Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess

Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess is an animated television movie that premiered on November 18, 2012 on Disney Channel in the United States. It is the pilot for the animated series Sofia the First that premiered on January 11, 2013.
==Plot==
Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather appear and introduce Sofia, an eight-year-old girl living in the Village of Dunwiddie in the Kingdom of Enchancia with her mother, Miranda who is a shoemaker. One day, Miranda and Sofia are called for a shoe fitting by King Roland II of Enchancia. It's love at first sight for Roland and Miranda. They soon marry, making Miranda the new Queen of Enchancia and Sofia the kingdom's second princess overnight. Upon arriving at the castle, Sofia meets her new father, Baileywick the castle steward, Cedric the bumbling royal sorcerer, and her two new older siblings, Princess Amber and Prince James, the royal twins. Sofia is warmly welcomed by everyone at the castle, except Amber and Cedric. At the dinner table, Roland tells his new daughter that there will be a royal ball in honor of her royal debut at week's end, noting that it's the best way to let everyone know that Princess Sofia has arrived, and he and Sofia will dance the first waltz.
After Sofia sees her new room, she has second thoughts. She mourns into a musical number about her insecurities, and her opinion that she's not ready to be a princess because she knows to be royal has huge duties. She knows she has no experience when it comes to fulfilling them. She finds her mother and tells her about her uneasy feelings and that she would rather not have a royal ball because she doesn't know how to dance and doesn't want to let anyone down. Miranda assures her she'll be fine. Roland comes out of the shadows and gives Sofia a beautiful but mysterious amulet that he says is very special and tells her she must promise to never take it off. Sofia happily accepts the gift and gives him her word to wear it always and never let it out of her sight. On the way back to bed, Sofia bumps into Cedric, who recognizes her new amulet; he later goes to his workshop where he talks with his raven companion Wormwood about secretly wanting to use the amulet's power to take over Enchancia.
The next day, Sofia, James, and Amber take a flying coach to the Royal Preparatory Academy. There she meets the headmistresses: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Sofia asks them to teach her how to be a true princess by the day of her royal debut ball. While giving her a tour of the school, they tell her that becoming a true princess is something that takes time. Everyone takes an instant liking to Sofia, making Amber jealous and prompting her to convince James to give Sofia a ride on the Enchanted Swing Set. James does so, which makes everyone's smiles vanish, as he realized that Amber tricked him. The swing ride sends Sofia sailing through the air and then into a fountain with a splash. Despite really being upset, Princess Zandar reassures her that the first day is the toughest and he got pranked as well, and Sofia laughs it off and walks away soaking wet. Sofia stumbles across a baby bird who has fallen out of its nest and helps it return to its mother. Her interaction with the mother bird and her baby shows how lonely she feels now that she's a princess and misses the days when it was just her and her mother. Just then, Sofia's amulet begins to glow and she unexpectedly hears the birds saying "Thank you."
After returning home, Cedric intercepts Sofia and takes her to his workshop where he reveals to her that her amulet is the Amulet of Avalor, a powerful relic that can grant the wearer a blessing or a curse when the wearer does a great deed, for better or worse. He asks her to let him take a look at it, but she refuses because she promised her father that she would never take it off and she was taught by her mother that when she makes a promise, she must keep it, no matter what.
The next morning, Sofia meets Clover, Mia, Robin, and Whatnaught and discovers that she can understand what they're saying. Remembering what Cedric said about her amulet and helping that baby bird, she realizes the amulet has given her the power to talk to animals, which Clover is delighted to hear. Clover reveals the reason woodland creatures have always helped princesses is because they want food and Sofia, who's happy to finally have new friends, obliges. Now confident, Sofia now dedicates herself to becoming the best princess ever both to fulfill her responsibilities as one and to prove herself to everyone. However, Sofia still remains distant from James and Amber because of the stunt they pulled on her and she no longer trusts anyone and feels that she's on her own. When she comes home the day before the royal ball, she finds her friends Ruby and Jade waiting for her. During the visit, James comes over to apologize for the stunt he and Amber played on her and offers to make it up to her by helping her prepare for her ball, which she accepts. He also tells her about Professor Popov's dance class the next day, which happens to be on the same day as the ball, unaware that Amber is spying on them.
Sofia arrives at dance class, but before she can take some dance shoes, Amber comes by and hands her a special pair, saying they can help her dance better. Sofia steps forward to receive her dance lessons, but the shoes start making her dance oddly and out of control just a few minutes later. Sofia realizes the shoes are trick shoes because of the glow they are giving off and stops long enough to notice Amber nastily sneering at her. At this moment, Sofia realizes that Amber tricked her just before she's sent crashing to the ground, and everyone in the room laughs at her. After this, she gets back up, throws a cushion aside, slams the trick shoes on the carpet, and gives Amber a hateful glare that also helps James realize who gave Sofia those trick shoes, prompting him to shoot a hateful glare at her, too, but Amber simply feigns sympathy. When the trio returns to the coach, Amber states that she must have grabbed them by mistake and sarcastically apologizes, but Sofia doesn't buy this and angrily shuns her as she knows Amber gave them to her on purpose to ruin her dance lesson.
When she gets back home, she asks Cedric for a dancing spell. He gives her a spell, but warns her not to cast it until the ball; as soon as she leaves, Cedric reveals to Wormwood the spell is actually a sleeping spell, and after it's cast, he plans to blackmail Sofia into handing over her amulet in exchange for the counter spell. Meanwhile, before the ball, James had a conversation with Amber about the trick shoe incident that happened at school. He knew that Amber had given Sofia those shoes on purpose. Amber recalled that he had pulled a trick on her too, but James argued that what she did wasn't a prank. He firmly stated that Sofia needed those dance lessons and that Amber was trying to ruin Sofia's royal ball out of jealousy because everyone like Sofia more than her. After angrily telling Amber that he liked Sofia more than her after what she had done to Sofia, he stormed out of the room. His twin sister felt ashamed and upset for what she had done. Amber tried to call him back, but her gown got snagged under one of the legs of her vanity chair and her gown ripped. When she went looking for the maids, she eavesdropped on them in Sofia's room calling her "the prettiest princess in the palace." This upset her so much that she ran back to her room in tears.
At the ball, Sofia arrives in her gown with extra lace ornaments and everyone is astonished by how gorgeous she looks. She casts the spell Cedric gave her and, to her horror, everyone falls asleep, even Cedric, who was also in the ballroom by the time the spell was cast. Believing she must have said the spell wrong by mistake and that she's all alone, Sofia breaks down and starts crying. When a tear drops on her amulet, it begins to glow and Cinderella appears. She explains to Sofia that whenever she's in trouble, her amulet will summon a Princess like herself to help. Cinderella reveals that Amber is still awake and can help out, but Sofia tells Cinderella that she is still upset at Amber for all the awful things she's done to her. Cinderella reminds Sofia that she too had mean stepsisters and encourages Sofia to give her another chance, as Amber may be able to help. Sofia decides to take Cinderella's advice, although Cinderella vanishes before Sofia can thank her. Sofia goes to Amber and takes her to the ballroom.
After seeing what has happened, Amber apologizes for the mistreatment and explains that she was just jealous of Sofia gaining more attention than her. Sofia finally forgives her and the two of them reconcile and finally bond as true sisters, and together, they infiltrate Cedric's workshop to figure out how to undo the sleeping spell and awaken everyone once again. But, they end up running into Wormwood. After the woodland critters put Wormwood back in his cage and trick him into revealing where the counter spell book is, Sofia hears him and the group finds the counter spell behind one of the paintings. Later, Sofia sews Amber's gown and Amber gives her a dance lesson.
Sofia casts the counter-spell, and the ball proceeds as if nothing has happened. Cedric is upset his plans were ruined and leaves in a huff as Sofia dances with her father, now calling him "Dad" instead of "Your Majesty" for the first time. The dance soon develops with the whole family dancing together, having finally become a true family.
==Music==
As with many classic Disney movies, music plays an important role in Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess and the Sofia the First series. The movie features five original songs ranging in musical styles from contemporary pop in songs like "Rise and Shine" and ballads like "Not Ready to Be a Princess" to those with more of a traditional classic Disney feature film/Broadway-style like "Royal Prep" performed by Fauna, Flora, Merryweather, and the students; "True Sisters" performed by Sofia and Cinderella; and "A Little Bit of Food", a fun, upbeat song performed by Clover and his fellow animals that uncovers the mystery of why woodland creatures have been hanging around princesses for years.
===Songs===
*I'm Not Ready to Be a Princess
*Royal Prep
*A Little Bit Of Food
*True Sisters
*Rise and Shine
==Home Video Release==
*Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess
==Cast==
*Ariel Winter as Sofia
*Sara Ramirez as Queen Miranda
*Wayne Brady as Clover
*Tim Gunn as Baileywick
*Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
*Zach Callison as Prince James
*Travis Willingham as King Roland II
*Jess Harnell as Cedric the Sorcerer
*Ashley Eckstein as Mia
*Meghan Strange as Robin
*Barbara Dirickson as Flora
*Russi Taylor as Fauna
*Tress MacNeille as Merryweather
*Jennifer Hale as Cinderella
*Jim Cummings as Wormwood
*Fiona Bishop as Ruby Hanshaw
*Isabella Acres as Jade
*Maxim Knight as Prince Zandar
*Michaela Zee as Princess Jun
==Reception==
The special got the 5th most viewers for the week, with 5.151 million viewers in the United States, the highest for any Disney animated special since Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation! in 2009. It was #1 or #2 for several areas: Top cartoon, non-sports program, top 1-hour show, and top Disney show. It has the largest 2-5 crowd (1.5 million) since Atlantis SquarePantis from 2007. It was also Kids 6-11 (1.6 million/6.7 rating), and was the #2 scripted cable TV telecast in Total Viewers (5.151 million). Notably, the movie became the #1 cable TV telecast in 5 years in preschoolers 2-5 and in 10 years in Girls 2-5 (954,000/12.2 rating). On IMDB, the special has a 6.3 rating from 225 users. It also had 1.4 million adults watching it. The special's rival programs are 60 Minutes (CBS), Football Night in America (NBC), America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC), The Cleveland Show (FOX), and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (CBC & SRC, but in SRC's case it was followed by Et Dieu Créa A Laflaque at 7:30 PM).
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*This is the first Disney Jr. pilot special since the Little Einsteins special Our Huge Adventure, released in 2005.
*Jennifer Hale, the voice of Cinderella, did her own singing for the song "True Sisters" as Tami Tappan (who provided her singing voice in Cinderella III: A Twist in Time) was unable to make the recording.
*Miranda becomes the Queen of Enchancia, King Roland's second wife, and the Royal Family's matriarch.
*Sofia becomes Enchancia's second Princess and the Royal Family's youngest member.
*This episode premiered on Mickey Mouse's 84th anniversary.
*This is the first episode to features five songs. The second is "Forever Royal".
**Technically speaking, the series premiere and series finale of the show both feature five songs each.
*Sofia receives the Amulet of Avalor.
*Cedric begins plotting to steal the Amulet of Avalor from Sofia and take over Enchancia.
*This is the first time Amber gets jealous.
*Sofia learns that her amulet is magical.
*Sofia learns her amulet's rule.
*This is the first time Sofia's amulet grants her a blessing.
*Sofia gains the power to communicate with animals.
*Sofia meets Clover, Robin, Mia, and Whatnaught, who become her animal friends.
*Cinderella is the very first Princess summoned by the Amulet of Avalor.
*Cinderella's coach can be seen at the end.
*Flora and Merryweather fight about the color of King Roland's shoes is a nod to them fighting about Aurora's dress in Sleeping Beauty.
*For unknown reasons, this is the only episode of Sofia the First that is unavailable for streaming on Disney+.
**The episode has been uploaded to Disney Junior's YouTube channel as of August 25, 2024 to commemorate World Princess Week.
*Moral: Everyone deserves a second chance.
==Goofs==
*When Sofia arrives at the Enchancia Castle and gets out of the carriage, she is dressed as a commoner, but shortly after she immediately wears her new signature outfit as a princess when she is crowned.
*When Sofia arrives at her first class at Royal Prep, Jade is sitting to the right of Princess Jun, in the back of the room.
*When the princes pick up Sofia's books for her, her amulet is missing.
*After trying to take Sofia's amulet for the first time, Cedric points to an imaginary wristwatch. None of the characters in the entire series has a wristwatch.
*The lyrics of the song "True Sisters" imply Cinderella was never able to make amends with Anastasia and Drizella, even though she did make amends with the former in the Cinderella sequels.
**The amulet most likely summoned Cinderella from before the events of either sequel (or at least before "An Uncommon Romance"; the third and final story from Cinderella II: Dreams Come True).
==International premieres==
*April 13, 2013 (Italy)
*May 4, 2013 (Brazil)
pt-br:Princesinha Sofia: Era Uma Vez
Category:Television specials
Category:Animated films
Category:Sofia the First
Category:Pilots
Category:Films based on television shows
Category:Disney Princesses
Category:Cinderella