Once Upon a Time: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) boldface on title drop, merged "card games" into "tabletop games", quote italics, potholes, replaced redirect, cleanup template |
removed the boldface from every Title Drop except the first, as per [[ATT:Style Guide[[, and removed the cleanup tag |
||
(2 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:once.jpg|link=The Princess Bride (film)|
{{quote|''We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. '[[An Aesop|Thou shalt not]]' is soon forgotten, but 'Once Upon a Time' lasts forever.''
|'''[[Philip Pullman]]'''}}
'''Once
It was a [[Omnipresent Tropes|very popular trope]]. In [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|French]] it was ''il était une fois'' and in [[Gratuitous German|German]] it was ''es war einmal'', which literally meant "It was once." Sometimes it was translated as "Once there was" or "A long time ago," but most often, this trope was simply translated as "
Now, stories that began with "Once Upon a Time" often ended with "...and they all lived [[Happily Ever After]]." But [[Fan Nickname|Once]] never got to the end of the stories—he always stayed at the [[Beginning Tropes|beginning]]. And that is where he will always be.
Line 17 ⟶ 18:
* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'': The narrator begins each episode with the japanese equivalent of this, むかしむかし(昔々) or "mukashi mukashi". It's rather purposeful, since the show deals in Fairy Tale tropes.
* ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' uses the same phrase in narrating several plot points, most notably the story of the Prince and the Witch and the story of the Princess who wanted to become a Prince.
== Comic Books ==
* [[Kurt Busiek]]'s ''Trinity'': Once a race of aliens is telling their creation myth, it starts:
{{quote|
== Film ==
* ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'' and ''[[Once Upon a Time in America]]''. The Italian titles began with the rough cultural equivalent,"C'era una volta..." ("There was once...").
* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'':
{{quote|
* ''[[Star Wars]]'':
{{quote|[[A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away|A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...]]}}
Line 33 ⟶ 32:
* ''[[Once Upon a Time In Mexico]]''
* ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'':
{{quote|
In a place perhaps you've seen in your dreams... }}
* ''[[Once Upon a Time in China]]'': An entire series of Martial Arts movies starring Jet Li.
* ''[[Enchanted]]'':
{{quote|'''Narrator:'''
* ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'':
{{quote|'''Malcolm Crowe:'''
* ''[[WarGames]]'':
{{quote|'''Stephen Falken:''' Now, children, come on over here. I'm going to tell you a bedtime story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.
* ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'':
{{quote|'''Narrator:'''
* In ''[[Ever After (film)|Ever After]]'' when Danielle's descendant is about to tell the "true" story of Cinderella she Lampshades this. She has recently read the works of the Grimm Brothers, so she has only recently learned the storytelling conventions:
{{quote|Now then, what was that phrase you use? Oh, yes.
* Inverted in Emir Kusturica's ''Underground'' - the final words in the film are ''"
* ''[[Rock-a-Doodle]]: ''
{{quote|
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'':
{{quote|"
* In-universe: ''[[Kolya]]'' has an example of a girlfriend of Louka's telling little Kolya stories in Russian over the phone (while her husband is away, naturally enough), starting audibly with ''Zhyl-byl...''.
== Literature ==
* [[The Bible]]: "
* Lord Dunsany in ''Time and the Gods'': "
* ''Midnight's Children'' by Salman Rushdie: "I was born in the city of Bombay...
* ''[[A Portrait
* ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by [[Robert Heinlein]]: "
* ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'' by [[Charles Dickens]]: "
* In ''[[
{{quote|'We've strayed into a zone with a high magical index,' he said. 'Don't ask me how.
'Precisely,' said a passing bush. }}
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], ''On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense'': "
* ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'': "
* From ''The King's Chessboard'': "
* Parodied in ''[[Bored of the Rings]]'':
{{quote|Cellophane [...] bid them tell the tale of their adventures.
Arrowroot cleared his throat. "
[[Moby Dick|"Call me Ishmael,"]] said Gimlet.
[[The Canterbury Tales|"Whanne in Aprille,"]] started Legolam.
[[Odyssey|"Hear me, oh Muse,"]] commenced Bromosel. }}
* ''[[The Eyes of the Dragon]]'' by [[Stephen King]]: "
* Near enough every single fairytale ever written:
{{quote|"
"
"
* Spy novel ''The Deep Deep Freeze'' by William Garner begins this way — and lampshades it:
{{Quote|Once upon a time, which, [[Lampshade Hanging|according to all good fairy stories, is how all good fairy stories should begin]], Deputy Director Rolf, Lieutenant Schaumann, and a corpse recently answering to the name of Panowski kept each other company in the middle of nowhere.
They were waiting, Rolf and Schaumann talking occasionally [[Lemony Narrator|and Panowski not saying very much]], for Strawitz....<ref>(Strawitz is a Nazi war criminal Rolf will force into working for East German intelligence.)</ref>}}
=== Poetry ===▼
* [[Edgar Allan Poe]], ''[[The Raven (poem)|The Raven]]'':▼
* Also from Poe, "Annabel Lee"▼
''In a kingdom by the sea,▼
''That a maiden there lived whom you may know▼
''By the name of Annabel Lee... }}▼
== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Bewitched]]'' "I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha (#1.1)"
{{quote|'''Narrator:'''
* ''[[Blackadder]]'':
{{quote|In the third season, Baldrick reads the story he wrote: "
* ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'':
{{quote|'''Charlie Townsend:'''
* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'':
{{quote|'''Georgia:'''
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' "The Android Invasion: Part 1":
{{quote|'''The Doctor:'''
* ''[[Married... with Children]]'' "Buck Saves the Day":
{{quote|'''Al Bundy:'''
* ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'', "Creative Writing":
{{quote|'''Joy Turner:''' Here's a story:
* ''[[Salvage 1]]'' (1979):
{{quote|'''Narrator:''' ''[opening narration]''
* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'':
{{quote|'''Mr. Wick:''' Gather around, everyone. Story time. Come on... gather around.
* ''[[Titus]]'', "The Smell of Success":
{{quote|'''Ken Titus:''' I got a little story I wanna tell you.
'''Ken Titus:''' I got a little story I wanna tell you.
* ''[[Farscape]]: [[The Movie|The Peacekeeper Wars]]'': "For the 89th time...
* ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'': The opera "Spoon Mountain" begins "
* ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]''
== Music ==
* The Small Faces, "Happiness Stan Suite".
{{quote|'''Stanley Unwin:''' Are you all seaty comftibold two-square on your botty? Then I'll begin. (Song: "Happiness Stan") Now, of courst, like all real-life experience story, this also begins
* ''Total Eclipse of the Heart'':
{{quote|
But now I'm only falling apart
There's nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart. }}
* [[Billy Joel]]'s "Falling of the Rain" begins:
{{quote|
There stood a house and a man who painted nature scenes... }}
* [[Don McLean]]'s "American Pie":
{{quote|
''I can still remember... }}
** And [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s variant:
***{{quote|''A long, long time ago''
''[[Star Wars|In a galaxy far away ...]]
* "Those Were the Days", recorded most memorably by Mary Hopkin:
''{{quote|''Once upon a time there was a tavern''
''Where we used to raise a glass or two...
* "Fairytale" Sara Bareilles, mickey-taking every fairytale written with:
{{quote|''Once upon a time in a far away kingdom''
''Man made up a story, said that I should believe him...
▲== Poetry ==
▲* [[Edgar Allan Poe]], ''[[The Raven (poem)|The Raven]]'':
▲{{quote|'''Once upon a midnight dreary,''' while I pondered, weak and weary...}}
▲* Also from Poe, "Annabel Lee"
▲{{quote|'''It was many and many a year ago,'''
▲''In a kingdom by the sea,
▲''That a maiden there lived whom you may know
▲''By the name of Annabel Lee... }}
== Tabletop Games ==
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', [[Koan]]s and sutras associated with the Sidereals inevitably begin this way: "
* There is a card game called "Once Upon A Time" revolving around storytelling. The stories always start with this.
== Theatre ==
* ''[[Into the Woods]]'' opens with this line being spoken by the Narrator before the music starts. The second act begins similarly, with the Narrator saying, "
* The [[Opening Narration]] from ''The Solid Gold Cadillac'':
{{quote|This is a fairy story--the story of Cinderella and the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|four ugly corporation directors]].
* ''[[Call Me Madam]]'' has the song "
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[BlazBlue]]: Calamity Trigger'', Hakumen's arcade ending is a telling of how the story of the [[BlazBlue]] franchise began, and it even begins with Rachel narrating, "
* ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'':
{{quote|'''Sniper:''' Here's a touching story.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Sinfest]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209165735/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3636 Baby Blue begins her story to the damned with it.]
== Western Animation ==
* The intro to ''[[The PJs]]'' starts with "
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'', "Something Smells":
{{quote|'''Patrick:'''
* Albert Barillé produced tons of educational animated series which all got Once Upon a Time in their title, completed with the main subject (man, space, life, America, inventors, explorers...). They also shared a very similar cast of recurring characters.
* The animated feature ''[[Twice Upon a Time (1983 film)|Twice Upon a Time]]'' uses this phrase in its opening narration.
Line 178 ⟶ 168:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
[[Category:Beginning Tropes]]
[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Print]]
▲[[Category:Once Upon a Time]]
|