Descendants Movie Critique

By: Samantha Egay

The movie Descendants was released on July 31, 2015, produced by Disney
Channel and was directed by Kenny Ortega. It is a musical, fantasy movie and was
aimed at young children ages 7-10 years old. However, more often than not,
adolescents and adults watches the movie, and enjoys it, more than the target
demographic. The story follows the adventures of the 4 worst Villain Kids (VK’s)
from the isle of the lost. Mal, daughter of Maleficent. Jay, son of Jafar. Evie,
daughter of the Evil Queen, and Carlos, son of Cruella de Vil. It also follows their
experiences of being the first VK’s to go to school at Auradon, the kingdom where
the good people of Disney, along with their children, live. Choosing a movie to
critique was a tad bit challenging for me. However, I settled for this one because it
was one of the few movies that my siblings and I could agree on as kids. We would
watch the movie with our father and sing along with the songs. I wanted to relive
those simple yet memorable times of ours, and watch the movie in a new
perspective.

The movie starts off on a scenery of Auradon, made with CGI. Though the
scene was nice, the CGI was weird. You could really see that it was edited, so you
can not feel the magical vibe of the place it was trying to give off, so I found the
opening a bit lacking. The opening song of the movie was really good though.
Rotten to the Core remains as one of the most iconic songs of the Descendants
franchise, for it introduces our four main characters and their traits. The costumes
were also great, the colours really matches the actors and the colours of their
villain parents. Not only that, the set was amazing. Though the background was
made with weird CGI, the set really gave off a magical vibe. A fictional place where
you want to go to. The actors were also absolutely amazing. The way they
portrayed the characters really made them feel like a real person. You could feel
the actors’ emotions through the screen. At times however, their acting is
somewhat cringe and lackluster. The storyline and flow of the story was great, not
until the ending, which was bad. From the CGI Maleficent dragon, to the “I defeated
my mother by staring at her eyes with the help of the power of goodness and my
friends just standing at the back” was not good. Sure, it was supposed to be a
beautiful scene where Mal decides to follow her heart and conquers her mother, but
it was cringe and did not meet the expectations for the ending. It was much more
worse because of the reason why Maleficent got out of the isle in the first place.
Jane, fairy Godmother’s daughter, wanted to be beautiful, so she stole her mother’s
wand and accidentally opened a hole in the barrier, giving Maleficent an opening to
escape. It was kind of weird, and was really bad, but, at the end of the day, it is still
a children’s movie.
 Overall, the movie was great. The songs were top notch and really added a
flare to the film. I would recommend this movie to Disney fans who have not
watched it yet. It shows a new side to the iconic Disney villains, it shows how they
are like as parents, and how their children will be like. I would also recommend this
movie to parents to show their kids. It teaches the value of friendship, kindness,
accepting yourself, and following your heart. From the colourful scenes, to the
catchy songs, it’s no wonder children would love this movie. All in all, I would rate
this movie a 7 out of 10. The climax and the ending really put me off, but it is still
good nonetheless.