Descendants (2015)

What a waste of my time!!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Love Disney and loved the concept. Plus not all the Disney Channel films are bad, few if any are "great" but some are watchable, and Kristin Chenoweth is always worth watching.'Descendants' is a relative waste of pretty good potential. Some good things save it from being worse, but it is sad to see one of the better concepts of any Disney Channel film done not enough with. Here's the good things first of all. Chenoweth is the best thing about it, she is gloriously evil as Maleficent and she once again how enviously amazing a singer and song interpreter she is (one will not believe how such a big voice with a wide range of tone colour could come out of a 4 foot 11 petite woman like Chenoweth), regardless of how she's recorded and what song is thrown at her.Fortunately, her musical number "Evil Like Me" is one of the film's better and catchier numbers and Chenoweth sings the heck out of it. A couple of the other songs are surprisingly tuneful too, "If Only" and "Believe" especially and the rendition of "Be Our Guest", while not in the same league as the original, is fun. There are some nice vibrant and suitably Gothic colours and sets as well as some nice energy and playful references to the likes of 'Hocus Pocus'.Not all the songs work though. Some are not that memorable and have some cheesy lyrics and either over-kinetic or limp choreography while others like "Rotten to the Core" have a major cringe factor all round. The cast all do their best but are undone by most of the characters being blandly one-dimensional, with most of the villains being under-explored and the heroes not being given enough likable traits to be rootable. The only really interesting characters are Maleficent and the Fairy Godmother, while doormat-written-all-over-her-forehead Belle is especially wronged.Too much of the dialogue is an excess of cornball cheese, while the story generally lacks imagination and under-cooks too many of some good ideas and replaces them with too much intelligence-insulting absurdity. The costumes look amateurish and bargain-bin-special quality and the lip synching is sloppy. The photography is slick generally but there are drab moments too.Overall, watchable rather than rotten but has too much cheese and blandness and not enough nostalgia and imagination. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I wanna make it very clear that this is a Disney Channel original movie. It is not exactly held to the same level as other movies. I watched this film keeping in mind that it is made for TV and targeted towards children. I will say that I liked the casting, I thought the actors fit their individual roles. Also, the musical numbers and singing is very good mostly. There are a couple of the teenage actors that haven't quite gotten where they need to be as far as singing goes, but Kristen Chenoweth was of course incredible. How could you star in one of the biggest Broadway hits ever and not be superb at singing. So I really enjoyed her and most of the singing. I also liked the character Mal, and I liked Ben too, and their connection. They had great chemistry. The plot is very very predictable, you can for sure predict what is gonna happen next. Of course that is a thing with Disney Channel, so just know that. I think this film is pretty good for a child audience. 7/10 for Descendants.

I can see why everyone says this is cheesy. It's from Disney Channel, after all, but it's not bad for an original story. The villains don't seem like themselves, but Ben (son of Beauty and the Beast) and Mal (daughter of Maleficent) seem earnest. There is a scene between only them, so there is no background cheesiness. The second half of Evil Like Me was horrible, but If Only, which Mal sang, was beautiful. Normally, I don't like singers like her, so that's a big compliment. Be Our Guest was a rap song and may have ruined the movie if it was at full length.As for the mistakes, I'm thinking, "When did Maleficent have a daughter? Where is her husband, or who did she partner with? Can't we have DESCENDANTS, not daughters and sons?" And why are all these people still alive? Jafar got stuck in a lamp, and Maleficent as a dragon fell off a cliff. It makes no sense, but you can ignore it. Also, the Evil Queen and Cruella are not two of the four worst villains. Cruella wants 101 dalmatians skinned to make her a coat, but Ursula has around 101 PEOPLE (or poor unfortunate souls) that she keeps in her hideout for years, torturing them. Gaston could be worse than the Evil Queen. The Evil Queen wanted Snow White killed because she was more beautiful; Gaston killed the Beast for no reason. It makes more sense to kill an animal than your niece, but the Evil Queen didn't try it herself the first time. She used a hunter. She tried to kill Snow White two times (hunter, poison apple);Gaston tried to kill the Beast three times (bow and arrow, club, and knife). His weapon is even worse and scarier in live action. In addition, Gaston killed the Beast in a more violent way. Even with all the mistakes, like the wrong "worst villains," and Be Our Guest in rap, the movie is good and worth the time to watch. I'm looking forward to Descendants 2 and hope they make Ursula's daughter, Uma, and Gaston's son, Gil, super dangerous. This is not as horrible as it seems.

WARNING: if your child's name has anything to do with the name Bertha, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE....my child is still crying on the floor. I thought this movie would be a fun, carefree family movie.. but I was very wrong! My son's middle name is Bertha, and at one point, the main character embarrassingly admits that her middle name is Bertha as well. I looked over at my son only to see tears streaming down his face. What was I supposed to do? I can't help it that its family tradition to give all the boys the middle name Bertha.. but I was not aware that my son would be so incredibly insulted by what was supposed to be a kid friendly movie!But after that, I guess I liked it...