Map (sometimes referred after "The") is a main character on Dora the Explorer. He is Dora's helpful guide who lives inside Backpack's side pocket.
Description and Personality
Described as a "funny, bouncy, rolled up map" [1], Map is a kind and smart character who often helps Dora through her adventures by showing her where to go via his map. He is often a very useful friend who helps the audience of kids know where the blank is coming from. He also loves and performs rap.
Unlike Backpack, who's shown to speak English and Spanish frequently, Map is often shown to use English more, though he's not incapable of using Spanish, such as in Super Map, where he helps Tico down the River by following either the red / rojo, or yellow / amarillo paths.
Super Map
Super Map is Map, but with a magic cape he found in a bush on top of Tallest Mountain. With the cape, he gained superpowers, such as flight, and super windy-breath! His only appearance was the namesake episode, wherein he helped Dora and Boots get to Dora's House for a super surprise, as well as helping the Baby Birds along the way. He was even able to help uncover Swiper's hiding spot with his super breath before he could do an ambush and steal Map's cape. At the end of the adventure, Map admitted that though being a superhero was fun, he'd rather stay as regular Map, and renounces the super cape.
Looks
Map has a rather simplistic design and color pallet. Since his character design is based around paper, he has two sides: his outside is a pale-yellow, partially beige, and his inside is light blue with his eyebrows being the same color. His mouth is red, and he has two white eyes with black pupils. In seasons 7 and 8, he becomes a computer-generated character, just like Backpack and the Fiesta Trio.
Appearances
- Map appears in every episode of Dora the Explorer, except for Book Explorers.
- In some of the Nick Jr. games such as Where is Map?
- In Go, Diego, Go!, he appears in Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue, Diego and Dora Help Baby Monarch Get to the Festival, and Diego and Dora Save the Giant Tortoises.
- In Dora and Friends: Into the City!, he appears in Return to the Rainforest, Dora's Rainforest Reunion, The Lost Necklace, and A Sockin' Good Party.
- He is Mapa in the 2024 series, Dora.
Segment Phrases
Pre-segment
- "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?"
- "The Map! The Map!"
- "The Map, (that's) right."
- (Season 1 and 2 only:) "The Map can tell us (rest of description).")
- "(I need your help!) Will you check the Map to find out (rest of description)?"
- (Some Season 1 episodes and rarely 2, 3, and 4:) "I need your help to check the Map and find out (rest of description)."
- "You have to say, 'Map'."
- "Say 'Map'! Say 'Map'!"
- "Louder!" or "I think you have to say it again!" (sometimes added)
- "I think you have to say it louder!" (Dora's Dance to the Rescue)
- (Dora Saves the Mermaids/Season 5 onward:) "Louder, Map!"
- (Season 4 only:) "We have/need to figure out where to go next!"
In most segments
- "(Ooh!) Dora (and Boots) need/want(s)/(have/has) to (mission)."
- "Well, I know how to (mission)!"
- "Well, I know where (location)!"
- "(To get to (mission),) First you go (first place). Then you go (second place). And that's how you get to (third place) (sometimes added, (to (mission))!
- (sometimes) "But watch out for (villain)!"
Season 1 and 2
- "So (here's what) you tell Dora: (places to go)! Say it with me. (places to go) (3x)!"
Season 3 onward
- "So remember: (places to go)! Say it with me. (places to go) (3x)!"
Season 3 only (when there is star-catching)
- "Ooh, stars!"
- "Try to catch stars along the way!"
- "And don't forget to look for stars along the way!"
Season 4 onward
- "So you tell Dora, first you/we go to (first place)."
Season 4 only (when telling where to go)
- "We made it past the (first place), check! Where do we go next? (cursor clicks second place) (second place), right! So you tell Dora, next you go to (second place)."
- "We made it past the (first place), check! We made it (second place), check! Where do we go next? (cursor clicks third place) (third place), right! So you tell Dora, next you go to (third place)."
Season 4 onward (when there are four places)
- "First we go (first place). Then we go (second place). Then we go (third place). And that's how we'll get to (fourth place)!"
Trivia
- Map appears in three Go, Diego, Go! episodes: Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue, Diego and Dora Help Baby Monarch Get to the Festival, and Diego and Dora Save the Giant Tortoises.
- Sometimes Map warns Dora and Boots that they should watch out for villains on their journey. For example:
- For Swiper in Berry Hunt and El Día De Las Madres
- For Sir Swiper in ¡Por Favor!
- For the Witch in Dora Saves The Prince
- For El Mago in Te Amo
- For the Witch in Dora Saves The Snow Princess
- Map also appears in four episodes of the spin-off series Dora and Friends: Into the City!: Return to the Rainforest, Dora's Rainforest Reunion, The Lost Necklace, and A Sockin' Good Party.
- During Season 1 of Dora and Friends, Map was seen as an app on Dora's phone called "Map App".
- Map was originally going to be unrolled, but he was later redesigned to be a rolled up map.
- Map is known to have a love of puppies in various episodes, such as Save the Puppies! and Dora's Got a Puppy.
- Map's voice actor, Marc Weiner, also voices Swiper, the Fiesta Trio, Pirate Parrot, The International Swipers, the King's Mommy, and many others.
- Map is the only main character to retain his original voice actor since the first season in August 2000 to the live-action movie in 2019.
- Map's place was eventually taken by his daughter Mapa, since his voice actor Marc Weiner was getting much too old to voice him any longer.
- The only episodes where Map was not asked were Lost Map, Dora's First Trip, Boots to the Rescue, Benny's Treasure, Pepe the Pig's School Adventure, The Secret of Atlantis, Dora's Moonlight Adventure, and Book Explorers.
- Map, instead of singing, raps on occasion. This is shown in episodes like Dora's Easter Adventure.
- The sound Map uses when he bounces in Season 4 can be found here.
- In the early episodes, Map comes out of the right side pocket of Backpack when being summoned; in newer seasons, he would almost always come out of the left side pocket.
- He tells the viewers to say his own name in Super Map!, but he wanted them to say "(Super) Map!". He does the same in Boots' Cuddly Dinosaur and asks the viewers to say "Map!"
- Originating from Dora Saves the Mermaids, then put to use starting from Season 5, right before Map springs out of Backpack to start the segment, Dora and/or Boots (and sometimes other characters) would shout "Map!" (with the viewer) after saying "Louder!".
- In some episodes, Map wears an outfit to relate to the theme.
- He wears a pirate hat and eyepatch in Treasure Island, Dora's Pirate Adventure, and Pirate Treasure Hunt.
- He wears a firefighter hat in Rojo the Fire Truck.
- He wears a cowboy hat in Pinto, the Pony Express and A Ribbon For Pinto.
- He wears a cape in Super Map!.
- He wears a Santa hat in A Present For Santa.
- He wears a medieval hat in ¡Por Favor!.
- He wears a baseball cap in Baseball Boots.
- He wears a scarf and earmuffs in To the South Pole.
- He wears a rocket outfit in Journey to the Purple Planet.
- He wears a ghost costume in Boo!.
- He wears a party hat in The Super Silly Fiesta.
- He wears a nightcap in Louder! and Catch the Babies.
- He wears a spy outfit in Super Spies 2: The Swiping Machine.
- He wears a crown in Dora Saves Three Kings Day.
- He wears a blue crayon costume in Halloween Parade.
- He wears a soldier cap in Dora's Royal Rescue.
- Map usually stands on the top left corner of the picture map, however...
- In Save the Puppies!, he stands on the top right.
- In Beaches (during the sand dunes scene), The Lost City (during part of the shortcut scene), Rescue, Rescue, Rescue!, To the South Pole, ABC Animals, and Catch the Babies, he stands on the bottom left.
- In both the top-right case and the bottom-left case, the places are also rearranged so the first place is on the top left and the destination is on the bottom right of the picture map.
- In The Mixed-Up Seasons, he stands on the middle of the picture map.
- In Dora's First Trip, he is absent in the story and Dora and Boots don't "ask him for help, when they don't know which way to go" (because back then, Dora didn’t have him and Backpack).
- He and Backpack were introduced in the episode with Backpack's name.
- While Map usually smiles during his segments, he does frown (and panic sometimes) on occasion due to certain emergencies.
- Examples of such (just to name a few) include the following:
- Lost Squeaky: He was worried about Boots's toy Squeaky after he bounced into a stream and went down an underground cave into the Gooey Geyser.
- Rojo the Fire Truck: He was worried about the kitten stuck in the Big Tree.
- Stuck Truck: He was worried about Ice Cream Truck being stuck in the ditch at Play Park.
- Meet Diego!: He was worried about Baby Jaguar being stuck by the edge of the waterfall.
- The Fix-it Machine: He accidentally fell into a hole and notices that he has a hole in his map.
- Louder!: He was worried about the sun still sleeping.
- ¡Por Favor!: He was worried about Sir Swiper heading to King Kinkajou's castle since he was attempting to swipe King Kinkajou's crown.
- Rescue, Rescue, Rescue!: He was worried about Baby Jaguar (who was stuck in a tree about to fall into the prickers and thorns).
- Dora's Pirate Adventure: He was worried about Pirate Pig and his piggies taking the treasure chest to Treasure Island.
- Dora's Fairytale Adventure: While not making a proper frown, he did slightly freak out during his 2nd segment upon being aware that the Giant Rocks were guarded by the Giant-Giant.
- La Maestra de Música: He heard the school bell and was aware that Dora, Boots and La Maestra had to get to school in a hurry.
- Save Diego!: He was worried about both Diego and a baby parrot he rescued being stuck on a rope over a pile of prickers and thorns.
- The Mixed-Up Seasons: He was worried about Mr. Snowman, Little Flower, Jack O'Lantern and Sand Crab all being in the wrong seasons.
- The incident from Dora and Diego to the Rescue! was probably hit the hardest: He was worried about Boots after he was blown away by the wind whilst holding his kite.
- In fact, Map was so worried about Boots that (seeing it as one of the worst incidents that could possibly happen to him) he continued to frown as he repeated the places during his first map segment.
- Baby Jaguar's Roar: Aside from getting knocked out of Backpack from a big wave at El Río Rápido, he was worried about Baby Bear after he ran all the way to Big Mountain due to Swiper scaring him.
- Dora's World Adventure!: He was worried about the fate of Friendship Day after Swiper accidentally swiped all the friendship bracelets.
- Dora Saves the Mermaids: He felt bad for what Mariana and all the other mermaids in Mermaid Kingdom were going through after the Garbage Octopus dumped garbage all over the kingdom.
- Dora Saves the Snow Princess: He was worried about whatever obstacles the Witch was planning to set up since she hates snow.
- However, some episodes like Quack! Quack!, Star Catcher, Catch the Babies (most erroneously), and Dora's Dance to the Rescue depict Map remaining completely calm and continuing to smile as usual even if either Dora, her friends, and/or any other character is shocked over a desperate situation, while others like Doctor Dora, Save the Puppies!, and Dora's Knighthood Adventure do have him frowning briefly, though remaining silent when doing such.
- Examples of such (just to name a few) include the following:
- In Seasons 1-2, Map says "So you tell Dora" after reviewing how to get to the final destination. The first time he says that was Hic-Boom-Ohhh! and the last was León, the Circus Lion. In the Season 1 episodes, The Legend of the Big Red Chicken, Lost and Found, Treasure Island, Berry Hunt, and The Chocolate Tree, he says "So here's what you tell Dora". In the season 2 episodes, Whose Birthday is It?, he says "So remember". This was put to permanent use in Season 3 and the rest of the series.
- In Dora Had a Little Lamb and Stuck Truck, he says "Now remember".
- In Dora's Big Birthday Adventure, he just says "Remember".
- In the first season, the background around Map's map was brown. Beginning in Season 2-6, the border background changes colors every episode, such as yellow, blue, red, pink, orange, purple, etc.
- However, the background goes back to brown every episode in Seasons 7-8.
- In many episodes, Maps looks slightly different in terms of the face, even if his dancing is recycled from earlier episodes.
- Save Diego! is the only episode where Dora and Boots are frowning while asking the viewer to say, "Map!" (this is due to being an emergency of Diego being in trouble).
- Some episodes have Map accompanied by another map character during his segment:
- In Bark, Bark to Play Park, Map is accompanied by his twin sister.
- In Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure, Map is accompanied by his older self; also, his segment doesn't occur until late in the episode.
- In Little Map, Map is accompanied by his titular nephew.
- At the end of his segments, he does a zoom wipe with his mouth, to which people might be thinking that he might be "eating, jumpscaring, or swallowing" them, the screen, or the camera. This happens up until Season 7, where he receives a new design and transitions by sliding across the screen.
- The episodes where he doesn't do a zoom wipe are Dora's Fairytale Adventure, Big Sister Dora, Catch the Babies, Dora and Diego to the Rescue!, Dora's First Trip (there was no Map segment in the episode because in the story, Dora did not have him or Backpack), Dora's World Adventure!, Star Mountain, Baby Crab, Super Spies 2: The Swiping Machine, We're a Team! (Map segments only), Save Diego!, Swiper the Explorer, Lost Map (because he was kidnapped and taken to a nest by the Silly Bird), and Benny's Treasure (because he and Backpack are kidnapped by a garbage truck and taken to the junkyard).
- The only Season 4 episodes Map zoom wipes in are Daisy, La Quinceañera (except for the second segment), Super Babies (except for the second segment), Baby Jaguar's Roar (except for the second segment), The Shy Rainbow (except for the second segment), A Crown for King Juan el Bobo (except for the first segment), Star Catcher, Dora's Dance to the Rescue (first segment only), Dora Saves the Mermaids, Dora's Got a Puppy (second segment only), La Maestra de Música (second segment only), The Mixed-Up Seasons (except for the second and third segments), and We're a Team! (only during The Team Cheer).
- In Super Map!, Map zoom wipes in a different way during his segment; he fills the screen with his red cape instead of his mouth.
- However, his mouth fills the screen when he slides down the slide during the We Did It! song.
- In Big River, Map fills the screen with his mouth closed.
- Rescue Pack does a similar thing when he says "I'm Rescue Pack!" after "Nothing to it!" during his song.
- Map usually has one segment per episode. But sometimes he has more than one.
- In Beaches, The Lost City, Best Friends, and Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue he had two segments
- In most Season 4 episodes, Map has three segments because Season 4 ditches the picture pop-up sequence and has the format where Map checks off the places that Dora went through, checking off the first location in the second segment and checking off the first and second locations in the third segment.
- In Dora's Fairytale Adventure and The Mixed-Up Seasons, Map has four segments.
- He is one of the characters who can be woken up by saying "Wake up, (character's name)!". The others are Backpack, Sloth, Grandpa Panda, Baby Bear, and Boots.
Galleries
To view Map's primary gallery, click here. For his segments during episodes, click here.
References
- ↑ Dora the Explorer: Meet my Friends! (Flash game, 2000)