[4] Phoenix | Descendants 3

Descendants: The Rise of Red - A Review

So, as you may know, Disney has rebooted the Descendants franchise and has made a new movie titled Descendants: The Rise of Red that was recently just released. No, I will still not be writing a story based on that movie nor including it as part of my Descendants series. But I did decide to watch it ... and I have a lot to say about it.

Now, going into the movie, I already didn't have a lot of high hopes for the film. Truthfully, the more promo was released for the film, the more it sounded like many fanfictions that I've seen on here (ex: the Queen of Hearts having a daughter named Red, that daughter later being brought to Auradon, Wonderland being separate from Auradon and the Isle, etc.), so nothing seemed new or exciting to me.

And not to mention the fact that a fourth movie was extremely unnecessary. The original Descendants films tell the story about the Core4 - Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos - and their journey from villain to hero, and that story concluded in D3. (Granted, D3 had its fair share of problems but it did its job of bringing the story to a close).

I think the original plan was to end Descendants with the third film since all of the actors for the Core4, Cameron included, wanted to move on from Disney and focus on more mature projects. And Cameron's passing just acted as the cherry on top, reconfirming the actors' decision not to return and solidified the franchise's end for the audience.

So why are you insisting on continuing the story when you made sure to wrap up and conclude said story in the third movie? Why would you continue a story with characters, who other than Uma and Fairy Godmother, weren't introduced previously and the audience has no connection to despite this supposedly being a continuation of the previous three films? Why would you continue a story knowing that none of the original actors other than those for Uma and FG wanted to come back? And why would you still push for this movie knowing that the reason these actors aren't returning is because they lost a beloved friend and it didn't feel right without him, and that your audience shared this sentiment?

And the answer to those questions is simple: money. It's very obvious that this reboot was just a cash grab. The franchise was going to end with D3 but Cameron's passing, for better or for worse, brought a renewed interest in the franchise. Disney saw that people were interested in Descendants again and decided to reboot it. They saw an opportunity to make more money and ran after it, chasing solely after the green and not thinking about anything else.

But first, let's start with the things I liked about the film:

🍎The actors: Hands down, one of the best parts of the film is seeing Brandy and Paulo Montalban are back as Cinderella and Prince Charming once again, for sure. Personally, The 1997 Cinderella is one of my favorite movies, and I just love that these two reunited for this silly little kids movie. These two just slipped back into their roles effortlessly and I loved every minute of it. Rita Ora brought such a distinct charm and flare to the Queen of Hearts, which I was pleasantly surprised by. And the dynamic between Kylie and Malia was great.

🍎Uma: China Anne McClain was, of course, great as Uma and I will always cheer anytime I see her on my screen. She is such a talented woman. I loved that she brought her ship and crew along with her to Auradon Prep. Queen never broke her promise to her people and we love that. ( Though I think it would've made more sense for her character to be involved in politics rather than being a headmistress.)

🍎Chad mention: The Chad honorable mention was nice since it confirms that the Charmings we see in this film is connected to the Charming we've seen in previous films. I genuinely thought they were going to retcon him out of existence, so it's nice that they didn't.