I know, I know, why out of all of the Christmas specials/episodes I could've chosen, I went with one from a show for 3 year olds. And yes, I did watch a couple of episodes to help me get the premise of the show (and because Ginnifer Goodwin just happened to guest voice a character in one of them)! For what it is, I can see why kids like it, but I personally felt that the morals are way too heavy handed and most of the characters are generic and the animation can look creepy at times. But hey, I'm a 21 year old college student, so I'm probably not the best person to be 'constructively critisizing' a show for pre-schoolers! And to be fair, I haven't really seen any of the season 2 episodes (nor do I really intend to) when the following grew bigger. So will Christmas in Enchancia be enchanting, or will I need to take a giant glass of wassail to make me forget this? Let's take a look!
Story: In this special, King Roland goes missing in a snow storm while out shopping for last minute gifts with Baileywick, finding shelter in a nearby cottage. Given that his family are worried about his whereabouts, they decide to find him, where Sofia, Amber and James meets Princess Aurora and they learn the lesson that materialism isn't as important as family. That's it. I will give it credit that the simplicity of the episode adds a bit of charm, but the execution of it does suffer to me. On top of being needlessly cheesy, there's not that much interesting happening. Most of it is with Sofia and her family being stuck in the same places without really doing much to find each other. It left me bored by the middle point, especially when Aurora uselessly appears for one scene which contributes absolutely nothing to the moral. The comedy itself also falls flat for me because it's either predictable, stupid or annoying, mostly coming from the comedy relief Clover. And while the message of family being more important than materialism is a very good one in light of the vapid materialism plaguing this generation, it feels hammered down and predictable since many other movies and TV shows have used this plot much better. Still, I can't say this is terrible because its heart is clearly in the right place and it's not damaging children's mindsets of the holidays.
Animation: I know I said before that the animation can creep me out and...it still stands. The character designs clearly are trying to have a 2D look in a 3D environment like Paperman, but with the creepy eyes and underdefined features, it has an uncanny valley effect. The addition of Aurora doesn't really help because she looks like she was taken out of a completely different project because of her more angular features compared to the roundness of the Sofia the First characters. This also applies to the animal characters on top of the texturing like hair, skin and fur not looking that great. I can sort of understand why though, given the style it's going for, but it still felt distracting. The character animation also feels pretty awkward as there are times where they can look pretty stiff, and when more human characters like Amber and James jump around in a cartoony manner, it doesn't suit them at all. I will say though that the world and concept of Enchancia, while a tad generic on the fairytale kingdom front, still looks nice and the Wassalia decorations (pretty much identical to Christmas) left me with a Christmas-y feeling and it looked really colourful. The effects on elements like snow also don't look that great, and given that it's shown for a majority of the special, it feels pretty bland to watch. Although I have seen much worse animation from Disney shows, I can't help but find the problems with Sofia the First's style a bit bigger in this case.
Characters: To be honest, the characters in this episode can be categorised by their stereotypes. Sofia is the optimistic protagonist determined to find her dad and stay with the Wassalian traditions. Amber can be vain and spoilt at times, yet still has a good heart while James is the more playful and mischievous twin. Miranda is the generic loving mother while Roland is the kind hearted king that's determined to get back to his family in the snow storm. Baileywick is the stern and responsible yet gentlemanly steward who assists Roland during his dilemma. Clover is the annoying animal sidekick quipping modern slang, while Mia and Robin are in the same roles, except are more yappy and valley girl types. Minimus can also qualify as an annoying sidekick, but at least he contributes a bit more by getting Sofia & her family through the snowstorm from the castle. There aren't really much new characters, except for the Woodsman's family who are the generic kind hearted Good Samaritan types, yet are poor to gain sympathy from the audience and Sofia's family to hammer down the message. Finally, Aurora is pretty much useless, literally appearing in one scene telling Sofia to listen to her animal friends to help find Roland which she easily could have done herself! I think it's safe to say that for a show like this, the characters are...simple in terms of personality.
Holiday in Enchancia may not be completely terrible, but I can't describe it as any higher as mediocre. With a heavy handed message, creepy yet colourful animation & characters who are simplistic and cheesy & forgettable songs. Like I said before, I feel a bit unfair critiquing a show that's aimed for such a young demographic and while I find that it has a lot of flaws, I can't say that it's harming children because of it's heart being in the right place. But still, got Winter's Gift left to do tomorrow, so maybe this can change my opinion.
Story: 😕
Animation: 😕
Characters: 😕
Songs:ðŸ˜
Overall:😕
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