Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney as we continue our Christmas celebration and today, we head back to Enchancia to celebrate Wassailla with Princess Sofia with Winter's Gift. With that out of the way, let's begin
Episode Title
Winter's Gift
Thankfully, the episode title this year is a lot easier to spell out and I also like the title as it feels like it ties more into the plot of the episode.
The Plot
The plot of this episode reminded me of a certain multi-million dollar movie from Disney.
No, not that one. THIS ONE.
Yeah, this episode's plot wasn't too dissimilar to that of Frozen but while I can't say for certain, I think that it may have borrowed more from the original Snow Queen fairy tale than that of the cinematic phenomena that was Frozen. Is that a bad thing? Well, I'm not going to say yes or no on that but I will say that it was a different enough for me to look past the similarities. It's Wassailla Day at the castle and Clover has given Sofia the perfect gift, himself. Sofia shows off a special gift, a case for his wand that she made herself for Mr. Cedric. She goes to take it to him but soon fears that it isn't special enough as she overhears Cedric ranting on and on about how he has never gotten a truly special gift. So, she figures that she needs to get Cedric another gift but what. Sofia stumbles upon an idea, when she sees Baileywick decorating the castle and mentions how he misses having ice lilies in the castle as he loved using them for decoration but the steward tells the young princess but the princesses' bunny pal, Clover happens to know someone that can help them. His old friend, Whiskers the Fox, who has a lot of connections in the forest that can come to their aid. This is where we get our first taste of what I called the Frozen experience as they come across a young faun playing music on a piccolo and we learn from her that one year ago, she went to see an ice witch that granted her special ice powers after collecting wood crystals but now she wants to rid herself of said power after we see her accidentally use her power to freeze a tree.
Okay, as I said it was hard not to think of Frozen while watching this episode. And to be honest, any story like this from now on will most likely be compared to Frozen. Is that fair? Well, I'm not sure because it's tough to say. On the one hand, our young fawn, Winter wasn't born with her powers a la Elsa but instead asked for them but came to view them as a hindrance to her livelihood but unlike Elsa, who learns to embrace her powers through the course of the movie and that they are a part of who she is, Winter's powers are taken away at the end of the episode. Now yes, they were not a part of Winter her whole life like Elsa but also like Elsa, Winter had isolated herself from her family in the fear of hurting them, which we see come to fruition as she accidentally freezes Clover and if the spell isn't undone, he will remain frozen forever. Again, this isn't too dissimilar to how Elsa hurt Anna but there was more at stake there. I know, I know. I shouldn't be comparing this to a movie but it's hard, when it seems quite similar. Clover freezing happens after the girls had collected ice lilies to give to the ice witch but when taken to her, she is unimpressed as she already has hundreds of these flowers and refuses to remove the powers or unfreeze Clover. This upsets Winter and causes her to run off. Sofia is at a loss as to what to do and just then, Sofia's amulet glows and Clover recognizes this as meaning that a princess will show up. And indeed, one does as Tiana shows up to help the young princess.
And compared to Aurora from last season, this was a much better use of a princess as Tiana actually did something to help Sofia and actually gave her advice instead of Aurora, who just said turn to your animal friends. Tiana told the young princess that the best present, you could give someone is that it should be from the heart. And this convinces Sofia that the best present that her faun friend could give the ice witch is her music. And this works, after playing, the ice witch agrees to remove the ice powers and unfreeze Clover and thanks to Whiskers' connections, he gets a reindeer driven sled to take them back to the castle and there, Sofia give Cedric the case she made for his wand and he appreciates it as a special gift and the episode ends. All in all, this was a cute episode and a rather good Christmas episode, that was most certainly better than the season one Christmas episode.
Characters
Main Characters
Sofia voiced by Ariel Winter
All in all, Sofia was a great support in the episode and it was interesting to see her play support as it's not a role that she has often taken. But when she does, she is good in these roles.
Winter voiced by Alyson Hannigan
Okay, this character wasn't bad but I still think that the conflict with her ice powers could've been handled better. I mean, it worked well for what the show was attempting to show in that gifts are not always what we want but it was frustrating to see, the way it was executed as it could have been handled better.
Supporting Characters
Clover voiced by Wayne Brady
I felt bad for Clover after what happened and pile that on top of him being mocked by Whiskers for living as a castle rabbit.
Whiskers voiced by Nick Offerman
Whiskers' entire role in this special seemed to be to make life miserable for Clover and mock him for the life that he lives. But it was all a ruse because apparently, Clover and Whiskers used to be friends and Whiskers felt lonely after Clover moved away from the forest.
Tiana voiced by Anika Nani Rose
As I said above, Tiana was a great support for Sofia and gave her the perfect message that she needed to hear and it worked rather well for the young princess.
Music
From The Heart
This is a rather sweet song with a good message for young children and everyone alike. Sure, it's a bit cheesy but I hold to the belief that what this song is saying is very true. So long as your gift comes from the heart, that should be what counts.
Villain
Glacia The Ice Witch voiced by Phylicia Rashad
This character could've done more. She didn't do that much other than just sit on her throne and remain unimpressed by the gifts that were brought to her.
My Final Thoughts
This was a rather good Christmas episode and one that I enjoyed very much and one that I won't mind returning to again in the future. Join me tomorrow as we head to the North Pole to look at...
Episode Title
Winter's Gift
Thankfully, the episode title this year is a lot easier to spell out and I also like the title as it feels like it ties more into the plot of the episode.
The Plot
The plot of this episode reminded me of a certain multi-million dollar movie from Disney.
No, not that one. THIS ONE.
Yeah, this episode's plot wasn't too dissimilar to that of Frozen but while I can't say for certain, I think that it may have borrowed more from the original Snow Queen fairy tale than that of the cinematic phenomena that was Frozen. Is that a bad thing? Well, I'm not going to say yes or no on that but I will say that it was a different enough for me to look past the similarities. It's Wassailla Day at the castle and Clover has given Sofia the perfect gift, himself. Sofia shows off a special gift, a case for his wand that she made herself for Mr. Cedric. She goes to take it to him but soon fears that it isn't special enough as she overhears Cedric ranting on and on about how he has never gotten a truly special gift. So, she figures that she needs to get Cedric another gift but what. Sofia stumbles upon an idea, when she sees Baileywick decorating the castle and mentions how he misses having ice lilies in the castle as he loved using them for decoration but the steward tells the young princess but the princesses' bunny pal, Clover happens to know someone that can help them. His old friend, Whiskers the Fox, who has a lot of connections in the forest that can come to their aid. This is where we get our first taste of what I called the Frozen experience as they come across a young faun playing music on a piccolo and we learn from her that one year ago, she went to see an ice witch that granted her special ice powers after collecting wood crystals but now she wants to rid herself of said power after we see her accidentally use her power to freeze a tree.
Okay, as I said it was hard not to think of Frozen while watching this episode. And to be honest, any story like this from now on will most likely be compared to Frozen. Is that fair? Well, I'm not sure because it's tough to say. On the one hand, our young fawn, Winter wasn't born with her powers a la Elsa but instead asked for them but came to view them as a hindrance to her livelihood but unlike Elsa, who learns to embrace her powers through the course of the movie and that they are a part of who she is, Winter's powers are taken away at the end of the episode. Now yes, they were not a part of Winter her whole life like Elsa but also like Elsa, Winter had isolated herself from her family in the fear of hurting them, which we see come to fruition as she accidentally freezes Clover and if the spell isn't undone, he will remain frozen forever. Again, this isn't too dissimilar to how Elsa hurt Anna but there was more at stake there. I know, I know. I shouldn't be comparing this to a movie but it's hard, when it seems quite similar. Clover freezing happens after the girls had collected ice lilies to give to the ice witch but when taken to her, she is unimpressed as she already has hundreds of these flowers and refuses to remove the powers or unfreeze Clover. This upsets Winter and causes her to run off. Sofia is at a loss as to what to do and just then, Sofia's amulet glows and Clover recognizes this as meaning that a princess will show up. And indeed, one does as Tiana shows up to help the young princess.
And compared to Aurora from last season, this was a much better use of a princess as Tiana actually did something to help Sofia and actually gave her advice instead of Aurora, who just said turn to your animal friends. Tiana told the young princess that the best present, you could give someone is that it should be from the heart. And this convinces Sofia that the best present that her faun friend could give the ice witch is her music. And this works, after playing, the ice witch agrees to remove the ice powers and unfreeze Clover and thanks to Whiskers' connections, he gets a reindeer driven sled to take them back to the castle and there, Sofia give Cedric the case she made for his wand and he appreciates it as a special gift and the episode ends. All in all, this was a cute episode and a rather good Christmas episode, that was most certainly better than the season one Christmas episode.
Characters
Main Characters
Sofia voiced by Ariel Winter
All in all, Sofia was a great support in the episode and it was interesting to see her play support as it's not a role that she has often taken. But when she does, she is good in these roles.
Winter voiced by Alyson Hannigan
Okay, this character wasn't bad but I still think that the conflict with her ice powers could've been handled better. I mean, it worked well for what the show was attempting to show in that gifts are not always what we want but it was frustrating to see, the way it was executed as it could have been handled better.
Supporting Characters
Clover voiced by Wayne Brady
I felt bad for Clover after what happened and pile that on top of him being mocked by Whiskers for living as a castle rabbit.
Whiskers voiced by Nick Offerman
Whiskers' entire role in this special seemed to be to make life miserable for Clover and mock him for the life that he lives. But it was all a ruse because apparently, Clover and Whiskers used to be friends and Whiskers felt lonely after Clover moved away from the forest.
Tiana voiced by Anika Nani Rose
As I said above, Tiana was a great support for Sofia and gave her the perfect message that she needed to hear and it worked rather well for the young princess.
Music
From The Heart
This is a rather sweet song with a good message for young children and everyone alike. Sure, it's a bit cheesy but I hold to the belief that what this song is saying is very true. So long as your gift comes from the heart, that should be what counts.
Villain
Glacia The Ice Witch voiced by Phylicia Rashad
This character could've done more. She didn't do that much other than just sit on her throne and remain unimpressed by the gifts that were brought to her.
My Final Thoughts
This was a rather good Christmas episode and one that I enjoyed very much and one that I won't mind returning to again in the future. Join me tomorrow as we head to the North Pole to look at...
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