The Legend of the Big Red Chicken

The Legend of the Big Red Chicken
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Airdate	Monday, August 14, 2000
U.S. Premiere Time (est.)	{{{premiere}}}
Season	1
Episode	1
Previous	Pilot
Next	Lost and Found

The Legend of the Big Red Chicken is the 1st episode of Dora the Explorer from Season 1.

Characters present

Summary

Dora and Boots set out in search of "The Big Red Chicken" after reading a story about him to find out if he's real.

Recap

The episode starts out with Dora introducing herself to the viewer, then she asks the viewer what their name is and how old they are. Boots and Dora settle down and read a picture book. First, they had to get it out from Backpack. Backpack explained that the kind of book Dora and Boots wanted to read was a big red book. A blue cursor hovers around different books of different colors and sizes. It finds a small red book and a big red book. After finding the big red book, Dora can now read it to Boots. Dora opens the book, titled "The Legend of the Big Red Chicken." Dora starts reading. The story started with a little red chicken who lived on the big red hill. The little red chicken was very little, so little that he couldn't run as fast as his friends and had to watch out or could get stepped on. The little red chicken didn't like being so little. When night fell, the little red chicken saw a group of stars shaped like a big chicken. He made a wish on the stars saying that he wanted to be big. Then, the little red chicken went to bed. When he woke up, he wasn't little anymore, he was a big chicken who was as big as a house. Big Red Chicken did his own chicken dance by flapping its arms and stamping his feet. Boots tells Dora that he wants to find the big red chicken, but Dora is convinced that the story is just a story and is not real.

They then set out in search of the Big Red Hill so that Boots can see the Big Red Chicken. Boots wondered where the chicken was. Dora reminds Boots that they can find him on the big red hill. Dora & Boots had to check Map for directions on how to get to the big red hill. Map tells them that they had to go across the bridge, through the gate to get to the big red hill to find the big red chicken. Dora & Boots got going and then Boots scampers up a tree and gets out a banana for himself and one for Dora. After that, they heard Swiper. Dora doesn't want Swiper to swipe their bananas. They keep a sharp lookout. Dora & Boots find Swiper and said "Swiper no Swiping" 3 times. Swiper snaps his fingers and runs away. After their banana snack, they threw the peels away in the waste bin. They got going until they reached the bridge. They were about to go across when they saw some pieces missing. The missing pieces for the bridge were down in the water. Suddenly, they see a bird. Dora tells the viewer that his name was Señor Tucán. Boots tries to ask in English but didn't understand. Dora explained to Boots that Señor Tucán speaks Spanish. Dora asks in Spanish and Señor Tucán replies "Sí" for yes. Dora teaches the viewer 2 Spanish words that will help them fix the bridge. The Spanish words were "Grande" for big and "Pequeño" for little. The viewer tells Señor Tucán "Grande" for the first hole, "Pequeño" for the second hole and "Grande" for the third hole. After fixing the bridge, Dora & Boots slowly go across and thanked Señor Tucán for fixing the bridge for them. They then said goodbye to Señor Tucán.

Dora & Boots continue down the winding path until they reached the gate. Boots tried to open the gate but it was locked. Dora & Boots stopped and had a thought. The gate was locked and wondered "what do we use to open a lock?" and Boots had the answer which was a key. Suddenly, there was a key hanging on a hook. Dora picks it up. Dora counts out the points on the lock and it had 4 points. She then counted the points on the key and there was 4. Boots wanted to try opening the lock. It was heavy but managed to get the key into the lock. They were about to open the lock on the gate when Swiper came back. Swiper sneaks up behind Dora & Boots and swipes the key. He then hides it in the pile of keys and runs away. Dora told Boots not to worry and are determined to find the key. All they knew is it was big and had 4 points. Dora & Boots decided to count the points on the keys to find the right one. They find one with 2 points but that wasn't it. They found a key with 3 points and that wasn't it either. They didn't give up just yet. They finally find a key that had 4 points. They put the key into the lock. Boots struggles with the key but then it starts turning around slowly. After the key turned around in a complete circle, the lock opened and then Dora & Boots go through the gate.

Dora & Boots were getting close to figuring out if the Big Red Chicken was still at the big red hill. Dora & Boots held hands and started walking up the hill saying "I hope he's there" many times. The viewer joins in. After Dora & Boots got to the top, they didn't see him. Dora had an idea, the big red chicken loves the chicken dance. Boots joins in and together they start the chicken dance by flapping their arms. Dora encouraged the viewer to join in by standing up for the next part. Now, they had to stamp their feet and flap their arms at the same time. Then, they said "cluck-cluck-cluck". But as they were still doing the chicken dance the big red hill moves. Dora & Boots realized the big red hill was really the big red chicken. They soon realize that it is not just a story, but that the Big Red Chicken does indeed exist. Dora & Boots introduced themselves to Big Red Chicken. Boots remembered that he saw the big red chicken in the book. And that's where Dora & Boots learned that the big red chicken did indeed exist.

Places in episode

Trivia

The voices of Benny, Isa and Tico appeared in the end credits despite the fact that they didn't actually appear on the episode in the first place.
Benny is the character to find in the credits, but he didn't appear in this episode.
This is the 1st episode where Boots tried pulling a locked gate or door.
This is the first episode to find Benny