Sofia Week: The Amulet and The Anthem

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  And welcome back to Sofia Week. Well,  I've talked about the show for this past week but I've yet to actually to review an episode and it's funny up until I saw how much I've mentioned this particular episode,  I was going to review another episode but then seeing how much I've talked about this episode,   I decided that I had to review this episode.  Now,  this episode and I have a very interesting history. For the longest time, this was my most hated Sofia episode and in fact, it inspired my Top 6 Bad Episodes list.  It was at # 6 but it was almost # 1 because this episode really left me angry,  after the first time I watched it but after re-watching it, I still have qualms with this episode.  And that's the biggest reason, I've decided to review this episode to get my misgivings with this episode out of the way.  Now I should mention that while yes, this was an episode, I didn't care for,  there has only been one episode that I could not finish, not because it was bad but rather because it was just so boring.  With that out of the way, let's begin.   Now I should mention because of the theme for tomorrow's Music Fridays as I'll only be looking at one of the two songs featured in this episode.  

Episode Title

The Amulet and The Anthem

I remember reading somewhere that the original title was originally All Croaked Up.  And on the one hand,  I do like that title better then the one, that that we ultimately got but the episode title, that we got in the end is okay. 

The Plot

We open on the annual  Harvest Festival for Enchancia.   As Sofia and her two best friends, Jade and Ruby as they are all talking about getting to sing the Enchancia Anthem and the girls break into song singing the anthem.  A little while later, the host of the event,  Lutiano announces who will get to sing the anthem and Sofia is chosen.  Which admittedly leads to a funny joke, where Sofia gets to meet the royal family as in her family.  Before Sofia knows it, she is being swept up in interviews and painters wanting to paint her picture.  We also learn that Amber had sung the anthem years prior.   We later see Sofia and how all of this attention is getting to her and she is starting to act vain and a becoming a bragger or as the show says, "boaster".   She goes to her friends and Sofia starts to croak as her amulet had cursed her because of her boasting.    This was a nice little touch as by this point in the series, we hadn't seen any powers since Once Upon A Princess. It was nice to see that the amulet also knows how to keep it's wearer in line.  Sofia first discovers with Clover  but  before this, we get a cute scene, where Sofia gets to choose a new dress.  And Amber hears the croaking and we learn that Amber is afraid of frogs.   Getting back to the plot,  Clover suggests that the little princess was cursed and convinces Sofia to seek out Cedric.  Cedric is the one to inform the cute little princess that her amulet bestowed the curse upon her. This goes back to the quote from the amulet article on Tuesday.

"With each deed preformed, for better or worse, a power is granted. A blessing or curse"

Cedric recites this line to Sofia.  Sofia is surprised as she doesn't remember doing anything bad. And to be fair,  I can buy this.  Because there are times, when kids unknowingly do something bad and they need someone else to point it out to them.  Cedric tries to use this as one of his various attempts to snatch the amulet from Sofia.  Cedric,  I've been over this but trying to take over the kingdom is A BAD DEED!   (No, I can't let this go!!!!)   However, Sofia stays true to her word that she gave to her father of never taking off the amulet and keeps it. (Good girl!)   Cedric, just decides to wait for Sofia to grow tired of the croaking and give the amulet up on her own.  I get what Cedric is going for but the show never stated that if Sofia removed the amulet that the croaking would go away. After a good night's sleep, Clover suggest to Sofia that they retrace her steps from yesterday.  And after doing so,  we see Clover and Sofia back at the stage and Clover and Sofia overhear Amber bragging to her friends about the time that she got to sing.   And Clover is turned off by this and Sofia realizes that is what she sounded like to Jade and Ruby.  Okay,  this is where one of my big issues came in originally, the first time, I saw this episode.   Yes, it's true that Amber does brag and as I've pointed out, that defines her character.  Well okay,  that's not fair to say as there is more to Amber then that but Amber does like talking about herself and places herself high on a pedestal.  That's why I like seeing her fail so much because it's shows that Amber is still human.  Now,  Amber isn't a bad character but that is her biggest and most notable flaw.  And yet this episode wants to punish it's main character for bragging, when her sister does that all the time.  And is rarely punished for it.  Again, Amber does get her comeuppances but this was the most blatant example of the showing  punishing it's main character.  I'm not against Sofia being punished for her actions and the croaking is a clever idea but part of me to just felt lopsided.   It's hard to explain but this episode did not sit right with me, the first time I watched it.  Getting back to the review,   Sofia realizes what she did wrong and goes to apologize to her friends, and they accept her apology. Sofia later runs into Cedric and Sofia tells him that she figured out how to get rid of the croak but she still has it, much to Cedric's delight.  Cedric once again offers to fix the curse, if Sofia hands him the amulet.  Sofia once more declines and before long,  Sofia's amulet summons Belle.  Who,  the more I look at it, actually had one of the best princess cameos on the show.  Because she compares Sofia's bragging and actions to Beast and while I get what they were going for.  A much more apt comparison is Gaston because Gaston is a bragger that loves talking about himself and Belle came to basically show Sofia,  you shouldn't be acting like this.   Now, yeah she also came to show that saying sorry isn't always enough as summed in this these lines.

This goes back to the old saying of actions speak louder then words.   So, after the obligatory song that is pretty cute.  Sofia goes onstage to sing but to make things right, she instead calls up Jade and Ruby to sing but being good friends,  they let Sofia sing with them.  And the episode ends.  Do  I hate this episode?  No, not as much as I once did but there are parts of it that I think could've been handled better but I see what they were going for.


Plot Device

Sofia's Amulet

Sofia's Amulet is what caused this whole mess to happen in the first place with it causing her to croak because of the bragging.



Characters


This'll be broken down into Main, Supporting, and Villain. With that out of the way, let's get started.



Main Character


Sofia voiced by Ariel Winter

I felt bad for Sofia in this episode because even though, what she did was wrong, she didn't mean to rub it in her friends' faces and if it was really bugging them, they should've said something to her.  I mean, they tried but Sofia was being swept from one place to the next that it was a bit hard. Understandable but they should've tried.   And Sofia really did try to make things right  and she never meant to make Jade and Ruby and  it's not like you haven't done something wrong before either, Jade.   Trying to trap Lucinda, hmm.  I think trying to trap a kid is a bit worse then boasting.



Supporting Characters

Jade and Ruby voiced by Isabelle Acres and Diamond White

Y'know, I honestly get their frustration and jealously but they haven't been in enough of the show for me to actually care about them or why they should be upset that Sofia got something that they wanted because the show has barely introduced us to these characters.


Amber voiced by Darcy Rose Byrnes

Amber was a great parallel in showing how one shouldn't act and her reaction when seeing the frog in dress room was priceless.    And I already went over my issues with how they treated up above.


Clover voiced by Wayne Brady

Clover was a great helper for Sofia in figuring out what went wrong and okay, that little carrot pillow is just adorable.   And I think this episode proved why these two are best friends pretty well.  Well, besides Finding Clover, where Clover runs away.  They are both there for one another and are willing to help each other out with their problems.


Belle voiced by Julie Nathanson

Y'know, at first I HATED Belle's new voice in this episode.  But that was a gut reaction and it's grown on me and I understand why Paige had to stop voicing Belle as Paige has stated that she was starting to have troubles with the voice and it would take her hours to prep, just to get it.  I'm sad that we lost Paige O'Hara as Belle but I'm more then willing to give Julie Nathanson,  a shot as this wasn't a bad outing.  Even, if she took me a few listens to make me think that she sounded like Belle.  No lie, my gut reaction was... "THAT'S NOT BELLE!"    That was rather childish and unfair of me towards Julie Nathanson.  I wasn't willing to give her a shot because she didn't sound like the Belle, that I knew but she has slowly grown on me.



Music


Now, again  only one song to be covered here. Let's begin.



Enchancia








It's nice and it's enjoyable but out of the two songs,  it is the weaker one in the episode.



Villain


Cedric voiced by Jess Harnell

Cedric was really determined to get that amulet in this episode and tried just about everything but Sofia knew better then to give it to him because of the promise but again, I'm still not sure that Cedric understands that the amulet would most likely hurt him if he tried to use it to take over the kingdom because... THAT'S A BAD DEED!!!!



My Final Thoughts

All in all, this episode isn't as bad as I thought it was.  I like it but it's certainly not one of my favorites.  Belle was used well for her cameo. The croaking was clever idea and it was rather cute.  Join me tomorrow as I close out Sofia Week with a Music Fridays taking a look at the songs sung by...

Sofia and The Princesses