The first half of season four of Once Upon A Time had its fair share of magic and fantasy driven plot lines however with the addition of Elsa and Anna from the hit Disney film Frozen, the first 12 episodes of the season seemed like one giant commercial for the Frozen phenomenon.
The writers and creators of the show seemed to be bandwagoning onto what was already an extremely popular story line and seemed to base the entire show off of it. With subplots thrown in here and there the majority of the season was all about Elsa, Anna and Arenedelle. The main villain of the first half of the season, the Snow Queen, aka. Ingrid (played by Elizabeth Mitchell), was even apart of the Arendelle universe after it was discovered she was Elsa and Anna’s aunt on their mother’s side.
Another reason one could tell that the show was acting as one giant commercial for the Frozen franchise was the fact that Elsa (played by Georgina Haig) never once got out of that famous blue Elsa dress. After a few episodes in I began joking that she must have smelled really bad since she apparently didn’t have one spare change of cloths available to her in a town full of other women. Then by the last episode it just got ridiculous that they kept her in the same dress the entire way through.
The one part about the story line revolving around Frozen that I did enjoy was the fact that it acted as almost a sequel to the actual film. The story in Once happened after the film’s story ended. We were also able to actually see what happened to Anna and Elsa’s parents when and how they died and also the Snow Queen’s relationship to them as their aunt was an interesting take since the story of Frozen was actually inspired by the Hans Christen Anderson fairytale called The Snow Queen.
Besides the whole Frozen aspect of the season so far, I actually was quite intrigued by the premise of the sorcerer’s apprentice and the magic hat. Being a huge fan of classic Disney, I loved the way they made the hat look with the shining stars; it was a beautiful, modern take on the classic segment from Fantasia. I became rather disappointed with the whole situation however, when it became extremely confusing on what Rumplestiltskin was planning on using the hat for. The show didn’t really explain well how the hat worked and how its power had anything to do with what was going on with the Snow Queen and her evil spell. It felt so forced to try and combine the two story lines. During the last episode, I became completely disinterested and annoyed at the whole story line all together, which made me sad because I actually was looking forward to that plot line.
Finally, the last issue I had with this season so far was the very last episodes when the villains, Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella deVil were introduced. Although Maleficent has already been on the show she returns randomly with Ursula and Cruella in a flashback that involved Belle and Rumplestiltskin. First of all, with the Snow Queen being the villain of this season it seemed as if the writers of the show quickly kicked her off and hastily brought in three new villains. It seemed so forced to have all three women together in the same story line. Also, Cruella isn’t even from the time period of Maleficent and Ursula; at least those two are somewhat similar since they both have magic and are from the time of princesses and castles. Cruella is completely out of place both magic and time period wise.
It is sad to see a pattern in the seasons of Once. It seems that the writers always introduce a really compelling villain and then in only half of a season kill them off. First Peter Pan, then the Wicked Witch of the West and now the Snow Queen. If this is a pattern, I am sure that these three women will be killed off by the time season four ends. Its a shame because I think that each of these villains would be great enough for their own entire season not just a quickly spur of the moment half season.
The only subplot I am looking most forward to for the next half of the season is the Regina/Henry/Operation Mongoose story line. Throughout the first half of the season Regina and Henry were on a mission to find the author of Henry’s fairytale book so that they could write Regina a happy ending. Regina, also known as The Evil Queen, believes that since she is a villain she doesn’t get a happy ending but with the prospect of being able to find the author of the story book, she believes she might have a chance at happiness. Emma Swan agrees to help Regina and Henry find the author at the end of the mid-season finale.
Although I have had many dislikes from this season, I am still a loyal Once fan. I really hope that the writers stop trying to do too much at once and stick to a good, solid story line. They keep bringing in too many characters than they can handle at once and I think it would be best for them to focus on one story line with a decent amount of characters, otherwise it seems so rushed. Hopefully the next half of the season proves me wrong.