Ghostly Gala

"Ghostly Gala" is a special Halloween-themed episode of the Disney Junior series Sofia the First, which aired on October 3, 2014.

Plot
It's Halloween in the Kingdom of Enchancia and Sofia is preparing the castle for a Halloween party. Suddenly, strange things begin to happen: Doors knocking when no one is there and candle lights blowing out by themselves. Sofia soon finds out the one responsible is a ghost known as Sir Reginald Daxter Sircliff IV (also simply known as Sir Dax) who is trying to scare everyone out of the castle so he can host his Ghostly Gala, a party for all the ghosts in the kingdom. Unfortunately, Sofia's party is on the same night as Sir Dax's Gala and she pleads with him not to ruin her party but he doesn't listen. Meanwhile, Clover meets a ghost bat named Boo who's a companion of Sir Dax. After Boo leaves, Sofia comes in and the two tell each other about their ghostly encounters. Sofia decides to use her parents' disbelief in ghosts to get all of Sir Dax's scares written off as party tricks she came up with. Clover finds Boo and gets him to have a snack with him somewhere secluded.

Meanwhile, Sofia travels around the castle keeping a eye out for Sir Dax's tricks by asking the castle staff if they've seen anything strange and is answered "No." When she gets to the ballroom, however, she hears her mother freaking out. Miranda tells her daughter that the xylophone is playing all by itself. Realizing that it must be the work of Sir Dax, Sofia intervenes and tells her mother that she had Cedric enchant the xylophone for the party and Miranda leaves convinced that it's a party trick. Sir Dax is annoyed that Sofia ruined his scare and Sofia tells him she won't let him ruin her party and continues to be vigilant against his scare attempts. She continues to ask the castle staff if they've seen anything strange and like before they normally answer "No." But then, she hears her father screaming. Roland points out how his ties are flying around in the air all by themselves and tells Sofia to stay back. Sofia steps forward and again states that it's another one of her Haunted Castle surprises. An irritated Roland states that it's very entertaining, but asks her to keep the party tricks in the ballroom. Suddenly, the doors slam shut and when Roland asks what that was, Sofia nervously states it was just the wind and quickly leaves with a nervous giggle.

Sofia runs down the hallway looking for signs of Sir Dax and his tricks when he suddenly appears before her and states "Princess Sofia! I'm trying as hard as I can to be frightening. I must insist you stop getting in my way." Unbeknownst to Sofia, James had been watching from the shadows and heard everything. As soon as Sir Dax vanishes, James runs up to Sofia and asks about the ghost. Sofia tries to claim it was just another one of her party tricks, but James sees through his little sister's excuses and proves his case beyond any reasonable doubt by stating that he saw her talking to it and demands she tell him the truth. Realizing she's been caught, Sofia admits there are two real ghosts in the castle. James is actually excited about the prospect of having ghosts in the castle but warns Sofia that Amber better not see them because she said she'd make them move out of the castle.

Meanwhile, Clover and Boo are having their snack when Sir Dax shows up. Through a song, Sir Dax reveals that the reason he has to have his Ghostly Gala tonight is because he can only have it on Halloween every 100 years and if he doesn't throw it, he won't see his family and friends for another century. Clover urges Sir Dax to talk to Sofia but, like with Sofia, he refuses to listen. Sir Dax and Boo both try to scare Amber but Sofia and James interfere and ruin his scare again. Pushed over the edge, Sir Dax has Boo bring bats into the castle but he can't get rid of them, thus ruining both his and Sofia's parties. Clover tells Sofia why he did what he did and, now feeling sorry for the ghost, she helps him get rid of the bats and together come up with a way for both of them to have their parties. Sir Dax and Sofia have their parties in the ballroom where everyone, except James, think the ghosts are all one of Sofia's party tricks.

Cast

 * Ariel Winter as Sofia
 * Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
 * Tyler Merna as Prince James
 * Travis Willingham as King Roland II
 * Wayne Brady as Clover
 * Sara Ramirez as Queen Miranda
 * Tim Gunn as Baileywick
 * Mick Wingert as Sir Dax
 * Mitchell Whitfield as Boo
 * Antoinette Spolar-Levine as Auntie Bess

Songs

 * The Ghostly Gala

Trivia

 * This is the second Halloween-themed Sofia the First episode, the first was "Princess Butterfly".
 * This is the first episode to have a different text design to the episode's title.
 * The text design for the episode's title is similar to the one used during the opening of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
 * This is the second episode to have a different closing credits sequence which is Halloween-themed, the first was "Holiday in Enchancia" where the closing credits sequence was Christmas-themed.
 * Gwen from "Gizmo Gwen" is mentioned in this episode.
 * Several minor characters seen throughout the show reappear in this episode as one of the Ghosts.
 * During the song The Ghostly Gala, The Skeleton's dance shares some similarities to the one performed in Walt Disney's first-ever  Silly Symphonies cartoon The Skeleton Dance.
 * Also, during the song, Sir Dax mentions Uncle Roy (Reference to Roy E. Disney) and Walter (Reference to Walt Disney.)
 * This episode is a foreshadowing of The Curse of Princess Ivy: In this episode, James finds out about Sir Dax by seeing Sofia talking to him and then confronting her about it. In the Curse of Princess Ivy, Amber finds out about the secret of Sofia's amulet by seeing her use the powers The Amulet of Avalor gives her and then confronting her about it. Unlike Amber, James retains this knowledge and proves that she was right to trust him.