The Book of Rannells: Sofia the First: Season 3, Episode 23 – “Beauty is the Beast” (2016)

Andrew Rannells has a ton of voiceover credits in his filmography from the pre-Mormon days, and I don’t really plan on going through all that for The Book of Rannells.  There’s a huge amount of it, I’m sure a good portion of it is tough to find, and overall, it’s just not a priority for me.  However, in recent years, Rannells has gotten back into voice-acting a bit, and those appearances I will be covering.

From what I can gather, the titular Princess Sofia is often whisked off to her plot of the week by the aid of a magic amulet that connects princesses from various kingdoms.  In this episode, she’s sent to help Princess Charlotte, who was transformed into a beast after refusing to allow a goblin to attend her royal ball.  The only way to lift the curse is to befriend the goblin.  Sofia provides ideas, support, and well-intentioned nudging in service of this mini-mission.

It’s very definitely a kids’ show, but it’s cute enough.  Sofia is sweet, and the message – of considering others’ feelings before acting – is good, if heavy-handed.  Princess Charlotte is a basically-nice person, but she can be pretty reflexively self-centered, and that interferes a little with doing what she needs to be a true friend to the goblin.

Rannells voices the part of Morris, the goblin in question.  As it happens, he’s endearingly obsessed with royalty and boasts an extensive collection of souvenirs he’s acquired from assorted royals.  He’s also very gentlemanly, good-natured, and a tiny bit of a fraidy-cat; the connection he forges with Charlotte (with Sofia’s help) is sweet.

There’s not a whole lot here, since there isn’t a whole lot to the episode in general, but it’s a good-sized part with some gentle humor and some cute moments.  Morris’s “royal” fanboy ways are amusing, with his gushing over his collection (open to the public on select days!)  Rannells also gets to be part of a song about friendship/getting to know each other, although it’s just all right.  He gets to sing it with Megan Hilty, who plays Charlotte (along with Ariel Winter’s Sofia,) but the song itself 1) feels really generic and 2) doesn’t give these terrific Broadway singers much to work with.

Recommend?

In General – It’s not the sort of kids’ story that has just as much adult appeal, a la typical Pixar fare.  As such, I wouldn’t recommend it for an afternoon’s entertainment, but if you have kids, there are far worse options than this to sit through.

Andrew Rannells – Eh, a light maybe.  It’s cute and amusing.

Warnings

A tiny bit of very mild scariness.