Review: Elena of Avalor”First Day of Rule”

Is first the worst?

Spoilers Below

Elena of Avalor is a new show spinning off from Disney Junior’s Sophia The First. In this first episode, Elena has returned to her kingdom after being trapped in an amulet for 41 years. She is eager to being ruling her people as the rightful queen of Avalor. However, Elena did not age inside the amulet. Even though 41 years have passed, she is still only 16 years old. As such, she is not allowed to be queen. She must rule as the crown princess with a Grand Council to advise her.

But Elena is determined to prove to everyone that she is ready to be queen. While she is out speaking to the leaders of Avalor, she finds out about some ships that have gone missing. As she leaves the harbor to speak to another town leader, Naomi, the daughter of the harbor master, informs Elena that another ship has gone missing and Elena’s sister, Isabel, is on board! Elena, her royal guard, and the Jaquins (three flying leopards) race off to save Isabel.

When the group finally finds the missing ship, they automatically attack the strange creatures that stole it. After getting some good advice from Zuzo, an animal spirit guide, Elena asks the creatures why they stole the ship. It turns out that these creatures had been held captive by the previous queen and they were just trying to get back to their home. Horrified at what they have been through, Elena lends the creatures the ship so they can return home safely.

Back in Avalor, Elena admits that she is not ready to be queen. She appoints Luisa (her grandmother), Naomi, Chancellor Esteban (her cousin), and Francisco (her grandfather) to her Grand Council. Together, they will try to bring Avalor back to prosperity.

Disney seems to like to confuse their viewers. Elena of Avalor is a spin-off of Sophie The First, however, Elena’s episode on Sophia hasn’t aired yet. It’s not scheduled to air until this fall. So we got the first two episodes of the show tonight but we don’t have any of the backstory to truly understand what is going on. There was a little blurb at the beginning that tried to explain it. It just wasn’t enough. As a result, I spent a good portion of this episode trying to figure out the various relationships and wondering what all of the townspeople were doing while the royal family was magically trapped. With that said, this episode wasn’t terrible. It was just incomplete.