Has Frozen Gone Too Far? Once Upon a Time Season 4 Premiere

ABC’s hit television drama, Once Upon a Time has been recently infiltrated with Disney’s 2013 animated blockbuster, Frozen. Its fourth season premiered for the first time since May, on September 28, 2014 in an all new episode called “The Tale of Two Sisters”, revolving around the formation of the stories of Anna and Elsa from Frozen. Previously the writers of hit series Lost, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, the writers of Once Upon a Time (OUAT), are known for having always having strange twists in their stories, in this case, on well-known fairytales. That was surprisingly almost a nonexistent theme in this episode, which followed the Frozen storyline almost exactly, an unusual thing for this show. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fantastic episode in every other way besides the redundancy of Frozen references; some great parts included the romantic drama and overall digression of both Regina (Lana Parilla) and Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle): magic always being a temptation to the “villains”. But one can’t help but wonder: has Once Upon a Time digressed into just being a television show for only fairytale and Frozen fanatics? By the looks of this season premiere, the show known for dark magic, intense plot twists and romantic drama, will be overtaken by Frozen spinoffs and overall unoriginality, unless saved by some of the non-Frozen-related topics that are being introduced.

The episode began with the iconic scene all Frozen fans were able to recognize: the shipwreck of Anna and Elsa’s parents, the king and queen of Arendelle. In this scene, it is obvious that the ship is going to sink, and yet, as is typical for OUAT, the queen puts a secret message into a glass bottle, stating that “Anna and Elsa must know the truth”, and throws it into the raging sea just before the vessel is tipped over by a large wave. It began with mystery and intrigue which was characteristic, and a very good hook for the new season. Again however, it followed the Frozen scene much too closely – it was unoriginal at best.

This show is known for their characters having intriguing character plot twists: Peter Pan (Robbie Kay) in Season 3A was portrayed as a villain, Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) the villain from Disney’s Peter Pan a hero, Mulan (Jamie Chung) as a lesbian, and Little Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory) as a werewolf. Although it is too early in the season to know whether or not Anna and Elsa will have such character twists, but in the last several seasons, the show has seen some rather weak characters: Princess Aurora (Sarah Bolger) has had the potential to be a moving character but the chance was never seized, Ariel (JoAnna Garcia) had some big parts in Season 3B, but was very given a very shallow portrayal; and also arguably Belle (Emilie de Ravin), who has seen little to no character development and has been a main character in the show since Season Two. To be honest, it would be disappointing to an extreme level, if Elsa and Anna (Anna in particular), turned out to become underdeveloped. So far, prospects for Elsa’s (Georgina Haig) character development look great – as far as we know, in Storybrooke, she is a villain. But from what we see in the flashbacks, she is actually a good and caring person, making for a great storyline for character development. Anna however, is a different story. Anna, played by Elizabeth Lail is portrayed exactly how she was in Frozen. She is a “happy-go-lucky, impulsive and somewhat gullible girl in a woman’s body” kind of person, and Once Upon a Time, again, copies exactly what Frozen has already brought to the table. Fans, myself included, can only hope that this changes with time.

Please do not misunderstand me – I absolutely love Once Upon a Time, and am extremely excited for all the Frozen tie-ins that will undoubtedly take place, such as the beyond adorable scene where Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina subtly re-enact the “Do You Want To Build a Snowman” scene from Frozen. Note that I said subtly. What I DON’T love, is the fact that the writers seemed to try and include every single aspect of Frozen that they could into this one tiny episode. Within forty minutes the audience met, Anna, Elsa, their parents, Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster), Sven, the troll (John Rhys-Davies) and Elsa’s snow monster. Towards the end of the episode, I was saying to myself, If I see Olaf I’m going to lose it. It was too much! The episode crammed all of these things in, and none of them were original: the trolls looked as if they had been copied and pasted from Frozen into the screen of Once Upon A Time, and the Snow Monster was identical to Frozen’s. Again, not one of the strongest points of Sunday’s episode.

Despite all the obvious cons of the premiere, there were some really, really great parts. Firstly, the drama that has ensued from Regina dating Robin Hood, and his wife Maid Marion being brought back through time in the Season Three finale, has created good drama for the show, as sad as it is to see beloved character Regina, digress to her evil ways (Regina Mills is the OUAT adaptation of the Evil Queen from Snow White). Secondly, the newly married Mr. Gold (also known as Rumpelstiltskin), sets out for his honeymoon with his wife Belle, and some of the scenes that result are amazing! When they first arrive at their honeymoon destination, they have a dance: where she is dressed in a yellow ballroom gown similar to Belle’s from Beauty and the Beast, and he is garbed in a fancy blue suit identical to the Beast’s. They dance to the tune of Angela Lansbury’s “Beauty and the Beast”. Needless to say, it was a beautiful newlywed moment, and a rare sentimental moment between Rumple and Belle. Also during the honeymoon, Rumple uncovers a familiar object: The Sorcerer’s Hat from Fantasia; a new magical object in the show is bound to make everything in the show a bit more interesting. Lastly, despite overall Frozen overload, I thought it was great how the writers decided to make Anna and Elsa’s stories about what happened post-Disney-ending. They talk about Anna and Kristoff’s wedding, what happened after the shipwreck, and etc. It was a good tie-in, and a more sensical way to tie Frozen in to what is already happening in the Once Upon a Time plotline.

ABC’s hit television drama, Once Upon a Time, has been overtaken by Frozen: yes. In the premiere of season four in “The Tale of Two Sisters”, Kitsis and Horowitz allow the OUAT “fandom” to meet and explore new characters, situations and romantic interests. Its over usage of Frozen references is indeed disappointing, but given the pros cons of the episode, the season could turn into either a total Disney-themed disaster, or the epic, magical and dramatic TV show we all know and love. I hope it will be the latter, but we, the audience, will have to wait and see, what the writers will introduce next: hopefully saving the plotline of one of the best shows on today’s television.