Review on the new "Sofia the First: The Enchanted Feast" DVD

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Today I bring to you a review on “Sofia the First's” new DVD “The Enchanted Feast”. This DVD will be available for sale on August 5th, 2014.
Prize range: $14.99 - $19.99


Physical appearance: The DVD I received comes with a cardboard cover protecting the DVD case, and though it is the same image than the case, it has metallic accents that really makes it pop. This DVD indicates that it comes with a free enchanted hand mirror inside for your little princess or prince to play with. It also indicates that there is a special appearance by Snow White during one of the episodes. I liked the graphics very much. These covers are very colorful and they show you nice preview scenes from some of the 5 episodes in this DVD.

DVD content:

Language: English, French, and Spanish settings both for listening and subtitles.

There are 5 episodes in this DVD:
  1. The Enchanted Feast
  2. The Buttercups
  3. Tea For Too Many
  4. Great Aunt-Venture
  5. Two Princesses And A Baby

Summary of each episode:

The Enchanted Feast: In this episode, the Royal family is to celebrate with an Enchanted Feast and will have guests from different parts of the world. Their royal wizard is in charge of the entertaining preparations. He wasn't the only one preparing for the feast, Miss Nettle was too, and she had her eyes on Sofia's amulet. Disguised as Sascha the sorceress, she was going to take advantage of the event to try to steal Sofia´s necklace from her. This episode has a very nice message about working together, and about following your instinct. I think that it is important for the little ones to know that if they feel something is wrong, or someone doesn't feel right, it is okay to tell an adult. And as adults if we are watching this with them, it is also important for us to listen to our kids when they are telling us that something is making them uncomfortable. Believe me, it could save you from a lot of trouble later. This episode had Snow White as a special guest. I thought that was very neat and clever.


The Buttercups: In this episode Sofia joins the buttercups for an exciting hiking adventure. The buttercups are the equivalent to the girl scouts in Sofia the First's world. During the episode, there are new buttercups, and some that have been there for longer and are almost done with their badges. As the girls set their selves into a hiking excursion that would get them new badges and the possibility to earn the Sunflower pin when completing all their badges, they learn that not all badges are earned the same way. Sofia finds herself in a dilemma when her father, the king, sends their butler to protect her during the hike. He becomes so overprotective of her that he does not allow Sofia to accomplish much during this trip. Sofia wants to tell him to let her learn and earn her badges, but she doesn't want him to feel bad either. The lesson in this episode was very clear. Sometimes you have to let the little ones get their hands dirty. They have to learn what life is about, and how to do things by their selves. When we become overprotective from our kids, sometimes we don't let them be. For the kids, I think it lets them know that when parents are overprotective is not just because we don't want them to do anything fun, but mostly because we love them so much we don't want them to get hurt. So I thought that was brilliant. I think it also shares that sometimes kids are allowed to think outside the box using what they have learned in life.


Tea for too many: In this episode, Sofia gets chosen from the rest of the class to host their “Yearly” tea party. Being her first time in one of these traditional school tea parties hosted by one of the students, her ideas were off from some of the other student's expectations. Worried about Sofia's ideas, her sister Amber jumps in to help her do it right. Amber suggests Sofia that “bigger is better” until they both learn that bigger also means it can get out of control. Luckily Sofia thinks fast and with her original ideas for the tea party was able to save the day. The message in this story was interesting. It shares with the little ones that it is okay to have different ideas from what the rest of the kids think or say. It also shows that bigger is not necessarily better, and sometimes the simplest things are what brings us joy. I think it also shares that to have a party there are a lot of things to do and you have to be organized. I guess it would help kids also be appreciative of all the things parents do for them during their birthday parties.

Great Aunt-Venture: As this episode starts, both prince James and princess Amber share how exciting the carnival is. They make princess Sofia anxious to go and have a phenomenon time as well. Plans change a little when they get notice that their aunt is coming for a visit and that usually she needs her “little helpers” to bake her traditional apple pie that the king so very much loves. Both James and Amber scare Sofia by telling her how boring it is to hang out with their aunt and that it would be better to find an excuse not to. The twins bail on both Sofia and their Aunt, leaving Sofia with no choice but to help her aunt who she really didn't know. They ended up having a fun adventure of their own that seemed to have been as good as going to the carnival. The message in this story was to not always believe what people say about a person. Perspectives can be very different from one person to another and what one can define as “boring” can be very entertaining to another. It also shares that sometimes it is a good thing to share time with our relatives, specially when they come and visit, because they can always teach you something new, and the memory becomes a treasure to cherish for many years to come.

Two Princesses And A Baby: In this episode, the royal twins, are celebrating their birthday. As preparations for their birthday party are being made, Amber soon finds out that her birthday has not started the way she wanted. She becomes annoyed with James' behavior and decides that she does not want to share her birthday with her twin anymore. With the help of some magic, things get out of control and James becomes a little baby that they end up having to take care of during most of the day. Amber remembers why having a twin makes her so special and decides that not sharing wasn't such a good idea. After a lot of work and the power of sibling love, things get back to normal just in time to celebrate the twins' birthday party. The lesson here is sharing. Even if you don't have a twin, some parents like to share birthday parties just to save more money and to be able to have it easier for relatives to come and visit them to celebrate their kids. Some kids don't like that, because they feel the attention is directed to one more than the other. It also shows that not only in a party it is important to share with your siblings. Sometimes one can be more playful than the others and it may annoy them, but it does not mean that all is bad. It allows kids to remember that sometimes there are also good and fun moments they share with their siblings and to hold on to those memories more rather than the bad ones.
Overall

Likes
I liked everything about the DVD. I loved the mirror gift that comes inside and the graphics in the cover. I loved the content of the DVD. I am Hispanic, so knowing that I can play these episodes both in English and in Spanish is very important for me. The voices are very similar in both languages so that was very pleasing. I loved the animation as it ran very smooth throughout the DVD. The stories are simple and very imaginative. I loved the language tones used in all the episodes. It is perfect for kids. My favorite part was the type of messages chosen for each episode. Even my husband was very entertained by them. There were funny moments that were funny even for adults. I loved the featuring of characters from different old Disney movies, because it incorporates characters from when us parents were young, like the fairies from “Sleeping Beauty” which I thought was pretty clever, and the special guest appearance from Snow White. The similarity of their “Aunt” with Marry Poppins was fantastic too. I could easily see many influences from different favorites new and old to make it even more attractive and enjoyable for the whole family.


Dislikes
One of the things I always do when I watch a movie is play subtitles. If I don't get to hear something properly I get to read it. I have always believed that this also encourages kids to learn how to read at an earlier age, and to learn how a word is spelled, or which word was used and how it sounded like. The English version with the English subtitles matched perfectly. The Spanish version with the Spanish subtitles didn't. Maybe the Spanish subs matched the English version, but definitely not the Spanish one. The language used in the Spanish version, was the informal way of Spanish, which is fine because that's the way people talk to people they know like family and friends. The subtitles in Spanish had a mixture. Some characters' captions were in the formal Spanish which is only used when talking properly to someone, like a stranger, or an elder person, which I guess could have been used for royalty too, but then other characters that should have refer to the royal characters was not used that way. It was a bit confusing. I would had rather have the subtitles be in the informal way to match the language used in the Spanish informal dialogue. I mean, after all, if it was translation from the English version, there is no use of a “formal” way of referring to people in English. In English it is always “YOU”, and in Spanish the formal is “Ustéd”, and informal is “TU”. So that I didn't like much because it was confusing. However not everyone that hears the version in Spanish would also place the subtitles with it right? So I don't think that it is much of a big deal. Another thing I didn't enjoy much was that on the episode where prince James becomes a baby, he slides through the stair's railing. That could give the bad impression to kids, making them think that if a baby could do it, they could do it too. I know it is a cartoon/animation and there is a lot of fantasy and it is not real, but some kids at certain age don't know how to differentiate still from what is real and what is not. I think that it is important for parents to watch this kind of series with their kids so that when there are moments like those, you are able to say: That is only a cartoon. In real life when kids go sliding down the stairs they get hurt okay? And make sure that kids understand. And well, I guess that's it for dislikes.

The Happy Baby Blog enjoyed watching this DVD very much :D


All I have to say in general is that I pretty much enjoyed this DVD. I had never seen a movie or episode from Sofia the First before and though I know she is popular among young kids, now I understand why. I am really not sure if her name and context was taken from the Spanish monarchy, but I saw some influences that could be taken as Spaniard with the aunt's outfit. I know that she is supposed to be a princess inspired for the Hispanic community since there were so many Disney princesses now, but non that was pertaining to the Hispanic culture. I know not for sure if this is all true. This is what I heard about the character and thought that was pretty nice to hear. I really enjoyed Sofia's character. She is pretty gentle and fair and loves to help others in need. I am the kind of person that always watches the movies or stories without the children just so I know what kind of messages or language is being used and what type of influence it is going to have over my kids, and I have to say that I give this DVD all thumbs and big toes up.

We give this product 5 stars: 

I hope you soon get the opportunity to watch this series of episodes, and that you and your family enjoy it as much as I did. Have an amazing weekend!








Disclaimer: I received this DVD for free for the sole purpose of writing a review on my impression on this product/movie. Receiving the product for free does not affect my opinion, which is 100% my own honest opinion. I am not being compensated for sales that may come from this review either. If you or your company would like for me to review a product, please contact me through the PR tab for that matter.


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