by Julia Lawson
In a flurry of ice and ‘stress’ snow clouds, ONCE is back. Finally. The Frozen storyline is well underway as is the running campaign ‘Happy Endings for Villains’. The first episode of Season Four continues immediately after the dramatic finale post-Wicked Witch of the West, time portal, Rumbelle’s wedding, Maid Marion's love triangle and Elsa’s arrival in Storybrooke. Are you ready to dive back in?
In a flurry of ice and ‘stress’ snow clouds, ONCE is back. Finally. The Frozen storyline is well underway as is the running campaign ‘Happy Endings for Villains’. The first episode of Season Four continues immediately after the dramatic finale post-Wicked Witch of the West, time portal, Rumbelle’s wedding, Maid Marion's love triangle and Elsa’s arrival in Storybrooke. Are you ready to dive back in?
The events of the finale have hit Regina (Lana Parrilla) hard and she is struggling to handle the loss of her happy ending; everyone fears for her wellbeing, and to be honest, their own wellbeing should she revert back to her evil ways. She brings back Sidney/The Magic Mirror to help her with her coping strategies which initially involve the use of time travel to kill Marion before Emma rescues her in the past. However she then takes stock of her situation and asks “Why don’t villains get and keep their happy endings?” It is a fair point and leads to her new plan which is to find the writer of the Fairytale Storybook (arguably the show’s most important prop) and force them to change the terms and conditions of villainhood. This could quite possibly be one of the most exciting developments to date and it echoes Disney Pixar’s Brave “If you could change your own fate…”
For Rumbelle, on day two of married life, things are going swimmingly. Well minus the secrets that Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) is keeping about the Dark One’s dagger and his sudden need to discover the iconic Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat. However we were treated to the Beauty and the Beast dance, in full costume.
For Rumbelle, on day two of married life, things are going swimmingly. Well minus the secrets that Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) is keeping about the Dark One’s dagger and his sudden need to discover the iconic Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat. However we were treated to the Beauty and the Beast dance, in full costume.
Elsa’s (Georgina Haig) introduction to the real world, ice trail and all, provides a classic ‘crisis’ situation distracting the Storybrooke residents from their day-to-day troubles. Finding yourself alone after jumping forward in time into a town filled with strange machines, buildings and overhanging cables would be enough to send any normal Disney character into a panic – even a small tantrum would be acceptable under those circumstances. However, as we saw in Frozen, a stressed and scared Snow Queen can be driven to full defense mode, leading Leroy/Grumpy of Seven Dwarves fame (Lee Arenberg) to shout “EVIL SNOWMAN… RUN!” Nothing like a good panic to set off the season!
Although the Frozen storyline is strange to get your head around, it must be remembered that it is the ONCE representation and the events take place after the much-loved movie (i.e. the upcoming Anna and Kristoff wedding); Ed Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wanted to explore how these characters would interact with the real world. It also begins to look into Anna and Elsa’s parents and where they were going when their ship capsized.
But other Disney storylines which have been given the ONCE treatment were much older, backtracking to the nineties with the most recent film used being Disney’s Mulan (1998) – is it too soon after the Frozen phenomenon to reinvent it? After all Disney are most likely considering a sequel (hint hint…).
Although the Frozen storyline is strange to get your head around, it must be remembered that it is the ONCE representation and the events take place after the much-loved movie (i.e. the upcoming Anna and Kristoff wedding); Ed Kitsis and Adam Horowitz wanted to explore how these characters would interact with the real world. It also begins to look into Anna and Elsa’s parents and where they were going when their ship capsized.
But other Disney storylines which have been given the ONCE treatment were much older, backtracking to the nineties with the most recent film used being Disney’s Mulan (1998) – is it too soon after the Frozen phenomenon to reinvent it? After all Disney are most likely considering a sequel (hint hint…).
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