Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 5 Review

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Greenbacks

Dania Ramirez as Jacinda and Mekia Cox as Sabine Once Upon a Time Season 7 episode 5 Greenbacks picture image

Dania Ramirez as Jacinda and Mekia Cox as Sabine

 

Aside from Ivy, this episode was a groan, a massive groan! It focused on Tiana/Sabine which would be okay if I wasn’t so confused. Tiana is a princess who is getting taxed by a King? Seems like the Tiana and her mother retained their rule but are getting taxed by another King? Did anyone proofread this?

Then Victoria is on the path to gentrified via to break Lucy’s faith to bring back her daughter with some witch who is really in league with Ivy who is really the Palpatine to Victoria’s Vader but for whatever reason she needs Roni and Henry to trust her. Point is Ivy knows what is up.

And Rogers is hunting some case which a missing teenage girl name Eloise Gardner, though if I RECALL from episode two Eloise seemed to do what Emma did when s Wish-Hook (a.k.a Rogers a.k.a this version of Hook) was dying but there is a  WHOLE to do with the backstory involving the missing girl and Rogers maybe I’m not remembering correctly. Anyway there is a plot with the missing girl made more clear by episode 7 titles “Eloise Gardner.”

Speaking of remembering, Roni finds a picture of Henry and Regina from Storybrooke that the witch had, so more memories.

The big take away from this episode is Jacinda and Sabine are starting a food truck and that fried chicken place DIDN’T have a fire extinguisher.    

This episode was much weaker  aside from Ivy. Evil or not she is the most interesting character.  

Also Pictyourthis!

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 4; Beauty Review

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Beauty

Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin & Emilie de Ravin as Belle Once upon a Time Season 7 Episode 4 Beauty picture image

Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin & Emilie de Ravin as Belle

Oh Halloween does provide some nice chances for Disney Easter eggs. Here’s the ones I noticed, Elsa, The Incredibles Snow White,  and Belle. If there was more I missed them HOWEVER there were two more easter eggs floating around this episode or more like homages. There was the recreation of the first ten minutes of  Up staring Rumple and Belle and Tale as Old as Time playing which to be fair the show has done before, anyway on to the episode.

This episode gives us a Rumple and Belle ending. Basically they go to the Enchanted Forest to travel and raise Gideon as well as try to break the dagger’s curse. Now I have to point out that the show forgot that Belle nearly broke the curse WAY back in season 1. So does the true love kiss thing NOT work? Because it worked multiple times on Snow and David for the same curse. Can Gideon not break it? Why do things work sometimes and not others. It could be a moot point since Belle and Rumple did escape their toxicity and had an Up style love story of Belle growing old which means with her death that allows for a path to break the darkness with open and they path lead Rumple to whatever Realm the Hyperion Heights  players are from. Like they call it another Realm but The Enchanted Forest got TWO NAMES, remember is in season four the Arendelle characters called it “Mist Haven” so could the writer’s not be bothered to think of a name.

Anyway Rumple goes to the other realm to find a guardian who will take the darkness from Rumple so he can join Belle and so the darkness can rested thus perhaps ending The Dark One. Alice is hinted at being the guardian and Rogers’ daughter. Did the writers remember what a setup is?  

 

Anyway the Hyperion Height plot were Tilly or Alice remembering more of the other realm and trying to wake Weaver up which she does by shooting him but since he is still the Dark one he doesn’t die and is awake though Tilly is back on her pills so she forgot.

The B-line Hyperion plot was trick-or-treating with Ivy, the wicked step-sister and Lucy which doesn’t go well as Lucy runs away from Ivy. Henry and Ivy have a few moments together about doing the “scary” thing which for Henry is moving on and for Ivy is more human connections.

To be honest,  Henry has way more chemistry with Ivy  than with Jacinda. Not sure that is an issue with acting or writing or MAYBE it’s on purpose.  It would be more interesting of a plot if that is how the show preceded.   

While this episode had pacing and some logic issue, seriously show remember your own damn True Love Kiss rules and also the concept of time passing in each realm*, this episode was great. It was nice to be able to enjoy Rumple again and perhaps the show’s BIGGEST retcon they made Belle and Rumple’s relationship endearing again. Granted that was being of the UP homage but still it was nice ending for Belle and Rumple. Also the Tilly Hyperion plot was fine, she is interesting as well as Ivy and possible Henry.    

    

*Seriously don’t think about it. Like decades pass with Rumple and  Belle in the Timeless sunset place. Not sure how old Henry is but he  has to be in his last twenties MAYBE he’s 28 but not sure that age is pre-curse or post curse and Lucy is around ten but none of the Other Realm people have aged so does that mean Lucy aged  but they stuck in time in a neighborhood of Seattle. See! Don’t think about it.

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 3 Review

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The Garden of the Forking Path

Dania Ramirez as Cinderella, Andrew J. West as Henry Mills & Lana Parrilla as Regina Once Upon a Time Season 7Episode 3 The Garden of the Forking Path picture image

Dania Ramirez as Cinderella, Andrew J. West as Henry Mills & Lana Parrilla as Regina

As a fan of “The Good Place” I must laugh at the title since “fork” is how that show says the F-word, it’s self-censorship for humor. Anyway on with this episode.  

So we get more plot and the show pretty much rehashing the episode from season 1 where Henry goes into the mines where Snow White’s coffin was. The only difference is that Lucy didn’t find a coffin with Henry but part of Cinderella’s shoe and in weird try at a twist it turns out Victoria dug up the gardens to FIND a coffin which is her daughters Anastasia. Speaking of rehashing, this Cinderella is ALSO a single mother like the previous verson.  

In the past Cinderella joins up with the resistance lead by Tiana. Somehow I just can’t take this seriously. First why? There is so far nothing on why there is a resistance and what makes Lady Tremaine so forminable that there NEEDS to be a resistance against her?  Also Why Tiana? Like why her as a character? It just seems like a random pick and I really can’t help but think that Esmeralda the way Disney made her out to be would have been better since she was all about social justice but whatever the show is really hit-and-miss when taking cue from the Disney movies so Tiana is Leia.

Anyway, we learn some nuggets of info like Anastacia’s death is somehow Cinderella’s fault making Victoria’s motivations reviving her daughter. ERGO her motivates are akin to Rumple’s but that also diminishes her menace. But to bring up the menace again, she needs a Heart.

Here is some confusion, Lady Tremaine in the past needs Henry’s heart which is The Heart of the Truest Believer. So the writers remember that plot from season 3 but FORGOT that there is a protection spell on it so no one can take it. BUT in the world without magic (except when there is) Victoria needs to break Lucy’s faith to revive Anastasias. What? At least I think that is the plot.

Honestly I can’t put my head around this episode.  We have Victoria formerly  Lady Tremaine who knows about the curse or as the show puts it, is awake, digging up a community garden and shelling out 5 dollars bills to get permit to do it so she can bring back her child from somewhat death. And we have Cinderella making speeches to save the community garden and that makes her the hero she was?  

Then we have to  wonder about the graves Henry saw that allude to his wife and child. Are they real or is this another wish-version doppelganger or part of the curse. Speaking of said curse last season Lucy was TOLD by Tiger Lily to find her father. So how is going to resolve the end of last season with this season. Did Lucy escape the curse but Cinderella still remembers her.

I just didn’t’ care for this episode aside from some plot exposition that is just adding to confusion  it was boring. Because watching a Fairy Tale character with amnesia talking about building codes to save a community gardens from a greedy builder is just want I want in a convoluted Fantasy drama.       

 

Also Jacinda did a Tom Jane from  Arrested Development

 

The Plot of the 1977 version of Hunchback

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Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Warren Clarke The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977 picture image

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Warren Clarke as Quasimodo

Like the 1986 burbank version the 1977 follows the plot quite faithfully. Aside from the Sister Gudule plotline this version is the most accurate to the book.   There is no vault scene of Quasimodo lying down beside Esmeralda’s body instead there is a weird ending where Phoebus and Fleur de Lys’ wedding processional dances around Frollo’s fallen corpse with Esmeralda’s body hanging in the background. And Gringoire just laughs it off saying the he survive to tell the tale. BAD ENDING!

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Kenneth Haigh as Frollo The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977 picture image

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda & Kenneth Haigh as Frollo The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977

But the ending is a symptom of a larger issue with the plot, sure it’s got in a lot of scenes from the book, like the scene where Frollo and Gringoire spirits Esmeralda out of Notre on the boat and Gringoire leaves her with Frollo, that scene is never don except slightly in the Jetlag version but to point the movie doesn’t elevate the scenes. The actors say their lines MAYBE  emote a little and that is it.   It’s like a very mechanical boring version of the book.

Kenneth Haigh as Frollo 1977 Hunchback of Notre Dame picture image

Kenneth Haigh as Frollo 1977 Hunchback of Notre Dame

The adherence to the book is it’s only selling point. There is nothing much this version has to offer but the plot. Aside from that there is no artistic vision, no mood, and no heart.  

New Hunchback TV show in the works

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Peter Dinklage Quasimodo picture image

Peter Dinklage

 

It’s been announce that Game of Thrones stars Peter Dinklage and Charles dance will produce a TV drama called Quasimodo based on The Hunchback. Now we have been burned before on Hunchback versions like with Brolin and that one from Esmeralda point of view and I don’t know what’s up with the Max Ryan version. There is also that universal monster cinematic universe and MAYBE. maybe a Disney live-action version is could maybe happen, maybe. However I’m excited and I hope this gets made.

Charles Dance picture image

Charles Dance

I do like the idea of Dinklage and Dance starring as Quasimodo and Frollo. Though they wouldn’t super idea to the roles as Quasimodo is liken to a giant and Frollo is mid-aged from a late renaissance point of view, still I think they could act the roles well pending on how the story is adapted.

Also Charles Dance was one my Hypothetical casting for Frollo and I still maintain that he would be a great Frollo. And oddly George R.R. Martin did allude to Quasimodo when Cersei refer to Tyrion in A Feast for Crows  “swing from a rope in the Sept of Baelor” and Dinklage plays Tyrion on the HBO show of Game of Thrones.  You can read that post here. So if they do take the roles it would be great casting.

You can read more of this story below;

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/game-of-thrones/268269/peter-dinklage-and-charles-dance-to-executive-produce-tv-drama-quasimodo

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Stage Musical

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Stage Musical picture image sheet music

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Stage Musical

 

Releasing at the end of the month on October 30th is the The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Stage Musical. It has arrangements of  17 songs from the stage musical adapted from  stage musical and the Disney movie. This collection includes vocal line arrangements with piano accompaniment. Pre-order it here

 

 

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 2 Review

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A Pirate’s Life

Andrew J. West as Henry Mills, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan and Colin O'Donoghue as Hook Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 2 A Pirate's Life picture image

Andrew J. West as Henry Mills, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan and Colin O’Donoghue as Hook

The major development in this episode is that the Hyperion Hook isn’t Storybrooke original OUAT Hook but that wish Hook from last season’s wish realm. As the episode goes when Henry’s is in trouble he calls to Regina, Hook and Emma to help him. While Regina and Hook show up Emma is missing as she now pregnant though that info is saved for a dramatic reveal later but wish-Hook also gets the message and shows up.

Wish-Hook then knocks out Real-Hook to trade places so he can be with Emma and makes himself young with Real-Hook’s blood and with other realm Lady Tremaine’s help. The two SOMEHOW seem to know each other. The magic makes Wish-Hook young and changes his clothes too seems Real-Hook’s style is in his DNA apparently. I do take some annoyance that his clothes changed too.  

Anyway when Emma does show up and tells Henry she’s pregnant Wish-Hook has a change of heart and goes to where he dumped Real-Hook but Wish-Hook gets stab and reveals that he needed Emma because only true love can break the curse  to find Wish-Hook’s daughter. Emma saves him with magic. It’s then decided that Wish-Hook, Henry and Regina will go a-questing  while Real-Hook and Emma return to Storybrooke. So they get their happy ending together but we the audience get a version of Hook for cursed-amnesia fun-times    

 Meanwhile is Seattle, Victoria tries to get Henry out the picture. What does this lady do? Rumple a.k.a Weaver tries to size Hook a.k.a Rogers up by framing Henry which he doesn’t and Henry helps Jacinda sees Lucy in a Ballet recital.  You can tell what the weaker plot-line was.

Here some weird issues with the episode. Wish-Hook says he never had love BUT he had a daughter who was locked up but he snuck into play chess with her. He also says that only true love could break what-ever curse was on his daughter. I guess Wish-Hook didn’t watch seasons 1-3 and that weird retcon episode in season 6 where the whole true-love thing does apply to children. Do the writers just forget these rules? So who is Wish-Hook’s baby momma?  Do the chess pieces that Wish-Hook and his daughter have point to Alice being his daughter since she is a character? And does this mean that Emma has a daughter with Storybrooke Hook and will that get mentioned? And how come Neal wasn’t mentioned when Henry was asking about the Storybrooke people?

This is just weird, Hook is now a new version of Hook but not Hook but is a version of Hook. OUAT is going Rick and Morty now. With its infinite realms with infinite versions of  the characters that are sometimes the same people and sometimes different. Maybe this how the show will now get way with retconning  even though the show right now is a glorified retcon.  Odd part is I’m not mad, confused at what I should label this version of the character as.  

This episode did have some pacing issues. It’s SLOW and the Hyperion plot was boring.   The reveal of Emma being pregnant was dumb reveal to withhold. The whole point to show that Hook isn’t the same Hook, fine good twist that does give a hint to why him and Regina are the ones from Storybrooke affected but the new curse since they went off with Henry.

This was an average episode but it does MOVE things and answer some question while raising more.

Stéphanie Schlesser as Fleur de Lys

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Stéphanie Schlesser played Fleur de Lys in 2014-2015 French Language Asian Tour. She does play and sing the role very well. She also played Juliette in the South Korean Tour in 2015  of Romeo & Juliette which is one of France other reloading musicals.

Introduction to the 1977 Version of Hunchback

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Michelle Newell as Esmeralda The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977 picture image

Michelle Newell as Esmeralda The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1977

The poll is closed and the chosen version is the 1977 version. This maybe the last “big” movie version I have left to review till hopefully another movie version gets made (it’s long overdue at this point).

The 1977 version, like the 1982 and the 1997 version, was made as a TV movie and again like the 1982 version it was made from British TV. It was directed by Alan Cooke and the screenplay was writer by Robert Mueller.  It stared Warren Clarke as Quasimodo, Michelle Newell as Esmeralda and Kenneth Haigh as Frollo.

So why did it take me so long to get to this version? Was a saving it because it’s amazing? Or is it amazingly shitty? The answer is it either but I hate it! It’s so boring despite it being THE MOST ACCURATE ONE!

 

Side Note – This version is also dated as 1976 but  I’l just go with 1977.

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 1 Hyperion Heights Review

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Season 7 Episode 1 Hyperion Heights

Once Upon a Time Season 7 Episode 1 Hyperion Heights picture image

Dania Ramirez as Cinderella & Andrew J. West as Henry Mills

And we’re back at this. Why? I don’t know. Let’s just say I was inspired by Hulu show Difficult People. There was an episode where the main character was doing community service by teaching inmates about recapping TV Shows and how that it’s not really about the recap it’s the person doing the recap. So here we go, Season 7 of Once Upon a Time.

Basically they Disney Straight-to-Video-Sequeled  it! What does that EVEN mean? You know how one model of Disney sequels is the protagonist’s kid doing the same thing? Well that is what is happening here extensively. Henry’s daughter is getting Henry to fix a curse which he does not believe. Henry is Emma and Lucy is Henry. However in this version Henry is cursed and Storybrooke is  Hyperion Heights a neighborhood in Seattle. Seattle is probably also going to play the role of Boston and New York City. Sorry Portland Maine,   Once Upon a Time forgot you exist but maybe Portland Oregon will get a Shout-out.  

It’s all a soft reboot, doing the same thing Once Upon a Time has always done, Amnesia Curses. However there are different people at play, maybe and different people affected, maybe. We know Regina is affected as she now goes by Roni, a bar owner and Hook is a cop named Rogers. Rumple goes by Weaver but who knows if he affected.  So they all get new names to go by which these reviews extra fun…  I hope you all get the puns here. Hook is Roger because of the Jolly Roger and Rumple weaved Straw into Gold. It’s all very clever. Not sure where Roni comes from.   

The new players are Lucy, Henry and Cinderella a.k.a Jacinda’s daughter. She knows about the curse. Cinderella is Jacinda a single mom working a some chicken restaurant.  There is Victoria the new Regina a.k.a The Wicked Step Mother and her daughter/ assistant Druzilla. Her name is credited a Ivy. There is also Alice and Tiana. Tiana has a bit part in this episode declining Frog legs at the ball because oh you get it but she to be a recurring character. Also I’m confused on the subject of custody with Lucy vis-a-vis Jacinda and Victoria. Does a stepmother have rights to custody over her step-daughter’s daughter? Guess it would depend on if Jacinda was minor when she has Lucy. Don’t know but it’s not like Once Upon a Time was ever hazy in custody details  before, oh wait, it was for like three seasons.  

While Once Upon a Time did do Mystery well in the first season, it never  managed to since the that opening season, it does do twists well because it withholds vital information to make the twists happen. Like for example Hook being the/a Dark One, there was no set-up just the reveal. Sure, it makes for a twist but not one that was set up or hinted at. It’s hard to see how this season will stack up to the other seasons since it trying to a lot at once.  

Is it bad? No. Was the premiere a rehash? Oh boy was it! Do I hope it does its own thing and is compelling? Yes, am willing to give it a try especially when without Emma we don’t have her whiny savior moping, no hope speeches from Snow White or toxic Belle and Rumple. Though it does seem like Regina/Roni will get the hope speeches this season.

I feel like I shouldn’t question the logic of this show since it’s a slippery slope that leads to head implosions but other Realm Cinderella can drive a motorcycle having only ever before operating a horse-drawn carriage? Stop trying to make How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days more realistic!