There is no doubt about the fact that young girls love princesses and their fairy tales, and Waltz Disney Company seems to have understood the mantra really well. The Disney princess toy line generates a whopping annual retail sale of 4 billion dollars. After a successful series of adorable and popular Disney princesses like Snow White, Rapunzel and Cinderella, Walt Disney is now ready with its first ever young Princess Sofia. With the girl princess Sofia, Disney is going to tread in the territory of young girls aged between 2 to 7 years. In the sparkling world of Disney princesses, Princess Sofia will be the first to be so young and who is not an adult. Disney has also been facing the criticism for adding up to its long list of fairytale princesses to charm the young viewers. Princess Sofia seems to come out straight from the controversial American reality TV series Toddlers & Tiaras. However, the company appears to be ready to deal with the criticism by promoting it as a Princess, the young girls can relate with. Waltz Disney also claims to make the young viewers learn positive things with Princess Sofia.
The young royal will make her debut in 2012 through an animated movie named Sofia The First. The movie will be released in fall 2012, which will continue as a TV series in Spring 2013 in Disney Junior channel and Disney channel worldwide. The movie will be aimed at young pre-school children. In Sofia The First series, the young princess will be taken to a glamorous world of castle to face the new step-siblings as her mother marries the King. Sofia The First will also have the characters from previous princess stories such as Cinderella, doing a cameo. The fairy godmothers of Princess Aurora, Fauna, Flora and Merryweather will be the headmistresses at Princess Sofia’s school. Sofia The First will also have impressive names providing the voiceovers to the characters. Ariel Winter will lend voice to Princess Sofia, Queen Miranda will have Sara Ramirez’s voice, a wise and talking rabbit Clover will be heard in Wayne Brady’s voice and Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame will lend the voice to Bailywick, the Royal Steward.
Princess Sofia: A new role model
Aimed at the young kids, Princess Sofia is a new role model for pre school toddlers. Sofia will face the same social issues as the young viewers watching her show often do, making the young girls relate to the new Disney princess. Sofia will help the young children learn to fit into the new atmosphere and circumstances. Sofia will help children learn to make new friends, building strong sibling relationships and learning new skills. Sofia will focus on age appreciate themes and will also give a message to the children to be kind and generous. Princess Sofia aims to teach the young viewers a lesson that, what is inside makes the real princess and not what is outside. The cute and charming Princess Sofia will have plenty of sparkling dresses, shoes and a dazzling tiara to win your very own little princess over.
As stated by Nancy Kanter, general manager for Disney Junior Worldwide,
We saw girls have an instant relatability to this character. If kids relate to what they watch – if they can put themselves in that world – that’s where real learning can start.
Princess Sofia: A disturbing character
The young princess with a sparkling, dazzling tiara has also attracted a lot of criticism as it exposes the young kids to yet another unreal world of diamond clad princesses. Disney seems to promote the gender bias amongst the young girls by infusing the thoughts through the toddler princess that girls are only meant to look beautiful and should only wait for the Prince Charming to take them to a new world of wealth and beauty. Sofia promotes an attainable image for the young girls only to be an object of affection and to be dependently wealthy. The young girls at the age of 2-7 need to have more practical role models such as Dora the Explorer, Nick Jr. to relate to. Relating to a young princess with a castle to live in, pretty dresses and sparkling shoes can show the little girls the glimpse of the world that only exists in fairy tales and can move them away from reality. Sofia also seems to be wearing make-up and also wears a tiara, but has been criticized mostly for supporting and promoting the stereotype based on gender.
