Atthe time, my cousins were watching shows on Nick Jr like Paw Patrol and shows on Disney Junior like Doc McStuffins and PJ Masks a lot, as they liked the shows on those channels a lot. By 10 PM, I was getting really bored, so I turned on the TV, and switched channels until I found something good. I decided to just put on Disney Junior, as a few of my cousins were still here at the time.
By 11 PM, the remainder of my cousins went to bed, but I stayed up. I decided to stay on the Disney Junior channel, I know it's weird for a 14 year old like me to watch this channel, but I just decided to watch it. An announcement for a new Sofia The First episode jumped on the screen, man that scared the crap out of me. I started getting confused all the sudden, Didn't Sofia The First end this September? I thought. I then thought this could have been a rerun of an older episode.
The announcer then said, "Coming up next; It's an all-new Sofia The First, followed by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Right here on Disney Junior and also streaming on Disney Plus!" I don't really know a lot about this show or the characters, but I know it's about a little girl named Sofia, and her mother marries the king, and Sofia is granted a powerful amulet that allows her to speak to animals, and the show teaches kids about random life traits. I will try and explain the best I can though.
The intro started off differently, they were 2 white bars on the right and left of the screen, and the screen looked a bit faded. The episode then began, and the title that appears right in front of the screen when the episode begins was titled, "Crown Cancer" with Sofia mentioning the title as usual. The first frame showed Sofia in her bedroom sleeping.
Doctor: I wish I was. I can actually cure her crazy coughing and make her paleness go away though, but that's the only thing I can do, but when she is having her final moments, it's going to come back. I suggest that you don't let Sofia know about this, and spend a bunch of time with her as you can.
The Next Day was a nice shiny morning today. Sofia got out of bed and got ready for a great day at Royal Prep Academy. She ate breakfast, and went out of the castle, where once again, Amber and James were waiting for her.
I was shocked to see something like this on a Disney Junior show. Blood has actually appeared on some Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior stuff like a Handy Manny Laptop in the "Safe" mini game where it's says that is it safe to prick yourself with a saw, but why on an innocent kids show like this?
Queen Miranda and King Roland came into the giant room, and then almost every character has entered the room, including Vivian, Amber, James, Minimus, Clover, the fairies, Oona, Sofia's village friends (forgot their names), The genie kid, Cedric, the bear cub that Sofia rescued, and more.
Sofia then closes her eyes. The guards now took the bed with the now "permanently asleep" princess on to a random outdoor area for a funeral. I was shocked at this, I was actually crying a bit, and I never cried in a long time, but a show for little kids actually made my tears drop.
Funeral Manager: Attention all citizens of Enchancia, we have lost a very important person, that person, or kid perhaps was called Sofia. She was always there when there was trouble, she was always helpful, and brave. She may have been a child, but she always knew how to protect Enchancia from danger. Would anyone like to come up and say some words about her?
Queen Miranda: Sofia was always a loyal daughter, she was kind, she never fussed, and she was good at making friends. I know she did not even get the chance to graduate from Royal Prep Academy, but she was still a gem to us.
Oona: When I first saw Sofia on that boat, I was scared, I thought she was a threat to Merroway Cove, but when she untangled the vines I was stuck in, I trusted her. She also rescued me from that sea monster that kidnapped me. I will miss her.
More characters came up and spoke about Sofia, but I forgot what they said sadly. After the funeral, everyone began to leave, and some people started crying, especially Sofia's parents. Clover on the other hand refused to leave Sofia, Clover jumped on Sofia's body and curled up on her.
The episode then ended, the end credits played with sad music playing in the background. I was crying at this point. This is how you end a show? I thought. Especially if it's for little kids. I called Disney Junior on my phone about this, and they knew what I was talking about. They told me that this episode is the alternate final episode of the series, and that this episode was supposed to be the series finale, but it was scrapped and replaced with the Forever Royal episode. But they decided to air it once on Disney Junior, so kids could learn about accepting life, and when you pass away, people will remember you. If you lost a loved one, just remember, they don't want you to be sad or depressed, they will always be in your heart. Don't let depression own you. Then they hung up.
When my son was 3 years old, he became a bumblebee for two weeks. It was his first year of preschool, and Miles had discovered the joy of make-believe. So he put on a bee costume every morning before school and happily buzzed out the door. A few weeks later, he discovered a princess dress in the school's costume bin and it was "goodbye bee, hello Belle." Soon after that, he moved on to the red Power Ranger.
Watching Miles square off against imaginary foes reminded me of when I was a child, pretending to fly spaceships in a galaxy far, far away. Fantasy is such a big part of childhood -- whether it's playtime or story time. The characters Miles emulated may be different than the ones I grew up with, but the love of make-believe was the same.
Around this same time, my wife and I had begun to introduce him to television. Some shows were entertaining, some were educational and a small number were both. There were shows that he loved but I couldn't sit through, and others that had enough of a story or fun approach to the educational content that both of us could enjoy. And although the former were great, if I wanted to check emails or take much-needed catnaps, I appreciated the latter because it meant we could experience the show together and discuss what he had seen or learned.
So when Nancy Kanter at Disney Junior approached me about whether I had any ideas for a television show for 2 to 7-year-olds centered around a princess, I immediately was excited at the prospect. For starters, I would get to create a fantasy world from the enchanted ground up and hopefully provide a fresh take on one of the most enduring genres -- the princess fairy tale. The storyteller in me -- and my inner child -- were already jumping up and down.
But the parent in me wanted something more. Fantasy stories have always been a terrific way to deliver life lessons. Little Red Riding Hood warns us not to trust strangers. Beauty and the Beast teaches us that true beauty comes from within. So by setting a show in a fun storybook world, I could make like Mary Poppins and use a spoonful of fantasy sugar to help the message medicine go down. My child would be entertained, but also learn how to be a better person and work through social problems at an age where such lessons are especially crucial.
It all sounded great. There was only thing missing: The idea. For that, I had to look no further than my son's childhood -- and my own. I had noticed that Miles emulated a lot of fantasy characters that he didn't really have anything in common with. That, of course, is part of the allure. Being someone else. But, I thought, what if that "someone else" was just a little bit older than Miles and going through a lot of the same situations Miles was going through? Starting school. Getting along with new friends or new siblings. How to deal with adversity. Not throwing the marker across the room because the circle he's drawing isn't perfectly round. I saw that Miles could use a fantasy character who was a reflection of himself -- serving as a kind of magic mirror that would allow him to enjoy the fantasy while strongly identifying with the situations playing out in the show.
That was the genesis of Princess Sofia, the main character in what would eventually become Sofia the First, the forthcoming Disney Junior TV movie and series. Sofia is a school-aged princess that every little girl (or boy) could relate to. But there needed to be more to the story. And that's where my childhood comes in.
My parents divorced when I was 8. My father remarried several years later and had a son with his new wife -- which gave me a half-brother. However, I lived with a single mother, and for a while, with her boyfriend and his daughter. So I also had a de-facto stepsister for a time. Growing up in outer suburbia, I thought my family situation was unusual, but as I got older, I found that blended families were much more common. And typical childhood issues were often magnified when stepsiblings and parents came into the picture.
So decades later, in trying to bring a modern perspective to an age-old fairy tale world, it suddenly occurred to me -- what if Sofia wasn't always a princess? What if she was a normal girl whose single mother married the King and she became a princess overnight? And what if the King already had two children, giving Sofia two step-siblings whom she had to get along with? Admittedly, step-sisters aren't a new idea to fairy tales. Just ask Cinderella. But creating a blended royal family, with both a father and a mother present, did seem like a great way to tell fantastic stories that modern children could relate to. Plus, the character of Sofia could be a bold, curious, smart young girl who takes on the role of being a young princess like any child undertaking a new, exciting adventure. In a world where many young girls want to dress up as princesses, Sofia could serve as a positive role model, displaying traits and learning lessons that young girls (or boys) will retain long after they trade in their gowns for other costumes.
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