At a time when Disney live-action films are in jeopardy due to their multiple controversies, it is only necessary to look back to remember a time when the company dared with risky and innovative productions. And no, it is not necessary to go back to 1996 with the release of 101 Dalmatians; it is only necessary to travel a decade back to realize the evolution that the remakes of classic stories have undergone. Therefore, today I come to talk about Once Upon a Time, a series from 2011 that I have had the opportunity to watch again through Disney + and that the new productions could learn from. Without reaching excellence in all its aspects, it is one of the best that Disney has when it comes to bringing its most famous characters to life.
Disney characters come to the real world
In Once Upon a Time, fairy tale characters live in the city of Storybrook without remembering their true identities due to the Evil Queen’s spell. They remain frozen in monotonous lives until a person with the ability to break the magic that binds them to the city and return their memories appears. In this way, the series revolves around the current lives of its characters and the past they have shared, something very similar to what happened in Lost.
The connection between both series is more than evident when Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, both writers of Lost, are part of this production that not only shares narrative, but also visual details and actors like Emilie de Ravin. The presence of both creatives makes the series not afraid to address current and adult themes, which is impossible to see in any current company adaptation.
But beyond that, there is another interesting point when establishing the comparison between this work and the live-action films, and that is the construction of the characters. I am not only talking about characterization, although some like Elsa are really convincing (others not so much), but the way they are integrated into a collective story where everyone has something to tell. In Once Upon a Time, all the well-known company characters are presented and acquire a new essence that is far from being a simple copy of their animated version.
This line can be reminiscent of what happened with Maleficent in 2014: that the character acquired a new nuance and greater depth. In fact, the film is considered one of the best adaptations and was a box office success. However, little by little, Disney has been abandoning that line to release exact and essence-less clones of the movies we already know.
Returning to Once Upon a Time, in this series, the fantasy aura of tales merges with a certain police investigation, mystery plot, and even occasional terror. In terms of limits, it is true that with the success of the series and its popularization, it acquired the Disney filter significantly, but in the first season, you could see remnants of a corpse, sexual scenes, insults, and violence (without being explicit).
What would be the weak point? Undoubtedly, a television production rarely reaches the budget of a movie, so its special effects are not very convincing or, in some cases, the costumes of the characters. The abuse of chroma key is more than evident, but with all that, the series became a success with the participation of big names like Sebastian Stan, Jamie Dornan, Giancarlo Esposito, or Jamie Chung.
Sebastian Stan as the Mad Hatter
Therefore, this series is available through Disney + in all of its 7 seasons. The last one serves as an epilogue, a few years later. In addition, a spin-off based on Alice in Wonderland is also available on the platform for those who want a double dose of tales. Undoubtedly, a highly recommended option.
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