A Look at Disney's Summer in Avalor: Can We Talk about Elena of Avalor and It's Treatment

It is time for this year's Summer event and this year, it's a little different as it may not last a whole month but this is something that I've wanted to cover for some time.  Elena of Avalor is one of the best new shows from Disney and well,  it's been treated a bit weird by Disney Channel.  The show debuted on Disney Channel in 2016 as a part of the Disney Junior block and at the time that made sense as it was promoted as a spin-off as another popular show, Sofia The First.

Which makes sense as both shows were created by the same person, Craig Gerber.   

Gerber created one of the best shows for Disney Junior with Sofia The First.  And it only made sense that he would create another show that could be a home run for Disney.    And if we look here,  it's very noble as to why he wanted to create this show.

 ....following his success with Sofia the First, Gerber went on to create Elena of Avalor in June 2016.^[11] He was aware that there had been many Disney princesses of color, but not one of Hispanic roots. Gerber was careful not to state what country she is exactly from, but rather incorporate the “influence” of the location. He stated “What Disney really does well is create fairytale kingdoms,” he explained. “It makes it very inclusive—you don’t have to pick just one nationality

Which works but you'd think that he had been successful with a previous show,   his next show would be treated a little better.   One of the most confusing things considering this show is that the first episode, First Day of Rule aired in July.   Which on the surface may not seem like a problem but there was a Sofia crossover, Elena and The Secret of Avalor that was meant to set up Elena's show and it was promoted as airing before her show started but it didn't air until November of 2016.  

Which,  not a problem as there is a wraparound that ties into Elena's show but still that felt odd to wait so long after the show started to air this crossover that was meant to set it up.  This may not seem that strange but Elena is a story driven show and something that becomes even more apparent considering that it does Previously On's for a lot of its episodes.   Things also seemed to get a little weirder during the show's second season.   As the show was moved from the Disney Junior block to being treated as a Disney Channel show and airing during regular Disney Channel blocks but sometime during the second season, the show was moved off of Disney Channel altogether and put on the Disney Junior channel.  

This reminds me of how Nickelodeon will move their shows that aren't doing that well off the main channel and onto their Nicktoons channel but I'm not sure if that's the case as the show just finished up its second season this past season.  Yet, look at this...

Season two took about two years to finish airing and I think part of that comes from the move from Disney Channel to Disney Junior.   And episodes didn't air weekly in the second season except for two in October but that was perhaps the only time.   It went to a monthly schedule or bi-monthly as the last episode before the season finale, which aired in the first week of June and the last episode before the finale was in April.   So, that's probably why the show needs those Previously On's.    And this is something that I have seen with other Disney shows such as Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure.  Its second season had a similar mistreatment by Disney Channel.  

Kinda weird that two Princess shows have gotten this treatment and even more now, that Elena has been tangentially connected to the Princess line.  She even got her own Coronation at the Magic Kingdom and shares a meet-and-greet with Cinderella.

 






TV characters especially  TV princesses usually don't get this much fanfare and that does seem like a good thing overall but one would think that with a character that had this big an introduction,  that her show would have been treated better. 



Ah well,   it's still a good show but I felt before diving into this summer event, I needed to look at the odd way that this show has been treated.    Join me next time as we take a look at Elena's greatest enemy in the next Villains Profile as I look at the evil enchantress...


Shuriki