Review: Sofia The First – “The Curse of Princess Ivy”

Spoilers Below

While I’ve never actually watched an episode of Sofia The First, I have heard all about it from friends’ kids. Sofia started life as a commoner but became a princess when her mother married the king. Now she lives in a castle with her mother, step-father, step-sister, and step-brother. She received a magical amulet from her step-father that allows her to speak with animals and summons princesses when she is in danger. Apparently, she gets into a lot of danger.

In “The Curse of Princess Ivy,” Sofia’s step-sister, Amber, figures out that Sofia can talk with animals. When Amber asks how it is done, Sofia confesses she has a magical amulet. Of course, Amber is immensely jealous and demands her father give her a necklace just as special. When her demands are rebuked, Amber steals the amulet instead. Amber tries to summon a princess, specifically Rapunzel, with the amulet but a new princess, called Princess Ivy, comes instead.

Ivy pretends to be Amber’s friend as the two wander around the castle. When Sofia finds out that Amber stole her amulet, she rushes off to warn Amber of the amulet’s curse. If the amulet is used with bad intentions (stealing it and trying to call a princess to be your BFF is a bad intention), the amulet curses the user. In this particular instance, the curse is Princess Ivy. We learn (via a song sung by Ivy herself) that Ivy was a princess in her own black-and-white (and grey) world but her sister became queen. Ivy tried to overthrow her sister and ended up banished to a remote island when the stolen amulet called her forth to this color-filled world. The evil princess has decided to use her color-stealing butterflies and memory-stealing dragonflies to take over this new world and have a kingdom of her own. But first she has to destroy the amulet.

Sofia and Amber visit the wizard, Cedric, to find out if the amulet can be destroyed. In classic Disney fashion, the only way it can be destroyed is by a dragon’s fire breath. Ivy’s butterflies overhear this conversation and relay the information back to the evil princess. So Ivy heads to the mountain where Everburn, the oldest dragon, lives. Sofia, Amber, and Cedric follow them in a winged carriage pulled by a pegasus.

As Ivy tries to get Everburn to destroy the necklace, the ragtag team of princesses (and wizard) get delayed by a dragon acapella group. Amber tricks the singing dragons into telling them where Everburn lives. The group finds Everburn’s cavern just as he is getting prepared to breathe fire on the amulet. Luckily, they save the amulet before it can be destroyed. Unfortunately, Ivy chases the girls back outside, where they fall into a crack in the mountainside. Even though Sofia still has the amulet, Ivy decides to go back to the castle to overthrow the king and queen.

This is when Amber finally decides to apologize for her horrible behavior, which re-energizes the amulet. Since the girls are technically in danger and no else can save them, the amulet calls forth Rapunzel. The blonde-haired princess (no, the show does not explain why she has long blonde hair again instead of the short brown hair she had at the end of the movie) throws her braid into the mountain crack so the girls can climb up. All five dragons fly the heroes back to the castle in order to defeat Ivy. On the way, Rapunzel sings a song telling Amber how to properly redeem herself from her terrible actions. Her work done, Rapunzel disappears back to her own kingdom.

When the princesses get back to the castle, they find that Ivy has erased the memories of the rest of their family members. Ivy threatens to erase Amber’s memory if Amber doesn’t steal back the amulet. When Amber refuses, Ivy erases her memory. However, the curse is broken anyway and Ivy gets teleported back to her own world. Everyone wakes up but no one (except Sofia) can remember anything that happened that day. Meaning that Amber doesn’t remember anything about Sofia’s magical amulet.

While I really liked Sofia The First, there were some huge problems with the show. Anna Camp (probably most known for Pitch Perfect right now) voiced Princess Ivy. Unfortunately, the one song that Ivy had was absolutely awful. I’m not sure if Camp purposely sang the song badly or if it was the writers’ fault, but, either way, it hurt my ears. They also didn’t explain why Rapunzel suddenly had her hair powers back. I get that this is the princess version that everyone knows and wants, not the brown haired version, but you can’t have her sing a song about how Flynn Rider redeemed himself AND have the hair power. Either this takes place before she met Flynn or after their movie adventures. You can’t have it both ways. That was the very first question my daughter asked when Rapunzel showed up. (Note: my daughter is 12 and Sofia is aimed at first graders. I still think younger kids would realize that Rapunzel’s hair is different.) Otherwise, there were some very cliche moments that took place. Since it is Disney, I’m giving them some leeway on this.

Overall, the show was actually good. Sure, there are a few mistakes but none of them are enough to write the show off completely. It is definitely a good show for the younger kids to watch. Some older kids might enjoy it too. Especially with the Disney princess cameos in every episode.