The Princess Stays in the Picture

"The Princess Stays in the Picture" is the fortieth episode of the Disney Junior series Sofia the First, which aired on October 24, 2014.

Plot
The episode starts at Royal Prep, where the fairies are teaching Sofia, Amber, James, Hildegard, Zandar and Arsinoe about 'enchanted' paintings. Flora says that an enchanted painting is a painting that comes to life when you enter it and that the magic will only work if you use an enchanted paintbrush. The kids are paired and Hildegard becomes Sofia's painting partner. When Flora is explaining about how to get inside a painting, using the enchanted paintbrush and a spell, Hildegard brags to Sofia that she knows everything about enchanted paintings,and hence, both of them fail to hear the exit spell.

Amber,who is paired with James, paints a tea party, while James paints warthogs, after Amber gets inside the painting. The warthogs make a huge mess of everything, leaving the twins in despair.

Sofia and Hildegard paint a mermaid cove, and Hildegard says the entrance spell, but points it at a painting in the hallway of enchanted paintings instead. Since, they do not know the exit spell, Sofia and Hildegard are stuck there. Hildegard insists she knows the spell, but they do not get out, no matter how much she tries. They meet a kindly old man there, who says he'll give them the exit spell if they get the dog inside a painting in the end of the hallway, as he gets really lonely. He also tells them, to get into another painting, they have to point the paintbrush at the edge of the painting.

The girls agree and get into the next painting, which is a beach which has a sailboat docked at the coast. Hildegard says she had been sailing since she was three, while Sofia was when she was only four. But Hildegard only gets them caught in a storm and they are thrown off the boat. They get inside the next painting - a Chinese village- just in time. Sofia gets annoyed with Hildegard getting them thrown off the boat. In the next painting, Hildegard unknowingly wakes up a sleeping bull while she shouts out that she knew everything about bulls. The beast grabs Hildegard's paintbrush, but the two manage to get inside the last painting. They get the dog,but the bull comes inside the painting, frightening the dog away.

Meanwhile, Amber and James still have no idea on how to calm down the warthogs in their paintings. But when James mentions warthog food, Amber gets an idea. She gets out of the painting, paints warthog food and gets back into the painting. She promises the warthogs the food, if they behave politely. Everything goes on well and both James and Amber get the painting they want.

Mean while, Hildegard insists she knows how to find the dog,but stammers then and there. Sofia gets mad at Hildegard and goes away by herself to find the dog. Hildegard finally admits that she pretends to know everything because, princesses are supposed to know everything. Sofia asks her why. Hildegard say when she joined Royal prep, she didn't have any friends yet. When her older sister and her friends ask her to twirl, Hildegard falls down, causing the entire playground to laugh at her. That is why, she acts like she knows everything, only because she wants everyone to like her.

Sofia feels bad for Hildegard and tells her, to make friends, she just has to be humble and kind. They both grow closer to each other. They find the dog, which the bull is torturing. Hildegard bravely faces the bull and knocks him down and even gets back her paintbrush. They start their journey of going back to the first painting and Sofia even teaches Hildegard how to sail. They give the dog to the man and he gives them the exit spell. The two get out of the painting and Flora comes to inspect their paintings. When they go back, Hildegard and Sofia hug, telling each other that they are happy to be friends, Amber notices a change in Hildegard. The episode ends with Fauna telling Sofia that she needs to change her glasses as she thought she was seeing things in the hallway of paintings, which was actually Sofia and Hildegard teleporting from one painting to another.

Cast

 * Ariel Winter as Sofia
 * Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
 * Coco Grayson as Princess Hildegard (Jenna Lea Rosen singing voice)
 * Zach Callison as Prince James
 * Sarah Mitchell as Princess Arsinoe
 * Barbara Dirickson as Flora
 * Russi Taylor as Fauna
 * Tress MacNeille as Merryweather
 * Jamie Mitchell as Old Man
 * Keith Ferguson as Rider #1

Songs

 * Know It All

Trivia

 * The title can be a reference to The Kid Stays in the Picture.
 * This is the first episode that Sofia has an adventure with Hildegard. This is also an episode where Hildegard has an active role.
 * It is discovered in this episode that Princess Hildegard has an older sister.
 * This episode features a series of flashbacks from previous episodes that star Hildegard such as:
 * The Big Sleepover
 * The Shy Princess
 * The Princess Test
 * Baileywick's Day Off
 * Scrambled Pets
 * This episode shows flashbacks when Princess Hildegard was a little girl. This is the third episode that features a flashback of characters, the others were "Baileywick's Day Off" and "Mom's the Word".
 * As a director of this show, this is Jamie Mitchell's first episode voicing a character.
 * This is the second episode where Sofia reforms another snobbish character like she reformed hugo in the flying crown