora immediately blows her whistle which went "tweeeeeet"! Sure enough, the horses stop. Dora explained to the horses that she was on her way to the soccer game. The horses open their mouths and one of them whinnies in a cheerful way starting with Y instead of N, going "Yeeeeeeigh!". The gray one gives Dora's hair a nose kiss. They move aside to let Dora and Boots go through. The horses chant for Dora by saying "Run, Dora, run! ¡Corre, Dora, corre!" as she and Boots pass through.

Just then, despite the state of emergency unlike the episode "Rescue, Rescue, Rescue!" while running to the field, 7 classic stars were heard from the sky! There was even an explorer star who went "Toot!" and it was Noisy Star, whose gender is now fixed after being mistakenly referred to as a male in a previous episode! Dora and Boots catch the stars while they were running and they put the caught stars in the star pocket. Dora and Boots saw Diego swinging on the vines. Dora and Boots grab a vine of their own. Boots tells Diego that he and Dora are going to the soccer game. Diego knows that so Dora can save the game. After swinging on the vines, they head for the rope bridge. They were almost across when some of the boards fell off into the river. They tried turning back and more boards fell off into the river. Dora, Boots and Diego were stuck. As the final few boards fell off, they grab onto a rope to hang on to avoid falling into the river. Dora, Boots and Diego needed help. Giant otters appeared and then they disappear underwater. Diego calls out to the giant otters. The giant otters come back and were ready to help. Dora, Boots, and Diego had to count how many boards had fell off the rope bridge. They counted up to 15. So, the giant otters had to find the 15 boards that fell off the rope bridge. The viewer finds the 15 boards and once all they were back on the rope bridge, Dora, Boots and Diego let go of the rope and thanked the giant otters for fixing the rope bridge. After that, they completely get across it.

Dora, Boots, and Diego were getting close to the soccer game. They head off to the soccer stadium. Once they got there, they can hear the crowd cheering inside. Boots tries to push open the doors, but the doors wouldn't open. They were stuck. Dora tells the viewer, Diego and Boots that they had to say "empujen" to push open the doors. They did so and the doors were pushed open. The whole crowd cheered for Dora. Daisy was so happy to see that Dora came. Next, Daisy gives Dora a team shirt (a jersey) for the yellow tigres. Dora was now a player for the yellow tigres. Suddenly, when they sense that a villain is trespassing the game, Noisy star comes out of the star pocket and she honks. Daisy wonders who made that sound and Boots tells her that it was Noisy Star, the explorer star. Dora thinks Noisy is always trying to warn everyone about Swiper's arrival. Daisy is in shock and thinks that Swiper will try to swipe the soccer ball, just like he did in "The Golden Explorers". The viewer and the blue cursor have to find Swiper in the crowd. Swiper disappears and reappears in random spots. He was moving fast downstairs between the spectators. They all had to stop Swiper by saying "Swiper no swiping" three times. Swiper snaps his fingers and runs away. Noisy Star goes back into the star pocket. When the referee blows his whistle, he didn't know that Dora shows up. Daisy tells the viewer to tell the referee that Dora is here. They shout out to the referee by saying: "Dora's here!". The referee heard them and now he can start the soccer game if Dora doesn't mind. Dora and Daisy high-5 themselves and do the bottom bump. Daisy passes the ball to Dora. Then Dora dodges some players from the red tiburónes. Dora does her super soccer kick and scores a goal. The referee shouts "Gooooooooooal!!!" just like Tico on the hill and tells the people who were watching on TV that Dora made a goal. Everyone cheers, especially the people watching the game on TV, and the two unnamed yellow tigres team players and the yellow tigres team goalie who arrive. After that, the spectators in their seats dance, starting with them in the front row.

Song[]

Places in this episode[]

  1. Jungle
  2. Rope Bridge (referred to as just "Bridge")
  3. Soccer Game

Sub-Places[]

Listen to the sounds (during the Backpack Segment)[]

  1. Rubber Duck (behind the red pompom)
  2. Siren (behind the white pompom)
  3. Whistle (behind the blue pompom; same one that the referee had; correct item)
  4. Drum (behind the yellow pompom)

Number of stars[]

8

Releases[]

This episode can be found in Big Sister Dora on VHS and DVD.

Trivia[]

  • Dora and Boots catch the stars as they run, just like in "Baseball Boots".
    • Additionally, unlike the aforementioned episode, the stars and Noisy go into the star pocket while Dora was still running.
  • This episode aired on Veterans' Day in 2003.
  • This is the last episode to premiere in 2003.
  • This episode has the second most number of stars caught being 8. The most stars caught in one episode is 12, shown in "Star Catcher".
  • In production order, this is the last episode where Diego is voiced by both Andres and Felipe Dieppa. Felipe would go on to voice the character himself in "Boots' Special Day" (which aired before this episode), "The Super Silly Fiesta", "Boots' Cuddly Dinosaur" (with Gabriel Alvarez), and "Job Day".
  • This is the second time Noisy Star warned Dora and Boots about Swiper; but as a female, first being "Stuck Truck"; but as a male.
  • When Map mentions about star-catching, he does not say "Try and catch stars along the way!", he instead says "And don't forget to look for stars along the way!". He also says that in "Dora Had a Little Lamb".
  • This episode is very similar to "Baseball Boots", except this episode is about soccer and focuses on Dora instead of Boots.
  • This is the 69th episode of the show.
  • Baby Jaguar, Benny, and Isa don't appear in this episode.
  • The Travel Song is replaced by Run, Dora, Run, showcasing that Dora and Boots are going super fast to rush through all the places to get to the Soccer Game.
    • This is the second time Dora and Boots go super fast throughout their adventure. The first is "Rescue, Rescue, Rescue!". Although there are some differences:
      • Map and Backpack sing their songs at normal speed, despite of the emergency.
      • Dora asks the viewers where to go next as usual, and the Picture Pop-Up Sequence appears too.
      • Dora and Boots are more braver than the aforementioned episode; even when they're panicking, they didn't take a deep breath to relax.
      • The Explorer Stars appear with Noisy Star.
    • That song would later by incorporated two ways into Go, Diego, Go!:
  • When Dora, Boots, Diego, and Daisy stop Swiper, they say "Swiper no swiping!" but Diego and Boots are the only ones that don't say it with them, all they did was put out their hands in front of them as a sign of stopping.
    • Additionally, unlike the crowd in "¡Por Favor!", the whole crowd at the stadium did not join in saying "Swiper, no swiping!" with Dora, Boots, Diego, and Daisy.
  • There is also a phonics book with the same title seen here.
  • This episode aired as part of the Dora and Diego Marathon that occurred the day it premiered. Leading up to the premiere, the other episodes that aired are as follows: "Star Catcher" (although Diego is not in that episode at all), "Meet Diego!", "Baby Dino", "Boots' Special Day", and "Baseball Boots".
  • This episode appeared in a Dora Activity Tray by CTA Digital.
  • The clip of Dora using her super soccer kick during "Run, Dora, Run!" is used in the Season 5-6 intro, but Dora is looking at the viewer and sometimes a soccer ball appears.
    • This clip was also used in a 2009-2010 promo for Nick Play Date.
  • This is second episode with the title "Dora Saves..." to spoil the episode, first being "Dora Saves the Prince".
  • As Map was reviewing the places, a soccer ball rolls down the path. However, unlike "The Golden Explorers", there is no black line tracing to the places.
  • Swiper does not rustle before he appears. Instead, Noisy Star honks to warn everyone in the soccer game that Swiper has arrived.
  • This is one of few times Dora says "Up, up, up! Stand up!" herself instead of Boots, when issuing a "stand up" prompt.
  • This is the only time Dora jumps before Boots during the "jumping over stuff" scenario.
  • When Dora and Boots were heading for the bridge, they seemed to go much farther than usual since they had to pass three whole events before they finally reach the bridge (the horses, the star-catching, and swinging in the trees with Diego, who joins from that point forward).
  • This is the first episode where Backpack plays a listening game with her items and the viewer had to guess where the correct item is hiding. This would happen again in Big Sister Dora.
  • After the We Did It! song, Dora changes back into her standard outfit and Daisy joins her and Boots for favorite parts, the counting of stars, and goodbyes.
  • At the end of the episode, Dora does not say, "We couldn't have done it without you." Instead, Daisy says it.
  • This episode marks the only appearances of the horses, the giant otters, all the red tiburónes team players, the three unnamed yellow tigres team players, and the off-screen soccer announcer.
  • When the Fiesta Trio says, "Estrellas!" the audio is taken from "What Happens Next?".
  • In this episode, the soccer announcer is a woman.
  • In this episode, it's Dora's cousin Daisy's turn to play soccer, just like Dora and her friends, who did it for the first time in The Golden Explorers.
  • For the yellow tigres, Daisy and three of her friends have yellow team shorts and cleats, except for Dora, who uses her regular shoes and regular shorts.
  • The goalies for both teams wear two socks on each foot.
  • In this episode, Dora blows the whistle to make the horses stop, just like the referee, who did it to stop the soccer game and resume it near the end.
  • In this episode, Dora and the referee have whistles exactly like theirs.
  • In this episode, the referee's whistle has a blue string attached to it and Dora's does not.
  • In this episode, Tico and the referee say, "Gooooooooooal!!!".
  • In this episode, Daisy's yellow team shirt has the same sleeve on her shirt's right as the rest of the team for their pairs and a striped hem on her shirt's left side.
  • When Dora says "We have to say Swiper, no swiping!", the audio is taken from The Chocolate Tree.

Goofs/Errors[]

  • When Papi turns on the television, the picture of Diego and Daisy disappears.
  • Unlike all other episodes, when the viewer is looking for Swiper, the blue cursor appears just to click on him when he's far away.
  • It is unknown how Swiper got to the Soccer Game.
    • It is also unknown how the Fiesta Trio got there when they played their extended fanfare.
      • In real life, if one sneaks onto the soccer field (like Swiper did when he tries to swipe the ball), that is considered trespassing and they would get caught by the security guards and get in SERIOUS TROUBLE (although it does not apply here due to cartoon logic).
  • When Dora and Boots are swinging with Diego in the trees, Dora's eyes are the same color as Diego's.
  • In real life, one cannot jump onto a tree branch from a cliff if it is so far, if Dora and Boots had not stretched enough to the branch, they would have fallen off the cliff (although this does not apply here due to cartoon logic).

Number of Stars Caught[]

8

Explorer Star[]

Noisy Star

Dora the Explorer Season 3
Dora Had a Little Lamb | Stuck Truck | Louder! | Roberto the Robot | The Big Potato | Journey to the Purple Planet | The Lost City | Meet Diego! | Save the Puppies! | ¡Por Favor! | Baby Dino | Boots' Special Day | To the South Pole | Dora Saves the Game | Boo! | What Happens Next? | Rescue, Rescue, Rescue! | Boots' Cuddly Dinosaur | The Super Silly Fiesta | The Fix-it Machine | Baseball Boots | Best Friends | ABC Animals | Job Day | Dora's Pirate Adventure