Descendants (2015 film)

Synopsis

King Beast (Dan Payne) and Queen Belle (Keegan Connor Tracy) marry, unite the Disney kingdoms into the United States of Auradon, and are elected the leaders of the new idyllic kingdom. All the villains, sidekicks, and accomplices are forced after their defeat to live imprisoned on the Isle of the Lost, a forbidden island surrounded by a barrier that also inhibits magic.

In present day Auradon, Prince Ben (Mitchell Hope), the teenage son of King Beast and Queen Belle, is about to ascend the throne. His first official proclamation offers a chance at redemption to selected trouble-making offspring of villains from the Isle of the Lost: Carlos (Cameron Boyce), son of Cruella De Vil; Jay (Booboo Stewart), son of Jafar; Evie (Sofia Carson), daughter of the Evil Queen; and Mal (Dove Cameron), daughter of Maleficent. These villainous descendants are allowed into Auradon to attend a prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes. However, the evil teens are under pressure by their parents to help all the villains regain power by stealing the Fairy Godmothers magic wand.

Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos arrive at Auradon Prep and set out to steal the wand using Evies magic mirror to locate the wand at a nearby museum. There, Mal begins questioning being good or evil after seeing statues of Maleficent, Jafar, the Evil Queen and Cruella de Vil ("Evil Like Me"). Ultimately, they fail retrieving the wand after Jay accidentally sets off the alarm and they escape.

On their first day, Jay is recruited for the schools tourney sports team. Carlos realizes dogs are not dangerous and befriends the schools mutt. Evie becomes infatuated with Chad Charming (Jedidiah Goodacre), son of Cinderella and Prince Charming, who takes advantage of her by making her do his homework. Mal befriends Jane (Brenna DAmico), daughter of the Fairy Godmother. Mal exploits Janes insecurity in her own appearance to her personal advantage by pretending to befriend Jane and even using some magic to change Janes hair making her look more beautiful. After hearing about Janes hair change, Mulans daughter, Lonnie (Dianne Doan), and other girls ask Mal to change their hair too.

Evie learns the Fairy Godmother will use the wand at Prince Bens coronation ceremony and entire school, including the villain kids, are invited. Ben visits and Mal asks him if she could be seated closer to the wand during the ceremony. Ben replies that only him, his family and girlfriend, Audrey—daughter of Aurora and Prince Phillip—will be allowed to be seated up front. Mal hatches a plan to become Bens girlfriend in order to get the wand. While making a love potion in the form of a cookie, the group realizes the spell needs a human tear of true sadness for the love spell to be successful. Lonnie interrupts the group and reminiscences about the love she felt when her mother made cookies to make her feel better. She sheds a tear out of sadness when she learns that the villain kids have never known love—even from their own parents. Mal quickly snatches the tear and adds it to the cookie dough.

Jay begins doubting about being evil, but Mal reminds him of their task thus setting aside his doubts. Mal gives Ben the cookie and the love spell begins to take effect. Jay, Carlos, and Ben work together to win the tourney game and Jay is named MVP. Ben declares his love for Mal in a song and asks her to the coronation, upsetting Audrey and causing her to go with Chad, which in turn upsets Evie.

Chad has Evies magic mirror taken away and Evie is forced to take a test without its aid. Evie gets a B on the test proving her intelligence without needing the help of her mirror and she tells Doug (Zachary Gibson), son of Dopey, who believed in her. Ben asks Mal on date and Evie helps her get ready. While on the date, Mal and Ben get to know each other. Ben decides to go for a swim which Mal refuses to do. Mal gets into the water out of worry when Ben disappears and she nearly drowns, but Ben saves her in time. Mal reveals she cannot swim due to being trapped on the Isle of the Lost.

The villain kids video chat with their parents for Auradon Preps Parents Day because the villains are not allowed to leave the island. At Parents Day, Ben introduces Mal to his parents as his new girlfriend, much to their reluctance and shock. There, Sleeping Beautys mother—Audreys grandmother—blames Mal about Maleficents actions with Chad also adding to the scorn. Evie sprays Chad with a sleeping potion Mal had given her and he collapses. The villain kids leave the lunch and King Beast blames Ben for the turn of events. After the lunch, the other students, now including Jane, mock Mal causing Mal to undo Janes hair and threatening the other girls to do the same. The group reluctantly plan to steal the wand.

The day of the coronation arrives and Mal gives Ben a cookie with the reverse love spell. He reveals he knew along because the spell was broken during their first date when he swam in the Enchanted Lake which washed away the spell. Mal panics that he had been faking his feelings for her, but he tells her that his feelings are genuine as he entrusts with her his signet ring. Ben believes Mal gave him the love spell because she had a crush on him.

During the coronation ceremony, Jane snatches the wand from the Fairy Godmother. Unable to control the magic, Jane accidentally breaks the barrier around the Isle of the Lost. Sensing the barrier now gone, Maleficent takes her staff and magically flies away in dark smoke. Mal manages to pry the wand from Jane about to fulfill her mothers wishes. But Ben convinces Mal she is good and that she and her friends should follow their hearts, not their parents evil ways. Returning the wand to Fairy Godmother, Mal admits she loves her friends and wishes to stay at the school to be with Ben because it makes her happy. Maleficent arrives, renders everyone at the coronation still except for her and the villain kids, and takes the wand from the frozen Fairy Godmother. Mal tries to convince her mom to stop, but Maleficent turns into an enormous dragon and attacks them. Mal uses a spell and defeats Maleficent by shrinking her down to a small lizard, equivalent to amount of the love in her heart. Everyone unfreezes and villain kids resolve to be good. In the end, the whole cast sing and dance at the coronation after-party. But Mal gives the audience a sly hint saying that it is not the end of the story.

Villains

Heroes

Production

On December 12, 2013, Disney Channel announced the production of the film and released the plot outline. The script was written by the Emmy Award-nominated Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott. Filming began in the spring of 2014. Kenny Ortega, the Emmy Award-winning director who has previously worked with Disney Channel on the High School Musical trilogy, was announced to be directing the film.

Melissa de la Cruz wrote the films prelude novel The Isle of the Lost, which was released on May 5, 2015.

Soundtrack

Initially, this film was not envisioned as a musical. It was not until director/choreographer Kenny Ortega came onboard that songs were added. The film itself contains seven musical numbers, plus a song by Shawn Mendes during the end credits, which was released as a single. In addition, the soundtrack album includes four bonus tracks as well as a suite of the David Lawrences orchestral score. Not included on the soundtrack is the Vancouver Childrens Choir Choral Societys interpretation of "Laudamus te" from Antonio Vivaldis Gloria, which was heard at Prince Bens coronation ceremony.

Ratings

Before the film made its TV debut, it was viewed more than one million times on the Watch Disney Channel app.

Critical reception

So far, the film has received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Isabella Biedenharn of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" grade, saying "...plot isnt really the point. The fun is in the roll call... Its no High School Musical, but the songs are catchy, and the junior villains are worth rooting for." Tisha Mae Eaton of Moviepilot.com stated, "Its a movie that definitely had the feel of a Disney classic with a modern twist and I highly recommend it." Alex Reif of LaughingPlace.com gave it a score 4.5 out of 5 saying, "...I highly recommend this to any Disney fan, if for no other reason than to see what they’ve done with the characters, the Hocus Pocus references, and Kristen [sic] Chenoweth’s Maleficent which is closer to the animated character than Angelina Jolie’s portrayal." Brian Lowry of Variety called it "...a playful and tuneful TV movie, exhibiting much higher ambitions than, say, the Teen Beach franchise." By contrast, Amy Amatangelo of The Hollywood Reporter gave it a mixed review, calling it "High School Musical meets Once Upon a Time. It smartly ushers little girls who have grown up watching Disney movies into the tween audience and is an idea so ripe for merchandising that the Disney Store is already chock-full of Descendants costumes, dolls and t-shirts." She called the story "flimsy", but singled out the performances of Chenoweth, Najimy, Robinson and Jobrani.