Once Upon a Time's fourth season introduced Anna and Elsa from Frozen, and for at least two little boys, the world will never ever be the same!
Check out the video above, in which my 5-year-old and 3-year-old (both diehard Frozen fans, who can recite the whole entire movie #sorrynotsorry) "review" tonight's episode of Once, where we met the two princesses, whom they'd only ever seen in the animated blockbuster film.
And, well, here's what blew me away. Even though young children totally know that nothing in the movie was real—"Duh, it's just a cartoon, Mom." Something very different happens when they see the characters as real-live people, in a place that looks so very "real" (read: questionable CGI).
"Oooooh, I want to go there!" "It's real! It's real!" Where is it? "I think it's up coast!" "Somewhere close to Spring Time!"
If I were to write this Frozen review (and I did already share my thoughts), it would be all about how, despite the episode being fluffy and fun (and a great Regina twist), Anna's motivation and choices were out-of-control ridic. (Leaving for the Enchanted Forrest for no good reason one day before her wedding? On the exact same trip that killed her parents? And Kristoff just let her go? You've. Got. To. Be. Kid. Ding. Me.)
But who cares what I think? I'm a lame old grown-up who doesn't believe in magic or talking snowmen half as much as I should. So we thought it'd be way more fun to let Luca and Matteo, my sons—yes, SONS, boys like Frozen too, you lameos!—pop in as our offiicial "TV critics" and review tonight's Frozen.
The big takeaway: My 5-year-old Luca thinks that this episode of Once Upon a Time was actually better than the movie (my jaw dropped open because this kid is a serious Frozen fanatic—see his cake-baking extravaganza below) because of...wait for it...the Evil Queen. (I mean, I kind of have to agree, given that Lana Parilla is the moon and the stars and everything in between.)
The 3-year-old was soooooooo confuuuuuuuussed, because how was Elsa just in a movie "as a drawing" and now she's in a town freezing Grumpy and Sleepy and sending a Snow monster after Snow White's daughter and Captain Hook?
"I don't uddahstand," he kept saying, with furrowed brow, though he did comment repeatedly on how cool he thought Hook's jewelry was because he looks "like a rockstar pirate princess."
This was the first live-action TV or movie show I ever watched with my kids, and I'll never forget it. And by that I mean they won't let me forget it, because they're currently drawing up maps to where they think Arendelle is, and packing up their tiny backpacks, so we can go there tomorrow, preschool and kindergarten be damned...#PrayForMySanity.
What did you think of tonight's Once Upon a Time? Anyone agree it was better than the movie? Should I quit this gig and let my boys take over? Hit me up via Twitter: @kristindsantos or Facebook.