Descendants Trilogy

Descendants is based on The Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz. I have no prior experience with the source material.

Classic Disney villains have been banished from Aurodon for their crimes and have been locked away on the Isle of the Lost for their crimes. Days before his coronation, Prince Ben (Mitchell Hope) issues a proclamation that the children of these villains be given a chance to attend Aurodon Prep and prove that they are nothing like their villainous parents.
Mal (Dove Cameron), Evie (Sophia Carson), Carlos (Cameron Boyce), and Jaye (Booboo Stewart) are chosen for this new social experiment, Maleficent (Kristin Chenoweth) sees her chance for revenge. She orders them to being back Fairy Godmother’s revenge so that the parents can get the revenge they crave on their captors. But as usual, good triumphs over evil, and because this is a Disney movie, it’s a musical. To state the obvious there’s a lot of singing. It’s High School Musical with a villainous twist.
Every generation needs its High School Musical I guess. Descendants is fun. There’s some good songs. And others that run a little too long and are annoying. But to be fair, I’m way outside of this movie’s age group, and not all High School Musical songs were great either!
The concept was great. I would’ve loved for this movie to have a bigger budget for better costumes and effects, but it was cute for TV. If Only was also too good of a song for the Disney Channel. Dove Cameron is an amazing singer! You can stream Descendants now on Disney Plus.

Six months after coming to Auradon, Jaye (Booboo Stewart), Evie (Sophia Carson), and Carlos (Cameron Boyce) has settled into their new lives except for Mal (Dove Cameron). She seems to have it all including being the girlfriend of King Ben (Mitchell Hope). But it comes with its downside and pressures. Feeling like she’s losing herself and cracking under all the pressure and expectations, she runs away back to the Isle of the Lost to get back in touch with her evil roots.
Ben goes to the Isle, along with the others, to bring Mal back. He ends up being captured by Ursula’s daughter Uma (China Anne McClaine). In exchange for Ben, she wants Fairy Godmother’s wand so that she can have her revenge against Auradon.

I enjoyed this sequel more than the original. The songs are all great (not a rotten one in the bunch!), and it’s got a more complex story with good messages (if kept in context of the story) about staying true to yourself, and people loving you for who you are and not for who they want you to be. I loved the introduction of Anna Carhcart as Dizzy Tremaine. She’s so cute! This movie is fun! You can stream it now on Disney Plus.