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Once Upon a Time is a fairy tale double mashup. Although the base narrative is framed around the Grimm (not to be confused with that other new primetime series Grimm) fairy tale of Snow White, the other classic stories do not get short shrift.
You see, 10-year-old Henry believes that Emma, his birth mother, is the long-missing daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. But Emma is very much of this world, and certainly not from some fantastical enchanted forest. And the evil doings of the very evil Evil Queen have transported all the fairyland characters (via curse, of course) to the sleepy little New England town of Storybrooke, where she is now mayor!
Within this modern world where magic boils, bubbles, toils and troubles just beneath the surface, there is more than a coming together between fantasy and reality. Here, you will also find Sleepy, Grumpy and Sneezy hanging out with Pinocchio and Gepetto; you might easily discover Rumpelstiltskin conspiring with Snow White’s Evil Queen. Like I said, double mashup!
So who might you find in the Enchanted Forest of Once Upon a Time? There are, of course, the aforementioned Snow White, Prince Charming and the Evil Queen (and of course Snow’s Seven Dwarves). But you’ll also encounter Jiminy Cricket, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and a host of witches, trolls and other characters that have stumbled from the pages of a child’s storybook.
Actually, the storybook itself plays a pretty significant role in the Once Upon a Time narrative! Henry, whose foster mother is Storybrooke’s mayor Regina (AKA, The Evil Queen!) possesses a very interesting storybook. It is within this of book of classic fairy tales that Henry begins to decipher clues about his birth mother and her connection to Snow White—and her destiny to save both the real and fantasy worlds from certain doom. Although Emma is dubious at first, believing that her son has conflated make-believe with reality, she eventually begins to wonder, herself, if all is kosher in Storybrooke.
Tune in to ABC Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. ET for the premiere of Once Upon a Time, starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Robert Carlyle and Josh Dallas.
After the show stop by Blogcritics at 9:00 p.m. ET for the premiere of our new weekly Sunday night TV LiveChats: “Chatterbox: Let’s Talk TV!” Let the world know what you think of Once Upon a Time, and all your other picks and pans of the new TV season. You can follow the LiveChat on Twitter using the hashtag #LetsTalkTV.
In the meantime, enjoy the first nine minutes of Sunday’s premiere, courtesy of ABC:
