It took a while for me to actually see the whole thing beginning to end, because my daughter kept wanting to replay different scenes (particularly certain songs) when she watched it. So it wasn't until recently that I totally understood the plot.
And, quite honestly, it still doesn't make sense.
Normally I try to avoid spoilers, but today I'm going to spoil some stuff because I have to talk about every aspect of this movie.
If you're not familiar with the Descendants movies, this will make even less sense than normal, but the basic premise of Descendants is that all the villains from all the fairy tales (really, from every animated Disney movie) were sent to this Isle of the Lost. Something like twenty years later, the son of Belle and Beast, heir to the throne of Auradon (which is basically all the kingdoms of said fairy tales united together under one main kingdom), decides the children of the banished villains should get a chance to come to Auradon Prep and learn to be good. After all, they haven't committed the crimes of their parents and should get a chance to live as all the heroes and their kids do and prove they aren't bad.
Descendants: The Rise of Red is the fourth movie in the series, and introduces all new characters. Uma, the daughter of Ursula, has become the new principal of Auradon Prep and declares as her first action that she's inviting Princess Red, daughter of the Queen of Hearts of Wonderland, to the school.
For whatever reason, the Queen of Hearts wasn't sent to the Isle of the Lost like the other villains. Instead, Wonderland was closed off from the rest of Auradon, made into its own sort of prison. It's sad because really only the Queen is bad. I mean, there's lots of crazies in Wonderland but I wouldn't call many of them actual villains, yet they're stuck with this evil queen and don't get to be a part of the united kingdoms of Auradon.
The one person that fights back against the queen's tyranny is her daughter, Red. Except, the only scene we get of her rebelling is the song "Red."
In this song, Red proclaims she's "on a path of destruction" and proceeds to throw a paint-filled balloon at a picture of her mother, then breaks a bunch of vases and cuts up some red rose bushes. The guards chase after her, and she evades them by throwing heart-shaped fireworks at them. Besides vandalism and breaking the queen's curfew law, I'm not really sure how well Red is "fighting" her mother's tyranny.
Anyway, Red escapes the guards thanks to her friend and tutor, Maddox Hatter. All of the descendants in these movies have names that relate to their parents in some way, but I think Maddox Hatter is my favorite name joke in these movies. After rescuing her, Maddox reveals a special pocket watch that can transport you to the past, but he warns you shouldn't mess with time because it can have unintended consequences. Red steals the watch while hugging him.
The next day we see a little more of Red rebelling against her mother when she avoids sentencing the Jack of Spades to be executed, which in my opinion is way better way to resist evil than dumb vandalism. The queen disapproves of everything Red does, it seems, and keeps trying to turn her to the dark side. Also, she has a British accent while Red has an American one, so they probably disagree on what to call fried potatoes, as well.
Anyway, they receive an invitation for Red to attend Auradon Prep, and the queen surprisingly accepts. The invitation allows them to leave Wonderland, and they get to the school where the queen sees an old classmate, Cinderella.
Do you remember Brandy in the Cinderella movie from 1997 where the prince was obviously of Asian descent but his dad was white and his mom was Whoopi Goldberg? Those genetics were all over the place.
Well, Brandy is Cinderella again! And her prince, Paolo Montalban, is her Prince Charming! It's obvious their story is not quite what it was in the 1997 movie, though. Here, they say they fell in love at Castlecoming, not a ball. One thing that doesn't make sense is that we already met a Cinderella descendant in the first three movies, a total chad named Chad. No one talks about him in this movie. Was he a figment of our imaginations? Did he get disowned for being such a chad? Did they finally admit he was adopted and he ran away from home?
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| Keep those grades up, though, or we'll disown you like your adopted brother, Chad |
Chloe has also arrived for orientation and there's an awkward exchange between the four of them, and then a banger song that mentions there was some prank played on the Queen of Hearts (who Cinderella calls Bridget) back in high school that changed everything. Also, the queen shows Red a mirror that tells the future, and shows the two of them ruling as dictators side by side for "a million years." At another point she says they're gonna rule for centuries. Are they immortal or something? This is never explained.
Orientation begins and Principal Uma introduces herself, then says she's happy to welcome Red to the school. Red's mom seems uninterested and has been doing noisy card tricks during the presentation. Uma, who used to be a villain and a pirate captain, gets upset and says, "Excuse me? Do you mind?" and Red's mom replies, "I do, actually."
The Queen of Hearts stands up, turns and tells Red she's playing her favorite game, "War." No one moves to stop her as she declares this and then throws her pack of cards in the air. The cards then transform into soldiers. Like, people soldiers that are people-sized. Did anyone know she could do this? Does anyone know how she did this?
Well, the soldiers wreck everyone, even the pirate captain Uma, which is disappointing given she can turn into a giant half-octopus and control water to swallow bridges. Go watch the other movies, guys.
Anyway, the Queen of Hearts is now in charge and she demands everyone swear fealty to her. Cinderella refuses and the Queen asks Red to pass judgement. While Red hesitates and tries to avoid it like she did with the Jack of Spades earlier, eventually she declares, "She's guilty of treason." The queen agrees and says, "Off with her head!"
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| She said it! She said the thing! |
I can kind of see why Red does this. Her mom is in total control and even if she fights it, eventually her mom will sentence Cinderella with or without her. At least this way she can appear to be on her mom's side. Also, despite everything, Red really does want her mom to be proud of her and approve of her choices.
But wait, Red has a secret. She's brought the time-machine pocket watch with her!
Chloe attempts to attack the queen and Red moves to stop her and the pocket watch gets smacked, sending them back in time. They end up at what was then called Merlin Academy, when their parents are students.
After arguing for a bit, they agree to work together to save Chloe's mom and stop the Queen of Hearts. They realize that they've arrived at Merlin Academy a few days before Castlecoming, and that the watch may have sent them here to this exact time to prevent whatever mean prank caused Bridget to become evil in the first place.
They soon meet their teenage moms. Cinderella is currently known as Ella, and is a peasant girl who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Bridget is a sweet, bubbly princess who loves pink and tries to make friends with everyone by making treats. And has an American accent. Chloe and Red are shocked to discover their moms are best friends.
While handing out cupcakes to the entire student body, Bridget introduces Chloe and Red (and the viewer) to the characters we need to be aware of. There's Fae, who in the future will be Fairy Godmother, Jasmine and Aladdin, who have already fallen in love and tell us to call them Jaladdin (which is a waste of a celeb couple name; they could have been Jasmaddin), and Prince Charming, who doesn't like to bring up the fact that he's a prince, but keeps doing it anyway. Red is attracted to him for two seconds before Chloe reminds him, "That's my dad."
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| Oh... |
Then there's the villains, who are not yet technically villains. We meet Captain Hook, Hades, Maleficent, and Morgana's son Morgie (I did extensive research on this, and according to a Disney Wiki page, Morgana Le Fay is a sorceress who studied under Merlin then turned on him. If you're familiar with Arthurian legends, you'll know Disney is just making stuff up here). And the leader of this group is Uliana, Ursula's baby sister.
Uliana steals all of Bridget's cupcakes, eats the super rare flamingo feathers off of them, and has a reaction. She turns pink and grows a long beak. While it's entirely her fault for eating too many of the magical feathers, even when Bridget tried to warn her, Uliana blames Bridget and chases after her, swearing, "I will destroy her!"
Chloe and Red think they've figured out who's going to pull a prank on Bridget now. They decide to visit Ella at home to ask where Uliana hangs out. Also, Red figures it will be a good time to find out how Uliana might prank Bridget, since Ella knows Bridget the best and so "she'll know her weaknesses and exactly how to stab her in the back."
While chatting with Ella, Chloe accidentally knocks over a vase, breaking it. She apologizes to Ella's stepmom, thinking she'll be immediately forgiven, and instead the stepmother blames Ella for letting her clumsy friends in the house, grounding her.
Well, at least one good thing came out of this exchange. They found out the Villain Kids (yes, that's what they call themselves, even though they haven't become villains yet) hang out in the Black Lagoon, so they head there next.
They're able to spy on Uliana and find out she's planning to make some cupcakes that will turn Bridget into a monster when she eats them. But first they need a special cookbook that contains the recipe. Chloe and Red decide Bridget knows all about baking so she'd probably know where such a cookbook would be.
Bridget shows them a dance she's coming up with for Castlecoming, which looks more like a card trick and makes me think Bridget intends to make a presentation to the whole school at the dance.
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| Do you even have a signature dance? Bet it doesn't involve cards. |
She then tells them she doesn't have the cookbook, but it might be one of the banned books kept in Merlin's office.
At this point, Chloe suggests they tell Merlin what's going on, but Red says they should steal the book before the Villain Kids can. And this is where my real issue with this movie begins. Red complains Chloe is such a goody-goody for wanting to tell the teacher, and they get in a big fight, say some things they shouldn't say, and split up.
First off, why is Red so against telling Merlin? Why can't they just try asking an adult for help? When my kid tells me someone is being mean at school, I say, first, tell the person to stop. If they don't, walk away from/avoid/ignore them. If they continue to bother you, then tell a teacher. After that there's other steps we can take, but after a child has done what they can to nonviolently stop a bully, their first line of defense is a trusted adult, and at school that's the teacher. I feel like that should be the lesson here, too. But it's not.
Chloe feels confused about what to do and goes to talk to her mom... or at least, her mom as a teenager. She doesn't completely explain the situation, just that someone bad is trying to get her to do something bad for a good reason. The advice Ella gives is not what I expected at all. She sings a song that is annoyingly catchy called, "Gotta Get Your Hands Dirty," where she says that, "Bad and good, shouldn't and should isn't always black and white," and that sometimes you can't afford to play the game of life clean. When Chloe says, "If you're good, good things will come to you," Ella counters, "That broken vase shows that's not true." Chloe asks where the line should be drawn, and Ella says, "There's nothing I wouldn't do if my heart tells me it's right, if it's for someone I love, if it's to save a life." Chloe realizes, this would be to save her mom, Ella's, life. So she decides to help Red steal the book.
So, moral of the story, kids: there are no universal truths. Your code of ethics can be compromised. Goodness isn't rewarded. If it feels right, do it.
Okay, okay, I'm being dramatic. It's not that I don't agree with what Ella says to a certain extent. There are shades of grey, and there are instances where you might do something you normally wouldn't agree with because of special circumstances. The thing is, though, most of those special circumstances are because the people in charge are being oppressive.
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| Wee, morally gray! |
For example, Ella brings up Robin Hood. He stole from the rich because the system was unfair, and the only way to make it fair was to get money back to the poor through taking it.
During the civil rights movement, people broke the law simply by choosing to sit in certain places they weren't allowed. But those laws were unjust.
There's also cases where a person might have to do something they would never consider because life has been unfair and they don't know what else to do to survive.
But, that is a very difficult thing to explain to a child. And it feels like this theme is a little mature for a kid's movie. Maybe I'm being prudish, but my own kids are still learning what right and wrong even is, so introducing this idea that sometimes there isn't a right or wrong might be confusing. This movie is rated G, so I assume it's meant for kids, but the moral of the story seems a little more grown up.
Well, as I said, Chloe decides to help Red steal this cookbook. They set off some protective spells and have to fight some flying swords, some animated armor, and an owl statue that comes to life. The second they win, Uliana and the Villain Kids walk in and take the cookbook.
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| Oh no! |
Here's what I thought would happen next: Chloe and Red would realize that by stealing the book, they actually allowed the Villain Kids to get their hands on it. They might not have succeeded in defeating Merlin's spells, and thanks to these two, they don't have to. Red would admit that Chloe was right and they should have done things her way and gone to Merlin. The climax of the movie would be them at Castlecoming, trying to save Bridget from eating a cupcake and getting turned into a monster.
Here's what happened instead: as soon as Uliana opens the book, she and the Villain Kids are frozen. Apparently, Merlin enchanted the cookbook so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. Chloe tells Red to open the book, and she doesn't freeze because she's really a good person. They leave before Merlin arrives to put the Villain Kids in detention. Because of this, they won't even be allowed at Castlecoming, and Bridget won't be pranked.
Hold on, doesn't that mean that, if Chloe and Red hadn't traveled to the past, the Villain kids never would have been able to get their hands on the evil recipe in the first place? If they tried to open the book, they would freeze, and never be able to read it and so never be able to make those cupcakes to prank Bridget.
So, is it possible Bridget was never actually pranked by the Villain Kids? Perhaps someone else, someone who is a "good person" got a hold of the book and was able to open it without freezing, and then decided to turn Bridget into a monster for some other reason?
Here's what I then thought would happen next: Chloe and Red go to Castlecoming to see how things go and discover horror of horrors, the Villain Kids were never the perpetrators! It was Ella all along! I don't know why Ella would prank her best friend; maybe she felt it was the only way to help someone else. Or maybe she made the cupcakes to use on her stepmother so she could go to Castlecoming (remember she was grounded?) and Chloe accidentally got one. I don't know. But I honestly was waiting for that bombshell and for Chloe to realize her mom's thoughts on morally gray actions has led to Bridget getting her heart broken by her best friend and turning into an evil person. Wow, that would have been powerful.
Here's what happened instead: Chloe and Red return to their present (seriously, don't even go to Castlecoming), and find Red's mom is completely changed. Instead of throwing cards in the air that turn into people soldiers, she says her favorite game is "Hearts" and the cards turn into heart bubbles that float down on everyone. The queen wears pink and is so proud of her daughter for being herself. She's still got a British accent though.
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| So, you're telling me turning British and turning evil were two independent events? |
The movie ends with a big dance party, which is how a lot of these movies end, but Uma, as narrator, forebodingly tells us, "getting what you want can be dangerous, especially when you mess with the fabric of time. You didn't think that was the end of the story, did you?"
Roll credits.
As much as I dislike the theme of this movie, and parts of it make zero sense, I am dying for the sequel. Mostly because I feel like this movie isn't complete. They don't even go to Castlecoming! I was waiting the whole movie to see how Fae would suddenly become Fairy Godmother and help Ella get to the dance, and how she and Charming would fall in love while Bridget turned into a monster. And I thought there would be some crazy twist that the Villain Kids were never the people that actually pranked her, and maybe Chloe and Red wouldn't be successful in stopping the prank and instead would have to help Bridget not turn evil by helping her see she still has friends, and they can all still party at the dance even if she has some extra appendages or whatever.
I kind of wanted to see this monster, guys.
Really, I think the writers ran out of movie before they ran out of story. They couldn't cram all of that into a 90-minute movie meant for children. So, they figured they would throw it into the sequel. But the way they did it also doesn't make sense. Maybe they should have created a cliffhanger rather than simply have Red and Chloe go back to the future and find everything is perfect. But then it wouldn't be a happy ending and that's a no-no for Disney.
For all of these reasons, I would say I dislike this movie but... the songs are pretty amazing. Like, more than they have any right to be. My daughter asks me to sing several of them to her at bedtime. Some of them are raps, too, so that's pretty tough for me to make into a lullaby. But she loves them! And, frankly, I do too. Even "Get Your Hands Dirty" gets stuck in my head.
And the actress who plays Red has some pretty hilarious facial expressions.
And Brandy is Cinderella!
So, here's my ratings:
Kid Entertainment: 4/5
While my kid loves this show, she will also randomly declare she's done watching it partway through the movie. It took forever for me to see the whole thing beginning to end because she seems to get bored at certain parts and want to skip scenes or stop entirely. But the soundtrack is 5/5, we listen to that constantly.
My Entertainment: 3.5/5
I like this show, and I think it's a pretty good addition to the Descendents world, but there are lots of problems that I've noted above that annoy me, particularly the ending. I don't mind when my kid asks me to turn it on, but I mumble or laugh at the parts that I think are stupid.
Content: 2.5/5
There's some good stuff in here about being nice and some of what you see in the original Descendents. That one has a really great theme of how people can change, you can make good choices despite pressure around you, everyone deserves a second chance. But this one also adds that every choice has shades of gray, which, while true, seems a little mature for a young audience. Maybe we try teaching what right and wrong means before telling kids right and wrong aren't always what they seem. Also, telling the teacher when you have a problem is a legitimate solution. Why did that get dismissed so quickly?
