Fiona Bishop voices Princess Zoey and Buttercup twins Meg and Peg.
Russi Taylor voices Cedric's mother and reprises her role as Fauna from Sleeping Beauty.
Jim Cummings voiced Goodwin, Professor Popov, and Wormwood.
In "The Floating Palace", Jodi Benson plays Queen Emmaline and reprises her role as Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989) (appropriately, both are mermaids).
Actor Existence Limbo: Grand Mum appears in "Forever Royal" but has no lines as her voice actress, Florence Henderson, had passed away in November 2016.
Adored by the Network: Strangely averted - the show aired just three times a day on the channel, but it was the highest-rated show on the block, sometimes gaining ratings on par with primetime programming.
Billing Displacement: Sara Ramirez (the voice of Queen Miranda) is often listed before Ariel Winter in the end credits of each episode they take part in, even though Winter plays the title character. It also happens in the credits for "Sofia The Second," in which Miranda does not appear at all. It's somewhat subverted in later episodes.
Blooper: The end credits for "The Birthday Wish" has Jennifer Hale being credited for voicing Cinderella, who she only voiced in the pilot movie, and doesn't appear in the episode. She does voice Colette the dressmaker, one of her regular characters, but is only credited under "additional voices".
Cash-Cow Franchise: Aside from possibly Doc McStuffins, Sofia is the most profitable out of Disney Junior's brands.note This doesn't count any of their Mickey Mouse related series. Mickey in general completely dwarfs Sofia in merchandise sales. PJ Masks also doesn't count as Disney doesn't own the rights to said series.
Cast the Expert: For the most part, the Non-Singing Voice trope is averted, as most of the featured actors (many of whom are children or were children at the start of the show, no less) have decent singing voices to match the showtune-style numbers that are sung in almost every episode.
The show often features actual Broadway talent as guest characters, including Lea Salonga (the singing voice for Jasmine and Mulan), Christian Borle (Slickwell), and Andrew Rannells (Morris, Skye).
Casting Gag: In the Japanese dub, Queen Miranda's voice actress (Mayuno Yasokawa) already voiced another woman named Miranda, at least in the TV adaptation of the manga.
Snow White is probably is the most extreme case of all of them. Excluding the aforementioned Eri Ito, Snow White is voiced by actress Natsue Washizu, who did the second dubbed version of the film (excluding another one dubbed in the 50s) and her official one since 1980, almost three decades later at (at 2016) 68 years old, compared with the other reprising princesses.
In a non-Disney Princess example, Mia is voiced by singer Miki Fujimoto.
Creator's Favorite: Craig Gerber admits that Amber and Cedric are his favorite characters to write.
Crossdressing Voices: The show usually has boys voiced by boys and girls voiced by girls like Ariel Winter as Sofia and Zach Callison and Tyler Merna as James. However, the episode "Two Princesses And A Baby" has actress Julie Dolan voicing a baby James.
This is subverted, but eventually played straight with the main girls. Ariel Winter, Darcy Rose Byrnes, Sabrina Carpenter, Isabella Acres, Diamond White, and so forth, started the series anywhere from 10-14, and as of season 4, are 15-19, yet their characters are still 10-12
This is averted with the main boys like James, Zandar, Desmond, and so forth. Due to puberty, they're always recast with younger actors closer to their characters' ages, such as James going from Zach Callison to Tyler Merna to Nicolas Cantu.
Dueling Works: In Japan (as part of the aforementioned below Disney Sunday block on TV Tokyo), its dub was pitted against the locally made Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, as they are both in the 7:30 am timeslot (Albeit Zyuohger is on TV Asahi) during that time in 2016. Sofia wins this due to it having better ratings than the latter.
Edited for Syndication: The Japanese dub of the show is part of a package show called Disney Sunday, which includes Sofia the First, a short Disney cartoon, and special end credits which show a preview of the next episode.
An episode centering around Miranda re-opening her shoe shop was considered, but was shot down by executives, who believed that children wouldn't be interested in stories centered around the adults.
The Merch: A number of plush toys have been made available, as well as a book version of the pilot film, with two different books that are adaptations of television stories available for pre-order. A special edition of the Once Upon a Princess book is available exclusively at Target stores. The toys include Sofia herself, her animal friends, an amulet necklace and a figurine set. Somewhat, surprisingly, the one thing that apparently isn't being banked on as a cash cow is the pilot film. It was given numerous airings on Disney Channel and the Disney Junior sub-network, and has been widely made freely available to view online, along with music videos of the songs from it.
No Export for You: Merchandise with Sofia's updates outfit has so far only been released in Japan despite this being a US series, and probably will stay there as the show has ended everywhere else.
Non-Singing Voice: Mostly averted, but Lea Salonga subbed for Ming-Na Wen and Linda Larkin as the singing voices of Mulan and Jasmine (as in their debut movies and several other pieces of official Disney media). Tami Tappan was meant to stand in for Jennifer Hale as Cinderella, but in the end Mrs. Hale did her own singing.
Also a plot point in "The Silent Knight" - heroic Sir Bartleby is attracted to Great Aunt Tilly but never talks because he sounds like a squeakier version of Lois Griffin, so a plan is hatched for him to lipsync to another knight who sings like an angel. It doesn't work, but Tilly eventually considers him whizbang even with his real voice.
Clio and Hildegard are voiced by Harley Graham and Coco Grayson, while Jenna Lea Rosen does both of their singing.
Averted with Cinderella. Jennifer Hale reprises the role, though she does the singing rather than Tammi Tampin.
Aaron Daniel Jacob provided the singing voice of Prince Hugo, who was voiced by Colin Ford in "Just One of the Princes" and Grayson Hunter Goss in his later appearances.
For the pilot movie and most of the first season, James was voiced by Zach Callison. By the beginning of season 2, however, he was replaced by Tyler Merna, due to Callison working on Cartoon Network's Steven Universe. By mid-season 3, Merna stepped down from the role due to going through puberty and was thus replaced by Nicolas Cantu, who kept the role of James for the remainder of the series.
Merida, voiced by Kelly Macdonald in the movie, is voiced by Ruth Connell in "The Secret Library."
In "The Buttercups," Buttercup troop leader Helen Hanshaw is voiced by Viola Davis; in "Buttercup Amber" she's voiced by Dawnn Lewis.
Prince Xandar has gone through four voices(Maxim Knight, Karan Brar, Cade Sutton and Nathaniel Semsen.)
Prince Hugo is voiced by Colin Ford in "Just One Of The Princes" and by Grayson Hunter Goss in his future appearances.
Ruby was voiced by Fiona Bishop in the pilot film "Sofia The First: Once Upon A Princess", but is voiced by Diamond White in the series proper.
Belle from Beauty and the Beast is voiced by Paige O'Hara, but is voiced by Julie Nathanson in "The Amulet And The Anthem". Of course, this is also a reprise given that Julie inherited the role a few years prior.
In "Mom's The Word," Tracey Ullman voices Lucinda's mother Marla; on her next appearance in "Cauldronation Day" she's voiced by Laraine Newman (Ullman donned a Fake American accent for Marla).
Production example: Kelly Ward was the voice director for the pilot movie "Once Upon A Princess" before Sam Riegel took over as the main voice director for the series.
Nika Futterman voices Morgana in "Day Of The Sorcerers" rather than Catherine O'Hara.
Miss Nettle's appearance in "Ivy's True Colors" has her voiced by Anna Vocino rather than Megan Mullally.
Out of Order: Given that Elena and the Secret of Avalor is the beginning of Sofia's summer vacation yet follows two summer-themed episodes, "Camp Wilderwood" and "Royal Vacation", it could be assumed that Elena and the Secret of Avalor was originally meant to air prior to those episodes. It was aired after due to the spinoff airing early.
The episode "The Bad Dragon" has the character Crispy torment Crackle and fooling Vivian into thinking she's bad. His voice actor is Mick Wingert, who usually plays characters who are much more heroic, or at least have some redeeming qualities, even in this series.
This trope comes into play with the episode "Sofia The Second", with Ariel Winter voicing the evil clone Sofia accidentally conjured up. The real Sofia is perfectly in type for her.
We have Jennifer Hale reprising Cinderella and voicing a few castle maids, characters who are much more reserved in personality in stark contrast to her action girl roles.
Megan Hilty voices Prisma, who is at first in line with her usual nice girl character types, but then her true villainous colors are revealed. This is especially noticeable given that she also voices Princess Charlotte, who is a nice girl despite being a Little insensitive.
Playing with Character Type: Tania Gunadi voices Miss Elodie who, will still a good person, is an adult and a reasonable authority figure. She usually voices young Genki girls with a bit of a rebellious streak, and/or shows tomboy tendencies.
Many of the people who worked on Special Agent Oso, including writer Krista Tucker, directors Jamie Mitchell, Larry Leichliter, and Mircea Manttea, voice director Kelly Ward (although only for the pilot movie), and storyboard artists Kelly James, Viki Anderson, Stark Howell, Holly Forsyth, Larry Leker, Mike Kunkel, Eugene Salandra, Barry Caldwell, Chris Otsuki, and Hank Tucker. Coincidentally, many of them worked on Classic Disney shows like DuckTales (1987), Goof Troop, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and much more.
Reality Subtext: In "The Curse of Princess Ivy", Amber being a fan of Rapunzel may be a reference to how Tangled was the most recent Disney Princess entry at the time of the episode's release. Sofia being implied to be unfamiliar with Frozen may also be a nod to how Frozen was released during the show's lifetime.
Recast as a Regular: Megan Hilty played Princess Charlotte in Season 3's "Beauty Is The Beast" before being cast as Prisma, the main antagonist in the Mystic Isles story arc for Season 4. Likewise, Andrew Rannells, who voiced Morris in that episode, would voice Skye, Sofia's flying horse companion in the titular isles, another regular in season 4. There's also Fiona Bishop, who voiced Ruby in the pilot movie "Once Upon A Princess" , voicing Princess Zooey, and Buttercup twins Meg and Peg.
Role Reprise: With the show's connections to various Disney projects, many of the actors who currently portray certain characters return to voicing them, including:
Jennifer Hale as Cinderella.
Barbara Dirickson, Russi Taylor, and Tress MacNeille as Flora, Fauna, and Merriwether.
Linda Larkin and Lea Salonga as Jasmine's speaking and singing voice respectively.
Ming Na Wen and Lea Salonga as Mulan's speaking and singing voice.
Mandy Moore as Rapunzel.
Anika Noni Rose as Tiana.
Josh Gad as Olaf.
Jeff Bennett as Merlin.
Katie Von Til as Snow White.
From Disney Infinity, Ruth Connell as Merida.
Schedule Slip: The show had a few hiatuses, a lot of which were thankfully short. The first was between November 18, 2012 and January 11, 2013. The second was between December 1, 2013 and February 14, 2014. The third was between August 15, 2014 and October 3. The fourth was between March 27, 2015 and July 1. The fifth was between December 4, 2015 and February 15, 2016. The sixth was between August 12, 2016 and October 7. The seventh was from November 20, 2016 to January 6, 2017. The eighth and final was from March 2, 2018 until May.
Screwed by the Network: The show fell into this during season four. Its reruns were greatly reduced as it went on, it got pushed into rather peculiar premiere times, and it was eventually taken off the schedule a few months after the series finale aired. It did fare better than mostshows that fell victim to this due to having enough foresight to plan a series finale and, again, being rerun as opposed to being taken off immediately.
Those Two Actors: Ariel Winter (Sofia) and Eric Stonestreet (Minimus) are better known for playing niece and uncle on Modern Family.
Universe Bible: Craig Gerber has written one for Sofia the First.
Additionally, a map of the Ever Realm does exist, but for writing purposes only and is unlikely to be released to the public. Craig Gerber later clarified in his interview with the Podcast Princesses that this was mainly because his NDA may restrict him from doing so and he doesn't want to cause conflict (within Disney, the fandom, or both) over the the locations of Arendelle and Corona since it may not be consistent with other Disney media.
Voices in One Room: Subverted. According to Craig Gerber , the cast members usually record their parts separately. However, for many key scenes, the key actors for those scenes are often brought in to record together if schedules work out.
Write What You Know: Craig Gerber made the Enchancian Royal Family a blended family because his parents divorced when he was eight; his father remarried another woman and had another son, while his mother, for a few years, dated and lived with a boyfriend who had a daughter of his own from a previous relationship. Having a family that was not "together" made Gerber feel uncomfortable during his childhood because he didn't know any other kids who had blended families growing up and didn't realize such families were common until he was older. Part of the reason why he agreed to create Sofia the First was to give young kids from blended families stories and characters they could relate to.
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