Thursday, May 14, 2020

The Book of Rannells: Sofia the First: Season 4, Episode 26 – “Forever Royal” (2018)


This supersized episode is actually the series finale of Sofia the First.  As such, Andrew Rannells’s character Skye is just one of many who gets one last appearance in this episode, and I’ve never seen most of the others before.  But even if it’s crowded, it’s easy enough to follow, and I imagine it was a pretty good send-off for kids who enjoyed the show (premise spoilers.)

About to graduate from “Royal Prep Academy,” Sofia’s big day is interrupted by her Mystic Isles friends who need her for some major Protector duties.  Suffice to say, an ancient, evil sorceress named Vor is unleashed from a long imprisonment, and she just so happens to decide to begin her dominion over all realms with Sofia’s kingdom.  Sofia is called on to fight a greater evil than she ever has before, and while she has lots of friends and family ready to fight by her side, the ultimate showdown is just between her and Vor.

Like I said, this episode features all sorts of characters, many of which I haven’t encountered in my scant experience with the show.  In addition to the Mystic Isles crowd, there are Sofia’s friends (some of whom have magical abilities/resources, some without,) the rest of Sofia’s family, and members of the royal staff.  It’s no doubt more enjoyable for fans of the show who know who all these people are, but everything is signposted well enough that I didn’t have any trouble keeping track of the basics of who people were.  I also – here, at the end of all things – got a little background on Sofia’s origins, growing up as a peasant whose dressmaker mother wound up marrying the widowed king, which I’d gleaned from the show’s theme song but was still nice to see alluded to on the actual show itself.  In the portions of the episode devoted to the graduation, there are references to how Sofia’s experiences with her blended family brought growth and change for her, as while as how her friends at school helped her adjust to her new life.

The action/adventure stuff is put together well enough.  Vor is both a nigh-unbeatable threat right up until the moment she’s beaten (but plenty of adult genre shows have the exact same problem) and depicted in such a way that the final just-Vor-and-Sofia confrontation feels kind of manufactured, but the final key to victory is brought in pretty organically and features some important personal moments for Sofia.  If I was a kid who’d been watching this show all along, I’m sure I would’ve been satisfied with how it turned out.

Another episode with very little Rannells, although I knew going in that Skye probably wouldn’t be a very big feature; there are just too many characters to include/say goodbye to to focus on this recurring unicorn from another realm.  As such, we just get a handful of lines and – once again! – no singing, which, in an extra-long episode with multiple songs, feels unfair.

So, that’s it for Sofia the First.  Wrapping things up…

Recommend?

In General – For kids, sure.  For adults, not so much.

Andrew Rannells – Maybe, at least “The Mystic Isles” and possibly “The Mare of the Mist.”  Those two feature Skye the most and Rannells is admittedly a fair amount of adorable fun as this semi-competent unicorn knight errant. 

Warnings

Scary moments for kids.

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