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Star Catcher

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Star Catcher
06CAAD53-22A5-46C4-B327-59D32AEFF1D7
Airdate Monday, October 6, 2003 (Nickelodeon)

Saturday, October 11, 2003 (Nick on CBS)
Monday, September 13, 2004 (Noggin)
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 (VHS & DVD)
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 (YouTube)

U.S. Premiere Time (est.) {{{premiere}}}
Season 4 (produced)
3 (aired)
Episode 1 (produced for Season 4; in general for Season 3)
2 (aired for Season 3)
Written by Eric Weiner
Storyboard by:
Carol Datuin
Alex Que
Jose Silverio
Kuni Tomita
Ysty Veluz
Directed by George Chialtas
Sherie Pollack
Previous The Lost City (Season 3)
León, the Circus Lion (in general)
Dora's Pirate Adventure (production order)
Next Stuck Truck (airing order)
Dora's First Trip (production order)
Star Mountain (chronologically)

Star Catcher (also known as Dora's Star-Catching Adventure) is the 2nd episode of Season 3, as well as the real pilot, 1st episode in general of Season 3 after León, the Circus Lion.

It was originally produced and aired as the 1st episode of Season 4, and serves as the official introduction to the Star-catching gimmick, and the second episode of it to air altogether, with the first being The Lost City.

Characters[]

Summary[]

Dora receives a Star Pocket from her Abuela and learns how to catch stars, making her become a star catcher. But Swiper swipes it, and attaches it to a balloon with Woo-Hoo inside it, where a mean prince eventually gets ahold of it as his prisoner! Now, Dora and Boots need to go to the Cloud Castle to retrieve it and rescue Woo-Hoo with help from the viewer and four explorer stars: Noisy, Switchy, Glowy and Saltador. Are you ready to become a star catcher?

Plot[]

Abuela gives Dora a very special present, something her grandmother gave to her when she was her age: a purple star pocket where Dora can catch stars and put them in. Abuela tells her a story about the time she use to wear it. Special stars would come. She also says that they can even find a special explorer star. But, it's up for her to catch them. Now, Dora is ready to become a star catcher. She and Boots were so excited. She then asks Backpack if she can wear the star pocket and she accepted the request. Map is impressed to see the star pocket as well. Dora and Boots are now ready to go on their very first star-catching adventure. Dora caught her first star and it was an explorer star named Woo-Hoo, a baby star who likes playing peek-a-boo. When Woo-Hoo goes inside the Star Pocket, the interior reveals as a beautiful paradise with a waterfall and a mountain with a blue star on top (Similar to Star Mountain). All of a sudden, Swiper comes along and swipes the star pocket (without even noticing that Woo-Hoo is still in it) and puts sticky tape on a balloon string to it. And the star pocket attached to the balloon flies away (again, with Woo-Hoo still in it). Dora tries jumping up to get the balloon string, but failed. Woo-Hoo is calling for help and Dora told him not to worry and said that she and Boots will save him. Dora and Boots had to find out where the balloon is taking Woo-Hoo and the star pocket. They asked Map for assistance. He says that the balloon is taking Woo-Hoo and the star pocket to the cloud castle. But before they can get there, Dora and Boots had to go across the Stormy Water and over Dragon Mountain. He also mentions that they can catch stars along the way and they can help them rescue Woo-Hoo. And this time, instead of a picture pop-up sequence, Dora and Boots put their hands around their eyes like a telescope to search for the stormy water. Dora and Boots got to catch more stars (even though the star pocket was taken away). Dora and Boots caught 4 more stars and they were explorer stars. Dora caught Saltador, a super-jumping explorer star and Noisy Star, who is a female, who honks really loud to give a warning. Boots caught Glowy, an explorer star who gives out a bright light, and Switchy who can morph into 3 different shapes: a square, triangle, or circle. After reviewing the stars, Dora, Boots, and the explorer stars made it to the stormy water. They use a ship to get them across. Dora and Boots put on lifejackets so they can be safe (even though they're on a ship, not a boat; and they don't need them since the episode Treasure Island). As they sailed across the stormy water, it got dark. They choose Glowy the bright light explorer star. Glowy goes to the bow, which is the front of the ship, and acts like a spotlight. Suddenly, the ship approaches some sharks and Glowy Star is frightened. Dora and Boots will have to jump over the sharks. They choose Saltador the super-jumping explorer star. They jump over 3 sharks. After that, the ship bumps into a whale. So, Dora and Boots choose Noisy Star. Dora and Boots go "honk-honk!" as Noisy honks a couple of times. And then the whale swam out of the way. Dora and Boots have made it across the stormy water with the explorer stars’ help. They approach the dock and put a wooden ramp down so they can get out. Now, Dora, Boots, and the explorer stars had to get over the Dragon Mountain. Woo-Hoo calls out from afar. They had to hurry if they are going to rescue Woo-Hoo, who's in the cloud castle. Dora and Boots saw train tracks down on Dragon Mountain. They ride Azul the blue train up to the top of Dragon Mountain. Azul noticed that there was a pattern in the tracks. It went square, triangle, circle. After getting up at the top on Dragon Mountain, they had to go down fast because a dragon was coming towards them. On their way down the mountain, there were some missing pieces in the tracks. Dora and Boots need help from an explorer star. Sure enough, Switchy the shape-morphing explorer star comes to help. Switchy turns into a circle to complete the gap. Then Switchy turns into a square to fill in another gap. After Azul got Dora and Boots down Dragon Mountain, the dragon said he just was trying to warn them about the missing pieces in the tracks. They didn't know the dragon is friendly. The dragon was glad that they got down okay and flew away. Dora and Boots get off Azul the blue train and Woo-Hoo is still calling out from afar. Luckily, Dora and Boots were getting close to the cloud castle. Dora remembers that the cloud castle is on the highest cloud. They find the cloud castle on the highest cloud. Saltador gives Dora and Boots some super-jumping power so they can super-jump into the cloud castle. Then it was time to find Woo-Hoo and the star pocket. The cloud castle prince had the star pocket and Woo-Hoo was still inside it. Dora and Boots try to get it back, but the guards blocked them. The prince said that everything inside his castle belongs to him. Boots yelled at the prince to give back the star pocket, but the prince refused and said that he's the star catcher now, thanks to Swiper delivering the Star Pocket. Dora told the prince that he isn't a real star catcher and that her Abuela told her that only a real star catcher is a friend to the stars. The prince tries to prove that he is correct so he challenges Dora by having a star-catching contest, in which whoever catches the most stars wins the star pocket. Dora agrees to the challenge and lots of different colored stars come inside. With help from the viewer, Dora caught the stars. Now it was time to see who won the contest. The prince didn't catch any stars, but Dora caught all of them. The prince was surprised, but he knew he had to keep his promise, so he gives the star pocket back to Dora and then Woo-Hoo thanks Dora for rescuing him. The prince was sad, so Woo-Hoo tries to cheer him up by playing peekaboo. The prince and everyone else laughs and he had to admit that he was wrong to try and keep the star pocket to himself and realized that it was best to be a friend to the stars. And everyone is dancing, singing "We Did It!" and celebrating the Star Catching adventure victory; even Swiper, because he will soon try to find out what it's like to be a Star Catcher if he will catch them and use them to help Dora and Boots on a whole adventure in the future! Now that the prince says goodbye and is gone, Dora and Boots tell the audience of what is their favorite star, they are ready to count how many stars they caught and there are 5 explorer stars with 7 classic stars and it marks the record of 12 stars! The episode ends.

Places in this episode[]

  1. Stormy Water
  2. Dragon Mountain
  3. Cloud Castle

Sub-places[]

Number of stars[]

12 (that's a record)

Releases[]

This episode can be found in Catch the Stars on VHS and DVD, as well as Let's Explore: Dora's Greatest Adventures on DVD.

Trivia[]

  • Throughout the rest of Season 4, the star pocket can be noticeably visible on Backpack's side, despite the fact that star-catching would become infrequent.
  • It is revealed that Dora attaches the star pocket to Backpack as a gift for her too and so that she can keep track of how many stars are caught.
    • Coincidentally, Backpack was also a gift from Mami and Papi.
    • In both instances, Swiper swipes the gift.
  • Dora does not use Backpack in this episode. Only Map.
    • When Dora asks the viewers to say "Map", she then says "I think you have to say it again.", which she usually says in Season 1.
  • Abuela mentions that her grandmother gave her the star pocket as a little girl. However, it's unknown if her mother or her child (also unknown if it is Mami or Papi) ever used the star pocket as a young child.
  • This episode took place before all Season 3 episodes with star-catching. However, the first episode that involves star-catching was actually on the Season 2 episode, The Lost City, but that episode was produced for Season 3.
  • Chronologically, this would be the third flashback episode on how Dora first got her own star pocket. First would be Dora's First Trip, in which she met her friends for the first time, and the second would be Backpack!, in which she got her own purple Backpack.
    • Unlike the aforementioned episodes, this episode does not begin with Dora telling the viewers that she is going to tell a story, because this episode was aired for Season 3, but got produced for Season 4.
  • This episode holds the record of the most stars caught being 12.
  • Unlike all other episodes, after Map showed the places to go and zoom wiped, this is the only episode where Dora did not use the picture pop-up sequence and ask where to go first. Instead, she and Boots immediately start looking for the Stormy Water.
    • In addition, Dora does not ask the viewer where the Stormy Water is with the blue cursor clicking on it, she and Boots instead use telescopes with their hands to find it.
      • Because of this, the Picture Pop-Up Sequence was only used twice in this episode. This would later be used in Benny's Treasure.
  • This is the first episode where Swiper swipes something near the very beginning.
  • This episode reveals what the inside of the Star Pocket looks like.
  • The Fiesta Trio does not play their ending fanfare in this episode.
  • When the stars were about to be counted, the Explorer Stars remained out of the star pocket. This means off-camera, Dora sent the regular stars into the pocket.
  • At the end of the episode, Dora does not ask the viewer what their favorite part was (in their opinion), she instead asks about what their favorite star is. And after saying "I like that star, too", Dora and Boots do not talk about their favorite star, they immediately start counting how many stars they have caught.
    • However, if they would tell what their favorite stars are, Boots would go with Saltador, Woo-Hoo and Switchy while Dora would say Glowy and Noisy are her favorites.
  • During the race down Dragon Mountain, the dragon does not have an angry expression when he appears and chases Azul downhill; instead he looks worried as if trying to give a warning. This is a visual foreshadowing that the dragon is friendly.
  • At the very end of this episode, when Dora says "¡Gracias!", the audio is taken from The Legend of the Big Red Chicken.
  • This is the only time Noisy Star speaks (she is shown shouting "Woo-Hoo!" with the other stars).
  • This is one of the few episodes without the Travel Song.
    • If it was included in the episode, it would be sung only once, on the way to the Stormy Waters (after saying the places, the song would be cut off by the first appearances of Glowy, Noisy, Saltador, and Switchy; after they're caught and introduced, the song would continue from where it was cut off; Glowy Star would also say the destination in the third utterance instead of the Fiesta Trio).
  • This is one of the episodes that premiered on Nickelodeon instead of the Nick Jr block.
  • This is the seventh episode where Dora does not look inside Backpack (second in earlier airings). However, Backpack did appear as Dora attaches the star pocket on her.
  • This episode reveals that Abuela likes to give presents to Dora.
  • This is the 55th overall episode of the show.
  • Five explorer stars were caught instead of just one.
  • This is the first episode to introduce multiple explorer stars.
  • The copyright year reads "2003", proving that this episode is produced in Season 4. Not only that, but it was also produced the same year as the premiere of the episode (this doesn't happen again until Dora's Dance to the Rescue).
  • Benny, Isa, and Tico do not appear in this episode.
  • This is the first episode to feature the Season 3-4 opening sequence on TV.
  • This is Saltador's second appearance and Noisy Star's fourth appearance (first appearances in earlier airings), as well as the second episode for Glowy Star and the only episode where Switchy Star makes a major role. He makes a cameo appearance in "Star Mountain".
  • This is the second episode in which Abuela tells a story about her childhood, first being The Chocolate Tree.
  • In production order, considering that this is the first produced episode of Season 4, this is the last episode until Dora's World Adventure!, and Dora Saves the Mermaids to feature the Picture Pop-Up Sequence. For most of Season 4, Dora will use Map as her guide each time she and Boots pass a location in the "bonus Map segments" format, and he (Map) would say "So you tell Dora...first, you go to the (first place)" in the first segment, and in the segments that follow, Map would place a red checkmark on the passed location and would add "So you tell Dora...next, you have to go to the (second/last location)".
    • This could mean that this episode was most likely produced before the Season 4 episodes that feature Dora checking Map replacing the picture pop-up sequence, therefore this episode would be the first produced episode for Season 4.
  • Because this marks the first usage of the star pocket, Map does not say "Oh, stars! Try and catch stars along the way!". He instead says "Ooh, you're star catchers now! You have to catch try to catch stars along the way!", and then mentions about the stars helping Dora and Boots rescue Woo-Hoo.
  • This should have been the first episode to feature star-catching. However, if it was, it would be a Season 3 episode since The Lost City is also from that season.
  • This is one of the four episodes that aired during Dora's Super Star Week (this episode played on March 14, 2007). The other three are Star Mountain (March 12 and 16), Little Star (March 13), and ¡Por Favor! (March 15).
  • This could be Dora's version of Pokémon's first episode "Pokémon, I Choose You!".
    • Dora plays out the role of the Pokémon Champion Trainer Ash Ketchum.
    • Boots plays out the role of Ash Ketchum's friends Misty and Brock.
    • Noisy, Glowy, Switchy, and Saltador play out the role of Pikachu's friends Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and Greninja.
    • Woo-Hoo plays out the role of Pikachu.
    • Swiper and Prince of Cloud Castle play out the role of Jessie and James, the leaders of Team Rocket.
  • Season 4 episode Star Mountain serves as a sequel to this episode.
    • Technically, both episodes have Swiper swiping Dora's gifts before the adventure even started, and the explorer stars help to get it back.
  • Although this episode was produced as the Season 4 premiere, it uses the Season 3 art style and aired during Season 3, it's unknown why they aired it early in October 2003.
  • When the Fiesta Trio says, "Estrellas!" the audio is taken from What Happens Next?.

Goofs/Errors[]

  • Although this is really a Season 3/4 episode, there are a couple websites that list this episode as a Season 2 episode. For example, Yidio (stands for Your Internet Video) lists this episode as a season 2 episode and as "Dora's Star-Catching Adventure."
  • Unlike Treasure Island, El Coquí, and Dora's Pirate Adventure, when Dora and Boots were riding the ship across the Stormy Water, they still had to wear lifejackets even though it was large and does not need to be rowed. It is unknown why they had to wear lifejackets. In real life, the people do not need them for a boat like that.
  • When Abuela is about to show Dora her surprise, Dora looks at the viewer for a split-second without saying anything.
  • The star pocket changes sides on Backpack throughout the episode.
  • When Swiper grabs the balloon, his nose turns red for a split second.
  • After Swiper swipes the star pocket, Dora and Boots never bothered to go back and warn Abuela that he swiped it.
  • When Dora and Boots catch Woo-Hoo, the star pocket is missing, but reappears when Woo-Hoo sees it.
  • In the beginning of the episode, Dora and Boots appear to be in Abuela's living room; when they leave, they are coming out of Dora's house.
  • While at Dragon Mountain, when Dora explains the vehicles, she says "El barco", when it is really a regular boat, not a ship, so she should have said "El bote".
    • It's possible that this happened because a preschooler may look at a boat and a ship as the same thing.
    • Ironically, "El barco" would be the term used referring to the Pirate Piggies' ship in Dora Saves the Snow Princess.
  • At that time, it is normal for only two exercises to be done in a given task on Dora the Explorer. In this episode, the viewers were to fill in two missing pieces on the track on Dragon Mountain with the correct shape, but when Azul is at the bottom of the mountain, the mountain is shown to have three missing pieces.
  • When the stars at Cloud Castle fly over the prince, the orange star is missing.
  • Dora caught the five stars that flew in, but when she showed everyone the result, two additional stars appear: a pink star and a dark blue star, which were also counted in the end. So Dora was supposed to have caught ten stars in all.
  • At the end of the We Did It! song, the image freezes before the blue cursor clicks on Dora.
  • The YouTube version of this episode incorrectly titles the episode Dora's Fairytale Adventure, complete with a description for that episode.
  • Unlike all other Season 4 episodes on YouTube which retain the credits at normal speed, this episode speeds it up like the Season 5-8 ones. Because of this, all sound effects and dialogues are out of sync. The first half of the music plays, even over the sped-up Nick Jr. Productions logo which shifts to the left.

Explorer Star (in the credits)[]

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



Dora the Explorer Season 4
Star Catcher | Dora's Fairytale Adventure | Daisy, La Quinceañera | Big Sister Dora | Super Babies | Catch the Babies | Dora's Got a Puppy | Dora and Diego to the Rescue! | A Crown for King Juan el Bobo | The Mixed-Up Seasons | Dora's Dance to the Rescue | Dora's First Trip | Baby Jaguar's Roar | Boots to the Rescue | Dora's World Adventure! | Star Mountain | Baby Crab | La Maestra de Música | Dora Saves the Mermaids | The Shy Rainbow| Super Spies 2: The Swiping Machine | We're a Team! | Save Diego! | Swiper the Explorer
* - Denotes held-up episode
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