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- “Come meet the new girl in crown.”
- ―Tagline
Sofia the First is a 3D computer-animated television series that aired from January 11, 2013 to September 8, 2018 on Disney Jr. The series' pilot film, Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess, premiered on November 18, 2012. The series stars Ariel Winter as the voice of the titular character, who is a young girl standing on the verge of becoming a proper, royal princess. The show went off the air for two years on December 9, 2018, before returning again in reruns at 6am on November 30, 2020, starting with the pilot movie.
It introduces Sofia, a little girl with a commoner's background until her mother (voiced by Sara Ramirez) marries King Roland II and she becomes royalty.
Synopsis[]
The series follows the adventures of Sofia, a young girl who becomes a princess overnight after her mother marries the king. Sofia tries her best to adapt to her new life being a princess and has her stepbrother and sister James and Amber to help her along with the headmistresses of the Royal Preparatory Academy Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, the Three Good Fairies from Disney's classic Sleeping Beauty and, when Sofia is at her darkest hours, classic Disney Princesses are there for her whenever Sofia needs help.
Sofia learns that looking like a princess isn't all that hard, but behaving like one must come from the heart. The stories focus on the idea that what makes a real princess is what's on the inside. The show highlights character qualities such as kindness, courage, generosity, loyalty, honesty, and grace. Subjects such as sincerity and forgiveness are heavily focused on. She has the magical and incredibly powerful Amulet of Avalor that allows her to talk with animals, shrink, and even turn into a mermaid. However, her amulet is coveted by the sorcerer Cedric, who desires its tremendous magical power to take over the kingdom of Enchancia.
Characters[]
- Princess Sofia - A young village girl who became a princess after her mother married King Roland II. She is upbeat, outgoing, adventurous, and loves the outdoors. Ever since she was brought into the royal family, she became the bearer of the mystical Amulet of Avalor, which gave her the ability to understand animal speech (they can understand her without the amulet). It can also summon Disney Princesses to help her.
- Princess Amber - Sofia's stepsister, James' twin sister, King Roland's daughter, and Queen Miranda's stepdaughter. She is stoic, vain, spoiled, sassy, jealous, impatient, but nonetheless, a good friend. Honoring her title as princess, she devotes her life to a huge liking of jewelry and keeping everything clean and pristine.
- Prince James - Sofia's stepbrother, Amber's twin brother, Roland's son and Miranda's stepson. Unlike Amber, he is adventurous and outgoing.
- Queen Miranda - Sofia's mother, Roland's wife, and the stepmother of the royal twins.
- King Roland II - Sofia's stepfather, Miranda's husband, the father of the royal twins, and the ruler of Enchancia.
- Cedric the Sensational - The royal sorcerer of Enchancia. He is described as a great and impressive sorcerer by the Good Fairies. He has a raven named Wormwood and lives in a tower. He is the son of the previous royal sorcerer, now retired with Cedric's mother. Cedric has also referred to having a sister who stole from him, who he has never forgiven. He has a sister named Cordelia and her daughter Calista is Cedric's niece. He secretly longs to take over the kingdom to bring glory to sorcerers everywhere. Ever since Sofia wore the Amulet, he fails repeatedly at stealing it, and the one time he managed to, was unable to use it to take over the kingdom due to its cursing.
- Clover - A rabbit and friend of Sofia with the help of the Amulet. He usually thinks of eating constantly.
- Baileywick - The castle steward. Being a workaholic, he does his job well though he did fall into a few accidents. He can be overprotective of Sofia at times, but she doesn't really mind most of the time.
- Robin - A robin and friend of Sofia.
- Mia - A bluebird and friend of Sofia.
Episodes[]
- Main article: List of Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Original airing (U.S. dates) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | |||
| Pilot | November 18, 2012 | |||
| 1 | 24 | January 11, 2013 | February 14, 2014 | |
| 2 | 28 | March 7, 2014 | July 22, 2015 | |
| 3 | 29 | August 5, 2015 | March 31, 2017 | |
| 4 | 26 | April 28, 2017 | September 8, 2018 | |
Merchandise[]
A range of Sofia the First merchandise has been produced everywhere in the world.
Trivia[]
- The animations in Seasons Two and Three are lighter and smoother than those in Season One.
- Purple is the most common and favored color throughout the series due to it being Sofia's signature color.
- Cinderella is the only princess from Walt's lifetime (the other two being Snow White and Aurora) to sing in the show; namely the song "True Sisters" in Once Upon a Princess.
- Pocahontas and Moana are the only Disney Princesses who did not make guest appearances in the show.
- Pocahontas did not appear because the producers found it difficult to do a story for her that worked.
- Moana never appeared for reasons unknown, although it could be that the show ended less than two years after her debut movie was released.
- Although not official Disney Princesses, Anna and Elsa never appeared as Disney's theatrical division did not allow the series' producers to use them as they were working on Frozen II, but did allow them to use Olaf.
- Of the living original voice actresses of the Disney Princesses, three did not reprise their roles:
- Mary Costa, the original voice of Aurora, was 82 years old when the series began and had long since retired from acting.
- Paige O'Hara, the original voice of Belle, had been replaced by Julie Nathanson in 2011 because she could not match the character's tone as easily as she could 20 years ago.
- Kelly Macdonald, the original voice of Merida, likely did not return because she lives in Glasgow, Scotland.
- In the episode "The Princess Test", the Royal Preparatory Academy's students learn there are one hundred and thirty-eight kingdoms. That does not count two kingdoms revealed throughout the series: Merroway Cove and Hakalo. Only the Royal Family of Enchancia (Princess Sofia and her parents and siblings) knows about these two kingdoms.
- Sofia was the only Princess at Royal Prep to ride a horse, but now Amber does. In "Substitute Cedric", Maya can be seen wearing a Derby uniform.
- Sofia the First was the last Disney Jr. show to be removed from Netflix (which was October 9, 2022).
- Because Playhouse Disney was not renamed to Disney Junior in Russia until September 1, 2013, the DVD has the Playhouse Disney Russia Logo (just in the Russian version), however, as another future episodes after the renamed of the Channel, they still use the Disney Junior Original Logo.
- On November 17, 2022 (a day before the tenth anniversary of Once Upon a Princess), both Disney Jr. and creator Craig Gerber announced on X and other social media platforms that a new series based on Sofia the First would be in the works. Disney Jr. announced this again on the show's 11 year anniversary on their Facebook and Instagram pages. The new series will be called Sofia the First: Royal Magic.
- As of 2025, Sofia the First is the fourth biggest series by Disney Television Animation to have the most amount of episodes produced for it, following Jake and the Never Land Pirates (#3), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (#2), and Phineas and Ferb (#1).
- Not only that, but the series has the most amount of episodes with a female protagonist since the others have a male.