My goodness, some of you have become so cynical. Maybe I’m a Little Miss Sunshine among the fandom, but I loved the episode. It was a little dry just because they were setting up the exposition, but premiere episodes are always that way. I cannot wait for them to really get going. Anna and Elsa were spot on- exactly like the film. Anna’s speech patterns were just perfect. She sounded just like Kristin Bell. Yes, it’s true that with this one they are going from classic stories come to life with nods to the Disney versions to something that is blatantly a Disney film- diverging a bit from the show’s original concept- but you know what? I don’t even care. It’s too fun- I love crossover fanfic! Unlike the other stories, Frozen is not based on an existing classic story. It’s original to Disney, and too new to really get the twisted treatment. (Yes, it is loosely inspired by The Snow Queen, but it has an entirely different plot. It’s not the same story. Unlike- say- The Little Mermaid which changed a lot about the original story but is still recognizable at the core.) The spin will be in how they fill in the gaps that the film left and just watching the Frozen characters interact with our main group.
What I loved about this episode was that we weren’t immediately thrown into another realm or having everyone face a big bad. I enjoy the show the most when we are just seeing them deal with daily life in Storybrooke. Story characters in our world is what drew me to the show in the first place- I eat that stuff up! So now we have characters fearing an unknown who is actually going to turn out to be a friend this time, and both Rumple and Regina are going to start intriguing quests of discovery. I’m so proud of Regina for backpedaling on her plan to kill Marian. She saw herself as she once was and didn’t like it- we have character growth! Yay! I do wonder how Regina came to the conclusion that finding who wrote the book is the solution though- that’s a bit random! I always thought the book was based on what really happened- not that the book *created* what happened. This will be a very interesting arc! Discovery makes for better stories than battles, IMO.
I thought Rumple’s speech at Neal’s grave was lovely, and did you catch Snow’s comment that maybe they should have named the baby Baelfire? Teehee. Poor Rumple is still a magic addict, but he means well. Yes, what he did to Belle leaves a bad taste, but I refuse to give up on them- I don’t think we will see a true happy ending for them until the end of the series. I thought the dance was beautiful, and how nice to see them have some peace before the storm we know is coming. Adam and Eddy have stated that this season is about not giving up on those you love.