Sofia The First: Royal Magic is the highly anticipated new sequel series to the popular Disney animated program. It premieres Monday May 25 on Disney Jr. and Tuesday May 26 on Disney+. Joining me to talk about this revival are creator and EP Craig Gerber and supervising director Kris Wimberly. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Craig, it’s been nearly eight years since the finale. I remember watching it and it was a big deal, and I love that we’re back and we’ve got more. Why did you feel like it was time for a “Sofia” revival?

Craig Gerber: Because all the kids who grew up with the original grew up, and finally I got to hear what they thought about it, and it turned out they really liked it. And it got me very excited about the possibility of bringing those characters and stories to a new generation.

JM: I screened the first episode. Really enjoyed it. Kris, you were a storyboard artist on “Elena of Avalor”. You also worked as a director of episodes on “Firebuds”. So how has this collaboration been with Craig and this experience of working on all these shows now, including the “Sofia” revival?

Kris Wimberly: To say that it’s been just fun and exciting would be an understatement. And I’m not just saying this ’cause Craig is sitting right there, but definitely from the beginning I have just had a blast working with Craig, and when we got through the first two shows and he said, “Here comes a third one, are you interested?” I asked, “What time do you want me there?”CG: It has been such a great working relationship with Kris. I remember when he came on board “Elena of Avalor” in this position that we kind created on that show because we would wind up doing so many revisions and editorial that instead of just having a revisionist there, I wanted a full blown storyboard artist there who could take charge creatively of the changes. And Kris was one of those people we brought in and I was immediately impressed with his creativity and his problem solving and how easy it was to work with him to find a solution — that I just wanted to keep working with him. And the way to do that, from show to show if you really believe in someone, is to promote them. He was kind enough to come on board “Firebuds” as a director. And then when I was starting to think about putting together the crew for “Sofia the First: Royal Magic”, I felt like Kris would be the perfect person to be the supervising director and help oversee all of it, all the animation.

JM: The show looks great. It’s a lot of fun. Craig, Sofia’s going to the Charmswell School for Royal Magic. What did you wanna focus on in terms of what she’s gonna learn and how she’s gonna grow as a character?
CG: She had a whole series to find out what being royal’s all about. And you saw the finale. She figured out what royal meant and she had a whole song about it. So you have that character that had this whole arc and this journey that you could have said was over even though she was just a school age kid. But in bringing her back, it was very important to set her off on a new journey. And how would that new journey look different from her previous journey? And the key to it was hanging around her neck. It’s that magical amulet. It was this whole thing that she summons princesses and [it] gives her powers. And at the end of the original series, she fights a villain and she’s even sucked into the amulet at one point and then comes out, and we had this idea that, “What if coming out of the amulet has made her more magical?” And it’s about magic. It’s about learning magic. And that is the launching off point for “Sofia the First: Royal Magic”. There’s a school for Royal Magic that’s created. You almost might think it was created just for her. She’s not the only one there, but she is certainly one of the most important princesses there. It’s a place where princes and princesses can go to focus on learning magic, and she really needs to learn it. And we find out when you watch the series why that is.

JM: And she gets to stay in a castle clubhouse. Kris, they look fantastic. There’s terraces… that school environment. What did you want to focus on in terms of the entire school atmosphere?

KW: So that for me was a herculean lift that I could not have done by myself by any stretch. The team that we built from everyone from the design all the way through the partner studio Icon, who realized the vision, was all just a team effort lift. But what it really boiled down to is a place that when you look at it, not only does it look just like a very inviting storybook, but a place that you really wish you could crawl through the screen and step into that place. That was something that Craig and I had talked about from the beginning, that the storybook aspect was special from the first version of “Sofia”. That was very magical that way and very inviting. But now that we have all these new tools, almost a decade later, a decade and a half later. It’s really important that you use that to support the vision. And so we wanted something that felt the same but still stood on its own as a place that you really wish you could step into.

JM: It is a very cool environment. Craig, [in] just watching the first episode, the animation looks crisper, sharper, bolder. Could you tell in the new technology that you had and in working on this, “Wow, this looks even better than it did before”?

CG: Yeah. Back when we did “Sofia”, CG animation was more limited, and so we made up for it by leaning into the 2D storybook pastel, watercolor aspect of it. A lot of the backgrounds were just paintings. Now the technology has gotten to the point where you can actually do something much more cinematic, much more like something you’d see in the Disney feature animated movies. And so the question was how much can we embrace it and in what sense? So we brought on an art director named Francis Giglio, who has a terrific color sense. And when you’re looking at the color schemes and the bright colors, but they’re not obvious colors, he has a really good sensibility for something that is appealing and vibrant. Still feels very artistic… and that’s what I love about Fran. And so he came on board and we were able to kinda look at the tools that we had, as Kris mentioned, and really knowing what we knew from “Sofia” and “Elena” and “Firebuds”… hone the look. Hone the textures, hone the lighting. I finally got the trees I’d been hoping for 15 years… and the leaves that weren’t oversized and flat. I got lighting that gets dappled through the trees. And it’s all to give it that sense that sometimes you take it for granted in the features, that you’re in this very well lit storybook world where a princess can walk out of the woods and cast a spell on a talking rabbit.

JM: Kris, there are great new human and animal characters, [including] Pepper the Puppercorn. What do you love about Pepper and all the new friends that Sofia has?

KW: Pepper’s energy is infectious. He’s got such a big personality and such a tiny package that is just very fun and genuinely, I think he’ll be a big hit right off the bat just because he is such an inviting character, much like in the way that Clover was. But he is just his own person, or… His own character. He’s very infectious that way. And he is voiced by the amazing Nate Torrance who just brings so much comedy… hilarious chops on that guy. That’s one of our really fun characters that we’ll see right off the bat that I’m really excited about.
CG: One of the staples of “Sofia the First” as a sort of universe is funny side characters, and specifically funny animals. And I think Nate’s doing a great job of bringing that humor to this new little fur ball that we’re introducing.

JM: Craig, what was it like with Ariel Winter back in the booth, that first day, that first recording? How did it feel for you? How did it feel for her?

CG: For me it felt like reuniting with a long lost sibling because we worked together for so long, and during that time I would hear her voice probably more often than anyone, besides maybe her immediate family. Because I’m watching, I’m listening, I’m watching iterations of the animatics… and the edits and everything. So you just live with this person, and you’re in the recording booth [for] hours and hours, and then the show ends and you just don’t see them for years. The nature of the business. And to get back into the studio with her, just even see her again and work with her again felt like a homecoming of sorts. And it was really sweet. And she had grown up but in some ways hadn’t changed ’cause she was always a very intelligent, caring, talented person. So in a way, things had changed and in another way it was like getting right back at it. You could ask her what had changed about me besides gray hair. But it was really one of thebest parts of coming back to this world was being able to work with Ariel again.

JM: Nice. And Kris, I think there’s a theme here of legacy with this new show, Disney, the impact of the princesses and the legacy of the princesses. What does the theme of legacy mean to you as far as working on a show like this?

KW: At times… intimidating. You don’t want to be the one to drop the ball on the legacy. So there’s a lot of intense studying and feeling like you’re doing the best you can to contribute the most you can while staying true to the integrity of that legacy. And in this case, the princesses. That is literally the backbone, arguably, of the Disney legacy. Being able to work with princesses that range all the way from Sofia back to Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty” and knowing what each one represents and how to work with those particular characters… it proves to be a challenge. But it’s a very exciting challenge because it’s something that so many people wish they could have a chance to do, and Craig has created a playground that they have generously let us use their players in this playground. And so we do the most we can to respect that, uphold it, but still make it feel like part of our universe that Sofia technically who’s in the same universe as the rest of the princesses, but still within the context of the show. We want it to feel like it works together harmoniously and there’s not some strange hiccup in that filmmaking.

CG: I’ll tell you this: It is quite daunting to sit down at your laptop one day and say, “Okay, time to write Moana’s dialogue.” “Let’s hope this goes well.” And you’ll know when Auli’i [Cravalho] gets in the booth and there was a big sense of relief. I remember when she started doing the part and it felt like Moana, and she felt that it felt like Moana. ‘Cause she would know, and I was sitting there just quietly going, “Whew, okay.” But there’s even a legacy to the show and the “Sofia” show itself, and I don’t know about Kris, but I definitely feel the weight of bringing that magic forward to a new generation.

KW: A thousand percent.

JM: Craig, I don’t wanna give away what happens at the end of this first episode, but boy, are there good surprises at the end of this episode And they set up big things that are gonna happen over the course of this season. Did you always know in the back of your mind, “Okay, I wanna make sure I hit these certain goals, this bigger arc”… when it comes to approaching this show? It’s not just the school… there’s a lot more at stake and there’s a lot more surprises to come.

CG: Yes. That was important to me, and it was also important to the network, which was very exciting. The original “Sofia” had a lot… [it] had a broad storytelling palette. And it was thrilling to be on the same page with everyone in terms of setting up something at the end of the first episode that will lead to even more exciting and bigger things for Sofia.