On May 25th, Disney Jr. debuted Sofia the First: Royal Magic, the sequel to Sofia the First. From 2012-2018 we watched this 8-year-old learn how to be royalty; now she has to learn how to be magical.
In the original series there was an episode called “The Royal School Fair.” Sofia had to choose where to go after graduating from Royal Prep. After finding out that nothing is permanent, she chooses EverRealm Academy with Amber. Since the fair, reformed Miss Nettle created Charmswell School for Royal Magic, where princes and princesses from all over the EverRealm come to learn potions, charms, and sorcery. As always, Sofia’s friends and family, as well as Disney Princesses (this time they will not always come via amulet), will help her on her journey.
Welcome to Charmswell
While the rest of the episodes are split into 2 adventures, the first episode is one adventure similar to the original series. The first episode is called “Welcome to Charmswell.” It focuses on Sofia’s first day of school, where she meets her new friends.
At Charmswell, there are mini castle clubhouses where the students hang out to practice their lessons. Each castle is named after one of the three good fairies and headmistresses of Sofia’s former school, Royal Prep. Sofia is assigned to Castle Merryweather along with her new best friends, Layla, Camila, Zane, and the clubhouse pet puppercorn (puppy-unicorn hybrid) Pepper, each with their own personality that is similar to her friends’ in the original series.
Layla just became the princess of Mazzouk and is learning how to be royal, similar to Sofia in the original series. she is also very good at enchanted gardening; her counterpart in the original series is Desmond.
Camila is from Maralinda and is obsessed with magic and has even used some spells on her own; her counterpart is Lucinda.
Zane from Gloomshire has a magical mandolin that can change a person’s mood by the type of song he plays; if he plays a happy tune, the people who hear it become happy. Even though she doesn’t have a magical mandolin, Vivian would be his counterpart.
In the first episode, Sofia and her friends have a race against the other castles to put their castle flag together first and have the chance of choosing their castle pet, a unicorn, a dragon, or a griffin.
During their first challenge, they have to get past some puppercorns, which Sofia thinks wouldn’t be hard since she can talk to animals. Unfortunately, even asking nicely, Pepper, a puppercorn with a vast vocabulary, won’t let them get past forcing them to figure out a way to get around the pack of puppercorns. Sofia suggests that Camila use her here-to-there spell, a transportation spell, to get past the puppercorns and grab the first piece of the flag.
After getting the first piece Pepper decides to join the four friends for the rest of the race. Pepper is very energetic and loves helping others; his counterpart would be Crackle.
For the second piece, they have to visit the enchanted greenhouse where Zane gets trapped in a flower, and with Layla’s knowledge of enchanted gardening, they are able to free Zane.
The last piece is in the enchanted ballroom, but with puppercorns having bad eyesight, Pepper accidentally ruins the map.
With Zane’s musical knowledge, they are able to find the ballroom but have trouble getting past the chairs, after the second attempt, Zane starts heading for the door, and Sofia loses confidence in the group, with a little encouragement from Pepper, Sofia gathers her friends, and Zane figures out how to get past the chairs.
Even with their classmate Devin, a pompous prince who is in Castle Flora, putting obstacles in their way, Castle Merryweather wins the race, and instead of choosing one of the three creatures, Miss Nettle allows the group to choose Pepper as their castle pet.
After winning the race, the students go into their castle clubhouses, but when a small light catches Sofia’s eye, she goes to investigate and finds out that Rapunzel rode Minimus all the way from Corona with a very important message. Rapunzel informs her that the Amulet of Avalor has made her the most magical princess in the EverRealm and that she needs to master her magic to keep everyone safe.
After letting Rapunzel know that she will do her best, Sofia returns to her friends and goes into the castle ready to shine.
This episode is the only episode where it is one 30-minute adventure; the rest will be two 11-minute segments.
The first eight episodes are streaming on Disney+.