"Princess Butterfly" is the nineteenth episode of Sofia the First. It is also the first Halloween-themed episode in the series. It premiered on October 11, 2013.
Overview
The students at Royal Prep are all looking forward to the All Hallows’ Eve Costume Ball, especially Princess Amber. However, this year, everyone must make their own costumes, and Amber doesn’t know how. When she sees Sofia’s beautiful swan costume, she becomes jealous, knowing that Sofia will likely win the contest. Determined to win, Amber asks Cedric to use a magic spell to create a costume for her. The spell gives Amber a beautiful butterfly costume, and she wins the contest. However, the costume won’t come off—it turns out to be real! Cedric explains that the only way to turn Amber back is with Sofia’s amulet to make a potion. Now Amber faces a difficult choice: confess what she did or take her sister’s amulet.
Plot
The princes and princesses are excited for the All Hallows Eve Costume Ball, especially Princess Amber, who's determined to win the Costume Contest for the third year in a row. But the Fairies have changed the rules to the contest: The princes and princesses have to make their own costumes by themselves. Princess Sofia is excited to get started, but the other princesses are dismayed, especially Amber, who has never done any sewing in her life.
At home, Amber tries to make her costume, but she can't even get the thread into the needle. Sofia comes and offers to show her big sister how to sew her costume as she threads the needle. Amber declines Sofia's offer and tries to sew her costume, but she winds up pricking her finger. Just as Amber is about to give up, she hears Queen Miranda compliment Sofia on her costume. Amber goes to Sofia's bedroom and sees that Sofia has made a beautiful silver swan costume. Knowing that Sofia is sure to win the costume contest this year, Amber goes to Cedric for a spell that would give her a magnificent costume. At first, Cedric disapproves of the idea of using magic to win the costume contest, but he gives her a spell to give her a great costume, but it turns out to be a plot to get Sofia's amulet.
At the costume ball, Sofia draws a lot of attention when everybody sees her beautiful swan costume. Everyone is sure she will win the contest. However, Amber uses a spell to turn her gown into a realistic butterfly costume and wins instead. But there's one big problem: when she gets home, she can't remove the costume because it turns out Amber has become a real human butterfly!
She quickly goes to Cedric to help undo the spell, and he decides to use a potion. However, he says he needs Sofia's amulet for the potion to be finished. Amber doesn't want to take Sofia's amulet, so she decides to go to the fairies for help instead. But Cedric points out that if she goes to them, she must confess that she cheated by using magic. Not wanting to face the music or give up her new trophy, Amber decides she has to get Sofia's amulet after all.
The next day, Amber decides to trick Sofia into taking off her amulet. She suggests they "dress up for school" and wears her butterfly costume, offering Sofia her pixie costume from last year. Amber tells Sofia she would have to take off her amulet to put the costume on, but as she tries to remove it, James reminds them it's time to leave for school. This means Sofia doesn't have time to change clothes. At school, everyone wonders why Amber is wearing her "costume", and she claims she loves All Hallows Eve so much that she's decided to celebrate longer.
During gym class, Amber asks Sofia to demonstrate going upside-down on the uneven bars. As Sofia is on the bars, Amber tries to remove her amulet, but Sofia gets down quickly, now suspicious that Amber's up to something because of how she seems obsessed with wanting the Amulet of Avalor. Outside, Amber throws her drink at Sofia's gown and tries to take the amulet, but Sofia now knows that her big sister is definitely up to something since she never trips and never spills anything. Amber's cover is blown when her butterfly wings send her flying, and she winds up telling Sofia that she used magic to make her costume and that "the spell went wrong", so she needs the amulet to undo the spell. Sofia initially refuses because of the promise she made to never take it off, but upon seeing the situation her sister is in, decides to give Amber her amulet to get back to normal, but Amber, all of a sudden, refuses to take the amulet because she now knows it was wrong to cheat and it's not worth Sofia to giving up something she loves because Amber made a mistake. However, Wormwood follows and does take the Amulet, not standing anymore. Amber and Sofia chase him around the school. Amber uses her wings to fly and Sofia gets on Minimus with the whole school seeing this.
When the sisters catch Sofia's amulet, Sofia decides it would be good to take it to Cedric, but Amber has a better idea. Amber confesses that she cheated by using magic to make her costume instead of making it herself because she was jealous of Sofia when she saw her swan costume. But now Amber knows that she shouldn't have been jealous of her little sister and that she should appreciate her since she would do anything for her. The fairies express disappointment in Amber for cheating and tells her that she has to return the trophy, but are proud of Amber for realizing her mistake and learning from it. The fairies undo the spell, returning Amber's appearance back to her usual gown she wears. Sofia and Amber agree to work on the costumes together and walk out laughing about it.
Home Video Release
Cast
- Ariel Winter as Princess Sofia
- Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
- Zach Callison as Prince James
- Sara Ramirez as Queen Miranda
- Jess Harnell as Cedric the Sorcerer
- Jim Cummings as Wormwood
- Sabrina Carpenter as Princess Vivian
- Coco Grayson as Princess Hildegard
- Karan Brar as Prince Zandar
- Michaela Zee as Princess Jun
- Harley Graham as Princess Clio
- Eric Stonestreet as Minimus
- Barbara Dirickson as Flora
- Russi Taylor as Fauna
- Brian Lee as Prince Jin
Additional voices
- Stephanie Mello
Song
Transcript
Videos
Gallery
Trivia
- The title character of Star vs. the Forces of Evil is from a magical royal family called Butterfly on her mother's side, and is at times addressed as Princess Butterfly.
- Viewership: This episode was watched by 1.782 million viewers on its premiere.[1]
- This episode aired as part of Disney Jr.'s "Boo For You Fridays", and the other episodes that aired on Fridays every October until 2016 aired as part of the same event.
- This episode is the second time Sofia does any sewing. The first time was in Once Upon a Princess.
- Amber undergoes a magical transformation for the first time in the series.
- This marks the third time Cedric comes close to obtaining the amulet. The first is "The Amulet of Avalor", the second being "The Amulet and the Anthem".
- This is the second time Sofia takes off the Amulet. The first was in "The Amulet of Avalor".
- This is the second time Amber meets and talks to Cedric face-to-face, the first being "Tea for Too Many".
- A few moments after the beginning of the episode, Hildegard mentions Queen Clarion.
- The spell Cedric gives Amber, "Lepidop Leonidas", is a combination of Latin and Greek words. Lepidop derived from the Latin word Lepidoptera meaning an order of insects comprising the butterflies and moths, and Leonidas which translates into Lion-like, and is the name of the Spartan King.
- The song, "Who's That?" is, so far, the only song masked by the chatter of the characters, serving as background music.
- This is the first episode where the plot is more focused on Amber than on Sofia.
- It is revealed that sewing is apparently not taught at Royal Prep.
- This is the second time Amber becomes jealous of Sofia, the first being Once Upon a Princess.
- A minor running gag occurs in the episode involving James, Zandar, and Jin with their costumes. James and Zandar, both having made separate parts of their dragon costume, are unable to find each other until the end of the ball, whilst Jin twice ends up falling flat on his back due to his costume being actual armor and he is barely in double digits.
- This is the second time there is a brief hostility between Sofia and Wormwood, following Once Upon a Princess.
- Despite Wormwood stealing the amulet, he strangely does not get cursed for stealing it.
- Moral: Never resort to cheating or stealing because it never pays off.
References
- ↑ Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD ratings (October 7-13, 2013). Son of the Bronx (October 18, 2013). Archived from the original on October 24, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2024.