"Winter's Gift" is a Christmas-themed episode of the Disney Jr. animated series, Sofia the First. It premiered on December 12, 2014. It is the forty-third episode by series and is the nineteenth episode by season.
Overview[]
Sofia helps a young faun named Winter who has been cursed by an ice witch.
Plot[]
It's Wassailia, and Sofia wakes up to finds a present on her bed with Clover inside it. Sofia thanks Clover and shows him the gift she made for Cedric: A wand case for his wand. But when she goes up to give it to him, she hears him ranting about how he wants a special gift. This makes Sofia feel her gift isn't special enough and goes off looking for another one. When she meets Baileywick, he tells her about Ice Lilies, which gives her an idea of the perfect gift to get Cedric for Wassailia.
She and Clover head out into the forest and meet up with Whiskers the Fox, an old friend of Clover's. He agrees to take them to the Ice Lilies. On the way, they meet a faun named Winter, who is playing music from her flute. Winter tells Sofia the reason she's out in the Icicle Forest is that she's also looking for Ice Lilies to give them to Glacia the Ice Witch. A year ago, Winter gave all the wood crystals she could find to Glacia, who does spells for people who bring her gifts every year on Wassailia, in exchange for the ice touch because she heard about a princess with ice powers and thought it would be cool to have a magical power. Glacia granted her request and gave her the ice touch. At first, Winter thought it was a nice power until she froze her pet goldfinch Feathers by mistake. She now wants to find a gift for Glacia and ask her to remove the ice touch. Sofia agrees to help her new friend find the perfect gift for Glacia.
Together, thanks to Whisker's information network and Winter's ice touch, they manage to find the Ice Lilies, and Clover and Whiskers get them for the girls in a competitive way. But Clover falls out of the tree and Winter catches him and freezes him solid in the process by accident, to Winter's horror. They head for Glacia's palace, but Glacia, because she already has hundreds of Ice Lilies, refuses to remove the ice touch. A saddened Winter runs off into the woods with Sofia going after her.
Sofia is at a loss of what to do when her amulet starts to glow. The frozen Clover recognizes this means a princess summoning is happening and Tiana appears. After Sofia asks her how can Winter find a perfect gift for Glacia, Tiana tells her that a true gift comes from the heart. This inspires Sofia to tell Winter she should use her music and make one of her songs a gift for Glacia. Winter does so, which makes Glacia happy enough to remove the ice touch and undo all the freezings. Glacia reveals that the reason she was so bitter is that she was tired of receiving trinkets from selfish people who only see her when they want something and Winter's gift was the first true gift she has ever received. Winter and Sofia both go to their own homes to celebrate Wassailia with their families, including Clover and Whiskers. Finally, Cedric and Sofia both give each other gifts and Cedric likes the wand case she made for him. Cedric then uses his wand to light the candle on the Wassailia tree while snow rotates around it and he and Sofia wish each other a happy Wassailia.
Home Video Release[]
Cast[]
- Ariel Winter as Princess Sofia
- Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
- Wayne Brady as Clover
- Anika Noni Rose as Tiana
- Jess Harnell as Cedric the Sorcerer, Reindeer (credited as additional voices)
- Tyler Merna as Prince James
- Alyson Hannigan as Winter
- Phylicia Rashad as Glacia the Ice Witch
- Nick Offerman as Whiskers
- Travis Willingham as King Roland II
- Sara Ramirez as Queen Miranda
- Tim Gunn as Baileywick
Transcript[]
The transcript for Winter's Gift may be viewed here.
Songs[]
Goofs[]
Amber's right arm missing.
- In the scene where Cedric lights the candle on the Wassailia tree, Amber's right arm is missing.
Videos[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Viewership: This episode was watched by 1.658 million viewers on its premiere.[1]
- This is the second Christmas-themed episode, the first was "Holiday in Enchancia".
- Tiana is the ninth Disney Princess to appear on the show.
- The first was Cinderella in Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess.
- The second was Jasmine in "Two to Tangu".
- The third was Belle in "The Amulet and the Anthem".
- The fourth was Ariel in Sofia the First: The Floating Palace.
- The fifth was Aurora in "Holiday in Enchancia".
- The sixth was Snow White in "The Enchanted Feast".
- The seventh was Mulan in "Princesses to the Rescue!".
- The eighth was Rapunzel in Sofia the First: The Curse of Princess Ivy.
- Ironically, this episode premiered 5 years and a day after the release of The Princess and the Frog.
- Sofia's blue nightgown is pink in this episode, and this is the second episode in which Sofia wears a different nightgown, the first was in "The Baker King" after King Roland accidentally wished he was a village baker.
- Among the episodes in this series that feature a Disney Princess right after the previous episode that also features a Disney Princess, this is the second. The first is The Floating Palace and "Holiday in Enchancia".
- Coincidentally, both were television specials followed by a Christmas-themed episode.
- Winter mentions a princess with ice powers which could possibly be referring to Elsa from Frozen. However, Elsa is currently Queen.
- Mama Odie is mentioned in this episode.
- This is the third episode to have a different closing credits sequence and the second to be Christmas-themed.
- This is currently the last episode of the series to air on the Disney Channel; it last aired on the channel and the Disney Jr. channel on August 25, 2023, airing after the Disney Princess episodes "The Amulet and the Anthem" (August 21), "Princesses to the Rescue!" (August 22), "Two to Tangu" (August 23), and "The Enchanted Feast" (August 24), as part of "World Princess Week".
- That date also marked the last time the series aired on television until August 31, 2024, when The Floating Palace aired on the Disney Jr. Channel.
- Sofia meeting Winter is similar to Lucy Pevensie meeting Tumnus from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a few elements, in the scene and the episode's plot.
- The Girl meets the Faun in a winter setting unintentionally and befriends them.
- The Girl is the youngest child, the most curious, the most adventurous, the most inquisitive, and is either a royal (Sofia) or would become one (Lucy). The girl also asks what kind of creature they are in which they are told.
- The Faun mentions that they have a family, wears some article of winter clothing, plays a woodwind musical instrument, and is associated with a witch with some power over ice and snow that casts a spell on them (granting one ice powers (Winter) and turning the other to stone (Tumnus)), but in the end both spells are lifted.
- Winter's ice touch parodies Elsa's snow powers.
- This is the last episode to air and be produced in 2014 according to the credits.
- Moral: How good a gift is, is the feeling and the thought that has been put into it.
References[]
- ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (December 15, 2014). Showbuzz Daily's Top 25 Friday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 12.12.2014. Showbuzz Daily. Archived from the original on December 28, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2024.