"Winter's Gift" is a Christmas-themed episode of the Disney Junior animated series Sofia the First. It premiered on December 12, 2014. It is the forty-fifth episode by series and is the twentieth episode in the second season.
Plot[]
It's Wassalia, and Sofia wakes up to finds a present on her bed with Clover inside it. Sofia thanks Clover and shows him the gift she made for Cedric: A wand case for his wand. But when she goes up to give it to him, she hears him ranting about how he wants a special gift. This makes Sofia feel her gift isn't special enough and goes off looking for another one. When she meets Baileywick, he tells her about Ice Lilies which gives her an idea on the perfect gift to get Cedric for Wassalia.
She and Clover head out into the forest and meet up with Whiskers the Fox, an old friend of Clover's. He agrees to take them to the ice lilies. On the way, they meet a faun named Winter. Winter tells Sofia the reason she's out in the Icicle Forest is because she's also looking for ice lilies to give them to Glacia the Ice Witch. A year ago, Winter gave all the wood crystals she could find to Glacia, who does spells for people who bring her gifts every year on Wassalia, in exchange for the ice touch because she heard about a princess with ice powers and thought it would be cool to have a magical power. Glacia granted her request and gave her the ice touch. At first, Winter thought it was a nice power until she froze one of her friends by mistake. She now wants to find a gift for Glacia and ask her to remove the ice touch. Sofia agrees to help her new friend find the perfect gift for Glacia.
Together, thanks to Whisker's information network and Winter's ice touch, they manage to find the ice lilies and Clover and Whiskers get them for the girls in a competitive way. But Clover falls out of the tree and Winter catches him and freezes him solid in the process by accident, to Winter's horror. They head for Glacia's palace, but Glacia, because she already has hundreds of ice lilies, refuses to remove the ice touch. A saddened Winter runs off into the woods with Sofia going after her.
Sofia is at a loss of what to do when her amulet starts to glow. The frozen Clover recognizes this means a princess summoning is happening and Tiana appears. After Sofia ask her how can Winter find a perfect gift for Glacia, Tiana tells her that a true gift comes from the heart. This inspires Sofia to tell Winter she should use her music and make one of her songs a gift for Glacia. Winter does so, which makes Glacia happy enough to remove the ice touch and undo all the freezings. Glacia reveals that the reason she was so bitter is because she was tired of receiving trinkets from selfish people who only see her when they want something and Winter's gift was the first true gift she has ever received. Winter and Sofia both go their own homes to celebrate Wassalia with their families, including Clover and Whiskers. Finally, Cedric and Sofia both give each other gifts and Cedric likes the wand case she made for him.
Cast[]
- Ariel Winter as Princess Sofia
- Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
- Wayne Brady as Clover
- Anika Noni Rose as Tiana
- Jess Harnell as Cedric the Sorcerer
- Tyler Merna as Prince James
- Alyson Hannigan as Winter
- Phylicia Rashad as Glacia the Ice Witch
- Nick Offerman as Whiskers
- Travis Willingham as King Roland II
- Sara Ramirez as Queen Miranda
- Tim Gunn as Baileywick
Songs[]
Home Video Release[]
Gallery[]
Goofs[]
- Near the end of the episode, Amber's right arm is missing.
Trivia[]
- This is the second Christmas-themed episode, the first was "Holiday in Enchancia".
- Tiana is the ninth Disney Princess to appear on the show.
- The first was Cinderella in Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess.
- The second was Jasmine in "Two to Tangu".
- The third was Belle in "The Amulet and the Anthem".
- The fourth was Ariel in "The Floating Palace".
- The fifth was Aurora in "Holiday in Enchancia".
- The sixth was Snow White in "The Enchanted Feast".
- The seventh was Mulan in "Princesses to the Rescue!".
- The eighth was Rapunzel in "The Curse of Princess Ivy".
- Sofia's blue nightgown is pink in this episode, and this is the second episode which Sofia wears a different nightgown, the first was in "The Baker King" after King Roland accidentally wished he was a village baker.
- Among the episodes in this series that feature a Disney Princess right after the previous episode that also features a Disney Princess, this is the second. The first is "The Floating Palace" and "Holiday in Enchancia".
- Winter mentions a princess with ice powers, which could possibly be referring to Elsa from Frozen. However, Elsa is currently the Fifth Elemental Spirit of the Enchanted Forest.
- The episode title might be a reference to Shakespeare's play "The Winter's Tale".
- Mama Odie is mentioned in this episode.
- This is the third episode to have a different closing credits sequence and the second to be Christmas-themed.
- Sofia meeting Winter is similar to Lucy Pevensie meeting Tumnus from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a few elements, in the scene and the episode's plot (coincidentally, Disney produced and distributed that film nine years prior);
- The Girl meets the Faun in a winter setting unintentionally, and befriends them.
- The Girl is the youngest child, the most curious, the most adventurous, most inquisitive, and is either a royal (Sofia) or would become one (Lucy). The girl also asks what kind of creature they are in which they are told.
- The Faun mentions that they have a family, wears some article of winter clothing, plays a woodwind musical instrument and is associated with a witch with some power over ice and snow that casts a spell on them (granting one ice powers (Winter) and turning the other to stone (Tumnus)), but in the end both spells are lifted.
- Moral: How good a gift is, is the feeling and the thought that has been put into it.