Finding Disney in Once upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is filled with lots of references, shout outs, or easter eggs to Disney movies.  This isn’t too surprising, since it is a show about fairy tales and is owned by Disney, but it’s still really fun to see what sort of Disney references they put in throughout the show!  There are lots of little touches that are uniquely Disney, but here are some of my favorites:

Mickey Mouse
Even Mickey himself makes a brief cameo appearance in Once Upon a Time!  It seems like Mr. Gold really does have everything in his pawn shop, and as you can see in episode 19 of season 1.

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The Costumes
Many of the costumes are very reminiscent of the characters worn in Disney animated features.  Belle wears both a simple blue and white dress as well as a golden ball gown during her episode.  Cinderella has a fancy blue gown, Gaston wears red, and the dwarves have outfits and caps that seem to mirror the Disney style.

Chip
During the episode “Skin Deep,” featuring the Beauty and the Beast story, Belle ends up working for Rumplestiltskin, rather like a maid.  While cleaning up she chips one of his cups – a very subtle shout out to one of our favorite characters from the animated Beauty and the Beast!

The Music
In two different episodes, you can hear the dwarves whistling bits of two Disney songs: “Whistle While  You Work” and “Heigh Ho.”  Seems appropriate!

Pongo
In a few episodes, Archie Hopper (also known as Jiminy Cricket!) is seen with a Dalmatian as a pet.  It turns out his dog is named Pongo, after the dad in Disney’s 101 Dalmatians!

Mulan and Captain Hook
With Neal and other people on the show now that have lived in “our world” for awhile, they haven’t been afraid to throw in some blatant Disney references!  When Neal first meets Mulan, he makes a remark that there is a movie about her.  Similarly, when Emma meets Hook she references the Disney character by talking about a “waxed mustache and a perm.”

The Little Mermaid
This episode had lots of Disney shout outs, including the use of the phrase “part of his world,” learning what a fork is, and the name of the ball being the “Under the Sea” dance.

Like this sort of thing?  Check out this awesome site for even more of them!

For all of you Once Upon a Time lovers, have you noticed any other references or easter eggs that seem very Disney?