Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess

Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess is an animated special that first premiered on November 18, 2012 on Disney Channel and November 22, 2012 on Disney Jr. It serves as the pilot film for Sofia the First, which later premiered on January 11, 2013.

Overview

In the whimsical world of Enchancia, Sofia's ordinary life takes a dramatic turn when her mother marries King Roland II, transforming her into a princess. As she prepares to move into the castle with her new family, including step-siblings Amber and James, Sofia embarks on a royal journey of self-discovery. With guidance from the wise headmistresses of Royal Prep Academy - Fauna, Flora, and Merryweather - and support from loyal friends like Baileywick and a clever rabbit named Clover, Sofia learns that true royalty comes not from appearance, but from embracing values like honesty, loyalty, courage, and compassion, which shape her into a kind and real princess.

Plot

For the prologue of a new fairy tale, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty appear and introduce us to Sofia, a happy-go-lucky 8-year-old living with her mother, a Hispanic cobbler named Miranda who lives in the beautiful village of Dunwiddie. But then one fateful day, they are summoned for a shoe fitting by King Roland II, the king and ruler of Enchancia and the son of the former king Roland I. It's love at first sight for Roland and Miranda. They soon marry, making Miranda the new Queen of Enchancia and the Royal Family's Matriarch, and Sofia the kingdom's second princess and the Royal Family's youngest member. Sofia reaches at the castle and meets her new father; Baileywick, the castle steward; and Cedric, the Royal Sorcerer, who Sofia refers to as Mr. Ceedric to his irritation, and her new older siblings, Princess Amber and Prince James, the Royal Twins of Enchancia. While James accepts Sofia as his new little sister, Amber takes an instant jealousy of her. Roland accepts Sofia as his new daughter immediately, telling her "Call me Roland", or "You! With the crown!" or "Dad." when she continues to call him "Your Majesty." and tells her he's throwing a Royal Ball in honor of her Royal Debut, noting it the best way to let everyone in the Tri-Kingdom Area know Princess Sofia has arrived. Sofia is then brought to her new room in the castle.

Through a song, Sofia reveals her insecurities and her assumption that she is not prepared to be a princess because she knows being Royal has huge responsibilities and she knows she has no training or experience when it comes to fulfilling them. She finds her mother and informs her all this and that she doesn't want a Royal Ball because she doesn't know how to dance and doesn't want to let anyone down or embarrass herself. Miranda tells her to be herself and she'll be fine. Roland, who had been hearing to all this, steps out of the shadows and gives her a beautiful amulet as a welcome gift that he says is special and tells her she must vow to never take it off. Sofia happily accepts the gift and promises to wear it always and never let it out of her sight. On the way back to bed, Sofia bumps into Cedric who realizes her new amulet as truly the Amulet of Avalor and now wants it for himself so he can take over the kingdom.

The following day, Sofia, James, and Amber ride a flying Coach to the Royal Preparatory Academy. Once there, Sofia meets the headmistresses: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, the three good fairies. Sofia asks them to teach her how to be a true princess by Friday, the day of her Royal Debut Ball, but the fairies, through a song, tell her that becoming a true princess is something that takes time. Everyone takes an instant glow to Sofia, much to Amber's jealousy. Amber convinces James to give Sofia a ride on the Enchanted Swing Set. James does so, which makes everyone's smiles vanish. The swing ride sends Sofia into a fountain with a splash. Sofia laughs it off, stating "Good one, James. You got me." and leaves soaking wet. Everyone is shocked that Amber and James would do such a awful thing to their little sister with Zandar voicing it by stating "I thought you said she was your sister."

Meanwhile, a still drenched and now upset Sofia stumbles across a baby bird who had fallen out of its nest. She helps it back to its mother stating "There you go. Just the two of you. The way it should be." revealing how lonely she feels now that she's a princess and already misses the days when it was just her and her mother. Suddenly, her amulet glows and, to her shock, the birds say "thank you." When Sofia gets home, Cedric intercepts her and takes her to his workshop. Once there, Cedric uncovers to her that her amulet is the Amulet of Avalor, a magical item that contains powerful magic. He then clarifies its rule to her: "With each deed performed, for better or worse, a power is granted, a blessing or curse." Cedric asks Sofia to let him take a look at it, but Sofia refuses because she promised Roland she would never take it off and her mother instructed her that when she makes a promise she must keep it no matter what.

The next day, Sofia meets Clover, Robin, and Mia and discovers she can understand what they're saying. Recalling what Cedric told her about her amulet and helping the baby bird and the glow her amulet gave off, Sofia recognizes the first importance of her amulet's rule: When she does good deeds, her amulet gives her powers and that her amulet gives her the ability to talk to animals. Clover is pleased to hear this and, through a song, tells her the reason animals have always benefited princesses is because they want food, and Sofia, who's pleased to finally have new friends, obliges. A now assured Sofia dedicates herself to becoming the best princess ever both to fulfill her responsibilities as one and to prove herself to the other Royals, who she feels hold her in contempt.

When she comes home Thursday, she finds her old friends Ruby and Jade waiting for her. As she's serving them tea, James comes over and takes the teapot out of her hand and pours her friends tea. He apologizes for the trick he and Amber played on her and offers to make it up to her by showing her the ropes, which Sofia accepts. When she reveals she needs dance lessons, James tells her about Professor Popov's dance class the following day, one dance lesson, and Sofia will be prepared for the royal ball. Sofia was thrilled for the lessons, but what they didn't know is that Amber overheard the entire discussion and she came up with a mischievous scheme. Sofia reaches at dance class but before she can take some dance shoes, Amber comes over and hands her a pair. Sofia steps forward to acquire her dance lesson, but when the music begins, she begins to dance oddly. Sofia discovers these are trick shoes because of the glow they're giving off and stops long enough to catch a nasty look in Amber's eyes and realize that Amber tricked her again before she's sent crashing to the ground. Sofia gets really upset and throws a cushion aside and places the trick shoes on the carpet and gets her normal ones. Amber then feigns sympathy, only for Sofia's hateful glare to inform James who gave her those trick shoes, prompting him to give Amber a glare too, and Amber continues feigning sympathy, which Sofia doesn't fall for. When they get back to the carriage, Amber claims she must have grabbed them by mistake but Sofia doesn't buy a syllable of this because she knows that Amber gave them to her on purpose to ruin her dance lesson.

When Sofia gets home, she asks Cedric for a spell that will help her be a good dancer. He jots down a spell on a piece of paper and gives it to her but after she leaves, he reveals to Wormwood that the spell is actually a sleeping spell and that after it's cast, he plots to blackmail Sofia into handing over the amulet and take over the kingdom.

Meanwhile, before the ball, Amber is in her room preparing with the help of the maids, Suzette and Marcy. At that moment, James enters and says he needs to have a talk to his sister alone. The maids leave, and James immediately confronts Amber, telling her that she gave Sofia the trick shoes at school on purpose. However, Amber reminds him that he pulled a prank on Sofia too, but James insists that what she did wasn’t a prank and explains that Sofia needed those dance lessons. He then scolds Amber for trying to ruin Sofia's royal ball and adds that he knows why she did it. She's jealous that everyone likes Sofia more than her, and he adds that after what Amber did today, so does he. Amber, hurt, tells him he doesn't mean that, but James firmly responds, "Yes, I do," and storms out of the room.

Amber is left feeling ashamed and upset. She tries to call out to him, but as she turns, her gown gets caught under the leg of her vanity chair and rips. Horrified, she rings the bell to call the maids, but no one answers. She goes looking for them and overhears them in Sofia's room, gushing about how she's "the prettiest princess in the palace." Heartbroken by their words, Amber runs back to her room in tears.

At the start of the ball, Sofia arrives in a sparkling version of her princess gown, and everyone is astonished by how beautiful she is. She says the spell Cedric handed over to her, and to her horror, everyone falls asleep, even Cedric. Thinking she must have said it wrong and that she's all alone, Sofia breaks down and cries, feeling terrible for what she did. A tear drops on her amulet, and it begins to light up, summoning Cinderella. Sofia asks Cinderella how she got there, and Cinderella tells Sofia that her amulet summoned her and explains that it links all the princesses that ever were. Whenever the wearer of the Amulet of Avalor is in trouble or really needs help, it will summon a princess like herself to help. Cinderella asks Sofia why she's so sad. Sofia explains the situation to her, thinking she should just let everyone laugh at her, but Cinderella tells Sofia that Amber is still awake and can help her. Sofia hasn't forgiven Amber for all the things she did and is reluctant to trust her. However, Cinderella, through a song, convinces Sofia to give Amber another chance and then vanishes.

Sofia informs and shows Amber what happened, and Amber apologizes to Sofia for how she treated her and for the nasty things she did. She also explains that she was only jealous of Sofia receiving more attention than her. Sofia forgives her, and the two sisters finally bond as sisters in the true sense of the word. Together, they get the counter-spell. Sofia repairs Amber's dress, and Amber gives Sofia a dance lesson. Sofia says the counter-spell, and everyone in the ballroom awakens. Then, she and Roland dance together, with Sofia calling him "Dad" instead of "Your Majesty" for the first time. Sofia asks him why people call him Roland the Second. He tells her it's because his father was also named Roland. Sofia states, "Well, I guess that makes me Sofia the First." The waltz evolves into the whole family dancing together, having finally become a genuine family.

Transcript

Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess/Transcript

Music

As with many of the 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 style like "Royal Prep" performed by Fauna, Flora, and Merryweather; "True Sisters" performed by Sofia and Cinderella; and "A Little Bit of Food", a fun, upbeat song performed by Clover 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

Cast

• Ariel Winter as Princess 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/Suzette/Marcie
• Jim Cummings as Wormwood/Professor Popov
• Isabella Acres as Jade
• Fiona Bishop as Ruby Hanshaw
• Maxim Knight as Prince Zandar

Production

On December 12, 2011, Disney announced that Sofia the First would first be broadcast with a television film in the fall of 2012 before debuting as a regular series in early 2013. On September 19, 2012, a preview for the film was released on Disney Jr.'s YouTube channel, revealing its title to be Once Upon a Princess and its premiere date to be November 18.The official press release was published the following day.

Reception

The special got the 5th most viewers for the week, with 5.151 million viewers, 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 SquarePantisfrom 2007. It was also Kids 6-11 (1.6 million/6.7 rating) and was the #2 scripted cable TV telecast in Total Viewers (5.2 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 6.6 rating from 1,084 users. It also had 1.4 million adults watching it, and for Live + 7, it received 8.17 million viewers. The special's rival programs are America's Funniest Home Videos(ABC), The OT (7-7:30pm) and The Cleveland Show (7:30-8pm) (FOX), NFL (7-7:30pm) and 60 Minutes (7:30-8pm) (CBS), Football Night in America (NBC), and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (CBC & SRC, but in SRC's case it was followed by Et Dier Créa A Laflaque at 7:30pm).

Trivia

• This is the first Disney Jr. pilot special since Our HUGE Adventure from Little Einsteins, released in 2005.
• Jennifer Hale, the voice of Cinderella from Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, did her own singing in the special, as Tami Tappan (the singing voice of Cinderella from A Twist in Time) was unable to make the recording.
• Ironically, on December 7, 2012, shortly before a rerun of this special, the Disney Jr. channel aired Cinderella, on December 8, the special was followed by Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, and on December 9, it was followed by Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.
• Sofia is now the second Princess of Enchancia and the Royal Family's youngest member.
• Sofia receives the Amulet of Avalor.
• Cedric begins his plan to steal the Amulet of Avalor and take over Enchancia.
• 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.
• Miranda becomes the Queen of Enchancia, King Roland's second wife, and the Royal Family's matriarch.
• This special premiered to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 84th birthday.
• Cinderella's coach is seen near the end of the special.
  • This foreshadows Cinderella's appearance in the special.
• Production on the special started in early 2011.
• The early screening took place on November 14, 2012.
• Sofia meets Clover, Robin, Mia, and Whatnaught, who become her animal friends.
• Cinderella is the very first Princess summoned by the Amulet of Avalor.
• The DVD was released on March 25, 2013, while the read-along storybook and CD were released on July 30 that year.
• Flora and Merryweather fight about the color of King Roland's shoes is a not to them fighting about Aurora's dress in Sleeping Beauty.
• For unknown reasons, this special is not available for streaming on Disney+.
  • However, on August 25, 2024, the first day of that year's "World Princess Week", the special was released on the Disney Jr. YouTube channel as a Special Edition, one exact decade after one of its airings on Disney Channel, which was also part of the same event.
• This is the only Sofia the First episode/special to feature five songs until Sofia the First: Forever Royal. Those two specials began and ended the series, respectively.
• Moral: Everyone deserves a second chance to shine especially if they weren't being nice to you.