Here's the official poster.
The concept (and the costumes, which look like none-too-imaginative cosplay to me) just seem to continue the trend of an hour-long ad for Disney products, rather than be a unique spin on fairy tales or adding to the overall mythology of fairy tale villains.
Please don't misunderstand me: I would LOVE to be proven wrong and see brilliant and creative storytelling using fairy tale principles, and perhaps even drawing from actual fairy tales (even if they're put to use via the vehicle of these Disney-created characters). After all, I was pleasantly surprised to see the depiction of the Snow Queen in the "Frozen" half of this season. Her character and arc nuances (and Elizabeth Mitchell's acting - credit corrected 2-28-15) made the show worth watching, even though I cringed every time Anna and Elsa appeared in their straight-from-the-movie costumes like some weird sort of fan-fiction-slash-Disney-ad. (Note: I thought the actresses both did wonderfully in their given parts. They had the characterizations down extremely well, but there was just nothing subtle about the way they were written or shown. Instead it became like an hour long promo to grab the attention of Frozen fans when they were on screen. Not cool sorry!)
Once Upon A Time continues with the second half of season 4 on Sunday, March 1st.
i do SO agree with your assessment and description of the show ("hour long ad for disney products" indeed!)...it's just so cheesy and lacking in depth or authenticity. i've never been a big fan of the disney machine, admittedly, but this program's shameless pimping of their lightweight, garishly costumed versions of fairytales would have left a bad taste even if i did like disney in its place...
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see if people pointing out the ridiculousness of having Elsa and Anna in full movie costume for the show has had any impact. The Snow Queen character was much beloved, for good reason but the Frozen aspect didn't seem to be received too well (to my surprise actually - I'm pleased to hear it though). Here's hoping the writers thoughts a little harder about that for this half of the season... although the costumes etc are giving me great pause. The ads just look... ridiculous. But, as I said, I was pleasantly, wonderfully surprised by the real Snow Queen elements and character so I live in hope.
DeleteDarling, the actress playing the Snow Queen was named Elizabeth Mitchell...Elizabeth Montgomery was Samantha on "Bewitched." In all fairness, I'd use any excuse I can to bring up my favorite sitcom, so I thank you.
ReplyDeleteWhat pisses me off is that OUAT started out adapting fairy tales that Disney never even touched (i.e. Rumpelstilskin) and now all of a sudden they have to use the Disney incarnations and product placements. And since when the hell has 101 Dalmations been a fairy tale?
But like you said, bringing in the original Snow Queen really did help redeem the show for me, so you never know.
My mistake! (This is what I get for writing posts in the middle of the night and not double-checking..) Thank you for pointing it out. Actress credit is now corrected.
DeleteThey kind of fooled us early on by playing up Rumpelstiltskin in the promos before the series started. But when the show actually started, all the non-Disney fairy tales turned out to be ones that were practically household names anyway. Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, The Pied Piper. Heck they even went outside fairy tales to just throw a very horror-movie style version of Frankenstein in there. So, while they weren't Disney, they might as well have been.
DeletePersonally, I've stopped watching the show after last season's boring Oz thing. I have had a number of issues with the series. For one, there's the fact that all the villains' motivations seem to stem from Mommy issues (unless you're Rumpelstiltskin, then it's Daddy issues). For another, they changed my favorite adventurous boy heroes from childhood, Peter Pan and Jack, into scheming villains with no decent motivation (and also changed Jack into woman because they wanted her to be involved with Charming's jerk brother). I know this isn't a big thing to some, because more people are concerned with the depiction of women in fairy tales. However, when I was a kid, fairy tales were kind of seen as a girl thing so the idea that they also had young boy heroes who did not kiss sleeping princesses was kind of important to me. And then there's the cheesiness, which isn't even a fun cheesiness you can laugh at. It's a cheesiness from a show that takes itself too seriously.
It's funny comparing how OUaT handles fairy tales and how Grimm handles fairy tales. In Once, everything is very familiar, very Disney and very "on-the-nose". While in Grimm, everything is kind of dark, obscured and veiled behind the show's own mythology to the point you'd have to be an expert to recognize some of it.