Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Descendants movies. I would watch them over and over until I knew the songs by heart. Now that the release of Descendants: The Rise of Red has recently come out, why not see if it holds up to the test of time?
The film focuses on Red, the daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Chloe, the daughter of Cinderella, going back in time to stop the Queen of Hearts from becoming evil. Back in time, Red and Chloe not only meet their parents but also meet the parents, siblings and younger versions of the main characters in the first three films.
The movie is directed by Jennifer Phang rather than director Kenny Ortega, who directed the first three films. Likewise, the costume designer in Rise of Red is Emilio Sosa instead of Kara Saun.
While watching the film, I noticed that the musical scenes looked very similar to music videos. It seemed like the background changed, and the characters were in an entirely different setting. I noticed this the most in Love Ain’t It when Red and the Queen of Hearts enter Auradon, and then suddenly, everyone is dancing backup for them. In the timeline that had been going on to this point, having a bunch of people ready to join Auradon and then dancing backup makes little sense.
Many different content creators have made jokes about this movie, and one dance in particular. In the song Life is Sweeter, Jasmine and Aladdin appear and sing the infamous lines, “Call us Jaladdin/ he’s like a magnet/ She’s so attractive/ it’s all fantastic/ ‘Cause we’re flying high together on a magic carpet ride,” while the two actors stick their heads together and spin around. One creator, who goes by the name c.b.3 on Instagram and theonlycb3 on X, and has around 1.3 million followers per app, points out the flaws of the movie. In one of his latest Reels, he points out how awkward some of the movements in the musical numbers are. Knowing that millions of people see his reels and are watching the same movie shows how improper the attention to detail concerning choreography was.
Another complaint I have is the lack of main characters from the first three films. I understand that this movie takes place a few years later and that the Fairy Godmother and Uma were in there, but it would still have been nice to see even just a short clip of Mal and Ben on their “adventures” as Fairy Godmother said. I also find it odd that the Queen of Hearts was the only one who changed in the entire movie. Everyone else stayed the exact same as who they were in the past. On the other hand, I really enjoyed being able to see the past of famous fairy tale characters and how they came to be. For example, the Queen of Hearts used to be a sweet and caring girl who turned out to be an evil ruler
Although the film has its flaws, I would watch it again because of how much I enjoyed the first three movies. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to people who asked me about it. It wasn’t a bad movie by any means, but I just don’t think that it was a good fourth part of the Descendants timeline.
