Image Credit: Disney Junior
Want to offer Disney’s newest princess a royal welcome? Just set your DVRs for Friday, Jan. 11, when the animated series Sofia the First premieres on Disney Channel and Disney Junior. The first episode airs at 9:30 a.m. ET on the former and 5:30 p.m. ET on the latter.
Audiences first met Sofia earlier this month, when her TV movie bowed to impressive ratings. READ FULL STORY »
The new Disney Channel animated princess TV movie Sofia The First: Once Upon A Princess is a hit, debuting with a total of 5.2 million viewers Sunday night. The movie, which features the voices of Ariel Winter, Sara Ramirez, Tim Gunn and Wayne Brady, was also the top cable telecast for kids aged 2-5 of the past five years. It will re-air on Disney Channel all week long.
The good showing, after weathering earlier controversy, seems to bode well for an animated series about Sofia scheduled to start in January (a specific premiere date will be announced soon). The series will “continue Sofia’s journey of becoming the best she can be, with relatable situational stories, set in a magical world of castles, wizards and flying horses, designed to provide kids 2-7 fundamental lessons about developing social skills,” according to the press release.
Did you watch Sofia? Did it live up to your expectations? Any hopes for the series?
Image Credit: Disney Junior
[UPDATE Oct. 23: Disney Junior has followed up on this report about Sofia's ethnicity with a few statements.
Nancy Kanter, senior vice president of original programming and general manager of Disney Junior Worldwide, posted a statement on the 'Sofia the First' Facebook page. "Some of you may have seen the recent news stories on whether Sofia is or isn't a 'Latina princess.' What’s important to know is that Sofia is a fairytale girl who lives in a fairytale world," she wrote, going on to explain that the fictitious country Galdiz "was inspired by Spain." The full statement is here.
Kanter met with Alex Nogales, the president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, about the character. "[Kanter] shared that ‘Sofia the First’ is in fact not a Latina character and that the producer of the television program misspoke,” Nogales wrote on NHMC’s Facebook page. He also mentions an upcoming Disney Junior project that “does have a Latina as the heroine of the show.” EW has confirmed that Disney Junior is developing this project.
Co-executive producer Craig Gerber also posted a statement on the ‘Sofia the First’ Facebook page, elaborating on Sofia’s heritage. He also adds that the princess’ birth father is from another fictional, unnamed country based on Scandinavia. Enchancia, the country where Sofia is now princess, is “a make-believe ‘melting pot’ kingdom patterned on the British Isles,” Gerber wrote.]
Original Entry: Over the past two decades, the ranks of Disney princesses (or Disney leading ladies, if you’re going to get technical), have become more and more diverse with the introduction of Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tiana. Tiana really had folks talking for months before the release of 2009′s The Princess and the Frog because she was the first black Disney princess. But now Disney is about five weeks away from the introduction of its next princess — the House of Mouse’s first Hispanic princess.
Princess Sofia will make her debut the Disney Channel on Nov. 18 in TV movie Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess, ahead of a 2013 TV series on both Disney Channel and Disney Junior. The TV movie and the show are geared toward viewers age 2-7. READ FULL STORY »
Tim Gunn isn’t just a catchphrase-wielding mentor for wannabe fashion designers.
He’ll also voice Baileywick, the prim-and-proper (sound familiar?) and overly organized royal steward, in Disney Channel’s upcoming animated television movie Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess.
The animated princess movie will premiere on Disney Channel in November, followed by a series early next year. In addition to Gunn, the TV movie will star Ariel Winter (Alex on Modern Family) as the voice of Princess Sofia, and Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy) as her mother.
Check out an exclusive first look at the dapper Gunn’s Baileywick below: READ FULL STORY »
