Monday
May182009
Dora the "Cascajo"
May 18, 2009 (Before we bring on today's Wreckage, let us pause to pray to the literary powers-that-be that the English-to-Spanish translation site I just used isn't some frat-boy prank, and that "cascajo" doesn't actually mean something like "beaver toe." [closing eyes] Pleasepleasepleaseplease.)
As a refresher, here's what Dora the Explorer, the spunky Spanish-teaching cartoon character, usually looks like:
And here she is looking at you, kid.
Or she might be looking at the person next to you, or someone behind you...it's kind of hard to say, really.Here she's lost a nose but gained a lovely tan:
And speaking of gaining...
Dang, it looks like Dora's been hitting the cupcakes pretty hard. (And considering she's made of cake here, is that ever ironic.)Lastly, though, is a truly "special" Dora. A Dora that stands out in the crowd. A Dora that says, "my baker sees the world a little differently." A "manager's special" Dora, if you will:
Karin D., Jenn E., Derek C., por favor manténganse se alejado de las puertas.
(That's the extent of my Spanish, courtesy of the Walt Disney World monorail. Like it?)
Reader Comments (144)
Ha ha ha ha, those are so awful! The translation site I used came up with "1.Rock fragment 2. piece of junk". Either way.....
Our family loves your blog!
Dora the Exploder!
Erm. What translation site did you use, exactly? "Cascajo" means "gravel" or "rubble". Did you mean rubbish, perhaps? xD
Sweet mother of cakes! My niece had a Dora cake and her Gamma did a good job, at least she wasn't cross eyed or overweight! God I love this site!
One teeny correction to the Spanish...you don't need the extra "se" after "mantengase". It's just kind of chilling there without meaning anything :)
Great post!!
HI-freakin-LARIOUS!
I love the monorail part! You saved me from trying to remember what it says. My children laugh at me when I por favor blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah at them!
The EXTRADora is cracking me up.
Isn't that really the weight problem right at the core: That your physical self is made up of entirely too much cake?!
It boggles the mind. Now hit the treadmill, Dora.
www.captainjackmakesport.blogspot.com
That last one looks like the main character from My Life as a Teenage Robot lmao
Okay, the first one was not that bad honestly. She's a little cross-eyed, but I have a slight problem like that in real life.
The others though "shudder." are you SURE the last one is Dora?
yeah i looked up cascajo and everything i found said it meant rubble or pebble. if you want to say explorer it should be explorador or exploradora in dora's case....omg is that why she's named dora?! i've always wondered that. because seriously dora the explorer does not rhyme. but dora the exploradora...well it ain't great but it makes way more sense!
My 4 year old daughter, who normally doesn't notice things like weight, started laughing when she saw "large" Dora and told me "Dora ate too much!"
As we say in the south - That's special - in a short bus kinda way - Bless her heart!
Ah! The East Coast version of Disney Spanish comes from the monorail! Here on the West Coast those of us learned our Spanish from Disneyland's Matterhorn: "Remain seated please; Permanecer sentados por favor."
How did you even know that the last one was Dora-too funny!
Yes, "cascajo" works brillantly for what you were looking for. True, it also means junk, but it's all about usage. Dictionaries are great, but they can't tell you everything!
Deleting the extra "se", it would be-
"por favor manténganse alejado de las puertas"
¡Me encantan estos cascajos de Dora!
(from a native speaker with a master's in spanish! I'll go back to being a teacher on vacation now!)
omg I have to buy that monorail t-shirt when I go to disney this year... is it in a special store or will it be in all of them??
HAHA I recognized the monorail line immediately. PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE DOORS...
that first one (the cross-eyed Dora) is my fav. Hilarious! At least she resembles Dora, even if it looks like she's dizzy with vertigo or whatever. The rest...hmm.
Actually the fat Dora is pretty awesome too. :) (Dora es gorda._
The first one wasn't so bad, except she looked more Asian than South American and, well...the eyes, obviously...but overall, the craftsmanship could have been much much worse. .
I just loved the 'supersize' Dora, though. And the creepy 'ghost-Dora' was a bit on the wrongly awesome side.
Oh god, I have a sinking feeling rock fragments are the new Epcot.
The crazy eyes on the Manager's Special Dora have actually hypnotized me. Off to remove all my clothing and bawk like a chicken....
"Dora" and "Explorer" rhyme perfectly for most English speakers on the planet. Not, however, for most Americans, and Dora is an American show, so I'm still confused. (However, Brian Regan notes that it rhymes inside the Kennedy household...)
Cascajo
Good Golly Dora!
Aside from the ummm unfortunate...eye situation...in number one and the slightly too pale Dora, it's the best of the lot. Now, the others are hot messes.
WV: leure -- like lurid, only more sophisticated.
cascajo?
im mexican and dont know what that means
heh
:)
wreck = desastre
oh oh
i start my morning everyday with cakewrecks
you rock
:D
GREAT post, and I especially LOL'd at the end with the Disney World monorail reference...fond childhood memory!
Not cake related, but I've just realized why Dora is a brunette with a suntan: here in France, Dora teatches... english!
ha ha ha ha *snort*
Was the chubby Dora produced from a mold? Is there a Chubby Girl Cake genre out there? The mind reels.
And the last, I think, was Dora of the Dead.
¡Cascajos a-DORA-bles!
Thanks for the laughs!
With a graduate degree in Spanish Translation, I'm going to tell you, Jen, don't sweat the "rubble". You used a correct translation for coloquial usage and as Mar says, it's an idiomatic expression. People from every corner of the Spanish - speaking world will have a different word for "wreck" it's a question of localization.
Best example of localization in English would be the difference between "flat" and "appartment" or "lift" vs. "elevator". Neither is wrong, it depends on who's speaking and who's listening.
*shrug* Meh. Dora is pretty terrifying in those wrecks no matter what.
Considering Dora is a LICENSED character, selling cakes made to look like her (as dubious as some of those, um, representations are), is highly ILLEGAL. The ONLY legal Dora cakes are the kit cakes (can we say air brush and plastic figurines). Those character-shaped pans that Wilton sells state right on the package "for home use only". Bakers who make and sell cakes using those pans are breaking the law. I personally wouldn't want to pay the money companies such as Nickelodeon and Disney sue for. And YES, they will sue even the sweet little old lady down the street who sells her cakes if she infringes on their copyright. I'm just sayin'.....
That was a fantastic job on cake decorating. As a little league baseball fan and coach, I know important it is to provide good detail and tasty treats for the little ones.
Great job and fun article.
When I first looked at the last cake, I thought Dora had a mustache! Now that is disturbing! ;)
Funny, as always!
Good use of cascajo, too.
Estar hecho un cascajo....to be a wreck
Am I the only one who thinks that the last Dora cake could be related to Chiana from Farscape? I mean she could SO pass for a Nebari with that hair and skin tone. LOL
As for the other cakes.....just wow. That one Dora looks like she could be a mountain.
haha looks like she has a lazy eye.
raychel from mycreativeway.blogspot.com
That last one looks like an anime Dora.
Hahaha I actually saw a "Dora" cake this morning, but at first glance I thought it was Jabba the Hut!
Meow!
http://kitty-cakes.blogspot.com/
OH MY GOD. Long time reader, but I've never commented before today ... but I MUST SAY that I almost died when I read "please stand clear of the doors" FOR THAT IS ALSO THE EXTENT OF MY SPANISH! Oh, the glorious Walt Disney World monorail! (Oh, and I totally knew what Spaceship Earth was, too.)
Oh, no the fat one isn't Dora. It is her older sister Consuela who has a "gland problem" that no one is allowed to talk about. Poor Consuela.
I think the last one is the ghost of Dora past.
There's a little something for you over at my blog!
:)) {HA HA}
that is all.
Cascajo? Hahaha!Are you being clever? X333
Pastel or torta is cake, but if you say 'estar hecho un cascajo' the meaning is 'to be a wreck'. XD
That cock-eyed dora will ALWAYS be the way I see her now...
TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny!
hahahah, before I studied Spanish at night school the Disney World monorail was my only phrase too!
Please stand clear of the doors!
Or the best..."All clear" *beep beep* (my mom and I still say that from time to time).
Woot! I can't wait to go back to Disney.
That last Dora looks more like a clean-shaven Pogeybait....http://www.presspop.com/en/shop/daniel_clowes/pogeybait_doll.html
I was looking at this post while laughing, when my three year old looks over my shoulder and says "I want that one for my birthday!!!" Kids are such forgiving critics.
wow I work in a Supermarket bakery and these never cease to amaze me. I like to think our cakes are good.
And being the total Disney geek and castmember that I am...I have the whole monorail speil on my IPOD "Welcome aboard the Walt Disney World Monorail, your highway in the sky to the Magic Kingdom..."
I LOVE the WDW monorail spanish! I can recite that, too. It puts us into that club of people who spent too much of their vacation on the monorail. Did you know it's the fastest ride at Disney?