A Look at Disney Swims with Mermaids: Return To Merroway Cove

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today we continue our look at the world of Merroway Cove from Sofia The First as we look at the third episode to visit this location from the show’s final season. And overall, this episode is a marked improvement over the last visit to Merroway Cove. And part of that comes from returning the focus to a character that the audience had already met in the very first Merroway Cove visit but beyond that, this episode touches on a topic that I like, the feeling of being too young to contribute to anything. This is something that Craig Gerber has touched upon in his other series, Elena of Avalor in the episode, Three Jaquins and a Princess. Which by the by features my favorite song from either of Gerber’s shows

And while this episode did air Elena’s episode, Isabelle and Oona’s experience and tribulations in not being taken seriously are handled differently enough to make both enjoyable. (I really should review some Elena episodes).

The Plot

Overall, this is a pretty simple episode and I do want to comment on how small detail from the beginning of the episode, Sofia’s mermaid design seems to have gone through a redesign since the last time we saw her as a mermaid, which in her show was the last episode that we looked at but in terms of airdates, the last time, Sofia’s mermaid design was shown in the crossover Elena and the Secret of Avalor.










I have to wonder if Sof’s new mermaid design has anything to do with the changes that the Amulet went through. If you notice in the image from this episode, it’s now more of a pinkish color whereas, in the image from the Elena crossover, it’s more of a purplish color. This change occurred because of the events that happened during Sofia’s interactions with Elena.


Sofia’s Amulet changes color from purple to ruby pink after Sofia frees Princess Elena. Due to this, this is the last time Sofia’s amulet is shown in purple.

And honestly, this new mermaid design was also most likely done to reflect that Sof now has a new dress that she wears as her signature dress and they wanted her mermaid design to more closely resemble that. (I couldn’t find any images of Sof’s new gown, sorry) I know that I’m spending a lot of time on such a minute detail and it’s not for a lack of content to talk about in this episode but rather, I find this change fascinating and I think for its target demographic, this is a good thing as change is the only constant in life. Anyways, I actually want to look at Sof’s new mermaid design a bit more closely.



I like it as it pops a whole lot more than the original mermaid design and has more details that allow to stick out and gives it more life. Sofia’s previous mermaid design wasn’t bad but compared to this one, it just felt generic.



Again, I want to stress that it’s not a bad design but maybe it’s because I have a preference of pink over purple that I seem to find the new mermaid design for Sof more eye-catching. Well, seeing as we’ve spent so much time on Sofia’s new mermaid design, let’s move onto the actual meat of the episode. After Sof transforms into a mermaid, she comes across Oona and the other merfolk practicing for the show that they plan to put on for Sofia’s family. And the frustration and disappointment on Oona’s face is palpable as you can just see that she is frustrated that the little waves that she is making with her comb are barely making a splash in the show. And when she asks her mother to show her some more advanced tricks as stated by the Sofia the First Wiki.


She tries to persuade her mother into teaching her more skills but Queen Emmaline denies her request, stating she is still too young for such a thing and will teach her when she is old enough.

Okay, this takes us back to the Elena comparison that I brought up earlier. In Three Jaquins and a Princess, Elena does give Isa a chance and explain herself. Even if she does spout this line.


Well, that’s because you are a kid

It may have come out a bit wrong but at least, Elena was willing to give her sister a chance to explain herself and show that she could handle something like this. However, this does bring us to one key difference between these scenes. In one instance, you are dealing with a pair of sisters and in this episode, you are dealing with a mother and daughter. An older sibling is more likely to give their younger sibling a chance as they remember what it was like to be that age whereas a parental figure might also have those memories but also knows the problems that a young child attempting something they aren’t ready for and that could cause a lot of trouble. And that is the case here as Oona swims and expresses her frustration in song. And gets out of her control. Meanwhile, Sofia is having issues of her own. As she has swum looking for Oona and comes across an adult mermaid wearing an Enchantlet meaning that she is a Protector and is looking for one of the Wicked Nine, Ursula’s Necklace. Okay, this is going to take some explaining.



In a one-hour special from this season, Sofia and her sister, Amber travel to the Mystic Isles, which introduces a couple of new elements to the series such as making Sofia, a protector. Which I believe was done to show that Sofia is more than just a princess but that has been the case since the first season. However, I do like this more active role that Sof is taking as it is in line with showing that princesses can be more proactive in their stories. This idea ties into a line from the theme song that has been very apt since the start but I feel has been used a lot more since making Sofia, a protector.





It’s gonna be my time

Okay, this line may seem small on the surface and for the most part, it is but when you look at this line through the lens of someone that is a huge Princess fan, you’ll understand that this line shows that princesses can be more proactive in the adventures and both of Craig Gerber’s princesses have shown that they are more actionary than reactionary. This brings me to something, a while ago, the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph 2 was released and one of the most hyped scenes was Vanellope meets the Disney Princesses. Which at first was funny but with the princesses asking the questions they ask Vanellope, I got concerned at how they were playing these beloved characters for a cheap joke.



Including the one insinuating that people think a big strong man had to save them. While that is true for some of the older princesses, a lot of the newer princesses up to including Sofia and Elena have shown that they can handle themselves. And this brings me back to my original point, making Sofia a protector highlights that there is more to being a princess than just dresses, flowers, and the love. So many of the modern princesses have exemplified more adventurous attributes that those that criticize these characters tend to ignore and base their criticisms on the older models of Disney Princesses. I went over this a bit in my review of Queen for a Day when I brought up that Metro UK insisting that adults that like Disney need to grow up. And the changes that have occurred within this seasons brings about similar appraisal because Craig Gerber understands that making his princess characters more than just the pink dress wearing flower picking stereotype is important for the young girls that watch his shows. I would go into the Wicked Nine a bit but let’s save for the Object Section as we’ve already eaten up a good portion of the review with these thoughts. Let’s get back the plot as that is what this review is really about.







After Sof meets this protector, Oona comes across Sofia and Sof notices that there is something up with Oona and Oona explains what happened with the sea twister. Sofia suggests that they get Oona’s mom because she could help but Oona is afraid of getting in trouble. Understandable, considering everything that Oona has done and I completely get the fear. As the fear of getting in trouble with your parents is probably the greatest fear that a kid could have. Forget heights or that kind of stuff as the fear of disappointing a parent is the truest fear of any child. Sofia, Oona, and Oona’s seashore friend, Sven swim towards the Kelp Forest where Nerisa (the protector) was heading looking for Ursula’s Necklace. Well, when the young princesses and Sven heads toward the location, they end up following the path of Oona’s sea twister and come into contact with a young octopus.




While following the path of destruction the twister left behind, they help some sea creatures in need, one of them being an octopus named Octavio who was saved by Nerissa but has seen her being dragged away by the rampaging sea twister with her Enchantlet left behind.



The young sea creature leads them to the shipwreck where Nerissa was heading and they see the protector is trapped underneath the mast of the shipwreck and with Nerissa and Sofia lining their enchantlents together, they are able to rescue her but it seems to be a bit of a loss as the sea twister had carried the necklace away. Oona tries telling the sea twister to go but it instead grows and yeah, that makes thing a whole lot worse. The two protectors attempt to stop the twister using some rocks but before this, the twister starts to head towards the palace and it’s here that Oona finally decides to agree to go get her mother for help but when she gets to the palace, the queen isn’t there. And things aren’t going to get much better because after Oona explains what happened to her big sister, Cora. Cora decides that she could help her younger sister out by using her mother’s trident. And yeah, you can probably figure out how smart a plan that was.





To make a long story short, the two sisters attempt to use the trident on the twister but Queen Emmaline comes and takes the trident and uses it to stop the twister and the two sisters get in trouble and end up grounded but only after the show. Yeah, in all, this was an enjoyable episode and I had a lot more to say about this episode than I originally thought. With that outta the way, let’s move onto the next part.





Plot Object

Ursula’s Necklace





The necklace is eventually found but as promised, I did say that I would explain what the Wicked Nine are here. Well, from the Sofia Wiki.




The Wicked Nine are nine magical objects that belonged to the most devious of villains. If they are brought together, they will unleash unspeakable power.





This is such a great way to tie Disney history back into the show since the show has gone through most of the princesses save the Frozen sisters and Pochantas.





Characters



Main Character



Oona voiced by Kiernan Shipka





















I really liked Oona and her struggle in this episode. Yeah, the moral is that don’t overestimate what you can do but sometimes if you never try, you’ll never know. And I credit Oona for that but there are other ways that she could have gone about this situation. Because it can be uber frustrating to hear that you are just too young.





Supporting Characters



While there are a lot of supporting characters, I’m only going to focus on Sofia and Nerissa.

Sofia voiced by Ariel Winter















I’ve spent a great deal talking about Sofia for an episode where she plays a supporting role but that is still an important as Sof can shine as either a lead character or a supporting and considering that this episode dropped as a part of an event known as a Royal Week, where a new episode aired every day, there’s no issue with Sofia taking the supporting role.

Nerissa voiced by Alyssa Rhoney















I do like that we got to see more of the protectors from the Mystic Isles in this episode and more importantly that this episode didn’t use that to overtake Oona’s story, which was the more important story to be told here. Though, I am curious how she is able to travel between the realms considering the Isles are located in the skies.





Song


When I Start to Make Some Waves

Yeah, this song takes us back to the Elena comparison that I’ve brought up numerous times throughout this review as it’s not hard to listen to Oona’s plea and frustrations here and think of the similar sentiments that Isa was expressing in Grown Up Enough and while both songs do a great job of expressing this idea of frustration that the character is feeling, I think Isa did it better. There’s something that just feels a bit off about this number. I can’t exactly place my finger on it and it’d be wrong of me to say that it’s shallow as it’s not but I dunno, I guess I’m just not as invested in Oona’s plight through music as I am with Isa’s. Maybe because Isa had an audience. Who knows?



My Final Thoughts


When I looked at the other mermaid episode of this show, I mentioned that I just found it kind of forgettable and not all that great. And I think part of that comes from, that was a rather boring lesson that can only be handled so many ways but the idea of feeling as though people saying that you are too young to do something that you really want to do is a story that opens itself up to a lot of possibilities and while the beginning and end may have similar beats in these types of stories, the middle aka the journey showing why these characters feel this way can take on a multitude of forms as evidenced by this episode and I think that’s one of the best things about this episode. Join me next time as we head to Gravity Falls and dive into The Deep End.