Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (1×01) Favorite and Least Favorite Moments

[Ziera]

Alright…well, there were a lot of ups and downs.

For starters, the negative.

I’m disappointed with the CGI, it was really bad. More than usual. Like…bad. I hope that gets better.

 

Alright, things that I loved. 🙂

Dont worry, this side has a lot more.

“The point is, we’re going to die.” The knave was hilarious!  I’m excited to go into his character/backstory more.

Also, the more serious scene, when he genuinely feels for Alice. Like, he knows what she is going through. When he looks at the rabbit, and says “You made her lose him twice. Why would you do that?” He looks pained….that for me was a great moment.

I thought it was really sweet that Cyrus was calling out for Alice in his sleep as well, that they were both calling out to each other from across worlds. Also, I’m not disappointed with how he was saved from his fall- I thought that was a clever twist. I knew about RQ and Jafar’s deal, but I didn’t expect that.

and JAFAR. I mean. …. just JAFAR. JAFAR. Thats all. amazing.

 

Overall. I do expect the characters will get better as the season goes on, as the actors get a feel for things, and their chemistry will come along with time. Right now, I’d say, rough start but it looks like good fun. Also…CYLICE all the way. I’m excited for this series 🙂

[Josephine]

Things I liked:
Our chess theory is playing out nicely, RG. 🙂 She’s setting Alice up, along with Jafar, for some game.
The rabbit was well done.
Alice’s shoes with the hidden compartment. I need a pair of those.
The Knave

Thinks I disliked:
Some of the CGI was cringe worthy.
Too much CGI. I get why they have to use it, but one great thing about Once is Storybrooke and the forest breaks up all the CGI stuff.

Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.

[Corbin]

She does not have the voice I thought she would. But I think that has a lot to do with watching Lana be the EQ for two seasons now. She’s got the evil voice down. The RQ’s voice was much higher than expected.

When I was watching the Red Queen and Jafar, I kept thinking about how awesome of a villain Lana plays. She can play both innocent (“The Stable Boy”) and pure evil (“The Evil Queen”, “An Apple as Red as Blood”) at any time. I really hope they give a good backstory to the Queen, or I may just end up disliking the show because of her.

Keeper of Thor’s Hammer, Will Scarlet’s Genie Bottle, Emma’s Gun, Emma and Henry’s Moment at the Castle, Cora, and the infamous Family Tree!

[RumplesGirl]

oo much CGI. I get why they have to use it, but one great thing about Once is Storybrooke and the forest breaks up all the CGI stuff.

That is going to be a problem if they’re in WL for the whole series (which..makes sense). But through some of the promos it looks like they are out in real woods too which doesn’t need the crazy CGI

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Phee]

The Knave cracks me up! 😆 Can tell I’m gonna love that cynical bugger.

Wanna give the Rabbit a hug, because he totally loves Alice but has no choice but to help the RQ and I just want the poor little guy to not be stuck in that position.

Cheshire Cat was creepy cool.

Am super intrigued by whatever it is RQ and Jafar have going on. Why do they each want what they want?

I didn’t like the wardrobe change on the Red Queen though disappointing, the other one was so much more…chesty :nuts:

I was sorta baffled by the costume change for that scene. Even if they wanted to re-shoot it, why not just use the same costume again? Took me out of the scene for a second. I also prefer her little hand flick in the previous version of it, so kinda wish they hadn’t re-shot it.

One thing that did bother, and we were saying this in the chat too, but if they don’t want to confuse people they really need to stop with the “London, England” thing. This is FICTIONAL London, not real London. People will think time travel is possible is they keep that up. And then we’re in a world of trouble for ONCE.

In one of Barbara Barnett’s recent podcasts, where she was talking about having seen this ep, there was confusion because she was implying it was the same London that Bae was in, and people in the chat were trying to explain to her that no it wasn’t, and they’ve confirmed it’s different, and it was such a hot mess. Barbara’s pretty well connected and clued in with this show, so if even she doesn’t realise there’s a difference, then, yeah, URGH.

[kfchimera]

Bad:

I have to agree–too much bad scenery CGI.  The creature animation was great, and some action scenes like Jafar was not bad on his carpet.

Red Queen, she definitely lacked the presence and sinister snark that Lana brings the Evil Queen, but it is not just that she looked like a little girl playing dress up.  That could be chilling too as we saw with the playful cheeky tone Robbie Kay gave PP.    She just did not seem scary.  I was sorry Jafar did not just kill her to establish some shock value and boss attitude for him.

Hokey marshmallow joke.

No mention of Knave struggling with cursed identity (did he not just wake up?)

Good:

Jafar.  He had the presence and held the villain spot with everything I felt the RQ lacked.

Rabbit: He was animated well and full of personality–perfect voice choice.

Chessire Cat.  Same, though it seemed like more of  a fun sequence than setting up some dramatic arc as with the rabbit so bit disappointed that this character was more fluff.

Reference to Hatter and his house.

Alice & Cyrus: Awwww

 

 

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

[RumplesGirl]

I didn’t want to start another thread but the overly convenient necklace Alice found on the ground (suddenly and so miraculously!) bothers me. Did the White Rabbit put it there?

Having just rewatched the pilot I gotta say it’s nowhere near as strong as the ONCE pilot was 2 years ago but there are some very good points: the Knave is going to be the fan favorite along with the rabbit. Alice is very kick-butt.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Phee]

Red Queen, she definitely lacked the presence and sinister snark that Lana brings the Evil Queen, but it is not just that she looked like a little girl playing dress up. That could be chilling too as we saw with the playful cheeky tone Robbie Kay gave PP. She just did not seem scary.

I know this is just a little thing, but I wonder if the way they did her makeup could be contributing to why she didn’t come across quite as menacing as she could have? I was bothered a bit by her lack of red lipstick…she’s the freaking Red Queen, she’s all about wearing RED…but she’s got nude lips? And she didn’t have dramatic eye makeup either, like Lana always has. I think maybe they need to vamp RQ up a bit more, and then she’ll look more sly, and automatically sound a bit more menacing.

Hokey marshmallow joke.

It went on a bit, but I did love Knave’s line about dying like a smore. 😛

No mention of Knave struggling with cursed identity (did he not just wake up?)

Good point. Though I’m gonna guess that they just didn’t wanna have to explain all of that on the spinoff, because they’ve said they wanted it to be a show that someone who has never seen Once, would still be able to follow. If they mentioned his cursed identity, they’d have to do a whole bit explaining that for anyone who may not be familiar with the parent show, and that would go against their trying to keep them relatively separate. The Greetings From Storybrooke Podcast have roped in a friend of theirs who has never seen Once, to watch Wonderland, to see what a total newbie to the Onceiverse makes of it.

Reference to Hatter and his house.

Yes, I loved this! Though it made me miss Jefferson.

I didn’t want to start another thread but the overly convenient necklace Alice found on the ground (suddenly and so miraculously!) bothers me. Did the White Rabbit put it there?

That’s the impression I got, that he planted it there on his way in.

[angiebelle]

I really loved it!  I’m seeing a lot of mixed reactions online, but I had a big smile for quite a good chunk of the show.  I love fantasy shows like that, and in fact, I liked it better than the Tim Burton movie which had disappointed me because I thought it was trying to make too much sense in a world that is supposed to be nonsense- if that makes any sense- lol!

The first half- which I had seen at D23- did drag a bit, but once we reached wonderland, I really got into it.  I LOVED the mallow march- very clever and wonderland-y.  I also really loved the knave’s reference to s’mores.  How fun that he is familiar with our world!

I often see people harp on the CGI effects of Once and now Wonderland too, but honestly, if I’m fully engaged in the story, I hardly even notice the effects.  The CGI didn’t bother me at all.

*I* was the one in Barbara’s chatroom trying to explain about the fictional London- she was driving me crazy!  I couldn’t understand how she couldn’t get what I was trying to say.  Clearly Alice is not from real world Victorian London because they show Storybrooke existing at the same time as she was in the asylum. Adam has said Alice is from fictional London and the Darlings are in real London which is a bit odd because how can fictional characters exist in the real world?

 

It’s too soon to compare this show to my love for the original Once, and I don’t think it will reach that sort of obsession with me just based on the source material alone, but I definitely like it a whole lot!  Did it remind anyone else a bit of the movie Labyrinth or was it just me?

 

[Phee]

*I* was the one in Barbara’s chatroom trying to explain about the fictional London- she was driving me crazy! I couldn’t understand how she couldn’t get what I was trying to say. Clearly Alice is not from real world Victorian London because they show Storybrooke existing at the same time as she was in the asylum. Adam has said Alice is from fictional London and the Darlings are in real London which is a bit odd because how can fictional characters exist in the real world?

Ah, well thank you for at least trying to explain it to her, because I was about ready to yell at my computer in frustration when I was listening to it! It is an oddity that they’ve turned the fictional characters of the Darlings into real world people, but I think that once you have the info that Adam has stated that they’re in RealLondon, and Alice is in FictionalLondon, it’s not that hard to wrap your head around who’s where and when. (Though Neal’s line about this world not having been his first stop will never not bug me, but it is what it is.)

[Author]

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