Watched & Reviewed: Disney Descendants

... So, this is what I waited for all year? What?

My advice: Watch this for yourself, and take what I write with a grain on salt. My opinion should not affect how you see this film.

The Plot:

In a present day idyllic kingdom, the benevolent teenaged son of the King and Queen (Beast and Belle from Disney's iconic Beauty and the Beast) is poised to take the throne. His first proclamation: offer a chance of redemption to the trouble-making offspring of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Jafar, who have been imprisoned on a forbidden island with all the other villains, sidekicks, evil step-mothers and step-sisters.

 

These villainous descendants are allowed into the kingdom to attend prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes. However, the evil teens face a dilemma: should they follow in their nefarious parents' footsteps and help all the villains regain power or embrace their innate goodness and save the kingdom?

This review may contain light spoilers, so be warned!

Didn't you know? Aside from being a big reader and lover of books, I like watching and reviewing Film, too. I also study film, so, y'know! Toot toot!

Descendants (Dir. Kenny Ortega, Disney, 2015) is, in my opinion, Disney's very own cheap knockoff attempt at Ever After High. Jumping on the modern day fairy tale bandwagon, here we are given the Villains and Heroines of old, but this time in the form of Fairy Tale characters' own children. Put them in a school together, have them mingle a little as they try to find their own paths and destinies, and bing bang BOOM, you've got your story.
 Well, what a story, aye?

When I first found out that Descendants was coming out, I was excited. Sure, I had my own trepidations about it; Descendants felt like a carbon, Disney-fied copy of Ever After High, a series I greatly enjoy and find refreshing in this day and age of modern-day fairy tale adaptions. I love everything about Ever After High, so when Descendants was announced, I was wary. Would this be just like the series, or would it be able to stand alone and hold by itself? Well, given that Descendants is a Disney production, I did have one thing I was certain of: Descendants would be a well-produced, well structured film that I would enjoy.

I was wrong.

Descendants is terrible. It has its own merits, granted, but when it comes to the production, most of the cast, a good deal of the acting, the poorly structured plot and its mass of horrible dialogue, this movie really is horrible to watch, and just a tad embarrassing. I was not expecting that from Disney, but wow, they made one poor film here.

My biggest gripe with the film is actually the casting rather than the script, though both are on par with each other for being atrocious. The casting for the adults, in my opinion, was poorly done, and seemed less thought out than the casting for the kids. The kids are great, especially Dove Cameron and Sofia Carson who, by the way, did a wonderful job in this film, but the adults were... well, they were horrible. None of them could seem to act, their dialogue was over the top in each scene, and none of the actors or actresses fit their characters. Belle was a poor casting choice, Beast too, and Kristen Chenworth, though great and a beautiful singer, definitely stuck out and did not fit the role of Maleficent. It felt mismatched with many of the characters, with the personalities and traits of the fairy tale adults never truly fleshed out. Basically, the adult characters were badly written, and you could clearly see when watching the film that the directors gave no thought to staying true to the originals for this film.

I did like the cast of the kids though, because for the main five (the Rebels Villain's children and Prince Ben), they were written quite well, and I liked the development of their characters. I especially liked Evie and Carlos, though the latter wasn't given much of a story line other than that he overcomes his fear of dogs, which is a shame. Still, these characters were strong, and that was nice to see in this film.

The plot, however, needs work. Like the parents of the kids in this, actually. There was quite a bit that left me confused, things that were left unsaid or unexplained. For instance, the character Jane, daughter of the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella, has a scene where she completely turns her back on Mal and co for reasons unknown, right after the parents of the royal goodies turned on Mal and co for being the kids of Villains. It's never explained, leaving the scene feeling like one great big elephant in the room that you want someone to tell you about, yet they never get around to it.
 Why, movie, why?

Oh, and then she flips out towards the end and releases Maleficent from the Isle of the Lost. Yet again that is left unexplained, but hey, who cares? I mean, it's not like I want to understand it at all...

I think that Descendants, for all its worth, would be a good movie for kids, but not really a movie families could enjoy together. It's got a poorly structured plot, a lot of holes that need filling and explaining, and whilst it was fairly acted, it does sometimes fall flat in the acting department, and of course, the production quality of this is weak. I mean, this is Disney, and they brought us the beauty of Tangled, but the graphics used here were horrible, about on par with Happily Never After actually (Dir. Paul J. Bolger, Lion Gate Films, 2006), and that is pretty damn bad in my books.
 Again this is Disney! They skimped out big time here, and it shows, and it is a shame.

Cameron and Carson delivered good performances, some of the songs were good, there were a few cute scenes between the characters of Mal and Ben (especially the scene for the coronation where Ben confesses, that was cute) but overall this is just a poor movie. It'll be fine for kids, they hopefully won't notice the terrible quality of it all, but if you're an avid fairy tale fan who adores adaptations of your favourite tales, you may just be left disappointed.

I give this a rating of: ☆☆

Cheesy, tacky, cheap and definitely riding on the Ever After High wagon, but definitely not the best Disney have pulled out. In fact, this is the worst they have done in a while and, I am sorry to say, this was not worth all the hype it was given.
 Disney, you've disappointed me.

Until next time fellow book and film lovers. I hope you have a good time reading, watching and, of course, enjoying. Adios!
  ~ Kelly