Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5205908-20150206194003/@comment-24674051-20150206213100

I agree that the disney references have been there from the start. However, A & E have also gone back to many of the original fairy tales for some of their Ideas. yes, they added Frozen, but if you look at the story they wrote, it was really more about Ingrid (who was a representation of the ORIGINAL snow queen from the Hans Christian Anderson tale), and some of the twists that they took with her story.

I think alot of the disney references are for the many people that have not had any experience with Fairy Tales, other than the Disnified tellings. The Disney stories provide a place to have some familiarity with the characters without having to go through a significant amount of exposition. Then as the story (and the characters) develop, they can introduce the non-disney aspects of the characters. Things like 'Bandit Snow', or the Shepherd Boy (which if you consider that story, it is at least a mild nod to the Prince and the Pauper).

Also, while the Queens appearing now seeming coincidental, they have been setting up something like this since the beginning. Maleficent was introduced in the second episode (well before the Maleficent movie was released, though I am sure it was in production at some level), and is being protrayed by the same actress (who just got done with another TV show last year). Sleeping Beauty was introduced at the beginning of Season 2. Ursula (the disney character) is the sea witch from the Little Mermaid, and was briefly introduced in Season 3. And while Cruella has not been specifically mentioned in show, there have been rumors since the beginning of wanting her as a villian, not to mention that we've had Pongo (Archie's dalmation) since the pilot.