Once Upon A Time--A Video Game Please?

It should be no secret by now that I love television.  There are so many great shows out there, and new ones are being produced every day.  My most recent love is ABC's Once Upon a Time.  This is a lighthearted fantasy series about fairy tale characters being cursed to the "real" world, and forgetting their fairy-tale selves. The series focuses on Snow White's daughter, who escaped the curse, but grew up in our world, unaware of her true heritage.

This series came out a couple of years ago, as fairy tales are the new "in" thing in Hollywood right now.  You just have to look at all the movies being produced off of fairy tales to see my point--the latest movie being Maleficent, with Angelina Jolie.  The trend is to make them darker and edgier, in an attempt, I suppose, to appeal to today's youth and more cynical audience.  When I first heard about Once Upon a Time I was only slightly interested, and I assumed it would be more of the same.  I didn't bother to watch the first season when it aired, and later I caught a couple of episodes on Netflix, but it was never must-watch television for me (psh, got better things to do, like sort my socks).  A lot of the characters seemed whiny, and for whatever reason, I didn't find the story-line compelling.

However, I would watch it occasionally when I wasn't in the mood for anything else, because a part of me did really like the idea of all these fairy-tale characters interacting with each other.  The fairy-tales have a definite Disney influence to them, and I love Disney (if you don't love Disney, I don't know if we can be friends).  So part of me liked to see my favorite Disney characters interpreted into live action tv-show.  Getting to see Snow White interact with Jiminy Cricket (who owned a Dalmatian named Pongo) was fun.  Disney crossover is why Kingdom Hearts is one of my all-time favorite video games.

Different Levels.

Same Game.

Awesome.

So episode by episode I made my way through the first half of the first season.   Then something happened.  First, they added Alice in Wonderland  characters into the show--specifically, the Mad Hatter, one of my favorite characters.  The addition of him automatically made Once Upon a Time more interesting for me because I adore all things Alice in Wonderland.  Then, secondly, the storytelling began to pick up some pace and develop.  Characters died.  Other characters became involved in an affair.  Things changed and the show wasn't afraid to shake up the status quo.  Combining this with some serious character development is what ultimately got me hooked.

And I mean 'hooked' in the literal sense.

The show's characters are definitely its greatest strength.  They are so well developed--hardly anyone is pure good or pure evil.  For example, take Captain Hook.  Introduced in the second season, he starts off a straight up villain, but then we later learn that the only reason he's a villain is because he wants to take revenge on Rumpelstiltskin for murdering his true love.  Come third season, he's actually an ally and love interest to the main character Emma.  We get to see Hook develop from a revenge obsessed villain, into a man trying to change his ways and redeem himself.  Likewise, on the other end of the spectrum, we have Snow White, who is goodness and pureness personified, until, angry and upset about events that have happened, tricks the Evil Queen into murdering Cora, the Queen's mother.

DID YOU SAY SNOW WHITE COMMITTED MURDER?!

Watching the fallout of her decision is fascinating, as is the back-and-forth feud between her and her stepmother.

Once Upon A Time also brings in characters from classic literature and myths, such as Doctor Frankenstein, Robin Hood, and the King Arthur legends.  It's such a fun show, one of the only show where you can type a sentence like this: Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Prince Charming, and Captain Hook, along with the Evil Queen and Emma (Snow White's daughter) head off to Neverland to rescue Henry from the villainous Peter Pan.  With the help of Ariel and Tinkerbell, will they succeed?

The Evil Queen and Tinkerbell.  This ain't your typical Disney movie kids.

What I wish we could have one day, is a video game of the show.  Think on how awesome that would be if it was done well.  You could play as different fairy-tale characters, fight monsters, and different levels could take place in different worlds--for example there could be a level in Snow White's Castle in the Enchanted Forest, a level in Storybrook, Maine, and another level in Neverland.  And this is only scratching the surface of all the potential.  There is a reason why Kingdom Hearts is so popular, and a large part of that is getting to play with some of your favorite Disney characters.  Think how cool it would be here to do the same?

  In fact, Once Upon A Time isn't the only television show that would make a sweet video game.  I honestly don't understand how Supernatural hasn't produced a kick-ass video game yet.  I wish television studios would wake up and realize the potential profits these games would bring them.  Alas, it is yet to be.

Fun Fact of the Day: The Kingdom Hearts series has sold over 17 million copies world-wide.  So there's definitely a market for crossover Disney video games.

TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!