A Look at Disney Power of The Princesses Bonus: Sofia

 

Hello  & welcome  back to A Look at Disney and to Power of The Princesses.  Now, we have officially looked at every princess that is in the line up but there was one princess that I felt  worth bringing up seeing as  her show was spun off from the Disney princess line and she has met the likes of Cinderella, Ariel, Belle,  Snow White,  Aurora,  Ariel,  and will be meeting  Mulan and Rapunzel soon.   We  are today, going to take a look at  the first  princess  created for Disney Junior, Sofia The First.  Now Disney promotes  young  Sofia  as a princess in training.   Which I can understand with her only being seven but  like  my fellow Sofia fan, DisneyOtoko,  I already view  as a Disney princess because she has the qualities that I feel  are most important to a Disney princess.  Now, this will mostly  work the same,  we will look at  Voice Actress,  First Appearance,  Favorite Moment,  and  finally, Is Sofia A Good Character?  Let's begin.


Voice Actress 


Ariel  Winter

Interestingly enough,  Sofia's  VA  was named  after a Disney princess,  ie, Ariel.   Now,  Ariel  Winter  has a role on the ABC  show, Modern Family,   Which  I do not watch  but she has lent her voice to other characters such as Gretchen in Phineas and Ferb, a mermaid  character on Jake and The Neverland Pirates and Penny, in the DreamWorks adaption of Mr. Peabody and Sherman.  (A  character created  specifically for the movie  and  serves the same  purpose as Cindy  from Jimmy  Neutron.   Smart  girl  that picks on Sherman but   by the end of it,  develops  a crush on him).

And  if you saw  The Dark Knight Returns, she voiced  Carrie Kelly aka  Robin.    

Looking at  all of these various  roles  that  Winter  has played and taking into consideration that she is only 16  years  old, I firmly believe that Ariel Winter will go on to join the greats  of voice acting such as Tara Strong,  and Grey DesLisle as  a  voice acting super star. That is if she chooses this career path, she  is still after all a teenager.  And   I'll  admit  I mostly only   from Sofia The First but  I've  seen  her other work  and I have been highly impressed by her work.   Never once did I hear  the same character from her, with any of the characters that I have mentioned here.

First Appearance

Sofia  first debuted in the  pilot movie, Once Upon A Princess that aired in November of 2012 as to get   kids  excited about the new series.  I'll admit, I mainly checked out for the blog because at the time I had been avoiding reviewing Disney Junior shows as most of them are just awful.  But the promos for this one intrigued me as genuine effort seemed to be put  into this show.  And that is the case with this show and I truly  liked  how  Sofia was handled in the TV  movie because  it showed  her  fears  of moving in with a new family,  going from being a common village girl to becoming a princess overnight and how scary that was for Sofia.  This was best captured in the song, I'm  Not Ready To Be A Princess. 

This  song  is what  won me over in thinking that this show had a chance of being good because this felt real.   Because think about how hard  it would be for a kid to be uprooted from the life that they had always known to something like this.    Sure,  little girls  may say they want to be a princess but  I think this presents them with,  "Could you handle it?"   Perhaps ,  I'm  giving this sequence  more credit than I should but  I really think that this is what the show was going for, with this song.

Personality

Sofia  is typically  kind,  sweet,  and caring.  Now   that doesn't  mean,   she  doesn't   have her off  days  such as  being jealous   at having to share her mom   with her  step siblings  on Mother's  Day.    But that  just  makes   her feel  all the more real.   Because  kids  do that  but  at the end of the day, Sofia   does truly   care for  her  family  and friends  and  does  typically  try to do the right  thing.   She's  just a very sweet character that  is  learning what  it takes to make it through her new life as a princess but I think, she's got the basics covered.

Favorite Moment

My favorite moment  for Sofia comes  from the season 1 episode, The Princess Test and it is the song, I Belong.

I Belong

This  was also tied for my  # 1  song of the first season and the reason, I like this so much because all throughout the episode,  the girls  had been prepping for a test  to  show that they  know  what it means to be a princess and Sofia  had been questioning, if she knew what it took to be a princess. Because to her being a princess is more than just a fancy tiara or a dress.   She  has the heart  of a princess, willing to put the needs  of others before herself and always trying to do the right thing.   To me, that is  an example of what it means to be a Disney princess and in part why,  I knew had to include Sofia in this retrospective.   Also, this song is surprisingly deep for a Disney Junior show as Sofia  feels like an outcast amongst her peers and wonders, will they accept me or am I just a fake.  In my opinion, Sofia, you are a princess through and through.

Is  Sofia  A Good  Character?

I'd  say yes and  what I find truly funny is that Sofia's  creator  is a father of two boys, no girls.   You can read this touching article  on why he created the show for Disney Junior,  Craig Gerber was approached by them to create  a princess show and he was ecstatic at the process.

When I tell people about Sofia the First, they are surprised I have two boys and no daughters. But that's one of the things my children have taught me -- stories resonate when there's something they can relate to. My sons have both enjoyed hearing the Sofia stories and are looking forward to the show. Miles has already started dressing up as Cedric, the show's bumbling sorcerer, even making his own wand. And, best of all, he has begun to tell me stories.

I find this truly touching and it shows that  to me,  it shouldn't anyone should be allowed to enjoy this show but back to answering the  question at hand.  Absolutely, Sofia  is someone  that I think all children can relate to because children want to do their best and I am a firm believer that  kids can be kind and sweet  and  Sofia  serves as a perfect role model to never give up and be who you are or as her duet song for Disney Junior with Jake puts,  be who you wanna be.   In the end,  Sofia is one of the best  Disney Television characters to come around in a long time.  All right,  we've now looked at all of the princesses. Join me tomorrow as I close this series out with the grand finale and crown the top princess as voted on by  collab partners.  Peace!