Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and well, I thought it was high time for another Sofia review. With that out of the way, let's begin.
Episode Title
The Secret Library
The title refers to a new location that is discovered within the castle that Sofia lives in. Now, let's move onto the plot.
The Plot
We open the episode with Sofia in a flying competition with her friends at her castle as her Aunt Tilly arrives and asks Sofia, if she had finished reading the book that Tilly gave the young princess in the last episode that aired before this one. And we learn from the young princess that she's reached the 17th chapter. Later in her room, Sofia reads some more of the book and suddenly a little blue book with secrets of the castle fall out as her bunny pal, Clover comes in and she informs him of all the secret passages in the castle. Sofia uses her shrinking ability that was granted to her by the Amulet in The Littlest Princess It's from here that she finds a boat that would make an awesome boat ride as it is a reference to every Disney princess ever.
Yeah, I'll be honest and say that I was geeking out over the little references here. They even included a small reference to Frozen with cold blowing as the ride came to an end. And it's from here, that the young princess finds another staircase that leads to The Secret Library and using the blue book as a key, she accesses it. And this is when we learn that Sofia's Aunt Tilly was an owner of the Amulet, when she was Sofia's age and living at the castle. And that Sofia's time has come to take on another job that comes with the Amulet, that being Story Keeper. Sofia now has duty to complete the unfinished stories in The Secret Library and it is here, we see The Library choose Sofia's first story to complete.
And I just have to say that I loved the storybook illustrations that appeared, when the story was being told. They were just so gorgeous. Sadly, no images are available of those gorgeous illustrations. And I'll let the Disney Wiki explain the story.
The Tale of Wildwing Valley, the story of how Minimus's brother Mazzimo wished to live free as a wild horse and left his family behind to find Wildwing Valley, a magically hidden valley where magical creatures roam free. Unfortunately, he was captured by the greedy Prince Roderick of Borrea.
Sofia is informed by Aunt Tilly that she needs to find a better ending for Mazzimo. Which is to get the horse to where he wishes to go. Sofia rushes and gets her horse, Minimus, so that they can head to Prince Roderick's castle to save Mazzimo and set him free. Tilly is amused to hear her young niece talking to her horse as she recalls the many powers the Amulet gave her. After some time flying there, Sofia and Minimus find Mazzimo and attempt to set him free but an argument breaks out between Mazzimo and Minimus as old family wounds come up. And just then Prince Roderick and his stable master, Gavin show up and our main characters attempt to explain to the prince that his horse doesn't want to be kept in captivity but he won't hear it but Tilly is able to free Mazzimo and this gives into the next act as we see the foppish prince give chase to the heroes. And during the chase, another argument breaks out, which causes Minimus to drop Sofia but Tilly catches her niece but it is too late as the horses have been captured. Sofia thinks that all is lost because they don't have any tools to defeat Prince Roderick as they lost Tilly's bag of magic tricks. And just as they are searching for the bag, Merida from Brave shows up to encourage Sofia to put aside her doubts because so long as she believes in herself, her aim will always be true.
Which I gotta be honest, while I do like the song that Sofia sings here, Merida's appearance felt short changed. I mean don't get me wrong as she was great and she did give the young princess the encouragement that she needed. It just felt like they didn't give her as much to do. It's not as bad as Snow White's appearance in season 2 or Aurora's completely pointless appearance in season 1's Christmas episode. As far as princesses go, I'd say this appearance is somewhere in the middle.
It is after this that Sofia finds Roderick and Gavin as she attacks them with her Aunt Tilly's umbrella and she saves her horse and his brother. Setting them free and seeing this, Roderick and Gavin's horses decide to flee and join Mazzimo in going to Wildwing Valley. And we see our heroes arrive there as Sofia, Tilly and Minimus departed. And the episode ends with Sofia and Tilly in The Secret Library as The Library chooses her next story to complete.
Characters
Main Character
Sofia voiced by Ariel Winter
This episode really seemed to develop more of Sofia and taking her beyond just being a princess in a tiara. Which I think is something that annoys me with the song because Sofia says that she's still learning to be a princess and we're on the third season. I'm not saying that she has it down but I think that she's pretty good at it by now.
Supporting Characters
Aunt Tilly voiced by Bonnie Hunt
Tilly is easily the best adult character on the show as she is such an over-the-top and eccentric character that is just so endearing. She was partly inspired by Mary Poppins but a bit more loose than the nanny. But you can see it and episodes that feature her are always a delight.
Mazzimo voiced by Dean Norris
Mazzimo is a laid back type of horse that just wants to be free to fly on his own. Which conflicts with his younger brother, Minimus, who enjoys the lap of luxury and didn't understand why his brother had to leave.
Minimus voiced by Eric Stonestreet
This episode really gave some insight into Minimus' family life and what it was like for him and you could see the anger in his eyes, when he saw his brother and how he just couldn't under the lifestyle that his brother wanted but at the end, he came to accept it.
Merida voiced by Ruth Connell
Like I said in the plot segment, I feel like this episode didn't give Merida enough to do. Also, it's really jarring to go from seeing her on this and then on something like Once Upon A Time but that's an aside. The actress that played Merida was fine but I feel like the show could have done more with her. I don't know what but I just felt like the episode gave her the short end of the stick.
Music
Save The Day
This song is pretty good and does hit on something that is shown a lot with Sofia as this isn't the first time that we've seen her doubt herself when the tough gets going but she is able to pull herself back up. As far as songs from the show go, it's alright but I don't think it's one that I'll remember after listening to it.
Villain
Prince Roderick voiced by Cary Elwes
The best way to describe Roderick is as I said, he's very foppish and also a little snooty. He thinks that he can just take whatever he wants, however he pleases and that is shown pretty well, when he steals Minimus. A I must say that the biggest thing that makes this character work is the wonderful voice performance given by Cary Elwes.
My Final Thoughts
This isn't a bad episode and I do like what it was setting up but I wanted to like it more than I did. At the end of the day, I'm left with an episode that just leaves me going that wasn't bad but it could have been so much more Again, not bad but probably just a middle of the road episode. Peace!
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