dora
Episode Info Transcript Gallery Credits Cast

The Magic Stick is the 4th episode of Dora the Explorer from Season 2 in airing order.

In production order, it's the 3rd episode from Season 2.

Characters

Summary

Dora and Boots find a magic stick that can do a magic trick atop the Highest Hill. But to get there, they'll need the viewer's help to figure out all the ways to use that Magic Stick!

Plot

The episode starts where Dora and Boots are exploring the forest. First, Boots wants to find a bird’s nest. He finds one, climbs a tree, and watches the eggs hatch into baby birds. When a mother bird arrives to care for them, Boots jokes that the baby birds thought he was their mother, making both him and Dora laugh.

Next, Dora wants to find a cocoon. Boots spots one, and Dora explains that a caterpillar sleeps inside a cocoon before becoming a butterfly. To their surprise, the cocoon begins to hatch, and a butterfly emerges and flies away.

As they continue exploring, Dora and Boots discover a long stick stuck on a small hill. After pulling and wiggling it free, a bright spotlight shines on them. Several animals—including an armadillo, an anteater, a capybara, a tree frog, lizards, and turtles—appear and explain that the object is a magic stick. They chant a rhyme:

“The stick, the stick, the magic stick,

The stick can do a magic trick.
The stick will work, it really will,
But only on the highest hill!”

After hearing the rhyme twice and joining in the second time, Dora and Boots decide to take the magic stick to the highest hill to see its trick. They ask Map for directions, and he tells them they must cross a river filled with snakes and climb over a big wall to reach the highest hill.

Dora and Boots were ready to go to the highest hill so the magic stick can do its trick. Along the way, they heard Big Red Chicken. He explained to Dora and Boots that he had an itch he needs to scratch but couldn't reach it. So, Boots gets on Dora's shoulders and uses the magic stick to scratch Big Red Chicken's itch. When they were done, Big Red Chicken thanked them for scratching his itch. Dora and Boots made it to the snake river. Boots saw a canoe and a broken paddle. The paddle's handle is missing. Dora gets out sticky tape from Backpack and used the sticky tape to stick the paddle to the magic stick. Dora and Boots put on their life jackets so they can be safe in the river. As Dora and Boots paddled across the river, Boots thought he saw sticks in the river. But they were really snakes. Dora and Boots paddled away from the snakes and got across the river to the other side. They take the sticky tape off and their life jackets off so they can continue taking the magic stick to the highest hill to find out what the trick will be.

Dora and Boots had to watch out for Swiper the Fox. Swiper swipes the magic stick and throws it. Dora and Boots had to find the magic stick right away. Señor Tucán is going to help out by sorting sticks of different sizes. All Dora and Boots know is that the magic stick is long. So, Señor Tucán is gonna hold up a stick and will ask if it's "largo", long or "corto", short and sort them into two piles. After sorting all the sticks, they were 3 of both long and short sticks. The last long stick that Señor Tucán had in his wing was the magic stick. Señor Tucán picks up the magic stick with his talons and hands it over to Dora and Boots. They thanked Señor Tucán and he flew away. Dora and Boots approach the tall wall. They had to figure out how to climb over the wall. They find a ladder and some rungs were missing on the ladder. Dora and Boots counted and said there were 4 missing rungs. Dora picks up 4 rungs from the ground and puts them on the ladder going from bottom to top. Dora climbs up the ladder safely but as Boots grabbed the rung at the very top, it breaks in half and couldn't climb up to the top. But, he uses the magic stick to fill in the missing rung. The magic stick didn't break because it was strong enough for Boots' weight and he completely climbs up to the top of the wall.

Dora and Boots saw a slide on the other side and went down the slide. So far, Dora and Boots went across Snake River and over the wall. They were getting very close to the highest hill so that the magic stick can do its trick. They get there right away. They marched up the hill to get to the top. Soon after, Boots plants the magic stick on the highest hill and then they waited. Nothing happened. Boots wondered how they had to get the magic stick to work. All the animals from earlier came to the Highest Hill and the wise old tree frog told them that they must chant the magic stick rhyme to get the magic stick to do its trick. So, they said the magic stick rhyme with the animals so that the magic stick could work its magic. They practiced saying the rhyme. Then, they said it a second time, but a little louder. Sure enough, the magic stick worked. There was green grass, trees, flowers, dragonflies, and banana trees. The magic stick started flying in midair and Dora and Boots grabbed on the magic stick and started flying with it. They came back to a soft grassy surface on the highest hill and the magic stick floated down and seated on the hill. The wise old tree frog congratulated Dora and Boots because they brought life back to his hill. As a reward, he got out a flower for both of them. Dora puts her flower in her hair while Boots holds his flower.

Song

Magic Stick Rhyme

Places in this episode

  1. Snake River
  2. Wall
  3. Highest Hill

Items in Backpack (clockwise starting from the top right)

  • Papaya (wrong item)
  • Juice box
  • Sticky tape (correct item)
  • Balls
  • Guitar
  • Hammer

Releases

This episode can be found on the DVD titled "Fairytale Adventure".

Trivia

  • Dora and Boots used the magic stick for scratching Big Red Chicken's itch, the paddle's broken handle, and to fill in the missing rung at the top of the ladder.
  • This is the first of only two appearances of Dora's "Season 2, Version 3" look.
  • This episode aired as part of Watch and Munch on Nick Jr.
  • This is the first episode where Dora and Boots go to the Highest Hill. They will go to the Highest Hill with Red Rooster to wake up the sun in Louder!.
  • This is the 30th episode of the show.
  • Dora's voice starts to sound higher pitched in the next episode, but the actual first use of her high-pitched voice is in Rojo, the Fire Truck.
  • Benny, Isa, and Tico don't appear in this episode.
  • This is the third time for Dora and Boots to climb up and slide down. This time they climbed up a ladder and slid down a wooden slide to climb over the Wall. The first time was in Backpack!, where they climbed and slid down the Big Rock and the second time was in Fish Out of Water, where they climbed and slid down the Sandcastle.
  • This is the third (second in production order) Season 2 episode Dora and Boots clap their hands three times after asking "Where are we going?" during the Travel Song.
  • Dora and Boots always sing the Travel Song twice even in Season 1 or sometimes even 3 times (4 times in Beaches) without clapping their hands after "Where are we going?", but this is actually the first Season 2 episode in production order they sing it twice because in The Big Storm and ¡Rápido, Tico!, they've only sung it once.
  • The tree that Swiper was hiding in is the same one from Grandma's House.
This is what it looks like.
  • This is the first episode where Map did not sing the full version of I'm the Map, he only says "I’m the Map" three times. This happens again in later episodes, especially in season 3 onwards. Also, this is the third instance (excluding episode where Backpack was checked more than once) where Backpack's full song is only sung partially, first being Call Me Mr. Riddles and second being The Big Storm.
  • The scene where Dora says "I need your help!" would later be shown on the trailer for the Dora's Pirate Adventure VHS and DVD.
  • When Boots says "Oh!" (after Dora tells him that they don't know how to get to the Highest Hill), the audio is taken from Treasure Island.
  • Map's zoom wipe is recycled from To the Treehouse. It will be used once more in ¡Rápido, Tico!.
  • This is the second episode where, at the end of We Did It song, Boots flips and sits down after The Big Storm.
  • "And I'm Boots!" will be Boots' introduction line for several more episodes thereafter, using the audio from this episode.

Goofs/Errors

  • It is unknown how Señor Tucán found the magic stick and/or knew where it was after Swiper swiped it.
  • When Dora picks up 4 four and places them on the ladder, there were 3 more rungs on the ground. However, when Dora and Boots start climbing the ladder, the rest of the rungs were missing and it is unknown what happened to them.
    • Additionally, if there were still 3 rungs on the ground, Boots could've chose to use one of those rungs as the replacement of the broken one rather than using the magic stick.
  • It is unknown how the armadillo, the anteater, the capybara, the tree frog, the lizards, and the turtles got to the Highest Hill.

Character Find

Map

Dora the Explorer Season 2 (airing order)
Lost Squeaky | The Missing Piece | The Big Storm | The Magic Stick | Rojo the Fire Truck | El Día De Las Madres | The Golden Explorers | Doctor Dora | Pinto, the Pony Express | The Big Piñata | The Happy Old Troll | A Letter for Swiper | Click! | ¡Rápido, Tico! | A Present For Santa | Super Map! | Lost Map | Dora, La Música | Egg Hunt | To the Monkey Bars | Hide and Go Seek | School Pet | Quack! Quack! | León, the Circus Lion | Whose Birthday is It? | Super Spies
Dora the Explorer Season 2 (production order)
The Big Storm | ¡Rápido, Tico! | The Magic Stick | The Missing Piece | Lost Squeaky | Rojo the Fire Truck | Lost Map | El Día De Las Madres | The Golden Explorers | A Present For Santa | Doctor Dora | Pinto, the Pony Express | León, the Circus Lion | The Big Piñata | The Happy Old Troll | Super Map! | A Letter for Swiper | To the Monkey Bars | Dora, La Música | Hide and Go Seek | Click! | Egg Hunt | Super Spies | School Pet | Whose Birthday is It? | Quack! Quack!