See, I'd disagree with that - I find a lot of the best periods of the show very fairytale... Not in a twee Disney sense, but more in a dark, dangerous Brothers Grimm way. I think 1897 in particular has that quality of slightly morbid whimsy, wonder and grand horror a great deal.
How that translates into the pilot is a bit more difficult to explain, but it's definitely there, and from the clips shown, it really seems to work. On the surface it doesn't sound too faithful to the original, but I think it's a much closer sibling to it than the 1991 series was.
It really has that quality of a haunted neverland. The stylised colours and lighting really bring out the claustrophobia and enclosed sense of the original show... not literal claustrophobia, but a dramatic feeling of it. It's like the environment reflects how desperately these people are trapped by their own secrets and history.