Disney Channel Descendants

Fox&Hound

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Did anyone else catch the Disney Channel's "Descendants" made for tv movie? If you are not familiar, "A modern-day coming-of-age adventure, “Descendants” stars Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent, “Liv and Maddie’s” Dove Cameron as her daughter Mal, Sofia Carson as the Evil Queen’s daughter Evie, Cameron Boyce as Cruella de Vil’s son Carlos and Booboo Stewart as Jafar’s son Jay." The sons and daughters of some of the main Disney Villains (Jafar, Maleificent, Cruela DeVil, Evil Queen) enroll in a new high school where the children of the Disney's heroes attend.

I know as an adult I was not the intended audience, but I really wanted to like it. If you did see it, what were your impressions?

Personally, I had somewhat high hopes, but it was pretty bad. The music was very uninspired, the plot was all over the place, and I thought the children of Cruela and Jafar were not only miscast but they also had very little to do. And why was Jafar, an all powerful wizard, portrayed as a common thief?!?

I think the idea was very clever but it would have worked better as:
1. An animated movie
2. A television show. It could have allowed more time for the characters to naturally develop.
3. Better casting. Super sweet and bubbly Kristen Chenowith as dark and brooding Maleficent? Nope...

One plus, the young actress that portrayed Mal was quite convincing, as was the actor who played the son of Belle and the Beast.

Thoughts??? It did a killing in the ratings but just curious if anyone else watched it. Thanks!
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I didn't watch it because the previews themselves were HORRENDOUS. It always looked terrible.

My aunt and her immediate family planned a while night for it. I'll have to ask them how they liked it.
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
I like to try to watch these Disney Channel movies live when they're released. I wouldn't say I hate watch, but I do enjoy mocking them. I missed this one because I was at a wedding. (It was a cash bar, so all said and done, I wish I had been home watching Descendants.) I'll catch it on a rerun this week, even though it looks abysmal.
 

Sped2424

Well-Known Member
I didn't watch it because the previews themselves were HORRENDOUS. It always looked terrible.

My aunt and her immediate family planned a while night for it. I'll have to ask them how they liked it.
Horrendous is harsh because it implies that this film is horrendous. It is not horrendous, it is utter and absolute garbage. THIS MOVIE DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE IN THE SAME SENTENCE AS HORRENDOUS. I sat through the whole thing. THE WHOLE THING. And the one thing I took away was that there was 0 effort put into this film other than the intent to sell dolls that can compete with the monster high/fairy tale high collector craze.

The songs are thematically all over the place and all feel like they are all from different movies beyond that they are all forgettable and only one stands out (evil like me). The villain kids are terribly you run of the mill high school cliches with only Mal and Evie ever getting any sort of development. But the real crime here is what they did to the villains and hero's of beloved Disney lore...Oh god you all thought angelina jolie's maleficent film was awful? What if I told you not only does the mistress of all evil do the can can in this film while licking her staff, but that she picks the fairy godmothers nose with her wand saying "someone needs to pluck her nose hairs :)". I almost turned my tv off then, but I knew I had to see this abomination to the end.

All the other villains in this film are just caricatures of traits the writers just half a**** and they never come off as likeable, funny, or campy which I think the film was trying to do. Not only that but Kristen Chenoweth has never seen sleeping beauty, that's the only logical explanation to her performance. Because all I got from her was an attempt at the Wicked Witch of the west (I guess playing glinda gets boring after a while). I don't even wanna talk about the hero's and their kids (all mean brats for whatever reason save for Ben but he is as interesting as toast.).

And if this all wasn't horrible enough there is modern technology for some god awful reason in this film? And 0 explanation is given about that too. Somehow we went from 13th century technology to cell phones, wifi, tablets, and tv in the span of 20 years? And the characters all conform to this ideal as well (snow white is an E news presenter..E NEWS). Basically by the end of the film I only understood one thing, that the actual history and legacy of the characters the writers tried to make a film out of didn't matter at all. All they wanted was their iconography to sell some dolls and toys. And this movie makes 0 attempts at making you think differently.
 
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Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Horrendous is harsh because it implies that this film is horrendous. It is not horrendous, it is utter and absolute garbage. THIS MOVIE DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE IN THE SAME SENTENCE AS HORRENDOUS. I sat through the whole thing. THE WHOLE THING. And the one thing I took away was that there was 0 effort put into this film other than the intent to sell dolls that can compete with the monster high/fairy tale high collector craze.

The songs are thematically all over the place and all feel like they are all from different movies beyond that they are all forgettable and only one stands out (evil like me). The villain kids are terribly you run of the mill high school cliches with only Mal and Evie ever getting any sort of development. But the real crime here is what they did to the villains and hero's of beloved Disney lore...Oh god you all thought angelina jolie's maleficent film was awful? What if I told you not only does the mistress of all evil do the can can in this film while licking her staff, but that she picks the fairy godmothers nose with her wand saying "someone needs to pluck her nose hairs :)". I almost turned my tv off then, but I knew I had to see this abomination to the end.

All the other villains in this film are just caricatures of traits the writers just half a**** and they never come off as likeable, funny, or campy which I think the film was trying to do. Not only that but Kristen Chenoweth has never seen sleeping beauty, that's the only logical explanation to her performance. Because all I got from her was an attempt at the Wicked Witch of the west (I guess playing glinda gets boring after a while). I don't even wanna talk about the hero's and their kids (all mean brats for whatever reason save for Ben but he is as interesting as toast.).

And if this all wasn't horrible enough there is modern technology for some god awful reason in this film? And 0 explanation is given about that too. Somehow we went from 13th century technology to cell phones, wifi, tablets, and tv in the span of 20 years? And the characters all conform to this ideal as well (snow white is an E news presenter..E NEWS). Basically by the end of the film I only understood one thing, that the actual history and legacy of the characters the writers tried to make a film out of didn't matter at all. All they wanted was their iconography to sell some dolls and toys. And this movie makes 0 attempts at making you think differently.

I didn't even know this madness was a musical.

Thanks for your honest review. Disney needs to learn to leave the good classics alone. Looks like the programming on the Disney Channel continues to either get worse or stay horribly bad. 'Tis a shame.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I just watched the first 6 minutes... Sheesh.

The song was horrible and contradicting... How can one be "rotten to the core," yet misunderstood? Makes no sense. The choreography was okay.

The acting sucks.

I couldn't stop laughing at Belle and Beast's crowns! They looked like they were bought at Dollar Tree. And their son's ring looked just as cheap. So terrible, yet so hilarious!
 

Sped2424

Well-Known Member
I just watched the first 6 minutes... Sheesh.

The song was horrible and contradicting... How can one be "rotten to the core," yet misunderstood? Makes no sense. The choreography was okay.

The acting sucks.

I couldn't stop laughing at Belle and Beast's crowns! They looked like they were bought at Dollar Tree. And their son's ring looked just as cheap. So terrible, yet so hilarious!
The lip synching is laughable during that scene too and the rest of the film. ANd if you think that looks cheap you should see their cgi effects... As for their "rotten" nature for 4 kids raised to be evil their entire lives they ditch it real quick for the most trivial reasons. This film is just so lazy it's evil.
 

LieutLaww

Hello There
Premium Member
In the Parks
No
This was a movie ? For some reason when I saw the previews for it the way it was talked about it was to be new TV show ?
 

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
I saw some kind of dance routine from the movie on the Disney streaming channel on my Roku. And uh...okay. The kids can dance, I guess. :p

Sped's concise review has terminated any desire I had to see this movie. For which I thank him.
 

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
The lip synching is laughable during that scene too and the rest of the film. ANd if you think that looks cheap you should see their cgi effects... As for their "rotten" nature for 4 kids raised to be evil their entire lives they ditch it real quick for the most trivial reasons. This film is just so lazy it's evil.

Yep, it was painfully obvious they were all lip syncing.
 

ULPO46

Well-Known Member
Haha same feeling. I actually watched this because I thought it would be nice. As for the Disney channel in general wow it's getting worse and worse even their competitor Nickelodeon has lost it's touch. I even refuse to watch Cartoon Network. The film was cheaply made and the writers should be flogged. What happened to the really good Disney Channel Movies? Teen Beach 2 should have been vindication enough as to how bad this movie was going to be. I mean for little kids with no taste must have been ok but anyone older than 10 probably wanted to change the channel after the first five minutes.
 

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
Wow I'm a bit surprised so many actually thought it might be good. My first reaction to the trailer was, wow this has total trash written all over it. You could see that this was made not because someone had a great idea, but because someone thought they could get away with a cheap cash grab tie-in of some type. Disneys originality is pretty close to gone.
 

Brer Panther

Well-Known Member
They didn't even take full advantage of this incredibly stupid idea. Aside from the main characters, there were barely any other Disney characters.

Oh, and Dopey's son is featured, but we don't see the kids of the other six dwarfs because Dopey's the only one that matters.
 

Sweet Melissa

Well-Known Member
Wow I'm a bit surprised so many actually thought it might be good. My first reaction to the trailer was, wow this has total trash written all over it. You could see that this was made not because someone had a great idea, but because someone thought they could get away with a cheap cash grab tie-in of some type. Disneys originality is pretty close to gone.
I'm a little surprised that people thought it might be good too. The best I ever hope for with Disney Channel originals is that they'll be bad in a fun, campy way (Halloweentown comes to mind) and not just bad bad.
 

Sped2424

Well-Known Member
Haha same feeling. I actually watched this because I thought it would be nice. As for the Disney channel in general wow it's getting worse and worse even their competitor Nickelodeon has lost it's touch. I even refuse to watch Cartoon Network. The film was cheaply made and the writers should be flogged. What happened to the really good Disney Channel Movies? Teen Beach 2 should have been vindication enough as to how bad this movie was going to be. I mean for little kids with no taste must have been ok but anyone older than 10 probably wanted to change the channel after the first five minutes.
Cartoon Network has actually been providing EXCELLENT cartoons of late. We bare bears, Steven Universe, Clarence, etc all great new shows. Disney Channel has yet to provide anything of substance that has my interest, Disney XD on the other actually has a few shows I greatly enjoy.
 

DaveN1996

Active Member
Been waiting for someone else to start this thread.... Watched it with the kids and spent the whole time thinking "this is the best Disney could do????"... If you really look, the actors can't even lip sync to keep up with the songs they are supposedly singing (from right off the bat too with the first song).
 

brb1006

Well-Known Member
Is there any clips of Dopey from Descendents? Because I'm really curious on what he's portrayed in Descendants? I know he's married in this universe, but I hope they kept him from not talking or still making him silly.
 

Adelina

New Member
I've come to a realization that their song "Rotten to the Core" sounds insanely similar to "American Trash" by Innerpartysystem.
 

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