DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHOW! THIS COMMENTARY WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE SHOW IN QUESTION! IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ FORWARD, JUST REMEMBER THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!With the success ABC had with Once Upon a Time, naturally that called for a spinoff series, unfortunately with more disastrous results. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is a clustered mess of a series, that harms not one but two of Disney's most storied franchises and basically sets out a rehash of the original series. Nevertheless, there are some elements of the show that are pretty impressive.
Plot: Alice returns to Wonderland in order to gain proof for her father that this land exists. While there, she comes across a genie named Cyrus and an Attack of the Clones style romance is formed. As the two prepare to make their lives together, the Red Queen apparently kills the genie and makes Alice leave for home. Shunned by her new stepmother, and mentally scarred by her father, she enters an insane asylum, but is freed by the Knave of Hearts and The White Rabbit, who tell her that Cyrus is alive but in the clutches of the Red Queen.
Meanwhile, the Red Queen plots with the evil wizard Jafar of Agrabah who plans to use Cyrus's magic to become the lord of all of the magical elements. While the Queen believes they are partners and Jafar plots to "take care" of her, both hold their own hidden agendas from each other an trust the other less and less with each episode.
Alice begins to learn more about the Knave of Hearts, who continues to hide the truth from her about a mysterious girl named Anastasia, while the Caterpillar hunts him down. Jafar plans to push Alice to use her three wishes she was given by Cyrus, so he can become the ultimate wizard.
Main Leads (Alice and Cyrus): This is the area of biggest fault for the show. Alice is thickheaded and distrusting of most (except ironically the characters who betray her), which is unsettling, given the way they wrote the surroundings. She is perhaps too clever for the show to work and is given way too many easy opportunities to escape danger without using a wish. For example, her and the knave were captured by the Grendel and were being readied to be eaten, when Alice uses one of her wishes to free herself. Naturally, I thought she had actually used a wish. But in this world, apparently, wishes are sharp and pointy balls of energy that could cut her free. WHAT THE F***?
As for Cyrus, not only is he blessed without having a personality, he is also apparently blessed without having a brain. He is a genie, a freaking GENIE!! He could just teleport out of the cage Jafar put him in and go get his bottle! No? You just wanna sit in your cage and say love lines that would make George Lucas and Stephanie Meyer spill their lunch? You are the single most useless Genie since Genie in Return of Jafar!
Not only are their characters out of sync, but so is their chemistry. Just like in Attack of the Clones, a relationship between the two is more implied than shown. Instead of showing us their relationship, even in Episode 2 where the whole episode was about their relationship, we are told to care about it more than we are allowed to care for it. I do not really care what happens to Alice and Cyrus and I hope that the series goes off in a different direction.
The Villains (The Red Queen and Jafar): Now here is where the show exceeded my expectations. The Red Queen is a smarmy, overconfident beauty who takes her role as the Queen of Wonderland very seriously (she is the only Wonderland character where it's okay for her to not be insane because they explain it in the show). She loves being the supreme authority in the kingdom and is quick to flex her royal muscles when she chooses.
The only person in her kingdom that doesn't listen to her is her partner in this endeavor, Jafar. Once a peasant boy from Agrabah, he learned the ways of magic from a witch named Amara. Jafar is ruthless and very deceitful when it comes to dealing with Alice and the Red Queen, and is quick to demonstrate his terrible powers when he feels the need to.
For the most part, when it comes to spinoffs, Jafar is usually a minion to a greater villain. For example, in the Hollywood Studios show Fantasmic!, Jafar is only one of the villains the Wicked Queen summons to do battle with Mickey Mouse. Then. in the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, Jafar is only one of the villains Hades tries to trick into helping him in his cause. Finally, in Kingdom Hearts, Jafar is Maleficent's second in command and is very serious about following Maleficent's schemes, while others do what they want.
Here is where Jafar is able to flex his character building muscles, as he is the most powerful person in the story in terms of magical ability and knowledge. We have seen how ruthless and cutthroat Jafar can be in this show and I am fully expecting him to blossom into an even more sinister and blackhearted devil then any of the previous re-tellings of Agrabah have ever done.
Supporting Cast (Knave of Hearts and Alice's Father): If Jafar and the Red Queen exceeded my expectations, then the Knave of Hearts far doubled those of the previous two. The Knave is not only the "comic relief" in the show, but also the show's most tragic character so far. The Knave was once under the alias of Will Scarlet and he and his true love Anastasia came to Wonderland in search of a better life. Anastasia quickly breaks his heart and abandons him, which ruins the Knave. After having his heart brought back by Alice, the two become friends. The Knave is witty, sly, and quick thinking, but also hides an emotional side that makes him stand tall against the forces of evil, particularly the Red Queen.
As for Alice's father, here is another well thought out and principled character. Her father (I don't remember his name right now) truly loves his daughter, but is troubled by her constant babbling on about Wonderland and her mourning over Cyrus. He worries over her constantly until being convinced by a mysterious Arabic man to journey to look for her (cough JAFAR cough)
Setting and Key Ideas: Here is where the show falls flat on it's face. Wherein Once Upon a Time occurs in fairy tale lands and the town of Storybrooke, Wonderland takes place in two completely different worlds: magical and mysterious Agrabah, and insane and nonsensical Wonderland. The show waters down the elements in both well known worlds to such a horrible degree that they completely trash what both worlds mean. I mean, Genies can be trapped in cages? Can't he just warp out and go back into his lamp?
For example, in the Agrabah in Aladdin, the only way someone could use a wish is if they rub the lamp and make a wish. And this little fact: WHOEVER CONTROLS THE LAMP CONTROLS THE GENIE! Which is how Jafar was able to conquer Agrabah and use in his fight with Aladdin. In this Agrabah/ Wonderland, you apparently don't need the bottle to use wishes, just saying "I wish ---------" gets you what you want. WHAT? Oh and wishes are little gems you can use for anything, like a knife? WHAT THE F***?!?!?!?!?!?
But by far the worst element in the show is Wonderland itself. Not the design, but the characters and people. You'd think that it was some sort of lost Star Wars planet the way some of these characters act. The nonsensical elements of Lewis Carroll's work are completely ignored and sidelined for a love story no one cares about and action that is so highly choreographed that it makes the Prequel Trilogy look like an actual war. The citizens of Wonderland act as if their in a medieval kingdom and are perfectly fine with White Rabbits running around and giant Jabba the Hutt esque Caterpillars that want money. Theirs actually MONEY in Wonderland? WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!
Tone: The biggest fault in the show is it's tone. Alice in Wonderland and Aladdin were two of the most comical and bizarre of Disney's works. The nonsensical characters in Wonderland were a stark contrast to the other characters in Disney's library. As for Aladdin, the comedic styling of Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried helped shape the kind of Agrabah that we could love for years. Where is this comic relief in this show? NO WHERE TO BE FOUND! That's right, no where. The show has no comic relief in any sense and crudely pictures both Wonderland and Agrabah as fictional non comical worlds that take everything seriously.
How It Could Have Been Changed:
1: Dump Cyrus, add Aladdin: In order for the show to work, you can't just have an unexplained motivation for Cyrus and Alice to fall in love. It doesn't work. Not at all. Instead, have Aladdin (in possession of the magic lamp) flee from Agrabah and Jafar and arrive in Wonderland. Here, he helps Alice get out of trouble from the Queen's guards and the two become friends. Eventually, the two open up to each other and fall in love. Aladdin decides he can trust Alice and gives her the lamp for safekeeping, when he hears that Jafar is still hunting him down.
In the night, Aladdin and Alice are captured by the Red Queen. Desperately seeking a King and his "power", the Red Queen steals Aladdin away and lies to Alice, telling her he was beheaded and sends her back home to London. Jafar arrives and intends to buy the genie from her, but learns that she only has Aladdin. Jafar orders the Queen to bring Alice back so he can find out where the lamp is. All the while (at least until the Knave returns to Wonderland) the Red Queen tries to make Aladdin fall in love with her, but he refuses.
It would make sense that he cannot escape from the cage and could not use any magic powers to find Alice when she does return.
2. Add Iago AND The Genie: While they don't have to be as comedic as they were in the movie, these two are mandatory because Agrabah is so underepresented in this universe. The Genie can give a comedic light to the whole scenario and also explain his powers and express his dreams of freedom from the Lamp. As for Iago, he is mandatory to be a sidekick and advisor to Jafar, and it will come in handy when it comes to tricking Alice or the Knave into doing Jafar's evil bidding.
3. BRING BACK THE INSANITY: While I understand changes have to be made, they have to have some sort of connection to the original work. Wonderland should be nonsensical, insane, and demented, not a fancy Tatooine knock off.
Maybe the show will get better with next weeks episode, but until then, I'm EXTREMELY UNDERWHELMED
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