September 26th, 2023 
Jackson Murphy 
Beginning this Friday September 29th, you can see a brand new CG “Dora the Explorer” short in theaters before showings of Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie. Dora and the Fantastical Creatures features Dora and Boots on a colorful, wholesome quest to retrieve important orbs stolen by (who else?) Swiper. The short serves as an introduction in this new animated format for one of Nickelodeon’s most beloved characters, with a Paramount+ series coming next year. “Fantastical Creatures” director William Mata (storyboard artist on Puss in Boots, Arthur Christmas and The Sea Beast) joins me for this Animation Scoop Q&A. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: How does it feel to have this be on the big screen, shown before Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie? Millions of families are gonna take this in.
William Mata: It feels great. For me, taking on this project and working with Dora was awesome. I think she’s got the best qualities — curiosity, exploration. She can command the big screen. I’ve always felt that way. To put this out on the big screen, it solidifies and makes it clear that Dora can command the big screen.
JM: Yeah. I enjoyed the live-action movie in 2019 and grew-up with the [animated] show. It’s so nice that this character is coming back in animation. Because she’s so beloved, what about her speaks to you?
WM: The idea of curiosity and exploring — since I was a kid it’s a theme I always liked. I never wanted to lose it. You have to continue to be curious, explore, push and look for new things. It’s one of those notes that hit me. It’s her biggest asset. It’s in her name! It’s who she is. It’s a breeze to work with a character like that because you can take the character anywhere and you know how they’ll behave. They’re open-minded about things. Those are the chords that struck me.
JM: So how do you tell a good story in four and a half minutes?
WM: You do it with a bunch of great people. I was lucky to have a great crew. I was happy to have a great character to work with that was already established and has been around for a long time. To take that and build on top of that and use technology and re-introduce her in a way that we haven’t seen her before — it’s CG. That gives a lot of opportunity to create worlds that normally we wouldn’t, or cinematically shoot things in a way where we wouldn’t before. It gave us a chance to push her and try moments of perfection where normally her cadence wouldn’t be that way. And then still have moments of interacting with the audience where we get that traditional Dora feel. It was great to push and pull and stretch things out. It’s a lot of fun.
JM: I think those moments where Dora and Boots look at and talk to the audience… they know that people are watching this in a movie theater with popcorn… it’s gonna make people all over the country smile and laugh and go “Wow!” Was there any hesitation in those couple of moments, or did you know, “Hey, we gotta do this kind of self-aware dialogue”?
WM: We want to embrace that. It’s part of her DNA. We have to honor that because we are bringing with us tons of fans who have grown up watching “Dora”. And at the same time I think we do kind of live in a time where we do interact with what we’re watching whether we like it or not. I can’t wait to see it with a group like that.
William Mata
JM: The dreamland visuals are amazing, especially at night time when so many characters and aspects glow in the dark. What were some of the challenges of pulling off night time, glow in the dark sequences?
WM: It’s so complex. A lot of colors. A lot of designs. A lot of the credit is given to the Mexican folk art that inspired us, guys like Pedro Linares who created the first Alebrije. We tried to bring it as much as we can from the culture, like the Copal tree, which is a real tree in Oaxaca that’s used to carve these figures out. We quickly realized that those are the rules for building our world and making it feel handmade and hand-painted and colorful and surreal at times. It was such a fun world to build. Technically… there will be certain challenges like “How do we invert a rainbow?” We find fun ways. Once you’ve set and anchored your rules, then you can build from it. I gotta say, we had a lot of fun, happy accidents. And I didn’t feel like we had any real, technical challenges, at least I didn’t feel. (laughs)
JM: That’s good. The creatures themselves are gorgeous. You bring back Swiper and the phrase, “Swiper, No Swiping!” into the lexicon. Having Swiper be a part of this was a must, right?
WM: Oh, of course. You know he’s not far away from any of Dora’s adventures. No pun intended but every time he came on screen he stole the show. He’s a lot of fun. He provides the right jolt of energy at the right time in the short. We had to bring him back.
JM: And one of the themes of the short that really comes across and a lot of families are going to appreciate is this aspect of protecting nature. What does that theme really mean to you?
WM: You always have to be aware of your surroundings and be an individual that’s going to take care of things. It’s cyclical. We try to build in this idea of traditions and things that happen over and over — and the importance of protecting beauty and nature is definitely super important. Top of the list.
JM: I think that’s really strong. You have worked as a story artist at big movies at Sony, DreamWorks, WB and Netflix — and now this here for Paramount and Nickelodeon. What do you love so much about being a part of this animation world?
WM: The nucleus of that question for me is the problem solving. It’s always figuring the story out. It’s like going hiking. The toughest part is climbing up to the top. A lot of times when you make it to the top it’s great but that journey to get there is the most satisfying part. It’s what fuels me. Getting the chance to work with all these studios has been great and also the people I get to work with. I’ve learned so much. I’ve grown so much. At the core, it’s breaking [down] story and figuring that out. It’s not easy but it’s fun to do.
JM: You’ve got a good story here. Dora is always on a quest and a mission. What in your animation career is still a quest or a goal?
WM: To continue telling solid stories and finding unique points of view. There are only so many stories we can tell. And we can feel it in Hollywood. There are regurgitated stories. But for me, with technology the way it is now, you’re able to push style, sound and cinematic… I’m always looking to do something that’s a little off the beaten path. That’s what’s exciting. That curiosity and exploration of trying to push the medium.
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