Go, Diego, Go! (2005-2011) is an animated television series, a Spin-Off of Dora the Explorer. Starring Diego and featuring his sister, Alicia and Baby Jaguar. His adventures frequently involve rescuing animals and protecting their environment. The series which aired for four seasons consisting of 74 episodes premiered in 2005 The show aired in reruns on "Nick on CBS" for 11 months and 3 weeks from September 17, 2005 to September 9, 2006.
The series received favorable reviews from critics and garnered particular acclaim for its portrayal of a bilingual Latino lead character, earning a total of four NAACP Image Award nominations for "Outstanding Children's Program" from 2008–2012, as well as earning Imagen Award and Young Artist Award nominations for Jake T. Austin for his role as the voice of Diego from seasons 1-3.
This series provides examples of:
- Appropriate Animal Attire: In episodes that show Baby Jaguar and are set in an Arctic setting, Baby Jaguar wears winter attire that includes a jacket, but not pants or boots. It's partly justified because he stays on all fours.
- Aquatic Hadrosaurs: In the episode "Diego's Great Dinosaur Rescue", Maia the Maiasaura is shown to be a good swimmer. In the episode, Alicia tells the viewers that "Maiasauras and a lot of dinosaurs swim", which unfortunately isn't true.
- Bowdlerise: Animals being threatened by their predators are described as being "afraid of" said predator.
- Carnivore Confusion: Diego often has to help a prey animal evade a predator (the reasons aren't specified) though he's also helped predators to live. In one episode, he helps a llama outrun a puma until he realizes that he personally knows the puma, and it's a "nice" puma who only wanted to borrow a book. The prey animals are always described as being "afraid of" their predators, but the idea of animals actually eating each other never comes up (unless it's fish).
- Character Signature Song: Rescue Pack and Click the Camera have songs they sing every time they appear.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Spin-off in this case. The Bobo Brothers are much nicer and less malicious than Swiper by comparison. They always say sorry when Diego tells them to cease their tomfoolery and, in general, seem oblivious to the fact that their shenanigans are hampering Diego in his missions. During their guest appearance in the Dora and Friends: Into the City! episode "For the Birds", their motive for stealing most of the Rescue Truck's components is ultimately well-intentioned, as they're giving them to the other animals who can fix them.
- Crossover: Dora will occasionally show up to help with bigger rescues. The kids take turns, combining their resources to pull it off.
- Curse Escape Clause: The magic drum in "Diego's Safari Rescue" is the only thing that can break the Magician's evil spells.
- Expy:
- The Bobo Brothers are a Swiper the Fox expy, as they show up Once an Episode to cause trouble for the protagonists.
- Rescue Pack as a Backpack expy, as though instead of storing anything, Rescue Pack can turn into anything.
- Every Episode Ending: All episodes end with Diego and Alicia recapping what the episode's featured animal does before printing a picture to put in their Animal Science book. Sometimes, they would be joined by Baby Jaguar or Dora.
- Evolving Credits: The opening credits change each season to include scenes of animals featured from that season.
- Forgot About His Powers: Virtually all of the animals have to be reminded of their natural abilities.
- Free-Range Children: Diego and Alicia go on risky animal rescue missions on their own.
- Friend to All Living Things: Diego makes it a point to treat all living creatures with respect, even fierce animals.
- Furry Ear Dissonance: Baby Jaguar has unusually pointed ears for a jaguar.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Though not as often as in Dora the Explorer, as the focus here is more about teaching about animals.
- I Know Your True Name: Telling the Bobo Brothers "Freeze, Bobos!" causes them to stop, similar to "Swiper, No Swiping!".
- Jump, I'll Catch You!: A number of rescues have Diego catch a jumping animal.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: The Bobo Brothers constantly make trouble for Diego, but they're not actively malicious and always apologize.
- Morph Weapon: Rescue Pack is more of a Morph Tool. He can turn into anything, such as a tent, a parasail, a kayak, a zip cord, and a snowboard.
- Never Say "Die": It's never quite said why certain animals are afraid of their predators, most likely due to the show being targeted at toddlers and young children.
- No Indoor Voice: Diego is just as shouty as Dora.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Diego is accompanied by Baby Jaguar.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Diego wears blue while Alicia wears red. His blue also contrasts with Dora's pink.
- Phrase Catcher:
- Before asking Rescue Pack, Diego would always bring up: "My Rescue Pack can transform into anything we need!"
- Click's segment is initiated by Diego saying, "We need our special camera Click to find [insert animal here]!"
- Race Against the Clock:
- In "Diego Saves Baby River Dolphin", Diego and Baby River Dolphin have to follow the rainbow back to his family before it disappears.
- In "Sammy's Valentine", Diego has to hurry and help Sammy deliver his valentine to his friend Lulu before the sun sets.
- Raptor Attack: The special "The Great Dinosaur Rescue" featured Troodon with only a coating of fuzz (no wings or a tail fan).
- "Setting Off" Song: When Diego sets off on a rescue, he sings "Al Rescate".
- Signing Off Catchphrase:Diego: We found out so much about (featured animal) today.
Alicia: And there's a lot much more to discover...
Both: Together!
Diego: Hasta luego, amigos!
Alicia: See you soon! - Speaks Fluent Animal: Diego can communicate perfectly with the animals.
- Spear Counterpart: This show is a lot like Dora the Explorer, but Diego is eight, a year older than his cousin, and has more dangerous adventures.
- Spoiler Title: Many episodes are titled "(Character) Saves..." Guess what happens.
- Stock Footage:
- The theme song for all the talking objects (i.e. Click and Rescue Pack). Also the segments for said talking objects. These have recycled animation.
- The "Let's Review" epilogue uses the same footage every episode, with only the lip-sync changing to reflect the series' featured animal, with Dora joining for the episodes where she takes part in the rescue. Exceptions would be episodes where Alicia is absent, in which Dora or whoever was Diego's sidekick for the episode taking her place.
- Strictly Formula: Just like its sister show. Diego goes about his life, then gets an alert that an animal is in trouble. He uses Click to find the animal, then sets off to a "Setting Off" Song. He uses several facts of the episode's featured animal to get past obstacles (normally three per episode), and may need to use Rescue Pack to change into a vehicle or artifact he needs to get past one. Also, the Bobo Brothers cause trouble, prompting him to stop them. He uses all he learned to save the animal and sometimes return it to its home, and the episode concludes with a Wrap-Up Song followed by a recap of what the animal does before putting a picture of it in the Animal Science book.
- Suddenly Speaking: Baby Jaguar can talk in this show when he couldn't in earlier seasons of Dora the Explorer. Might be justified in that Diego Speaks Fluent Animal.
- Swiper, No Swiping!: In counterpart to its sister show, Diego has the viewers stop the Bobo Brothers by yelling, "Freeze, Bobos!".
- Taken for Granite: The main point of "Diego's Safari Rescue" deals with a mad magician turning all the African elephants into life-sized rocks, and Diego, Alicia, and Juma had to use a magic drum to break the spell.
- Toilet Humor: In "Green Iguana Helps Abuelito Plant a New Strawberry Farm," Green Iguana plants the seeds by pooping them out.
- The Trees Have Faces:
- In "Rescue of the Red-Eyed Tree Frogs", Diego encounters talking coconut trees on his way to bring the red-eyed tree frogs back to their home.
- In "A Booboo on the Pygmy Marmoset", Diego and Alicia take Papi and Baby Pigmy Marmoset to the Healing Tree — a talking tree who can heal their booboos.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Subverted, many non-cute animals have been featured and there was even recently an entire one hour episode dedicated to showing even scary and fierce animals have their place in the world.
- World-Healing Wave: In the climax of "Diego's Safari Rescue", Diego, Alicia, Juma and Baby Jaguar all play the magic drum which unleashes a large amount of magic waves which breaks the magician's spell, unfreezing Erin and all the elephants.
- Wrap-Up Song: The adventure concludes with Diego and the gang singing and dancing about the featured animal.
- Diego: We found out so much about TV Tropes today.
Alicia: And there's a lot much more to discover...
Both: Together!
Diego: Hasta luego, amigos!
Alicia: See you soon!
