Dora, Boots, Backpack, and Map are ready for another great day of adventure together. But when a big goofy bird mistakes Map for a stick and flies him all the way to a nest on top of Tallest Mountain, Dora and Boots need preschoolers' help to draw their own map and rescue their friend!
Plot
The episode starts with Dora and Boots on a far hill, looking at three mountains in the distance. Dora introduces her friend, Backpack, and then hints at another friend who lives inside Backpack – someone very helpful they can ask for directions when she and Boots don't know where to go. Dora asks the viewer who that is. Shortly after, Map pops out and sings a little verse of his song. He then jumps out, does a flip in the air, lands on solid ground, and asks the viewer to sing with him. Dora and Boots join in as well. After they sing, Map jumps on a log and declares everyone should take a bow. Dora and Boots applaud and begin to laugh.
Meanwhile, in the distance of the three mountains, a big bird swoops down behind the log Map was on. While singing his song once more, the bird picks up three little sticks, then sees Map and somehow mistakes him for a big stick. So, he takes him away to the Tallest Mountain. Dora and Boots give chase but fail. Map tells them he and the bird are flying to Tallest Mountain. Dora asks how they'll be able to get there, and Map responds with, "You just have to make your own map...!" as he flies away into the distance. Boots asks Dora how they would make their own map. Luckily, Dora has an art box with five yellow stars in Backpack. With the help of the viewer, they find the box, and Dora opens it to find crayons and paper. The two walk over to the highest part of their hill to see the view that is their quest. Dora draws three pictures on her paper: one of the Butterfly Garden close to the hill, next a cornfield, and finally, the Tallest Mountain. Dora holds out the paper to Boots and starts naming the places. It's clear what they have to do: they have to go to Tallest Mountain to get Map back.
Once they enter the Butterfly Garden, they see a sign that can help them get through: they have to follow blue butterflies with yellow polka dots. They flap their arms like a butterfly, but the butterfly disappears. Boots asks the viewer where it went. It was hiding in the log. They go through it to follow the butterfly. As they exit the garden, all the butterflies wave goodbye with their wings.
Now they have to go through the cornfield. Along the way, they stop Swiper from swiping their map. After that, they enter the cornfield. There's another sign to help them. It says they need to go through the colored paths without running into mean red ants. The safest way to get through is to take the red, blue, and green path. They can't take the yellow, orange, or purple paths because those have mean red ants. Dora and Boots memorize the colors, and off they go. First, they have to take the red path. All of a sudden, the mean red ants are chasing them! Next, they need to take the blue path. Finally, they take the green path. In no time, they've made it through the cornfield and got away from the mean red ants.
They're getting closer and closer to rescuing Map. They just have to get to the Tallest Mountain. There's a tall mountain, a taller mountain, and of course, they find the Tallest Mountain. Boots says hello to Tallest Mountain, and Dora says they are here to rescue Map. Tallest Mountain hopes they find him but also tells them that they must be careful while climbing because she's very, very ticklish. She's not kidding! They try to be careful not to tickle the Tallest Mountain, but unfortunately, they do, causing Tallest Mountain to laugh so hard that watermelons roll towards Tico, Boots, and Dora. They have to jump over the watermelons. They do so, and in no time, Dora and Boots make it to the top of the mountain.
The big silly bird realizes that Map is really a map and not a stick. He apologizes to Map and gives him back to Dora and Boots. They give him a hug and show him the map they made, and he loves it! He reviewed what Dora, Boots, and the viewer did. They went through Butterfly Garden, through the Cornfield, and that's how they found him on the Tallest Mountain. Dora has a big surprise for Backpack and explains to her that they rescued Map. Backpack is so excited for her and Map to be back together again, and so are Dora and Boots.
Dora and Boots had to make their own map to get back the old map.
Map refuses to fly back, despite having a flying ability.
This is the first episode without the Picture Pop-Up Sequence. After finishing the first two locations, Dora and Boots instead use the replacement map as their guide.
This episode paves the way for Season 4, where Dora and Boots check Map multiple times instead of using the 3 picture pop-up sequence. However, unlike Map in Season 4 (and Dora in later seasons), red checkmarks are not placed each time they complete a location. The first episode with red checkmarks is Dora's Fairytale Adventure (or Star Mountain in production order).
At the beginning of the end credits, Map is finally white outside and blue inside instead of blue outside and white inside.
The error with Map having his colours incorrectly backwards in the beginning of Baby Blue Bird's Character Find is now fixed. This will also occur in "We're a Team!".
When Dora and Boots list the places they are going during the Travel Song, the background is taken from Lost Squeaky.
This episode is among the first four episodes to be featured on DVD.
This is the first episode to be released on a Dora the Explorer-themed DVD. However, due to the Nick Jr. Holidays DVD released on September 24, 2002, the actual first Dora the Explorer episode to be released onto DVD in general is "A Present For Santa".
When Tallest Mountain says "Hi!", the audio is taken from "Click!". It was used again in "Super Map!"
Big Silly Bird's hypothetical voice actor is Jason Harris Katz. Harris himself would later voice Big Trouble in Team Umizoomi.
Also, on IMDb, it says that Chris Gifford voiced him. It is possible or unknown if this is true.
This is the first episode in which Dora and Boots don't use Map to help them, since he was taken away by the Big Silly Bird.
Since Map is gone away, Dora talks like him by saying, "First we have to go to [first location], then we go to [second location], and that's how we get to [destination]!", and "[first location, second location, destination!]" followed by "say it with me!", then repeats the places to go three times.
Also, Dora says "So how do we get to the Tallest Mountain?" before repeating the places instead of using one of Map's quotes ("So you tell Dora" and/or "So remember").
Tico is already at Tallest Mountain for some reason, most likely picking watermelons.
Dora and Boots climb up Tallest Mountain without any problems.
At the end of the adventure, Map replicates his sequence (in the past tense) when Dora places down the Replacement Map without singing "I'm the Map!".
When ants in the Cornfield are saying their name ("Ants, ants, ants, ants, ants, ants!"), the audio is taken from Lost and Found.
Khaliah Adams is the voice actress of the Tallest Mountain.
This is the first episode with Tallest Mountain as the final destination. In the episode Super Map!, it starts at the same location. It is possible that the aforementioned episode takes place directly after this episode.
Coincidentally, the aforementioned episode and this one were put together on "Map Adventures" VHS and DVD, and "Super Map!" came after this episode, so this may prove that it almost definitely takes place before "Super Map!" (there is a good chance that it does).
What is interesting is that this episode premiered after "Super Map!".
Map is technically still a stick considering paper is made from wood.
Dora and Boots don't sing the I'm The Map song before saying the places they are supposed to go like Map always does with their new map they made and he does not sing it either since he is accidentally taken away by the big silly bird. However, they do sing it before the bird came. In addition, Map doesn't sing it before he replicates his sequence, he just does it right away.
This is the only time Dora and Boots join Map when singing I'm the Map.
The Travel Song is sung and featured twice in this episode.
The scene where Map pops out of Dora's side pocket, does a flip in the air and lands on solid ground was used in the promo for the premiere of The Lost City in 2003.
A clip of Dora and Boots climbing the Tallest Mountain will later be seen in the Season 4 episode "Best Friends".
Additionally, it was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 2003.
This is the first episode where Backpack is used without Map.
This is the first time both Dora and Boots say, "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?". This will happen again later in Dora's Got a Puppy.
Also, Map says, "Map!" meaning "That's me!" after that part.
Goofs/Errors
In multiple scenes, Dora has her Season 1 face.
For some reason, despite the initial shock, Map is still smiling and remains completely calm upon being taken away by the Big Silly Bird. He only went as far as to have a somewhat confused look (though not necessarily a frowning look) on his face whilst the Big Silly Bird says "I can use this as a BIG stick on my nest on the Tallest Mountain!".
However, Map was completely silent when he made his confused look. as he was still smiling as usual every time he spoke throughout the episode.
The error of Map not frowning nor panicking upon being kidnapped was fixed in Benny's Treasure, when Map (alongside Backpack) ended up being kidnapped by the Junk Truck.
It is unknown what Swiper would swipe when he appeared (because Boots did not say "He'll (Swiper) try to swipe the [item]". It would most likely be the replacement map since Dora had it in her hand the whole time Swiper appeared, but luckily (thanks to the viewer), they stopped him anyways.
Speaking of the replacement map, if one looks closely, when Dora asks the viewer to help stop Swiper, it somehow has Map's color palette instead of its original paper white. After Dora and Boots stop Swiper, it has returned to its original color.
In the cornfield after Dora and Boots take the blue path, the path changes to its original color when the screen cuts to them
Dora places down the map for Map to recreate his segment near the last few minutes of the episode, but when Map finished, the replacement copy disappeared off of Tallest Mountain. It is unknown what happened to it afterwards.
In the We Did It! song, Boots has a line that goes, "We counted coconuts and jumped over watermelons", but nowhere in the adventure did they count coconuts, but however they did jump over watermelons when climbing Tallest Mountain.
This appears to be the only time where the "We Did It!" song features an action Dora and Boots did not do in the episode, excluding the episode Best Friends, in which the "We Did It!" song features all the things Dora and Boots did together.
However, it is possible that they counted coconuts in a deleted scene.
