Aunt Tilly

Aunt Tilly is a character who appears in the Disney Junior animated series Sofia the First, voiced by Bonnie Hunt. She is Sofia's whimsical and adventurous step-aunt and King Roland's older sister who is a Duchess and a brave adventurer.

Background
Being an adventurer, Tilly has seen and done many incredible things such as ride a giant and teach a dragon to knit. Aside from her bravery she is known to be whimsical, always looking on the positive side of things and whenever there is a problem she always has a trick or two up her sleeve. During her adventures she carries an umbrella and a Carpet Bag that is possibly magical because of its ability to hold more items than it should.

Physical appearance
Tilly has a cape with flower-like crests, a red dress with red-orange buttons, puffed sleeves, a large skirt for the dress and dark brown boots. She has green eyes and blonde hair that's tied in a small ponytail and wears a giant hat tied up with a large red bow. She carries about a yellow umbrella and a yellow carpet bag. As a Duchess, she wears a cobalt dress with teal flowers, a tiara, and hair in a bun.

Role in the Series
In the beginning, Amber and James considerd their aunt boring and embarrassing, because she pinches their cheeks and pats them on the head, commenting how cute and little they were and asking them to be her "Little Helpers" in baking pies. In her debut appearance "Great Aunt-Venture", the things about Tilly were proven wrong when Sofia accompanied her to pick apples for her apple pie and found her to be a "Whiz Bang!" person and had a great adventure at the same time.

Tilly returned in "The Silent Knight" to receive the Shield of Valor award for taming a dragon by teaching it to knit. Her looks and deeds garner the attention of a brave and yet silent knight named Sir Bartleby, who really likes her, but was afraid to tell her because of his voice. With some encouragement from Sofia, Bartleby was able admit his feelings to Tilly and despite how strange his voice sound, she still liked him as she loves one-of-a-kind things.

Tilly makes her third season debute in, "Minding the Manor" when she invited Sofia over to her magical home to help prepare for a garden party. She left Sofia in charge of the manor after telling her she could use her magical music box. When she returned to the manor she explained to Sofia the purpose of the magical music box was to test to see how responsible Sofia was as well a preparing her for "destiny". As a reward for passing the test, Tilly gave Sofia a book about the history of the castle. She causually mentioned she grew up in Sofia's room and discovered a magical secret that's not in the book, peaking Sofia's interest in what was to come next.

Trivia

 * Aunt Tilly's characteristics may be based on Mary Poppins, as both appear to know magic, they carry carpet bags that can hold more items than it should and as well carry umbrellas.
 * One of the few differences that makes them stand out between one another is their personalities: Mary Poppins was loving and kind, strict and firm on some occasions. Aunt Tilly was completely loving and joyful with no serious side.
 * Her voice is performed by actress Bonnie Hunt, who did many voice roles for Pixar films such as Rosie from A Bug's Life, Sally Carrera from Cars, and Dolly from Toy Story 3.
 * Aunt Tilly is so far the only living relative of King Roland's family to appear in the series since their father is only mentioned at the end of Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess, their mother, who Tilly seems to heavily resemble, right down to love of magic, in "The Amulet of Avalor", and their grandfather only appears in a flashback during the episode "Let the Good Times Troll".
 * Aunt Tilly's personality might be based off of Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. Both are whimsical, adventurous and unafraid of danger.
 * In "The Silent Knight", James and Amber finally see their real Aunt Tilly and start to like her a lot better.
 * Despite being older than Roland, she is a whole head shorter than him.
 * Unlike Roland, Tilly knows how to use magical items and be self-sufficient.