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 premiered on October 24, 2014.

Plot
At Royal Prep, the Fairies are teaching the kids about Enchanted Paintings. Flora states 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 how to get inside a painting, Hildegard brags to Sofia that she knows everything about Enchanted Paintings and, because of this, 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 hard 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 flying derby race and Hildegard continues to brag as they head into the next painting, which has a sailboat docked at the edge. Hildegard says she has been sailing since she was three, while Sofia has 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 wakes up a sleeping bull when she shouts out that she knows everything about bulls after Sofia expressed doubts that she does. 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.

Meanwhile, Hildegard insists she knows how to find the dog, and after failing to give a explanation how, Sofia finally loses her patience with her and goes away by herself to find the dog. Hildegard finally admits that she pretends to know everything because she thinks princesses are supposed to know everything. Sofia asks her why she believes that and, through a song, 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 they are happy to be friends.

Cast

 * Ariel Winter as Sofia
 * Darcy Rose Byrnes as Princess Amber
 * Coco Grayson as Princess Hildegard (Jenna Lea Rosen singing voice)
 * Tyler Merna 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 flashbacks of previous episodes that starred 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 fourth episode that features a flashback of characters, the others were "Let the Good Times Troll", "Baileywick's Day Off" and "Mom's the Word" with the exception of "The Amulet and the Anthem" which flashbacks were when Sofia bragged about herself.
 * Even as a director of this show, this is Jamie Mitchell's second episode voicing a character (the happiest Old Man in the whole school), the first being Finding Clover voicing Magic Dove. Magic Dove later returned in The Leafsong Festival as the director of the event.
 * This is the sixth episode where Sofia reforms a negative character.
 * The first was Amber in the premier.
 * The second was Lucinda in "The Little Witch".
 * The third was Queen Emmaline, Cora, Plank and the merpeople in The Floating Palace.
 * The fourth was Prince Hugo in "The Flying Crown".
 * The fifth was Sir Dax in "Ghostly Gala".