Just so you all know, I want to do something slightly different with this blog post. Since I’m currently working on my next review, I’ve decided to publish a short post. This isn’t going to be a formal review. Rather, this is just a quick summary of my thoughts on the movie. Since it’s still fairly new, I’ll try to avoid discussing any potential spoilers.
For those who aren’t familiar with the “Descendants” movies, here’s a quick summary of the first two movies. The first Descendants movie was about four kids: Mal (daughter of Maleficent), Evie (daughter of the Evil Queen), Jay (son of Jafar), and Carlos (son of Cruella DeVil) venturing to the kingdom of Auradon to enroll in school as part of the new proclamation by King Ben, the son of Belle and Adam. Meanwhile, the kids begin to question their true identities as they struggle to choose between good and evil. Trust me, it wasn’t as interesting as it sounds. Instead it was a generic teen movie filled with cheesy acting and soon-to-be-dated songs (with a few exceptions).
The plot of the second movie had a similar good versus evil dilemma plot with a side plot focusing on Uma, Ursula’s daughter and Mal’s rival. Although the movie was slightly better due to Dove Cameron and China Anne McClain’s performances, it had the same dated and childish themes as the first movie.
Personally, I thought that this movie wasn’t quite as intriguing as the second movie but not nearly as over-the-top as the first movie. In fact, it began on a relatively positive note with a heartfelt message in memory of the late Cameron Boyce and then the song “Good to Be Bad”.
Not only was the song itself decent enough, it was also a great opportunity to introduce some of the new villain kids. When I saw the trailers for the movie, I thought that the new kids were going to be the central focus of the movie or at least play a major role in the plot. Unfortunately, it seems as though the only purpose these characters served was to fulfill Ben’s original decree and to create the dilemma over whether or not to permanently close the barrier on the Isle of the Lost. Three out of the four new characters at least had a plausible explanation for their lack of purpose since they were under a sleeping spell for the majority of the movie. However, Celia (the fourth new character) was conscious throughout the movie and she still didn’t use any of her skills to aid the other characters in any way outside of one scene.
Unfortunately, the other characters weren’t much better. The movie centered so heavily on Mal that Evie, Jay, and Carlos weren’t given as much attention. There were some mildly endearing scenes between Carlos and Jane, but that was pretty much it. Because of this, it was difficult to understand who these characters really were and how they had changed since the previous two movies. The first movie included scenes which focused not only on Mal, but the other characters as well. Even though their segments only lasted a short amount of time and jumped around frequently, they still gave viewers some insight into what they learned and how they dealt with the situations they were thrown into.
Audrey, the antagonist, was the most poorly-written character in my opinion. Her character was confusing as well as underdeveloped. Her character in the first movie was similar to many other stereotypical popular girls found in many other movies and TV shows. In the second movie, she wasn’t focused on at all since her actress didn’t return for reasons unknown to me. In this movie she decided to cast a sleeping spell on the majority of the kingdom. As you can tell, this was an incredibly drastic change in her character.
Her motive was first mentioned toward the beginning of the movie. After Ben proposed to Mal, Audrey’s grandmother told her that she should have been with him. As a result, Audrey confronted Mal, saying that she doesn’t deserve Ben.
The first problem with this scene was Audrey’s grandmother. Although her cruelty and bitterness towards Mal were uncomfortable and out-of-place in the first movie, her actions were somewhat understandable. She was obviously upset about not being able to see her daughter for the first sixteen years of her life and took out her hurt feelings on Mal as a result. Nothing in her character or in her previous interactions with Audrey indicated why she would speak to her granddaughter in such a way.
The next problem was that Audrey’s jealousy toward Mal didn’t make much sense. Although she was shown to be upset when Ben broke up with her in the first movie, it only lasted a few seconds. In the following scene, she decided that she wanted to date Chad instead. Although they were revealed to be broken up in the second movie, Chad noted that Audrey broke up with him. There wasn’t any evidence in either of the previous movies explain why she would have such hard feelings.
Then, there’s her villain song…
This song had so much potential, but inevitably fell flat. Instead of explaining why she’s suddenly so interested in Ben, the lyrics just reiterate how upset she is over Ben’s betrayal. None of the lyrics reveal anything that hasn’t already been revealed in Audrey’s spoken dialogue. This especially problematic in a musical movie because the songs in a musical need to justify their inclusion in the movie.
Because none of the characters have coherent or developed personalities, it’s hard to understand what drives their actions. This results in the characters making decisions which seem stupid or non-nonsensical when more sensible options are available. A good example of this comes toward the end of the movie.
Without spoiling too much; the third-act misunderstanding (a trope found in many movies) comes into play toward the end of the movie. Instead of listening to what Mal has to say, all of the other characters decide to continue the quest without Mal and not one of them tries to understand her. If the movies had taken time to acknowledge that the characters’ impulsiveness was a flaw they need to overcome and didn’t paint Mal as being completely in the wrong, this scene may have stood a better chance.
The most distracting element of the movie was the drastic differences in its overall tone. The first half of the movie mostly consists of the characters cracking jokes and making supposedly hilarious one-liners. Then the second half takes a dark turn when the kids find out that most of their friends and classmates have either been put to sleep or turned to stone. Sometimes the darker and more emotional moments are interrupted by the aforementioned jokes and one-liners. Since I’m trying to avoid including any spoilers, I won’t discuss the climax in depth. I will note that it’s a blatant example of the ill-fitting dark tone.
Overall, I would describe this movie as average to below average for a made-for-TV kids’ movie. Most Disney Channel movies have a reputation for being cheesy, pandering, and dated. I thought that this movie met those criteria almost precisely. I was disappointed by how uninteresting most of the characters were and confused by the conflicting tones. Of course, these are just my personal opinions on this movie and I hope that any parents reading this will form their own opinions and encourage their kids to do the same.
Life with Anne 