Beast, the king of the United States of Auradon,
has
banished all the most infamous villains to the Isle of the Lost where villains
such as Maleficent (Kristen Chenoweth who does her best with very limited screen time), the evil Queen, Jafar, and Cruella
De
Vil are imprisoned by a barrier. Maleficent sees a chance for revenge against
all people good (and have world domination) when the children of these villains
are invited to go to school in the kingdom by Prince Ben, the son of the Beast
and Belle. She tells her daughter Mal (Dove Cameron) to steal the Fairy
Godmother’s wand to bring down the barrier surrounding the Isle of the
Lost. Accompaning Mal is Evie (the
daughter of the Evil Queen), Jay (Jafar’s son played by Booboo Stewart), and
the son of Cruella. Soon, the children
of the villains are tempted by goodness and they must make a choice to follow
their parent’s wishes or forge their own path.
DESCENDANTS is a mixed bag for a Disney
Channel movie. The actors playing the children of the
villains have the most personality of all characters in this movie where mostly
everyone else is a cliché or very one dimensional. The Kenny Ortega musical
numbers sometimes
entertain while others follow the same old tired Disney Channel musical formula
for song and dance numbers. The children
of the good guys look too preppy and boring and I realize that DESCENDANTS is
very something written by the parents of children who grew up in another time
and they haven’t really connected with what kids are really like today.
The Fairy Godmother’s daughter only finds
beauty by a magic spell by Mal to make her hair beautiful and stylish with the
lesson she is beautiful inside and out at the end, but the movie never goes
beyond the tempt of maybe she can dress herself of differently and getting a
new hair style instead of being a frumpy looking teenage girl. DESCENDANTS could
really forge a brave path
for family friendly musicals by maybe giving everyone more of a personality for
the sequel instead of an outdated 1950s preppy fantasy that most kids won’t
connect with in the 21st century
SPECIAL FEATURES:
BACKSTAGE DANCE REHEARSALS goes behind the scenes
as the
cast and dancers learn the dance numbers for DESCENDANTS that features interviews
with the young cast, dancers, and Kenny Ortega. Also see the real hair
of Dove Cameron (Mal)
and the actress who play Evie.
Two minute blooper reel showing the cast flub
lines and have
fun like putting tinfoil on Maleficent’s horns
#MAL looks at Mal’s story
through social media.
There is a behind-the-scenes special that airs
on the Disney
channels which has been left off the DVD.
FINAL ANALYSIS: I hope they decide to make the
universe of
DESCENDANTS more interesting for the sequel instead of having the kids of the villains
being the most interesting thing in this movie
This review is ©8-18-2015
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
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