Cedric the Sorcerer is the main antagonist (and sometimes the antihero) of the Disney Junior series Sofia the First. He is the Royal Sorcerer of Enchancia and is voiced by Jess Harnell.
Background
Physical Appearance
He is tall and thin, with a long pointed nose and pale skin. He has black hair with gray bangs and wears a long purple robe and a large yellow bow-tie. He also is always seen wearing a pair of fingerless gloves.
Personality
- “Soon they'll see I'm meant to be King Cedric the Great!”
- ―Cedric in Song
Cedric is a bumbling sorcerer whose spells often don't work very well, though he takes great pride in, and often brags about, his abilities. He wants to steal Sofia's Amulet of Avalor, hoping to use it to take over the kingdom and reign as a dictator-like king. In order to achieve this, he often tries to trick Sofia into giving it to him, though his attempts usually fail, due to his bumbling nature. Sofia often mispronounced his name as "Cee-dric" rather than "Said-Rick," which annoyed him to no end. However, she dropped this when the second season began, much to his relief.
Though his motives may speak otherwise, Cedric is not truly evil. He desires power merely to prove to those that mock him that he is capable of greatness and it has been revealed that Cedric is very much aware and hurt by how poorly others regard him. One of the main reasons most of his spells fail is actually shown to be due to how easily he gets nervous, especially in the presence of King Roland.
Also, despite having the looks and desires of his mother, he has a code of morality--he will not directly harm anyone, though he does manipulate, and he does not let anyone unnecessarily suffer and will always pay back debts, or at least try to. Cedric also hates cheating, even though he is unafraid of lying. He also is easily and heavily ashamed when he does things wrong.
While Cedric is devious and conniving, he is not without a heart. In fact, it was during the episode "Cedric's Apprentice" that Cedric was visibly touched by Sofia's kindness towards him and was grateful when she purposefully spilled a potion on herself during a performance in order to help him display his magical abilities before King Roland and the visiting King Magnus. At this point, he declined to use an invisibility potion that he had concocted to steal the amulet, instead using it to show off his magic more. Later, he stated to Wormwood that they could always take over the kingdom tomorrow. In episodes following this, he is indeed shown to still be plotting ways to steal Sofia's amulet for the purpose of taking over the kingdom.
When he finally got the Amulet, he intended to use a rare potion to pluck specific powers from the Amulet to help him take over the kingdom, but made the mistake of putting it on before using the potion, thus enabling him to be cursed. Throughout the episode Cedric's good side clashed with his bad side. As much as he liked helping people and getting powers, his desire to take over the kingdom proved stronger, getting him constanly cursed. To avoid further curses he switched the Amulet's back proving once again he can do the right thing.
Abilities
Though magical, his spells often do not go very well. The strength and accurateness of his spells depend on his self confidence, which could be the reason he usually messes up his spells. Its been noted when people believe in him or treat him with respect his spells work perfectly. Surprisingly, Cedric is a very good teacher as he was able to teach the Royal Prep students, without being able to wave his own wand due to a sticky spell. Once Cedric earned his Family Wand, his magic greatly improved. This gave him confidence, which led to him earning more respect from Roland, and ultimately leaving his tower.
Relationships
King Roland II
Cedric voices his disdain for King Roland often. His animosity towards the king is likely due to the fact that King Roland is constantly criticizing him. However, he has shown that he often becomes nervous when asked to do something for King Roland.
Goodwyn the Great and Winifred
Cedric's father, Goodwyn the Great, was the Royal Sorcerer of Enchancia before he was and was considered the greatest sorcerer the kingdom had ever had, saving the king's life many times (nine-and-a-half). While Goodwyn was honest and moralistic, his wife Winifred the Wise, Cedric's mother, was vain and ambitious while doting on her son, encouraging Cedric to make the wrong decisions. Cedric seems to get along better with his mother, while having a more hostile relationship with his father. This is likely due to the fact that his mother coddles him, while his father tries to push him in the right direction. His relationship with his father may also be the result of how often Cedric is compared to him and frequently said to not be as good as he was. Both of Cedric's parents seem to exasperate him at times. However, Cedric gained his father's trust and the family wand in "Mystic Meadows" thanks to Sofia, who Winifred said was the only friend he'd ever had.
Princess Amber
Amber, when she demands magical assistance from him due to her own selfish deeds or urges, can get on his nerves as well.
Wormwood
The only one Cedric seems to hold in high esteem - besides himself - is his loyal raven Wormwood, nicknamed "Wormy", with whom he often converses. However, unlike Sofia, due to not bearing the Amulet, Cedric does not possess the ability to actually understand what Wormwood is saying.
Princess Sofia
Cedric is shown to have a love/hate relationship with Sofia. Sofia absolutely adores Cedric and admires him but Cedric is for the most part annoyed by her. When Sofia first arrived at the castle, Cedric was the only one besides Amber who didn't give her a warm welcome and, when he saw Sofia's amulet, he began plotting to take it from her. However, he also shows a soft side toward Sofia because of her affectons for him and was relieved when she started saying his name right.
Miscellaneous
He seems rather impassive towards James, Baileywick and all the other residents of the castle; as they in particular seem to stay out of his way and have made no attempt to irk him.
In the episode "King for a Day" he was slightly annoyed with James, who kept asking for things without acknowledging Cedric for creating the things he wanted in the first place. In the end he was visibly touched that James told his father how much he helped and wasn't angry when his first attempt at a door failed due to his shrunk wand because no one laughed at him.
In "Substitute Cedric", he was initially not thrilled with teaching Sofia's sorcery class. That changed when Hexely Hall students descended on Royal Prep for Prank Day, which used to be Cedric's favorite day. When he got stuck to his chair, he taught the class the Sorcerer's Secret, which is to never give up and keep trying until you get it right, something he learned from a kind teacher when he was at school. In the end, Cedric got the admiration he was looking for, and decided to finish teaching the class. Cedric also may have hinted at the end of the episode that Wormwood was once a pet rock, because he said his favorite spell is the rock turned into raven spell.
Gallery
Trivia
- In the episode "The Big Sleepover", Cedric states that he has 15 years of training as a sorcerer. In the flashback during the episode, "Substitute Cedric", its shown that Cedric was about or a little younger than Sofia, when he started at Hexley Hall. This means he graduated at around twenty-two years old.
- It has been revealed that the first spells he learned were counter curses, though, like Sofia, he also learned Mutato early, as he demonstrates in "The Amulet of Avalor" when he easily turns a rock into a gem.
- He is also good at hover charms, having two in his book, summoning charms, and vanishing charms.
- He has at least two sleeping spells in his spell book, proved when Amber looked through it in "Two Princesses and a Baby", since she did not recognize the sleeping spell, making it be different from the one Cedric gave to Sofia in the pilot.
- He also has a shrinking charm, which he isn't very good at, it once backfiring on his wand in "King for a Day".
- The failsafe of the Amulet of Avalor demands it to be passed on willingly in order for its power to be used without a curse getting unleashed. Cedric has tried on numerous occasions to get Sofia to hand it over, (Premier, "The Big Sleepover", "Cedric's Apprentice" and "A Royal Mess").
- His pet raven, Wormwood, was inspired by Diablo, the raven that appears on Maleficent's shoulder in the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty.
- Cedric's hair is an homage to Cruella De Vil in addition to possibly reflecting his personality being made of both good and evil.
- Cedric is, in a lot of ways, similar to Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, due to the fact that they both consider themselves to be prototypical villains, yet due to some flaws in their planning and/or personality they manage to trip over their own feet on numerous occasions. It is also worth noting that both have unusually large noses.
- The name Cedric is of an Old-English origin, and the meaning of the name is 'Kindly' and 'Loved', which greatly contradicts his general personality. However, it is true when he shows his softer side to Sofia in "Cedric's Apprentice", resulting in Sofia's great admiration and respect towards him, as a friend and a great sorcerer.
- Cedric is similar to Prince Hans from Frozen. Both want to rule a kingdom to get attention and to show how great they are. Needing attention and love could be the reason why both of them are bad. However, Cedric has proven to have a soft side, and is not very persuasive.
- His voice is similar to Wakko Warner from Animaniacs and Tosh Gopher from The Looney Tunes Show, all voiced by Harnell.
- The voice actors of Cedric and Wormwood (Jess Harnell and Jim Cummings respectively) also voiced Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole from the TV segments of Super Secret Secret Squirrel from Cartoon Network's animated series 2 Stupid Dogs.
- Like Maurice, Cedric is very good at inventing, though it is a talent that is not respected, likely due to it being more of a private hobby than a business for him.
- Cedric and Wormwood are the second villains of the sorcerer and his right-hand bird, Jafar and Iago are the first villains of the sorcerer and his bird. However, if female magicians are included, Cedric is the fourth, with Maleficent and The Queen as the first and second bird-loving baddies. Cedric is the third villain to have a raven henchman.
- Despite their differences in character, fate and all around willpower, Cedric has some similarities to Jafar.
- Both aim to acquire a magical object (Genie's Lamp for Jafar and The Amulet of Avalor for Cedric) and use its power to take over a kingdom (Agrabah for Jafar and Enchancia for Cedric), even before those objects wound up in the possession of the protagonists (Aladdin and Princess Sofia).
- As a cover-up for their objectives, they both serve in the palaces they aim to take over.
- Both have birds as sidekicks (Iago for Jafar and Wormwood for Cedric) that often get beaten up by mistake.
- Both work for the rulers of the kingdom "King Roland II and the Sultan", with little respect from their employers.
- In the episode "Two Princesses and a Baby", it is revealed that he's allergic to dandelions. This same episode is where Sofia actually pronounces his name right (/sedrik/ instead of /seedrik/), for the first time.
- In the episode "The Enchanted Feast", it seems that Cedric had a crush on Sascha, who is Miss Nettle in disguise, but his heart got broken when she embarrassed him in front of everyone from the Tri-Kingdom Area at the table due to his hexed wand.
- In the same episode, Cedric only then realizes that Sofia said his name correctly, but this could simply mean the episodes were aired out of the order intended.
- In the same episode, when Sofia hugs him in sheer happiness for triumphantly capturing Miss Nettle/Sascha, he doesn't push her away. Unlike in the episode of "Cedric's Apprentice" when he transforms Sofia back into a human from a lizard and Sofia hugs him to thank him, he removes her after a second or so. This shows that he acknowledges and accepts her affections and doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all, even if it means getting a hug from her every now and then. This is similar to Clover, who dislikes being hugged by Sofia at first, but then eventually accepts it.
- Since the start of the second season, Cedric has so far shown less interest in stealing the Amulet of Avalor from Sofia. However, in the episode "The Enchanted Feast" when he's told Miss Nettle is after it as well, he reveals he's still after it when he says, "No one can have that Amulet but me!"
- Cedric has many spare wands in his lair, as his magical clumsiness often damages wands he uses, such as in "King for a Day", when he shrunk his wand, and "The Enchanted Feast" when his wand got hexed.
- In "Sofia the Second" and "Mystic Meadows", it is shown he uses Wormwood as a test subject for his spells. It is shown in The Curse of Princess Ivy that he also plays games with Wormwood, such as cards.
- As revealed in "Cedric's Apprentice", when Cedric has high successes at magic, he can become overconfident.
- Cedric is not good at card tricks, as revealed in "The Curse of Princess Ivy."
- He also doesn't even like card tricks, while putting a show and planning to get Sofia's amulet, as revealed in "The Big Sleepover".
- Sofia is the first and only friend he's ever had, and the only one to give him a meaningful gift. In "Winter's Gift", Sofia give Cedric is a handmade wand case, made by Sofia herself. It is also in this episode that he calls her name without using the 'Princess' title when he tells her that he also has a gift for her, showing that he has fully recognized her as a friend.
- Cedric has officially saved King Roland's life once, when he used his magic with Greylock's, to pull the schooner away from the rocks and back to the docks. Him "saving" Sofia was an act to help him get back on track with his magic show.
- In "Sidekick Clio", he used his sorcerer name "Cedric the Sensational" for the first time.
- Cedric reveals in "The Amulet and the Anthem" that while he know's that Sofia's amulet is magical and has some knowledge of it's workings, he doesn't know everything it can do like it's ability to summon Princesses.
- Cedric reveals in The Floating Palace that he was unaware of Sofia's powers because he was shocked to see that Sofia had transformed into a mermaid.
- It was revealed in The Curse of Princess Ivy that Cedric has a sister who would steal his things when they were children, and he is still upset about it.
- According to Craig Gerber, her name is Cordelia.
- Cedric has apparently undertaken fifteen years of sorcery school, in preparation to take his father's place once he retired. According to King Roland in the premiere movie, Cedric comes from a long line of royal sorcerers.
- Cedric finally gives up trying to take over Enchancia with Sofia's amulet in "Cedric be Good".
- Cedric learned about the amulet from his parents, especially Winifred.
