Sofia The First: Once Upon A Princess

Hello & welcome back.  Something that I've avoided looking at on A Look at Disney is Disney Junior aka the Disney preschool shows of the current generation. Oh, sure I did a Can We Talk about on the upcoming Pooh show but I've never done a true review.  However with this new show was announced,  I took interest as it seemed that Disney Junior may have figured out to do a show right without it feeling like a Dora clone and not talking down to the audience and instead it just gets to be a show. Well, I decided to watch the premiere movie for this.  Yeah, I know it seems a bit weird that I'm reviewing what is basically a girl's show but  I like to check out new Disney shows to see if they are worth reviewing and this happens to be the case.  So far, there has only been one show that I watched that I refused to review.   Oh,  I may come back to that show when I do my countdown of the Top 6 Worst Disney TV  Shows.   With that out of the way, let's begin.




Trailer






Okay, I'll admit the trailer is simple but that works in this event and I appreciate the fact that they don't oversell the show and just let you know what it is.





The Plot


Again, the plot is a bit simple but that works for a show that is aimed towards young girls.  Sofia is a young girl who was once a common villager who lived with her mother who made shoes. One day,  the king called her mother to the castle as he needed a new  pair of shoes and that day,  they fell in love and from there, we are introduced to Sofia and the rest of the characters as she tries to learn to be a princess.  She wants to get it right as her new father is throwing a ball in her honor. Though things aren't going her way as her new step-sister is jealous of her and wants to make things miserable for her and also,  the royal wizard,  Cedric is trying to get the amulet that the king gave her as it holds magic powers.  This amulet comes in handy later.  Through and through, we see Sofia try but she just seems to come up short but with the help from her new animal friends and Cinderella who shows up when Sofia feels down, she is able to pick herself back up and prove that she can be a princess.  All in all, it's a cute plot that works for this type of show.



Plot Device


The Amulet of Avalor

I apologize if I got the name wrong here but I can't recall, if it is the right name.  As for this amulet, it has the power to grant magical powers such as letting Sofia talk to animals.  Kind of a nice nod to past princess movies in how, the ladies were able to talk to animals.  She was granted this power after saving a baby bird and returning it to it's mother.  I must admit that made me think of Eliza Thornberry a little bit.  Another power it grants is that it connects to her all other princesses. As evidenced when Cinderella comes to help her.

Which this explains how the princesses will appear in the show as when looking up information on the show, it was stated that Aurora, Ariel, & Snow White will also appear.  Cool and I'm sure little girls will love that.  And I'm sure as the show goes on, we will see the others such as Belle on the show. The only ones, I don't see appearing just yet are Rapunzel and Tiana.  As I feel, this show will be focusing more on the classic princess characters.




Characters

 Now I'll be breaking this down into Main, Supporting, and Villain.  With that out of the way, let's begin.



Main Character


Sofia voiced by Ariel Winter

I have to say that I appreciated the fact that Sofia wasn't like "OH MY GOD BEING A PRINCESS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER!!!"   Instead, while she was excited about being a princess, she also felt scared and overwhelmed. Which she goes into great detail about this in the first song (which won't be looked at as Disney has only released two of the songs).  She doesn't know if she'll pass as a real princess and at first wants to give up.  Life isn't made any easier for the poor girl because her new sister, Amber hates her. And at every opportunity plays a prank on Sofia.   Through thick and thin Sofia pushed through.   Now I should mention the title, Sofia The First.  You see, this comes up at the end when Sofia asks King Roland II, why he is called that and he tells her that his father was Roland I and she replied by saying,

I guess that makes me Sofia The First

 Now  I mentioned that Sofia was nervous about being a princess but I should mention that part of this fear comes from the fact that King Roland II was throwing a royal ball in her honor.  That's a bit of pressure on a little girl but she does get help at her new school, Royal Prep where Princes and Princesses learn the royal ways.  Okay, this is probably where I take my issue with the show as the students look so stereotypical.   The headmistresses for the school happen to be Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.   But that's not really a big issue regarding the students. Overall, I think Sofia is a cute and relatable character. Now I've seen this show been labelled the princess version of Jake and The Neverland Pirates but unlike that show,  it feels more natural.  I'm sure that'll probably change once the show actually starts as this is only the premiere movie but as of right now, they seem to be off to the right start.




Supporting Characters


Now even though I mentioned, the fairies, the King, and Sofia's mom.  Those characters along with one other are in this movie so little that there is nothing to say about them.


Amber voiced by Darcy Rose Byrnes

Now I'm not sure if it was mentioned in the movie or not but I think that Amber was older then Sofia and in a way that makes sense but it still doesn't excuse her actions.  I mean she treated poor Sofia like crap and how because she was jealous of her because Sofia was getting all the attention because Sofia was new. Well, if you were a little nicer,  maybe people wouldn't shun you. I mean she plays mean pranks on Sofia like putting on a swing that swings itself (admittedly cool) that goes so high that Sofia ends up flying into a well and it gets her all soaked.  And then at the dance class,  she gives Sofia a pair of trick shoes that make Sofia think she is a clumsy dancer.  However she gets her taste of karma as while prepping for the ball, her dress gets a rip in it. But Sofia being the nice protagonist that she is, helps her sister but sewing the hole in her dress.  Well, this is just one way to look at her as pointed out by a commenter on the blog as they stated that Amber was perhaps being mean because she was insecure about losing the love of her father and brother to Sofia as she hadn't to share it with them before.  She also does help Sofia out in two big ways in that to make up for the trick shoes, she teaches Sofia how to dance and then when they're looking for the counter spell, she fights off  Wormwood,  Cedric's raven who was attacking her and Sofia. Now this same person also pointed out that in the commercial for the upcoming show, that Amber is seen as a friend to Sofia.  So perhaps I may have been a bit hard on this character and I do see where this person was coming from because upon further thought, she is more then just the mean sister.



James voiced by  Zach Callison

Whereas Amber seemed to hate and loathe Sofia in the beginning,  James wants to help Sofia feel welcome and doesn't really like what Amber is doing.  That's about as much as I can say about his character.




Clover voiced by Wayne Brady

Okay, this may make me seem like a bad Whose Line fan but when I saw the clip featuring this rabbit, I thought it was Tracy Morgan. I'm happy it was Wayne instead and while there are other animals as evidenced by this clip, Clover was the standout character. He was just so much fun and in a way, he reminded me of  Mushu just a bit lighter.  And while he was comic relief, he proved very helpful in the end, when Sofia and Amber were looking for a counter spell because you see Cedric, the wizard (the villain) gave Sofia, a spell that she thought was a dancing spell but it was actually a sleeping spell.   He along with the other animals helped fight off Cedric's sidekick Wormwood while the girls looked for the counter spell.




Cinderella voiced by Jennifer Hale

Okay,  I'm sure this is what a lot of you were wondering about. Well, let me put all fears aside and say that even though Cinderella really only has an extended cameo.   It worked well and she did not feel forced into the story at all. As I mentioned, The Amulet of Avalor as stated by Cinderelly, the amulet links all princesses together. In a strange way, that's kind of like all the avatars in Avatar: The Last Airbender are linked. I'm probably the only one that would make that connection.  Still, it was cute.




Music

As I said, only two songs have been released from Disney thus far but I'll go ahead and look at them.



True Sisters






This is only a short snippet from the song but with this song, Cindy here is telling Sofia that even though Amber has basically been a jerk to her, don't give up on them while she did with Anastasia and Drizella.  Although I'm wondering if Cindy here forgot how badly, she was treated by those two.  However within the context of this story, it makes sense and also Amber and Sofia are at a young age to catch this type of thing and change it whereas Cinderella and her step sisters were teens verging on being young adults.  Also if Cinderella is saying that she doesn't have a good relationship with her sisters that means this show doesn't  recognize the cheapquels.  YAY!

Rise and Shine 

This song was played after the credits and I'm pretty sure this is going to be the theme song and it's cute and one of the better songs for this type of show, I've heard.  It kind of reminds me of When Will My Life Begin from Tangled.  So that scores points in my book.

Villain

Cedric voiced by Jess Harnell 

If there is any reason to watch this show,  it's this guy right here.  He was in a word,  Ah-Mazing!   Seriously, this character stole every scene he was in.  Cedric is the royal wizard to the family but feels as though he is only used for show, which is kinda of  true and he wants the amulet that Sofia wears.  We really aren't told why, he wants it other then that it has great magical powers.  I love this guy, he is just so silly and over the top.  His voice just makes me laugh.   In my opinion, he is the breakout character of this series.  He's more of a comedic villain but in the sense that he takes himself seriously. His plan to steal The Amulet backfires as you see at the ball, Sofia reads the sleeping spell and Cedric almost goes for the Amulet but I think because he didn't read it,  it also affected him.  Which leads me to believe that if he had read the spell, Sofia would've fallen asleep and not him and that would've made his job easier.  He probably didn't factor that in.  Still,  even though his plans backfired, he was so funny.

My Final Thoughts

I know it seems odd that I decided to review this but I must say it was entertaining.  Now, I probably won't check any other episodes on a regular basis but it seems to me that this show knows how to be entertaining and teach a lesson without shoving it down kid's mouths.  Good work!