Descendants

Hallmark movies: bad. Reimaginings of classic Disney properties: bad. Yet mixing those two wrongs together somehow makes a right. Descendants is better, smarter, more original, more entertaining, and thematically deeper than nearly every live-action Disney remake (still stan hard for Branagh's Cinderella).

I won't be the first in saying this movie was a bit slanted toward the cheesy, campy side of Disney. But then again, what Disney Channel movie isn't? I would like to point out, however, that the leads (Mal and Ben) were relatively believable (and likable) characters. I'm not spoiling the movie when I say that Dove Cameron did well at portraying an independent young woman with conflictions about living up to her mother's expectations. On the good side, Mitchell Hope made me believe he was the son of a Disney prince and princess (now king and queen).

Granted, there were several times I wanted to stop watching this film due to the gross amount of cheese and horrible scripts, but I stayed each time for those moments of sincerity and sometimes cleverness. I will probably watch this movie again, and maybe again after that. (Guilty pleasures...) Oh, and P.S. Kristin Chenoweth is an amazing actress who was clearly having fun with her role. She might have come off as mostly cartoonish, but there were some moments where she brought the dread-factor in some subtle ways.

My daughter has constantly got the Disney channel on at home, so I'm treated with re-runs of the same old thing, even the movies are constantly on and I can get very fed up with it. So this movie was advertised to the hilt since the premier of Teen Beach 2, which was not as good as the first I might add. So after months of the advertising of the Descendants, I was fearing the worst. As much as I can't stand Cameron Boyce, I do like Dove Cameron from Liv and Maddie, which is the only show I can bear on Disney Channel.

After watching this movie, I was quite surprised, also I quite enjoyed it, Dove was brilliant as the daughter of Malificent, and Evie, was quite funny too. OK, the 2 boy villains were OK too. But the idea and story were actually pretty good, and some of the characters were quite fun to watch.

Also the parents of the villains were fun to watch, some of the things they say are quite amusing.

As far as Disney straight to TV movies go, I'd give it a go, of course, after months of repeating the film, you'll get fed up with it.

Overall watchable once or maybe 2 days later, twice, then you'll have had enough.

After the promotion this Disney Original Movie got, I had to go on great lengths to watch it.

The movie reminded me a lot of the 90's Disney Originals and held a familiar sensation which I will attribute it to HalloweenTown. The notions were childish and simple but totally in tune with the Disney Originals tradition which can be seen when Magic and Fantasy is involved.

The movie from the perspective of an adult or an overly mature teen might miss the point. Yes, this movie is not great but it managed to convince us that the silliness of the Golden Age of Disney Animation was not forgotten. On the contrary somewhere the Disney villains settled down and had kids. As a 90's kid I have to admit that I feel somewhat satisfied.

The plot is simple and the musical parts were not half bad but will pass with difficulty in the D.O.M. Hall of Fame as High School musical and HalloweenTown did. I believe that Disney could pull off a great series with this material which would have been perhaps hilarious but as a movie it's something less than Cinderella 1997 of Rodgers and Hammerstein but more of the last attempts to follow the last decade's magic/ghost/zombie and vampire trade.

Therefore, if you think about watching it beware. It may seem great and nostalgic but absurd on several points. In my opinion the plot at some points had great thoughts, badly put together but that's just my opinion. Young children and teens will probably like it but their parents will be a tad disappointed. This is an attempt to lure the young generation back to Disney's animation and live action traditions but parents and young adults alike will be emotionally conflicted.

So a TV movie by Disney channel,, the idea is new and kinda genuine, at first you'd think the plot is rigid and predictable but it really do has some unpredictability in the final scenes. The script is fine,,the experience of the writers has actually Flourished in this type of mini-series/TV movies which gave them an advantage.

There is only this thing i kinda hated or more like "disliked" about the movie which is the singing and dancing thingy !! well it's a bit shaggy and disorient the viewer even if it was a 9 year old kid sitting a 24/7 on Disney.. Thank god for the fast-forward bless ;) but to be fair,, other than the singing part,, the movie could have actually made a big fuss if it opened on the big screen ..

As for the cast ,, they were mostly fine .. for a Disney channel cast they looked like a stars there.

So overall,, the movie is nice .. watchable in a family night .. if you have an FF button on your remote you'll use it 3 times i think during the songs , well unless you have little kids then you're screwed :D but seriously thou ,, it is cool.