Around 15 minutse in the camera quality takes a dip. I'm sorry but I have 0 clue why that happened. The video was recorded like that. There was nothing I could do about it :(.
Try watching the next to the first one I watched was the third movie once you've seen the whole series it makes even more sense and you talk about the whole eugenics thing at all and that kind of is but it's supposed to be the start of fixing that that was his idea and having them over
This entire movie, and every DCOM racism allegory, just sound like this clip from SAO abridged: ruclips.net/video/8bxDyZi21hY/видео.html The most shallow, yet hilarious, attempt to seem cool and accepting.
They mixed up Jafar and Aladdin, seeing as how Jay is a thief. If Jay was supposed to be Jafar's son, I feel like he'd use hypnotism and mind tricks to get what he wants, not petty theft.
The movie Aladdin actually hints at that Jafar used to be a thief. And his hypnotism only works with his staff. So if Jay were to inherent this power it would only work with his staff.(Sorry if I wrote something wrong, English is not my first language)
I think it makes sense that Jafar doesn’t steal himself, but Jay does. Jafar uses his kid to get what he wants because he’d rather have a kid do what he wants instead of the kid being a mini him.
That would make sense. Though it’s funny to me in Cameron Boyce’s case cause his mom is actually white IRL his dad is the black one 😭. So it feels like they just wanted us to know he was black lmao. Sarah Jeffery’s (Audrey’s) mom also isn’t black irl either. Once again not really a problem. But it’s kinda funny to me that they gave the mixed POCs, POC parents even if their IRL counterparts aren’t POCs. (Sarah Jeffery’s mother is Indigenous but not black)
@@hikeilokei There's definitely an element of meeting a POC quota, but considering they cast actual famous people for the parents instead of random adults I like to think they care about representation. But it's just for optics lol. I know that the director, Kenny Ortega, cares about representation and has complained about Disney's lack of effort in the past.
Something interesting is that for the new sequel they casted the people who played Cinderella and Prince Charming in the 90's musical version, which was color blind casted. So that would mean Cinderella is black, Prince Charming is Asian, Chad is white and I believe their daughter is Black. I just think it's interesting how the whole franchise is hopefully cast color blind.
To me what ticked me off is how Mal puts a love potion on cookies and gives it to Ben. And he finds that cute. That is the equivalent of a guy drugging a girl's drink at a bar. It wouldn't bother me as much if Mal actually got punished for it as in (She looses Ben's trust) and if she didn't end up with him as well. Like seriously, the guy literary finds out she gave him food with chemicals that will make him fall in love with her against his WILL and his reaction is "Dawww it's okay you were just shy". It pisses me off that Mal does something incredibly wrong and gets away with it. And it pisses me off how he is such a simp for her, like for what? You just met her!
bruh MAYBE she did something wrong bc shes a villian kid like they showed in the beginning of the movie. ofc that doesnt mean her actions are okay bc its really not. And Ben seems to want to give the villian kids a chance so ig he decided to forgive her??? idk hes weird LMAOOO but ig he wanted to play along with her plan but, actually fell in love with her in the end bc the spell actually wore off (i love descendants)
Okay but the books make the isle like 110 percent worse, and thier parents, like Carlos was actually abused with bear traps, and they basically only got food from the garbage trucks they dumped at the isle, goign to uradon or however its spelled was like the first time they had has fresh fruit in ages. Its wild. I love the movies, mainly for the nostalgia, but some parts are good.
I remember the books now!! Definitely liked them more than the movies as a kid. I’m a sucker for world-building and info dumping and I always have been lol
@ I remember someone once saying that descendants spins the trope of the main chick being the protagonist and the side chick being the antagonist, because this time the side chick is the protagonist and it's the main chick that's the antagonist.
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@@kittykittybangbang9367 honestly that makes so much sense! Especially regarding the fact that Mal keeps spelling aka cheating on Ben while Audrey tries to get him back by being herself
I only knew her from this so I was PLEASANLTY surprised when I stumbled across "Boyfriend" and got smacked in the face with the fact that she's a super openly queer queen who can put out a BOP.
11:52 To clarify, canonically Carlos is one grade below the rest of the core four. So Carlos and Jane in this are sophomores and Mal, Evie, Jay, and Ben are juniors
I still dont get why Maleficent is considered the evilest and scariest villain of all in Descendants. There were worse Disney villains with more power.
@@parkchimmin7913 but he was able to get to a pretty important position close to the sultan (spelling?) so i feel like he could’ve just kept doing sketchy shit after no longer being a genie…it’s just a strange place for him to end up like compared to the other villains ya know
@@brynniefresh9746 Hmmm true. But if he stayed as the sultan’s advisor, his job would’ve been compromised when Jasmine and Aladdin discover his schemes. The original sultan was, to be quite frank, dumb and disconnected from watch actually happens in Agraba. Since Aladdin was poor and knows what Agraba is like first hand, I’m sure him and Jasmine would actually take things into their hands and try to make positive changes. The first thing they would’ve done was probably fire Jafar.
@@parkchimmin7913 I’m just saying he could’ve weaseled his way into the good graces of some other sultan and remained powerful I have no doubt aladdin and Jasmine would’ve kicked jafar out even if he hadnt exposed himself as being evil…like jafar would’ve served no purpose
I’m doing it too! Be Our Guest is the hardest song in the libretto! It drives me crazy! 😭 (And it’s a summer camp so we have 6 weeks for casting, rehearing, and performing.)
the "this is why we can't take black people anywhere" and all of carlos' black card jokes sent me into orbit also i'm going to argue with you on carlosnot being abused, literally in the scene that he's with his mom she says she'll miss him cause he won't be around to clean her furs and clean her feet. and in the scene right before the dragon he hestiates before putting his fist in because he's afraid of his mom. i do 100% agree that it's really weak in the movie, if you care enough to read the first isle of the lost book it's talked about much more there, but they do drop the ball movie wise
Oh that’s so true! I completely forgot about that line of dialogue! That being said, I still wish they did more “show don’t tell” cause I feel it could’ve been more reinforced. But you’re definitely right about what you said!
@@PurgatoryProductions1 his mom made him sleep in the closet with her fur coats... that were protected with bear traps on the floor. i also believe evie was the first person to give him a pillow among other things
I find it kind of ironic that this movie does multiple race swaps, but doesn't include Tiana from The Princess and the Frog at all. If you are going for diversity, use the one Disney Princess of color.
I agree! It would have been nice for them to include Pocahontas, Jasmine, Tiana, Mulan in this one or the sequels! Moana was out by the sequels too, so they could have included her. That would have been nice but instead they stuck with the white ones and race-swapped
@@PJguy Mulan's daughter is actually added in the future installments, you can even see her in the 1st movie! And i agree, i wish they added Tiana's child.
I mean there’s a lot of characters that aren’t in the movie…the story is based off of a book (probably a shitty one) but these are the characters in that story, so if tiana wasn’t in the book they wouldn’t add in other irrelevant characters when there’s already a bunch of characters
Actually, I my be remembering wrong, but isn't Tiana's daughter in the movie? She's just a background character. It may have just been 11 year old me making baseless assumptions cause Jane had a black friend tho lmao
Like a few other commenter I read the books and they were able to explore the theme of child abuse a little better as they didn't have to comply with the family rating Disney treatment. Some examples: -Mal's mother does hold Mal to an unreasonable expectation of her evilness in fact Mal doesn't have her full name Maleficent because she isn't evil enough. "When I was your age I was already conquering kingdoms and killing thousands. You're only doing grafitti and scaring other kids? Pathetic." "Mom, there are no kingdoms to conquer we are stuck on this island. I am doing the best I can with the resources provided to me." "Still. You can do better." -In the first book Mal was like the kid no one messed with and was pretty evil feared by many. Jay was her number two and was there to back her up. They did actually go to a school in the books. -On the subject of Jay. I haven't seen the movies in a while but in the books Jafar is characterized as not the best father, but he is at least the second best of the four. Jay is in charge of stealing for the shop to sell and his father is mean when he isn't able to get good loot for the shop to sell (not physically abusive but I think he gives him like the silent treatment. The stories are written in third person limited and Jay interprets his father as only caring if he gets what his father wants and not actually caring for Jay) -on another note it is hilarious that Jay qualifies for the criteria of kleptomania -Evie for most of her life was isolated with only her mother as company as: Maleficent banished her and her mother to a castle where they live because Evie didn't invite Mal to her 5th or 6th birthday (she was the only not invited) and both Mal and Maleficent took that personally (turns out it was Grimhilde and her desire to spite Maleficent) and I would argue that Grimhilde cares most for her daughter but it might just be her living through her daughter vicariously. -Grimhilde has given Evie many body image issues as Evie is never pretty enough. But she did teach her daughter many "important" things like applying makeup how to chose outfits that look flattering etc. -Carlos Mom is definitely the worst of the bunch. Carlos is for lack of a better word his Mother's slave. He fluffs the coats cleans the house does the laundry drives his mother around etc. She also is I believe the only one to physically abuse their child (not hit at least not cannonically) she keeps Carlos in her closet where there are bear traps which he did caught in at least once and it is established that he doesn't even have a pillow (Evie giving him a pillow is the start of their friendship) -Carlos in the group was the timid nervous one and he is terrified of his mother. He has had a panic attack (or two I don't remember) when concerning his mom as the house wasn't up to clean standards and other characters have remarked how bad his mother is. -In the book a big thing/ his moment was realizing/coming to terms with his mother actually loves her coats more than him -also Carlos is a whizz at school he is smart so he is put ahead a grade or two so he is cannonically one or two years younger than everyone else -he actually made a device which temporarily put a hole in the barrier (also liv and Maddie is cannon in that universe) -Also Mal and Jay intimidated Carlos into having a party at his place with the intent of tricking Evie and making a fool of her. Which makes me think he has been bullied by them before they became friends. My opinion on the second and third movie: -it has been a while since I have seen the movies but not since I have listened to the music and in my opinion the first is the worst when it comes to the music (I love it but I love the second and third more) but perhaps that's just my taste as you apparently don't like rotten to the core that much (one of my favorites of the first movie) -Also yes Jay and Carlos being sidelined has made me sad too. I don’t think the second and third movie are much better about that Either. -Also the second and third movies are a tad gay and some of my favourite characters appear then (some pirates per se) -Fun Fact: Mal and Evie have more duets with each other than Ben does with Mal (and technically Evie has with Doug) (it's one song) it is also quite the gay song I think that's about all my thoughts on the Disney descendants that I can think of. This has quite the monstrosity of a comment which has taken me at least half an hour to write.
@@michipeachy69 I know! Here is the quote "...then it switched to a pair of twins who were nothing alike (one was boyish and athletic and the other was sort of a diva, and they both sort of looked like Mal, except with yellow hair)..." -Isle of the lost, Melissa de la Cruz, pg 93/94
@@Skrill99the line right after that says “then it switched again to two teenage boys who seemed to be running a hospital for superheroes.” so the series Mighty Med is also canon in the descendants universe
@@widderx This series of crossovers is like how you can interpret that the Avengers Assemble series Avengers, Ultimate tv show Spiderman, and potentially Phineas and Ferb, at the end of their series, are dead by the end of Lab Rats.
there's actually a lot of interesting speculation about descendants and ever after high, which have similar premises and came out around the same time. i will die on the hill of ever after high being better, though.
In the books, carlos & evie were the good kids and mal & jay were the bad ones lol and in the books, carlos had to sleep in his mother’s closet with bear traps and etc and basically his mom abused him and it’s why he’s scared of dogs
I think the race swapping would be less noticicable if it was as common in the Aurodon cast as the Isle cast. Maybe it's because we're mostly focused on the villian kids, but even in the later movies the splicing in of poc is almost always in the cast thats supposed to be "evil". Its something I noticed even as a kid. Aside from Audrey, its pretty much only the Isle kids? And even then, Audrey becomes a villian later in the series. I also think Uma deserved better in the series in general. Never quite understood why Mal gets good and forgiven but Uma wasn't written to have a redemption. Maybe the writers were shooting for a new message but the dichotomy is odd to me.
Looking back on it now, it’s so weird. The only POC in the OG cast (first movie) were Jay, Audrey, and Lonnie. In the little series they did (Wicked World) there was a VK that was black (I don’t remember her name but she was one of Shadow Man’s daughters) and she was voiced by China Anne McLain (who also plays Uma) and then in the second movie there was Uma and then Celia in the third movie.
@@hikeilokei lol yup. and as always the books are better because they go in more depth abt things rip i wasnt rlly interested in descendants initiallu but my mom bought me the book because she was like “hey this is like Ever After High!” which i mean, ok similar concepts in the “characters are children of fairy tale characters with puns of their parents names,” but im biased EAH is forever the better series in my eyes
The movie does a poor job of actually showing the villains-kids abuse. In the book, Carlos of basically a slave to Cruella. He had to sleep in her coat-closet and in the room where that’s located, there is bear-traps outside of the closet covering the floor. That’s why he is good at parkour because he had to be in order to not get caught in the traps to get to his “bedroom”. He is actually quite nice. Mal manipulated Carlos into having a party at his house, and then invited Evie. But that was so she could lock Evie inside Cruellas coat-closet. Carlos saved Evie from that and I think she gave him a pillow ( he didn’t have one before) for that. Mal was kind of a huge bully. But she did that because she wasn’t invited to Evie’s birthday-party. Carlos is my favorite actually because he is so sweet. Evie is also quite nice! But Jay and Mal teamed up and bullied people basically.
18:00 oh idk if the movie touched upon it but Mal and Ben had a psychic connection in the books and Ben would dream abt her a lot, which is why he wanted to allow the kids on the evil island to go to school in the main land
I wish the books stayed separate. I hate to read a book and be told watch the movie to find out the rest. I know she eventually got a partnership but it ruined the whole this is different from Ever After High
@@alexwilliams2276 yeah w/ ever after high the webseries has the same plot as the first book initially then deviated from it to be more episodic while books had a different plot, which worked well i think. Descendants shouldve done something similar instead
The idea of having all of the Disney villains on one island is such a weird idea because 1. I feel like having so many strong personalities under one magic dome would lead to many disputes for what little amount of territory they're given, and 2. It feels like someone really should've asked, "So is this like a penal colony or a concentration camp?". It's a bit extreme, I know, but someone should've asked it.
This movie was definitely made to capitalize on the success of Ever After High lol. I mean, "next generation" fanfic and fanart is such a common thing for kids to make, so it makes sense why these were so popular. I remember when this movie came out, I wanted a crossover between EAH and Descendants to happen so badly. And yes, the plot of EAH is better lol. I remember being kind of annoyed by the setup of Descendants 2, like that's when Ben started being annoying to me. There's also the fact that that movie introduced a talking dog, which everybody hates lol. Overall though, I think the second movie has the best soundtrack of all 3 movies. And I'd say that the third one has the weakest soundtrack of all 3. The third one is the messiest in its plot and the ending just didn't feel like it was thought out at all. I won't spoil it, but I think it causes way too many problems. I do like that the third movie is very much connected to the events of the previous films, though, and tries to wrap up any issues. I didn't read the novels, so I'm not sure if the third movie's writing contradicts that canon or not.
Well, the novels are written in a way so that they take place in the same universe. There are 4 and in my opinion, the first and third were good the second... was also good. The fourth though was weird (though it did have one of my favourite scenes) Though I would say all of them have a better plots then the movies but no music
28:48 love that disney is trying to keep it basically G rated by not having them kiss, yet all the not-quite-kissing moments are always WAY MORE SEXUALLY CHARGED THAN A CHASTE KISS ON THE LIPS WOULD HAVE BEEN. like, LOOK at her!!! she is GASPING FOR BREATH !!! frankly whoever directed that scene needs to go to horny jail (but also not because i absolutely lived for those scenes as a kid lmao)
- I have a very deep and complicated relationship with these movies lmao, i own them all on dvd though - I was one of the people that watched it on repeat on dvr lmao - Every time a new project with Cameron came out after he passed, it hit me all over again. And even more so in hubie Halloween, which he was supposed to be in, but died 2 weeks before it started filming, and literally ALL his friends are in it like watching that movie just hurt me - Kristin Chenowith is my favourite part of this movie for real - Booboo Stewart has a regular name????? - Cameron being a minor is so funny, because sometimes you can see the body double on night shoots and stuff when he couldn’t be on set lmao - My favourite game to play when ben is in a musical number is “is he dancing or just bending his knees a lot” - THERE IS A THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE LIVE ACTION MOVIE??? - About the diversity, I think it was to match the actors. Like Cameron and the actress playing Audrey are both half black so they have a black parents. In the second one they cast an asian actress to play Lady Tremaine’s granddaughter so when they cast Lady Tremaine in the third one, it was an asian woman. But they kinda changed the canon now, because in the fourth movie that will come out eventually, chad’s parents are the characters from the 1997 roger and Hammerstein Cinderella, and that movie famously has colour blind casting, so they’re applying that logic to them being chad’s parents (they’re black and asian) and i am obsessed, but also how did these adorable people raise chad lmao he is horrible - Please the constant blurring of the wand i can’t - This is the most carlos and jay development we get by the way, they are quite literally props for the rest of the franchise. This is the mal show, featuring evie, occasionally guest starring jay and carlos. Like every movie they’ll get a scene at the start with a problem they face, the whole movie happens, and at the end they solve their problem from the start. They really made this for the girls, and it saddens me, because the potential they have is so great. - Also not to be that person, but the first book fleshes out their backstories more, and it’s really weird because it’s a scenario where book one is canon to movie one, but then the rest of the books are not canon to the franchise unless specified. We get a clearer image on their abuse and trauma in the book though - Things to look for in the other movies: everyone has gay vibes, every single person in that movie franchise, no one is straight. Also I need you to keep in mind the politics in this world because they are insane. - Uhm, anyway, if anyone wants to watch a video of random descendants 1 details i love, have fun ruclips.net/video/ihQvrfRv8bI/видео.html&ab_channel=kali
I love the books for digging deeper into the character's backstories and personality. Its the only place Carlos and Jay get a relevant storyline lmao. It does suck though that the first book says that Mal's dad is a regular human, but then the third movie makes Hades her dad. Not even the final book that leads into D3 says anything about Hades being Mal's dad, and we know that book is canon because the fight scene between Mal and Uma was turned into a whole Short Film with a duet song.
@@dancingsun2 yeah i know it annoys me, but I'll just pretend that maleficent lied to her and she found out about hades eventually lmao. and also i feel like half my love for carlos comes from the books lmao, like he's so babygirl in them
I don’t think it’s STELLAR or anything (contrary to how I acted lol)z But I think it’s an interesting rendition. And I think that it’s creative enough to give credit for
@@hikeilokei Interesting, to me it seemed like a shallow and poorly executed attempt to capitalize on the success of Pitch Perfect, and the "rap" was pretty cringey
i really hope you also do the other two movies, descendants 2 is one of my favorite self-indulgent movies to watch xD (even if it does have some really annoying mixing issues on disney+ during some of the songs)
@@ManmyDearestCreation fr! it's the rare occurrence of "movie 2 in a trilogy is better because the other two were only made bc some exec decided it", d2 actually felt like everyone involved had fun making it
Me (a half asian) an my fully chinese friend (shes adopted) are both completely obsessed with Mulan bc thats what little bits of media we had connecting us to our culture and we absolutely HATED lonnies look😂 as a costume designer it looked so bad and remotely nothing like any kind of modern fantasy chinese clothing and just had that Disney 'mismash and layer clothing till it looks cool' thing going on, so its suprising to hear you thought she was good looking, to each their own but i feel like for a lot of characters disneys costume design did them dirty😭😭
I will never understand why they act like the Isle of the Lost was this multi-generational issue. It was twenty years. Like, Adam was the one who made the decision to send a bunch of people onto an island, then his son resolves that. I understand twenty years is a long time, but I feel like the movie would have stuck with me more if the Descendants were further down the generational line and not just the kids of villains. Imagine is Mal was Maleficient's fifth-great-granddaughter who has a mean streak and looks up to her ancestor's monumental story and desperately wants to be able to turn into her own giant evil dragon. And then her parents are completely normal and living a horrid life for no good reason. Not only do I think this would make the story more intriguing, but also it would make more sense with how all the stories take place in different time periods. The daughter of Mulan shouldn't be the same age as the son of Cruella. I _think_ the only other thing that bothers me is the Evil Like Me song. It was explicitly stated that there is no magic on the Isle of the Lost. That whole sequence should be impossible! Back in 2015, I rationalized to myself that it was just Mal daydreaming. But then later on Maleficient references that song!!!!! How do they forget that key rule? In the third movie, the "no magic" rule is walked back on and it's only evil magic that doesn't work on the Isle. However, Maleficient only ever used evil magic. And on top of that, good magic working on the Isle defeats the entire purpose of the movies!!!! If good magic works, someone trapped on the Isle could escape if they were well intentioned. But the whole point was that people were unfairly trapped there????? Those small remarks cheapened the resolution at the end of the third movie.
@@ElizabethMidfordHatesCops I think maleficient was probably singing that song everytime back at the island and that’s why she referenced it at the end of the movie and mal was probably just daydreaming singing it with her at the museum
I mean, is Maleficent still not human in this universe? She was a fairy in the original sleeping beauty, and in all the remakes, so if she's still not human here, she wouldn't have human magic. If there's a barrier to cut off most magic, especially evil magic like you said, fairy magic isn't considered good or evil so it could probably still be used there. 🤷🏽♀️
Third time's the charm on the upload! I also think it's fine that they race-swapped a ton of Disney characters; the original movies were mainly adapted from European tales, but were written by white writers, animated by white cartoonists, and intended for white audiences. However, these stories resonated with so many people across the globe. I think switching up cartoons to reflect the actual diversity of the audience is the right move - but only so long as it's not racist depictions, like Aristocats' Siamese cats, and the main moral of the story is intact.
I’m Asian and I’m really confused on how the Siamese cats are racist. Is it because of the name or how they talked? Cause I’ve seen the movie many times growing up and even now as an adult. I also watched the behind the scenes and really liked the song and their characters.
I feel like I was the only person who didn't read easy being into Doug. I genuinely just thought that their whole relationship was to show that she can just be friends with a guy and still be smart and successful by herself. Genuinely the kiss scene in the third movie shook me
between the splatoon music and the thomas the tank engine & the magic railroad reference you’ve successfully managed to integrate both mine & my little sister’s special interests into a video about a movie neither of us have ever seen before
First, totally agree the songs in Descendants are much better than Zombies. Which is good for me because my kids were obsessed with these songs for a while. Second, the whole first scene on the Isle of the Lost, I just kept thinking, who are all of these other people? Is every single person a villain or is this where they also send petty criminals? If it’s all criminals, why even bother to run so many small businesses? Wouldn’t their inventory just constantly be stolen? I guess not because they seem surprised when the kids do it. Is it an honor among thieves thing? Where do they get supplies? Are they still able to take out small business loans? Are the bankers fellow villains or is someone in Auradon exploiting the underclass? Like I said, I’ve seen this movie a lot of times, though never all the way through in one go, so I’ve had lots of time to think about it.
descendants also was disneys reaction to the ever after high show and doll line - even though they were using more generic fairy tale characters and not Disneys characters, they basically made them stop and stole the idea
the main characters were better than me because if i showed up to this rich ass school knowing that they had the money to fund my underdeveloped neighborhood and school but DIDN'T i would have absolutely gone through with the evil plan idc
I have a soft spot for this series. But sticking with this movie: I love the bond between Evie and her mom and Jay and his dad. You can see through the few scenes they have together the love they have for each other. I love the songs. Kristen Chennoworth slayed in this role. She just had fun with it. The friendship between the main cast. I respected the fairy godmother at least trying to do something nice for the kids. No other teacher did. It was a nice gesture. I did not mind the white savior trope in this because Ben was in a place of power and was at least trying to use it for good. And as a king or prince, should he be fixing the system Aurodon made? Doug and Evie should had more screen time throughout the series. Don’t at me. Don’t have bad things to say about the first, but will have more critiques on the other two.
Something that I've heard from people who read the books that the Descendants is based on said that Carlos is alot more interesting in the books. His mom is actually the most abusive (at least physically) and he is supposed to be 2 years younger than the rest of his group but he's also the smartest, young as far to find a way to scientifically turn off the magic barrier. Granted it only lasted a couple of seconds but he's actually the only person on the Isle of the Lost to come close to escape because of it. They show little bits of his tech side in the movies but not enough to where you really get to understand his character.
i would love to hear your take on uma's morals and her character drive in descendants 2 *edit:* i would have to disagree with evidence of carlos being abused or neglected, because being that afraid of dogs is not a natural thing. that poor boy had that fear drilled into him somehow. and the whole little brother act seems kind of like a cry for guidance imo
The first book we get to see through some of Carlos' POV. His mother SUCKS. I haven't read it in years, but I remember wanting to punch her in the face every single time she was mentioned.
Being afraid of dogs is a natural thing lmdao. No dog has ever did anything to me and k was never abused and I’m afraid of dogs. That’s like saying every single fear is based on something traumatic. That’s not how it works.
@@thelunarwizardCarlos is an abuse victim it's canon in the movies and the books. He was forced to sleep on the floor and clean her furs which were surrounded by bear traps. Carlos LITERALLY said in the movie that his mom told him that dogs are wild animals and instilled fear into him. I'm not sure if you intended on it but you seem to not know much about Carlos considering his abuse is very in your face.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I look forward to your videos as much as I do Kurtis Connor and Jarvis Johnson. You have such a pleasant cadence when you speak, and I love listening to your commentaries.
As a child I loved these movies but I remember being so annoued that it took a 16 year old to think maybe putting a bunch of kids on an island to be raised by criminals and people who did so many shitty things was a bad idea. Like Carlos was abused and forced to sleep in a bear trap closet and Cinderella's abuser has other kids now how did nobody check in on this?
I have very weird thoughts on this franchise, as I'm one of the people who actually read the book that inspired this whole franchise. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Of note: - they actually swear in the books (only crap, but they say it like 3 times) - the Disney Channel exists in universe - Mal gets a magic dragon tattoo at the end of it that Disney unsurprisingly didn't give her in the movies
The “blind” diversity is similar to Rogers and Hammersteins 97 Cinderella casting. Which is WHY it is now canonical to the Descendants movies confirmed by the upcoming spin off!
Thank you for bringing up that part where Ben's dad says it's your fault to him cause I was like woah Disney way to bring the real world trauma found in seemingly perfect families! It was a shocker that I feel like no one was ready to hear from an Auradon parent 😂
The late Cameron Boyce and China Anne McClain deserve to work with better material than just this half-assed attempt to leech off Ever After High's success(then killing it so). I also find it questionable for Kirsten Chenoweth to play Maleficent than Idina Menzel or Susan Sarandon. She'd totally kill it as Rita Repulsa in a Power Rangers reboot tho. Anyways, Descendants felt like it's ushering in that message of villain kids from the ghetto being the same just like the heroes' offspring, also butchering beloved characters from the Disney movies we grew up with. And I thought Beast sought redemption because of his love for Belle after spending years alone with a monstrous appearance casted to him by the sorceress for acting like a total jerk. In human form, Beast(or Adam I guess) was just as bad as his beast alter ego in Belle's Magical World but not to the extent where it's character assassination. If I want to enjoy a franchise surrounding Disney Villain lookalikes, then it's best sticking to Twisted Wonderland. Hopefully the Disney+ anime adaption would be awesome once the series finishes production and comes out.
I agree, and also highly recommend Twisted Wonderland for people that felt this series was messing with the original characterization! I enjoy most of all it takes place thousands of years after the original disney stories, so the way the characters talk positively about the villains makes sense since that’s how they went down in history and how their deeds were, well… twisted. It makes a lot more sense to me than how descendants did it.
Descendants was also partially made because Mattel was making a sister series to the show Monster High called Ever After High. Apparently there were supposed to be some negotiations between Disney and Mattel to work together on one project that never went through, resulting in the two being split. Ever After High first came out in May 2013 and was effectively slaughtered by the instant popularity and extended trademarks of Descendants, so there was definitely something there from Disney's end. I do like both series, but I miss Ever After High lol
14:55 Yeah, this scene. Realistically, the reason why the VK's never had chocolate chip cookies isn't because their parents don't love them, but because they grew up on an island where the only source of food is the uneaten leftovers of the mainland. But you know, it's way easier to focus on parental neglect, even when it contradicts the rest of the movie, than systemic abuse, even though that is supposedly what the movie is about
Idk much about this movie ngl, but doesn't Belle and Adam segregating all the evil people to their own island go completely against the entire message and point of Beauty and the Beast?
I read the first book and I’m almost certain they mentioned that Carlos is younger just pretty smart and skipped grades or something but I’m not 100% sure. That might be why he is casted so young because he is supposed to be younger
Man I remember this movie being a lot better than it was lmao. Another fantastic vid, I really enjoy your commentary, it feels different than a lot of other commentary RUclipsrs and I love it
beast being hypocritical and not giving the kids a second chance despite him living under a curse that forces him into a second chance to be a good person is actually very in character lmaooo
I’ve never heard about that Thomas the Tank engine movie, now I must know more! As for Descendants 2 and 3, while the plots get worse, I personally think the music gets better, so look forward to that.
Descendants is so special to me, I enjoyed it so much when it came out and I was a part of the fandom on both instagram and twitter so it's safe to say this franchise and everything that came with it was a huge part of my life for 4 years. Because of this, and the emotional weight these movies hold now because of Cam's passing, it's been incredibly hard for me to watch any videos that talked about Descendants or look at any post about Descendants (when it's coming from someone I don't already know is a fan of the movies). This is the first video I got the courage to watch and you made me laugh so much, so thank you :)
Did I mention is legit still on my workout playlist to this day cause it’s such and banger. Also I need a seven minute version of their be our guest using the stage musical lyrics/instrumentation as a starting point.
First off, I found your channel a couple of days ago and went through all of your DCOM reviews. LOVED EM! I'm glad that you mentioned how Cruella's son & Jay were honestly...not really essential to the plot of this movie. I felt the same way when I watched it way back in 2015. Heck, Jay felt more like Aladdin's son than Jafar based on his street rat tendencies. Now, I don't wanna jump into spoilers. However, I will say that in the second film there is a scene where Carlos & Jay point out the fact that they don't feel included in what's going on with Evie & Mal. Great scene of self-awareness that I wish more people would talk about. This is probably an unpopular opinion and I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way, but I never thought that the Descendants franchise needed to end due to Boyce's passing. Yes, it was tragic to lose a young talent at that age, but please hear me out. When you REALLY think about Descendants, Carlos wasn't really that big a part of the story. As I mentioned above, he & Jay weren't that necessary to the plot of the first film. The second film doesn't do much for him either. There's a certain talking animal that takes away from what could've been more development for Carlos. The final film didn't have much for him to do either. Descendants as a franchise is about the offspring of Disney villains, heroes and everything else inbetween. After the original VKs had their run, the writers could easily pick a new group to take over. When it comes to the actors in real life, I really understand why most of them (Sofia, Boo Boo & Dove) opted to step away from the franchise because they lost their 'brother.' Going back for another project would be tough with a huge void without Cameron there. That being said... IMO the films got WORSE as the series went on. The 3rd is EASILY the worst out of the trilogy. Personally, I think the second film is my favorite. Come on now, "Chillin Like A Villain" & "What's My Name?" are still bangers in 2023! The first film has a certain charm to it but a number of flaws here and there. I'll never forget watching it for the first time and thinking how Dove Cameron was the biggest star when it came to the VKs, but Sofia Carson to me was had the standout performance. I was like, "I could see her being the Demi Lovato of this film in a way." I was kinda right. She has a music career, did A Cinderella Story film, her Netflix film from a year or so ago did pretty well and she's doing a good job staying out of trouble while focusing on her career.
One of my first male celebrity crushes was also Cameron Boyce, I liked his freckles and his dancing in Jessie and for like 8 year old me (I’m 18 now I have no idea how time works I might be really wrong about the correct age idk) that was the perfect man
@@hikeilokei low-key reminded me of my sister because this is exactly what would happen if she saw a dog. I love dogs and I'm a little bit evil, funniest shit in the world to me. 😂
If you don’t mind, I think you’d LOVE doing the second movie. The songs go a LOT harder (aside from this weird verse Ben gets in the penultimate number), there is actually a buildup to the final battle scene, and I feel like there’s a lot to say about how the antagonist of the second movie (Uma, played by China Anne McClain) essentially does the same thing to Ben that Mal does in this and yet receives an incredibly different reception from Auradon’s public. I also can’t speak in major detail on this, given that I’m white, but other creators have discussed how this film sort of plays into the angry black girl trope with Uma’s character and I’d really like to hear your thoughts on that. I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the character of Harry Hook, played by Thomas Doherty, because…I’m a lesbian yet he ended up being a HUGE childhood crush of mine.
holy shit i didnt even realize she sais "my hood" in the beginning it puts the icing on the black to white storyline. thing is its not this movie specifically I actually think its the second and third one with china as uma that really set it off for me. i dunno if I did it in my original comment explain it. but yeah it'll be interesting to watch you unpack the other two maybe in one video because they kionda meld together to me.
I ran across this video when our (mostly) benevolent dictator The Algorithm threw it at me and for once it didn't let me down. I love how you break down the plot, music, lore, and characters with humor, unselfconscious honesty, and a refreshing eloquence. I watched the full 37 min and immediately hit subscribe. I'm looking forward to seeing you break down the sequels. I admit these movies are a guilty pleasure for me. Their tendency to replace real character nuance and development with just "I'm the child of (insert Disney character here)" as well as the classic Disney Channel over-the-top goofiness is balanced out by the really good songs and great chemistry between the four VKs. I recommend listening to Sofia Carson's pop cover of Rotten to the Core, btw. I think it blows the movie version out of the water.
Ok heard “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” and had to leave a like. Thanks for the memories of when I was a high child/watched a very distraught Tomska and realized I wasn’t actually high and others could see this beautiful monstrosity.
also, there are books that explain everthing, from the way the island work, to the reason they became friends, and actual scenes shpwing how terrible the parents are
I’m excited for a review of the second movie. I remember even as a kid being extremely bored by the second and no matter how many times I re-watched it I could not keep focusing on it. I didn’t really have a good attention span, but still on a second watch I could usually make it through movies. I watched Descendants 2 *three* times and still have no clue what happened in it. I think the music from the second movie was my favorite, though.
I subbed after your Scott Pilgrim video. I love your sense of humor so you are now my new favorite commentary channel. I can't wait to watch your Barbie review. YOU ALSO NEED TO WATCH THE PROM PACT!!! My sister and I surprisingly loved it, it was the good kind of cheesy. But the main character is absolutely fucking terrible
just wanted to say that 1. ohhhh my god i totally saw that thomas the tank engine movie, i remember loving it tbh, and 2. LOVE your sound/music choices for this vid. all the kirby music? the fez puzzle sound? masked man??? literally peak
I was a year older than Cameron was, and yet somehow I looked up to this kid! The day I found out about his passing, I broke down. May his memory be a blessing.
"i respect descendants as a movie but i'm still excited to rip into this movie satirically for the next 25 to 30 minutes" also me when i watched the movie a while back lol i just went on a mini rant in my mind. Watching the movie when it was a new big thing as a kid to now when you have a life to deal with and better media literacy is really surreal
i used to be obsessed with these movies. somewhere deep in the corners of ao3 you can probably find an orphan account where 12-year-old me wrote evie/mal fanfictikn
I really like that you said actually nice stuff about the cast/movie while still pointing out the not-so-great stuff. A lot of people who do these videos act like these movies were made for adults and not kids and they just insult everything and everyone.
Around 15 minutse in the camera quality takes a dip. I'm sorry but I have 0 clue why that happened. The video was recorded like that. There was nothing I could do about it :(.
We need a Thomas the tank engine review
Try watching the next to the first one I watched was the third movie once you've seen the whole series it makes even more sense and you talk about the whole eugenics thing at all and that kind of is but it's supposed to be the start of fixing that that was his idea and having them over
its okayyy :D
This entire movie, and every DCOM racism allegory, just sound like this clip from SAO abridged: ruclips.net/video/8bxDyZi21hY/видео.html
The most shallow, yet hilarious, attempt to seem cool and accepting.
Ive watched this twice and I still don't see it
They mixed up Jafar and Aladdin, seeing as how Jay is a thief. If Jay was supposed to be Jafar's son, I feel like he'd use hypnotism and mind tricks to get what he wants, not petty theft.
That’s actually a really good point
true, also correct me if i’m wrong but Aladdin wasn’t a cleptomaniac, he stole out of necessity while Jay just seems to steal for funzies
The movie Aladdin actually hints at that Jafar used to be a thief. And his hypnotism only works with his staff. So if Jay were to inherent this power it would only work with his staff.(Sorry if I wrote something wrong, English is not my first language)
I think it makes sense that Jafar doesn’t steal himself, but Jay does. Jafar uses his kid to get what he wants because he’d rather have a kid do what he wants instead of the kid being a mini him.
But in the movie, Jafar uses Aladdin to steal stuff from the cave, and then he trains his son to be used the same way.
In regards to the colorblind casing, I think Disney cast the kids first and then realized it wouldn't make sense for their parents to be white.
That would make sense. Though it’s funny to me in Cameron Boyce’s case cause his mom is actually white IRL his dad is the black one 😭. So it feels like they just wanted us to know he was black lmao. Sarah Jeffery’s (Audrey’s) mom also isn’t black irl either.
Once again not really a problem. But it’s kinda funny to me that they gave the mixed POCs, POC parents even if their IRL counterparts aren’t POCs. (Sarah Jeffery’s mother is Indigenous but not black)
@@hikeilokei There's definitely an element of meeting a POC quota, but considering they cast actual famous people for the parents instead of random adults I like to think they care about representation. But it's just for optics lol. I know that the director, Kenny Ortega, cares about representation and has complained about Disney's lack of effort in the past.
Something interesting is that for the new sequel they casted the people who played Cinderella and Prince Charming in the 90's musical version, which was color blind casted. So that would mean Cinderella is black, Prince Charming is Asian, Chad is white and I believe their daughter is Black. I just think it's interesting how the whole franchise is hopefully cast color blind.
@@turnipcrazy Oh yeah I saw that! Another point towards actually caring about representation!
that's cool but...they're
making another movie? 😳
Jay has to be the most bisexual character on earth.
I’d like to believe he is
But this movie gave no real indication of that 😭
Praying for a sign that I have a chance in the sequels 🙏
@@hikeilokei Just wait till you meet Harry in the second movie.
@@jacksonhead1370 Manz was just straight up flirting 24/7 FOR NO REASON!
Yes. Bro would have happily kissed Ben. And also Harry. And Mal
@@jacksonhead1370
Spoiler for Descendants 3
Harry straight up flirted with Jay in the movie like- DAWG- Jay and Harry are bisexual it's ridiculous
i have a lot of nostalgia for the descendants movies but i do not forgive them for being the reason ever after high ended! we were robbed!!!
PLEASE ever after high was like this but a thousand times better we deserved an ending!!
@@DisneyRocks4evah no it doesn't
Ever After High is so much better than this series, I will never not be disappointed that this got more popularity
I read a review of eah that says something along the lines of “EAH is the poor man’s Monster High, and a rich man’s Descendants”
@@DisneyRocks4evah nah
Cameron Boyce was also my first male celebrity crush. We have so much in common. We should kiss
Bet.
HELLO?!?!??? LMAO
WOAAAAAAHHHH
Whoah
OH
To me what ticked me off is how Mal puts a love potion on cookies and gives it to Ben. And he finds that cute. That is the equivalent of a guy drugging a girl's drink at a bar. It wouldn't bother me as much if Mal actually got punished for it as in (She looses Ben's trust) and if she didn't end up with him as well. Like seriously, the guy literary finds out she gave him food with chemicals that will make him fall in love with her against his WILL and his reaction is "Dawww it's okay you were just shy". It pisses me off that Mal does something incredibly wrong and gets away with it. And it pisses me off how he is such a simp for her, like for what? You just met her!
bruh MAYBE she did something wrong bc shes a villian kid like they showed in the beginning of the movie. ofc that doesnt mean her actions are okay bc its really not. And Ben seems to want to give the villian kids a chance so ig he decided to forgive her??? idk hes weird LMAOOO but ig he wanted to play along with her plan but, actually fell in love with her in the end bc the spell actually wore off (i love descendants)
@@gold_lavender3523
Reading that gave me a migraine
@@Alexander59059 i hate using punctuation bc it would make me seem like im serious asf 💀💀💀
@@Alexander59059
I think I can translate
Mal was raised as a villain so Ben reasoned that she didn’t know drugging people was wrong
Seriously bro just said “it was just an oopsie 🥺” and went along with his life 😭
The way Jafar is portrayed here shows that twisted is canon
Oh my god yesssss
YES
OMG YES
But that also means Aladdin was an asshole :(
@misshollis7547 he lied to jasmine to get laid, and he almost put genie back in slavery. He was never great.
In Spanish, the Bertha joke is that her first name is Mal and the second is Igna, which would be Mal-igna, that means malignant
Oh that's actually clever
Okay but the books make the isle like 110 percent worse, and thier parents, like Carlos was actually abused with bear traps, and they basically only got food from the garbage trucks they dumped at the isle, goign to uradon or however its spelled was like the first time they had has fresh fruit in ages. Its wild. I love the movies, mainly for the nostalgia, but some parts are good.
The third movie actually references the lack of food! When Gil is walking around he finds berries and it's the first time he's ever had them
The books were actually fire I loved them as a kid
I remember the books now!! Definitely liked them more than the movies as a kid. I’m a sucker for world-building and info dumping and I always have been lol
Not to mention the books go over the fact that Carlos is younger. It's stated that he skipped a couple years so he's younger than his classmates
Wait, bear traps? Like, they got put in bear traps?
The whole Ben, Mal, Audrey thing is why I honestly couldn't disagree with her being the villian in the 3rd one, like she's in the right honestly😭
Bruh fr. She was pushy, but she was wronged in this movie.
Imagine getting cucked by a girl who tried to Cosby your man
Let's be honest, Audrey was superior compared to Mal
@ I remember someone once saying that descendants spins the trope of the main chick being the protagonist and the side chick being the antagonist, because this time the side chick is the protagonist and it's the main chick that's the antagonist.
@@kittykittybangbang9367 honestly that makes so much sense! Especially regarding the fact that Mal keeps spelling aka cheating on Ben while Audrey tries to get him back by being herself
Dove Cameron's music is low-key her selling point I've never been impressed by her acting but her voice is honestly amazing
Exactly how I feel.
I only knew her from this so I was PLEASANLTY surprised when I stumbled across "Boyfriend" and got smacked in the face with the fact that she's a super openly queer queen who can put out a BOP.
Sofia Carson (Evie) too. She has such a charisma when she sings!
@@briannawhite9307 honestly Disney actors just gotta commit to their music instead of trying to be a triple threat
@@UchihaKat girl same I always thought she seemed kinda fake and now we know why lol
“did i mention” is insanely good and TRULY one of the main reasons why this movie remains so iconic.
That song has no right being so catchy. This song has been stuck in my head for years
i spent actual hours learning that dance and it was worth every moment
Why does the evil queen have kids, isn't her whole thing that she's an abusive stepmother? Who is Evies father...
One of the movies does reveal the dad actually
@@rileyjay7283 please tell me 🥺
@@chickenwinna Gaston, I thiiiiink?
@Chicken Winna Her father is Hades and it was said in desendants 3
@@chickenwinna hades
11:52 To clarify, canonically Carlos is one grade below the rest of the core four. So Carlos and Jane in this are sophomores and Mal, Evie, Jay, and Ben are juniors
I still dont get why Maleficent is considered the evilest and scariest villain of all in Descendants. There were worse Disney villains with more power.
I mean Jafar became a genie and had like so much power at one point
@@brynniefresh9746 Even though he became a super powerful genie, he was held back from actually doing anything (unless someone wished to free him).
@@parkchimmin7913 but he was able to get to a pretty important position close to the sultan (spelling?) so i feel like he could’ve just kept doing sketchy shit after no longer being a genie…it’s just a strange place for him to end up like compared to the other villains ya know
@@brynniefresh9746 Hmmm true. But if he stayed as the sultan’s advisor, his job would’ve been compromised when Jasmine and Aladdin discover his schemes. The original sultan was, to be quite frank, dumb and disconnected from watch actually happens in Agraba. Since Aladdin was poor and knows what Agraba is like first hand, I’m sure him and Jasmine would actually take things into their hands and try to make positive changes. The first thing they would’ve done was probably fire Jafar.
@@parkchimmin7913 I’m just saying he could’ve weaseled his way into the good graces of some other sultan and remained powerful I have no doubt aladdin and Jasmine would’ve kicked jafar out even if he hadnt exposed himself as being evil…like jafar would’ve served no purpose
fun fact: I'm currently in a production of desendents at my local theatre, and I can confirm that be our guest does in fact suck on paper.
I’m doing it too! Be Our Guest is the hardest song in the libretto! It drives me crazy! 😭 (And it’s a summer camp so we have 6 weeks for casting, rehearing, and performing.)
Our opening night is now one day away!!
I adore the chaotic bisexual energy you constantly exude
Dude the second movie had me barking at everyone on screen 😭
It's refreshing honestly 💜💙
@@hikeilokeiamen honestly
the "this is why we can't take black people anywhere" and all of carlos' black card jokes sent me into orbit
also i'm going to argue with you on carlosnot being abused, literally in the scene that he's with his mom she says she'll miss him cause he won't be around to clean her furs and clean her feet. and in the scene right before the dragon he hestiates before putting his fist in because he's afraid of his mom. i do 100% agree that it's really weak in the movie, if you care enough to read the first isle of the lost book it's talked about much more there, but they do drop the ball movie wise
Oh that’s so true! I completely forgot about that line of dialogue! That being said, I still wish they did more “show don’t tell” cause I feel it could’ve been more reinforced. But you’re definitely right about what you said!
@@hikeilokeihe is also abused in the books, i don’t remember the details but yeah he was definitely not doing too great on the isles.
@@PurgatoryProductions1 his mom made him sleep in the closet with her fur coats... that were protected with bear traps on the floor. i also believe evie was the first person to give him a pillow among other things
I find it kind of ironic that this movie does multiple race swaps, but doesn't include Tiana from The Princess and the Frog at all. If you are going for diversity, use the one Disney Princess of color.
I agree! It would have been nice for them to include Pocahontas, Jasmine, Tiana, Mulan in this one or the sequels! Moana was out by the sequels too, so they could have included her. That would have been nice but instead they stuck with the white ones and race-swapped
@@PJguy Mulan's daughter is actually added in the future installments, you can even see her in the 1st movie! And i agree, i wish they added Tiana's child.
I mean there’s a lot of characters that aren’t in the movie…the story is based off of a book (probably a shitty one) but these are the characters in that story, so if tiana wasn’t in the book they wouldn’t add in other irrelevant characters when there’s already a bunch of characters
Actually, I my be remembering wrong, but isn't Tiana's daughter in the movie? She's just a background character. It may have just been 11 year old me making baseless assumptions cause Jane had a black friend tho lmao
@@llamaniaman4002 not that I remember but I don’t know the movies that well lmao
Like a few other commenter I read the books and they were able to explore the theme of child abuse a little better as they didn't have to comply with the family rating Disney treatment.
Some examples:
-Mal's mother does hold Mal to an unreasonable expectation of her evilness in fact Mal doesn't have her full name Maleficent because she isn't evil enough.
"When I was your age I was already conquering kingdoms and killing thousands. You're only doing grafitti and scaring other kids? Pathetic."
"Mom, there are no kingdoms to conquer we are stuck on this island. I am doing the best I can with the resources provided to me."
"Still. You can do better."
-In the first book Mal was like the kid no one messed with and was pretty evil feared by many. Jay was her number two and was there to back her up. They did actually go to a school in the books.
-On the subject of Jay. I haven't seen the movies in a while but in the books Jafar is characterized as not the best father, but he is at least the second best of the four. Jay is in charge of stealing for the shop to sell and his father is mean when he isn't able to get good loot for the shop to sell (not physically abusive but I think he gives him like the silent treatment. The stories are written in third person limited and Jay interprets his father as only caring if he gets what his father wants and not actually caring for Jay)
-on another note it is hilarious that Jay qualifies for the criteria of kleptomania
-Evie for most of her life was isolated with only her mother as company as: Maleficent banished her and her mother to a castle where they live because Evie didn't invite Mal to her 5th or 6th birthday (she was the only not invited) and both Mal and Maleficent took that personally (turns out it was Grimhilde and her desire to spite Maleficent) and I would argue that Grimhilde cares most for her daughter but it might just be her living through her daughter vicariously.
-Grimhilde has given Evie many body image issues as Evie is never pretty enough. But she did teach her daughter many "important" things like applying makeup how to chose outfits that look flattering etc.
-Carlos Mom is definitely the worst of the bunch. Carlos is for lack of a better word his Mother's slave. He fluffs the coats cleans the house does the laundry drives his mother around etc. She also is I believe the only one to physically abuse their child (not hit at least not cannonically) she keeps Carlos in her closet where there are bear traps which he did caught in at least once and it is established that he doesn't even have a pillow (Evie giving him a pillow is the start of their friendship)
-Carlos in the group was the timid nervous one and he is terrified of his mother. He has had a panic attack (or two I don't remember) when concerning his mom as the house wasn't up to clean standards and other characters have remarked how bad his mother is.
-In the book a big thing/ his moment was realizing/coming to terms with his mother actually loves her coats more than him
-also Carlos is a whizz at school he is smart so he is put ahead a grade or two so he is cannonically one or two years younger than everyone else
-he actually made a device which temporarily put a hole in the barrier (also liv and Maddie is cannon in that universe)
-Also Mal and Jay intimidated Carlos into having a party at his place with the intent of tricking Evie and making a fool of her. Which makes me think he has been bullied by them before they became friends.
My opinion on the second and third movie:
-it has been a while since I have seen the movies but not since I have listened to the music and in my opinion the first is the worst when it comes to the music (I love it but I love the second and third more) but perhaps that's just my taste as you apparently don't like rotten to the core that much (one of my favorites of the first movie)
-Also yes Jay and Carlos being sidelined has made me sad too. I don’t think the second and third movie are much better about that Either.
-Also the second and third movies are a tad gay and some of my favourite characters appear then (some pirates per se)
-Fun Fact: Mal and Evie have more duets with each other than Ben does with Mal (and technically Evie has with Doug) (it's one song) it is also quite the gay song
I think that's about all my thoughts on the Disney descendants that I can think of. This has quite the monstrosity of a comment which has taken me at least half an hour to write.
IM SORRY LIV AND MADDY IS WHAT??
@@michipeachy69 I know! Here is the quote
"...then it switched to a pair of twins who were nothing alike (one was boyish and athletic and the other was sort of a diva, and they both sort of looked like Mal, except with yellow hair)..."
-Isle of the lost, Melissa de la Cruz, pg 93/94
@@Skrill99the line right after that says “then it switched again to two teenage boys who seemed to be running a hospital for superheroes.” so the series Mighty Med is also canon in the descendants universe
@@widderx This series of crossovers is like how you can interpret that the Avengers Assemble series Avengers, Ultimate tv show Spiderman, and potentially Phineas and Ferb, at the end of their series, are dead by the end of Lab Rats.
The books might not be canon. The stuff from the books are never mentioned in the movies.
there's actually a lot of interesting speculation about descendants and ever after high, which have similar premises and came out around the same time. i will die on the hill of ever after high being better, though.
It ain't a hard hill to climb at least. Ever After High was amazing, 10 times better in the delivery of it's message, and it it was still first!
@@Frickerdoodle i could write sonnets poems and essay about how excellent eah's writing was, i loved it
Honestly, same
In the books, carlos & evie were the good kids and mal & jay were the bad ones lol
and in the books, carlos had to sleep in his mother’s closet with bear traps and etc and basically his mom abused him and it’s why he’s scared of dogs
I think the race swapping would be less noticicable if it was as common in the Aurodon cast as the Isle cast. Maybe it's because we're mostly focused on the villian kids, but even in the later movies the splicing in of poc is almost always in the cast thats supposed to be "evil". Its something I noticed even as a kid. Aside from Audrey, its pretty much only the Isle kids? And even then, Audrey becomes a villian later in the series. I also think Uma deserved better in the series in general. Never quite understood why Mal gets good and forgiven but Uma wasn't written to have a redemption. Maybe the writers were shooting for a new message but the dichotomy is odd to me.
Looking back on it now, it’s so weird. The only POC in the OG cast (first movie) were Jay, Audrey, and Lonnie. In the little series they did (Wicked World) there was a VK that was black (I don’t remember her name but she was one of Shadow Man’s daughters) and she was voiced by China Anne McLain (who also plays Uma) and then in the second movie there was Uma and then Celia in the third movie.
@@Thathestiadevotee I also wanna add that Carlos is also POC (Cameron Boyce is mixed race on the lighter side)
mal and uma should have been endgame
also pleaseee cover descendants 2, im not even a big fan of this franchise but uma is a banger of a character
I'm gonna do it next month!
Honestly I’m a big Mal x Evie fan
REAL they had such good chemistry with eachother i was rewatching it and I did not expect to like them together so much lmao
Jafar in this movie gives off “Jafar from Starkid’s Twisted” far more than he gives “Jafar from Aladdin”
i feel like the books flesh out how bad the parents are. tho tbh i only read the book once lol
There are BOOKS???
@@hikeilokei lol yup. and as always the books are better because they go in more depth abt things rip
i wasnt rlly interested in descendants initiallu but my mom bought me the book because she was like “hey this is like Ever After High!” which i mean, ok similar concepts in the “characters are children of fairy tale characters with puns of their parents names,” but im biased EAH is forever the better series in my eyes
The movie does a poor job of actually showing the villains-kids abuse. In the book, Carlos of basically a slave to Cruella. He had to sleep in her coat-closet and in the room where that’s located, there is bear-traps outside of the closet covering the floor. That’s why he is good at parkour because he had to be in order to not get caught in the traps to get to his “bedroom”. He is actually quite nice. Mal manipulated Carlos into having a party at his house, and then invited Evie. But that was so she could lock Evie inside Cruellas coat-closet. Carlos saved Evie from that and I think she gave him a pillow ( he didn’t have one before) for that. Mal was kind of a huge bully. But she did that because she wasn’t invited to Evie’s birthday-party. Carlos is my favorite actually because he is so sweet. Evie is also quite nice! But Jay and Mal teamed up and bullied people basically.
18:00 oh idk if the movie touched upon it but Mal and Ben had a psychic connection in the books and Ben would dream abt her a lot, which is why he wanted to allow the kids on the evil island to go to school in the main land
so maybe Mall was like “yes we have a psychic connection i will tell u everything my last name is Bertha”
I wish the books stayed separate. I hate to read a book and be told watch the movie to find out the rest. I know she eventually got a partnership but it ruined the whole this is different from Ever After High
@@alexwilliams2276 yeah w/ ever after high the webseries has the same plot as the first book initially then deviated from it to be more episodic while books had a different plot, which worked well i think. Descendants shouldve done something similar instead
Wasn't the Ben character shown looking at the Isle with Binoculars at some point before bringing the Isle kids over?
thomas the tank engine and the magic railroad was a STAPLE of my child hood. that movie was incredible to me. rocked my world man
Yeah!
As a kid who loves the train sets, that movie was fucking CINEMA to me growing up
It is a legit trip watching it now though
The idea of having all of the Disney villains on one island is such a weird idea because 1. I feel like having so many strong personalities under one magic dome would lead to many disputes for what little amount of territory they're given, and 2. It feels like someone really should've asked, "So is this like a penal colony or a concentration camp?". It's a bit extreme, I know, but someone should've asked it.
This movie was definitely made to capitalize on the success of Ever After High lol. I mean, "next generation" fanfic and fanart is such a common thing for kids to make, so it makes sense why these were so popular. I remember when this movie came out, I wanted a crossover between EAH and Descendants to happen so badly. And yes, the plot of EAH is better lol.
I remember being kind of annoyed by the setup of Descendants 2, like that's when Ben started being annoying to me. There's also the fact that that movie introduced a talking dog, which everybody hates lol. Overall though, I think the second movie has the best soundtrack of all 3 movies. And I'd say that the third one has the weakest soundtrack of all 3. The third one is the messiest in its plot and the ending just didn't feel like it was thought out at all. I won't spoil it, but I think it causes way too many problems. I do like that the third movie is very much connected to the events of the previous films, though, and tries to wrap up any issues. I didn't read the novels, so I'm not sure if the third movie's writing contradicts that canon or not.
Well, the novels are written in a way so that they take place in the same universe. There are 4 and in my opinion, the first and third were good the second... was also good. The fourth though was weird (though it did have one of my favourite scenes) Though I would say all of them have a better plots then the movies but no music
uhhh scooby?
28:48 love that disney is trying to keep it basically G rated by not having them kiss, yet all the not-quite-kissing moments are always WAY MORE SEXUALLY CHARGED THAN A CHASTE KISS ON THE LIPS WOULD HAVE BEEN. like, LOOK at her!!! she is GASPING FOR BREATH !!! frankly whoever directed that scene needs to go to horny jail (but also not because i absolutely lived for those scenes as a kid lmao)
I still use Ben’s song to Mal to remember how to spell ridiculous
That’s mega based
For the longest time I didn't even realise he was spelling ridiculous and was kinda confused by it 😭
“They will no longer have to go to school in the ghettoₒₒₒ 🤨” HAS ME ROLLING IDK WHY
- I have a very deep and complicated relationship with these movies lmao, i own them all on dvd though
- I was one of the people that watched it on repeat on dvr lmao
- Every time a new project with Cameron came out after he passed, it hit me all over again. And even more so in hubie Halloween, which he was supposed to be in, but died 2 weeks before it started filming, and literally ALL his friends are in it like watching that movie just hurt me
- Kristin Chenowith is my favourite part of this movie for real
- Booboo Stewart has a regular name?????
- Cameron being a minor is so funny, because sometimes you can see the body double on night shoots and stuff when he couldn’t be on set lmao
- My favourite game to play when ben is in a musical number is “is he dancing or just bending his knees a lot”
- THERE IS A THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE LIVE ACTION MOVIE???
- About the diversity, I think it was to match the actors. Like Cameron and the actress playing Audrey are both half black so they have a black parents. In the second one they cast an asian actress to play Lady Tremaine’s granddaughter so when they cast Lady Tremaine in the third one, it was an asian woman. But they kinda changed the canon now, because in the fourth movie that will come out eventually, chad’s parents are the characters from the 1997 roger and Hammerstein Cinderella, and that movie famously has colour blind casting, so they’re applying that logic to them being chad’s parents (they’re black and asian) and i am obsessed, but also how did these adorable people raise chad lmao he is horrible
- Please the constant blurring of the wand i can’t
- This is the most carlos and jay development we get by the way, they are quite literally props for the rest of the franchise. This is the mal show, featuring evie, occasionally guest starring jay and carlos. Like every movie they’ll get a scene at the start with a problem they face, the whole movie happens, and at the end they solve their problem from the start. They really made this for the girls, and it saddens me, because the potential they have is so great.
- Also not to be that person, but the first book fleshes out their backstories more, and it’s really weird because it’s a scenario where book one is canon to movie one, but then the rest of the books are not canon to the franchise unless specified. We get a clearer image on their abuse and trauma in the book though
- Things to look for in the other movies: everyone has gay vibes, every single person in that movie franchise, no one is straight. Also I need you to keep in mind the politics in this world because they are insane.
- Uhm, anyway, if anyone wants to watch a video of random descendants 1 details i love, have fun ruclips.net/video/ihQvrfRv8bI/видео.html&ab_channel=kali
The books were way better than they had any right to be
I love the books for digging deeper into the character's backstories and personality. Its the only place Carlos and Jay get a relevant storyline lmao.
It does suck though that the first book says that Mal's dad is a regular human, but then the third movie makes Hades her dad. Not even the final book that leads into D3 says anything about Hades being Mal's dad, and we know that book is canon because the fight scene between Mal and Uma was turned into a whole Short Film with a duet song.
@@dancingsun2 yeah i know it annoys me, but I'll just pretend that maleficent lied to her and she found out about hades eventually lmao.
and also i feel like half my love for carlos comes from the books lmao, like he's so babygirl in them
Wha're the books names?
@@zaspo_sapin7620 i mean there is 4 they have different names lmao but the first one is the isle of the lost and it’s my personal favourite
You might be the first person I've ever heard of actually liking this version of Be Our Guest.
I don’t think it’s STELLAR or anything (contrary to how I acted lol)z But I think it’s an interesting rendition. And I think that it’s creative enough to give credit for
@@hikeilokei Interesting, to me it seemed like a shallow and poorly executed attempt to capitalize on the success of Pitch Perfect, and the "rap" was pretty cringey
My husband enjoys that rendition so much! It shocked me when I showed him the movie how much he liked it.
i really hope you also do the other two movies, descendants 2 is one of my favorite self-indulgent movies to watch xD (even if it does have some really annoying mixing issues on disney+ during some of the songs)
I plan to do Descendants 2 on May 26th and Descendants 3 on June 30th! (the last Friday for the next 2 months :)
@@hikeilokei glad to hear! hope you have fun with them :D
I feel like that’s the only Disney sequel that I liked better than the original.
@@ManmyDearestCreation fr! it's the rare occurrence of "movie 2 in a trilogy is better because the other two were only made bc some exec decided it", d2 actually felt like everyone involved had fun making it
@@aaetriv yeah yeah. And the songs were better
Me (a half asian) an my fully chinese friend (shes adopted) are both completely obsessed with Mulan bc thats what little bits of media we had connecting us to our culture and we absolutely HATED lonnies look😂 as a costume designer it looked so bad and remotely nothing like any kind of modern fantasy chinese clothing and just had that Disney 'mismash and layer clothing till it looks cool' thing going on, so its suprising to hear you thought she was good looking, to each their own but i feel like for a lot of characters disneys costume design did them dirty😭😭
I will never understand why they act like the Isle of the Lost was this multi-generational issue. It was twenty years. Like, Adam was the one who made the decision to send a bunch of people onto an island, then his son resolves that. I understand twenty years is a long time, but I feel like the movie would have stuck with me more if the Descendants were further down the generational line and not just the kids of villains. Imagine is Mal was Maleficient's fifth-great-granddaughter who has a mean streak and looks up to her ancestor's monumental story and desperately wants to be able to turn into her own giant evil dragon. And then her parents are completely normal and living a horrid life for no good reason. Not only do I think this would make the story more intriguing, but also it would make more sense with how all the stories take place in different time periods. The daughter of Mulan shouldn't be the same age as the son of Cruella.
I _think_ the only other thing that bothers me is the Evil Like Me song. It was explicitly stated that there is no magic on the Isle of the Lost. That whole sequence should be impossible! Back in 2015, I rationalized to myself that it was just Mal daydreaming. But then later on Maleficient references that song!!!!! How do they forget that key rule? In the third movie, the "no magic" rule is walked back on and it's only evil magic that doesn't work on the Isle. However, Maleficient only ever used evil magic. And on top of that, good magic working on the Isle defeats the entire purpose of the movies!!!! If good magic works, someone trapped on the Isle could escape if they were well intentioned. But the whole point was that people were unfairly trapped there????? Those small remarks cheapened the resolution at the end of the third movie.
It’s a kids movie
@@zuberirogers895 And??????? Ever After High was a kids series.
@@ElizabethMidfordHatesCops I think maleficient was probably singing that song everytime back at the island and that’s why she referenced it at the end of the movie and mal was probably just daydreaming singing it with her at the museum
@@MetallicMagenta Could be.
I mean, is Maleficent still not human in this universe? She was a fairy in the original sleeping beauty, and in all the remakes, so if she's still not human here, she wouldn't have human magic. If there's a barrier to cut off most magic, especially evil magic like you said, fairy magic isn't considered good or evil so it could probably still be used there. 🤷🏽♀️
Third time's the charm on the upload! I also think it's fine that they race-swapped a ton of Disney characters; the original movies were mainly adapted from European tales, but were written by white writers, animated by white cartoonists, and intended for white audiences. However, these stories resonated with so many people across the globe. I think switching up cartoons to reflect the actual diversity of the audience is the right move - but only so long as it's not racist depictions, like Aristocats' Siamese cats, and the main moral of the story is intact.
I’m Asian and I’m really confused on how the Siamese cats are racist. Is it because of the name or how they talked? Cause I’ve seen the movie many times growing up and even now as an adult. I also watched the behind the scenes and really liked the song and their characters.
@@tototats001 How they talked, the ways their eyes were animated it was just bad.
Also this is a pretty obvious different universe than the main movies so having the characters look different makes sense to me as well.
@@tototats001there are a lot of racist chinese stereotypes like the heavily slanted eyes, buck teeth and accent
These movies have always kinda been my go too comfort movies since they came out. Their fun and cute if u don’t think about em too hard.
Agreed. They’re silly and I like that
I feel like I was the only person who didn't read easy being into Doug. I genuinely just thought that their whole relationship was to show that she can just be friends with a guy and still be smart and successful by herself. Genuinely the kiss scene in the third movie shook me
between the splatoon music and the thomas the tank engine & the magic railroad reference you’ve successfully managed to integrate both mine & my little sister’s special interests into a video about a movie neither of us have ever seen before
she made me watch that damn movie 1026392992x times over through our entire childhood i can probably recite it from heart by now
I will single handledly close the generational divide
First, totally agree the songs in Descendants are much better than Zombies. Which is good for me because my kids were obsessed with these songs for a while.
Second, the whole first scene on the Isle of the Lost, I just kept thinking, who are all of these other people? Is every single person a villain or is this where they also send petty criminals? If it’s all criminals, why even bother to run so many small businesses? Wouldn’t their inventory just constantly be stolen? I guess not because they seem surprised when the kids do it. Is it an honor among thieves thing? Where do they get supplies? Are they still able to take out small business loans? Are the bankers fellow villains or is someone in Auradon exploiting the underclass?
Like I said, I’ve seen this movie a lot of times, though never all the way through in one go, so I’ve had lots of time to think about it.
descendants also was disneys reaction to the ever after high show and doll line - even though they were using more generic fairy tale characters and not Disneys characters, they basically made them stop and stole the idea
Not necessarily. It’s based on a novel called Isle of the Lost.
the main characters were better than me because if i showed up to this rich ass school knowing that they had the money to fund my underdeveloped neighborhood and school but DIDN'T i would have absolutely gone through with the evil plan idc
I have a soft spot for this series. But sticking with this movie:
I love the bond between Evie and her mom and Jay and his dad. You can see through the few scenes they have together the love they have for each other.
I love the songs. Kristen Chennoworth slayed in this role. She just had fun with it.
The friendship between the main cast.
I respected the fairy godmother at least trying to do something nice for the kids. No other teacher did. It was a nice gesture.
I did not mind the white savior trope in this because Ben was in a place of power and was at least trying to use it for good. And as a king or prince, should he be fixing the system Aurodon made?
Doug and Evie should had more screen time throughout the series. Don’t at me.
Don’t have bad things to say about the first, but will have more critiques on the other two.
Something that I've heard from people who read the books that the Descendants is based on said that Carlos is alot more interesting in the books. His mom is actually the most abusive (at least physically) and he is supposed to be 2 years younger than the rest of his group but he's also the smartest, young as far to find a way to scientifically turn off the magic barrier. Granted it only lasted a couple of seconds but he's actually the only person on the Isle of the Lost to come close to escape because of it. They show little bits of his tech side in the movies but not enough to where you really get to understand his character.
i would love to hear your take on uma's morals and her character drive in descendants 2
*edit:* i would have to disagree with evidence of carlos being abused or neglected, because being that afraid of dogs is not a natural thing. that poor boy had that fear drilled into him somehow. and the whole little brother act seems kind of like a cry for guidance imo
Omg, Uma is a queen. China Anne McClain is such an amazing performer.
The first book we get to see through some of Carlos' POV. His mother SUCKS. I haven't read it in years, but I remember wanting to punch her in the face every single time she was mentioned.
Being afraid of dogs is a natural thing lmdao. No dog has ever did anything to me and k was never abused and I’m afraid of dogs. That’s like saying every single fear is based on something traumatic. That’s not how it works.
@@thelunarwizardCarlos is an abuse victim it's canon in the movies and the books. He was forced to sleep on the floor and clean her furs which were surrounded by bear traps. Carlos LITERALLY said in the movie that his mom told him that dogs are wild animals and instilled fear into him. I'm not sure if you intended on it but you seem to not know much about Carlos considering his abuse is very in your face.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I look forward to your videos as much as I do Kurtis Connor and Jarvis Johnson. You have such a pleasant cadence when you speak, and I love listening to your commentaries.
Oml I just realized that the squishmallows have a child 🥹
Aw that's so sweet. I love Jarvis Johnson. I actually started doing these shortly after I started watching him, so I think I took some inspiration!
As a child I loved these movies but I remember being so annoued that it took a 16 year old to think maybe putting a bunch of kids on an island to be raised by criminals and people who did so many shitty things was a bad idea. Like Carlos was abused and forced to sleep in a bear trap closet and Cinderella's abuser has other kids now how did nobody check in on this?
I remember live blogging this movie when it came out and I read it being more about classism rather than eugenics
I have very weird thoughts on this franchise, as I'm one of the people who actually read the book that inspired this whole franchise. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Of note:
- they actually swear in the books (only crap, but they say it like 3 times)
- the Disney Channel exists in universe
- Mal gets a magic dragon tattoo at the end of it that Disney unsurprisingly didn't give her in the movies
What's the name of the book?
@@saltyredcat Isle of the Lost
I don’t think crap counts as a swear word 😂
The “blind” diversity is similar to Rogers and Hammersteins 97 Cinderella casting. Which is WHY it is now canonical to the Descendants movies confirmed by the upcoming spin off!
Thank you for bringing up that part where Ben's dad says it's your fault to him cause I was like woah Disney way to bring the real world trauma found in seemingly perfect families! It was a shocker that I feel like no one was ready to hear from an Auradon parent 😂
The late Cameron Boyce and China Anne McClain deserve to work with better material than just this half-assed attempt to leech off Ever After High's success(then killing it so). I also find it questionable for Kirsten Chenoweth to play Maleficent than Idina Menzel or Susan Sarandon. She'd totally kill it as Rita Repulsa in a Power Rangers reboot tho. Anyways, Descendants felt like it's ushering in that message of villain kids from the ghetto being the same just like the heroes' offspring, also butchering beloved characters from the Disney movies we grew up with. And I thought Beast sought redemption because of his love for Belle after spending years alone with a monstrous appearance casted to him by the sorceress for acting like a total jerk. In human form, Beast(or Adam I guess) was just as bad as his beast alter ego in Belle's Magical World but not to the extent where it's character assassination. If I want to enjoy a franchise surrounding Disney Villain lookalikes, then it's best sticking to Twisted Wonderland. Hopefully the Disney+ anime adaption would be awesome once the series finishes production and comes out.
Bro the way you worded this made me think China Anne McClain was dead 💀
@@worldsbestgravy1324 She ain't.
@@worldsbestgravy1324 same I was like WAIT _WHAT_
I agree, and also highly recommend Twisted Wonderland for people that felt this series was messing with the original characterization! I enjoy most of all it takes place thousands of years after the original disney stories, so the way the characters talk positively about the villains makes sense since that’s how they went down in history and how their deeds were, well… twisted. It makes a lot more sense to me than how descendants did it.
I can whole heartedly tell you the reason Menzel doesn’t play Maelfiecent js because she cost too much 😭
I stand by my theory that Jay is actually Jasmine and Aladins son. He just was being petty and stole him and brought him to the isles with him
I love that The Beasts crown looks like literal plastic, that's so funny
Descendants was also partially made because Mattel was making a sister series to the show Monster High called Ever After High. Apparently there were supposed to be some negotiations between Disney and Mattel to work together on one project that never went through, resulting in the two being split. Ever After High first came out in May 2013 and was effectively slaughtered by the instant popularity and extended trademarks of Descendants, so there was definitely something there from Disney's end. I do like both series, but I miss Ever After High lol
14:55 Yeah, this scene. Realistically, the reason why the VK's never had chocolate chip cookies isn't because their parents don't love them, but because they grew up on an island where the only source of food is the uneaten leftovers of the mainland. But you know, it's way easier to focus on parental neglect, even when it contradicts the rest of the movie, than systemic abuse, even though that is supposedly what the movie is about
Idk much about this movie ngl, but doesn't Belle and Adam segregating all the evil people to their own island go completely against the entire message and point of Beauty and the Beast?
idk if you've watched descendants 3, but if you haven't, that's when we find out who mal's dad is! it was kinda shocking ngl 😭😭
I got it spoiled on the wiki. But I’m excited to figure out how they mentioned it lmao
if you think this movie's soundtrack sound good, you're gonna explode when you here the second movie's soundtrack
God, the Mal and Maleficent duet REALLY does slap, I forgot how much I loved that song. And also Kirsten Chenoweth. Stan her fr!
I read the first book and I’m almost certain they mentioned that Carlos is younger just pretty smart and skipped grades or something but I’m not 100% sure. That might be why he is casted so young because he is supposed to be younger
I actually auditioned for descendants, they did have race swapping in line. The last 20 or so reading for Carlos were mainly black or mixed.
Man I remember this movie being a lot better than it was lmao. Another fantastic vid, I really enjoy your commentary, it feels different than a lot of other commentary RUclipsrs and I love it
beast being hypocritical and not giving the kids a second chance despite him living under a curse that forces him into a second chance to be a good person is actually very in character lmaooo
5:28 I hate that I still laugh at people saying "among us" 😭😭
Wasn't expecting the Thomas and the Magic Railroad reference, but you're right about the bridge looking exactly like the railroad.
I’ve never heard about that Thomas the Tank engine movie, now I must know more!
As for Descendants 2 and 3, while the plots get worse, I personally think the music gets better, so look forward to that.
Love HiKeiLoKei content!
:)
Descendants is so special to me, I enjoyed it so much when it came out and I was a part of the fandom on both instagram and twitter so it's safe to say this franchise and everything that came with it was a huge part of my life for 4 years. Because of this, and the emotional weight these movies hold now because of Cam's passing, it's been incredibly hard for me to watch any videos that talked about Descendants or look at any post about Descendants (when it's coming from someone I don't already know is a fan of the movies). This is the first video I got the courage to watch and you made me laugh so much, so thank you :)
The music in descendants, particularly the first and second, is SO good I can forgive almost all of the plot. Almost.
Did I mention is legit still on my workout playlist to this day cause it’s such and banger. Also I need a seven minute version of their be our guest using the stage musical lyrics/instrumentation as a starting point.
Getting ripped while listening to "Did I Mention" is such a chad level flex
First off, I found your channel a couple of days ago and went through all of your DCOM reviews. LOVED EM!
I'm glad that you mentioned how Cruella's son & Jay were honestly...not really essential to the plot of this movie. I felt the same way when I watched it way back in 2015. Heck, Jay felt more like Aladdin's son than Jafar based on his street rat tendencies. Now, I don't wanna jump into spoilers. However, I will say that in the second film there is a scene where Carlos & Jay point out the fact that they don't feel included in what's going on with Evie & Mal. Great scene of self-awareness that I wish more people would talk about.
This is probably an unpopular opinion and I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way, but I never thought that the Descendants franchise needed to end due to Boyce's passing. Yes, it was tragic to lose a young talent at that age, but please hear me out. When you REALLY think about Descendants, Carlos wasn't really that big a part of the story. As I mentioned above, he & Jay weren't that necessary to the plot of the first film. The second film doesn't do much for him either. There's a certain talking animal that takes away from what could've been more development for Carlos. The final film didn't have much for him to do either. Descendants as a franchise is about the offspring of Disney villains, heroes and everything else inbetween. After the original VKs had their run, the writers could easily pick a new group to take over. When it comes to the actors in real life, I really understand why most of them (Sofia, Boo Boo & Dove) opted to step away from the franchise because they lost their 'brother.' Going back for another project would be tough with a huge void without Cameron there. That being said...
IMO the films got WORSE as the series went on. The 3rd is EASILY the worst out of the trilogy. Personally, I think the second film is my favorite. Come on now, "Chillin Like A Villain" & "What's My Name?" are still bangers in 2023! The first film has a certain charm to it but a number of flaws here and there. I'll never forget watching it for the first time and thinking how Dove Cameron was the biggest star when it came to the VKs, but Sofia Carson to me was had the standout performance. I was like, "I could see her being the Demi Lovato of this film in a way." I was kinda right. She has a music career, did A Cinderella Story film, her Netflix film from a year or so ago did pretty well and she's doing a good job staying out of trouble while focusing on her career.
One of my first male celebrity crushes was also Cameron Boyce, I liked his freckles and his dancing in Jessie and for like 8 year old me (I’m 18 now I have no idea how time works I might be really wrong about the correct age idk) that was the perfect man
13:18-25 Dawg. Please! 😭 The nonchalant narration of the most out of pocket stuff never fails to make me absolutely lose it.
Seriously bro just casually breaking the 4th wall 😭
@@hikeilokei low-key reminded me of my sister because this is exactly what would happen if she saw a dog.
I love dogs and I'm a little bit evil, funniest shit in the world to me. 😂
If you don’t mind, I think you’d LOVE doing the second movie. The songs go a LOT harder (aside from this weird verse Ben gets in the penultimate number), there is actually a buildup to the final battle scene, and I feel like there’s a lot to say about how the antagonist of the second movie (Uma, played by China Anne McClain) essentially does the same thing to Ben that Mal does in this and yet receives an incredibly different reception from Auradon’s public. I also can’t speak in major detail on this, given that I’m white, but other creators have discussed how this film sort of plays into the angry black girl trope with Uma’s character and I’d really like to hear your thoughts on that.
I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the character of Harry Hook, played by Thomas Doherty, because…I’m a lesbian yet he ended up being a HUGE childhood crush of mine.
I’m gonna do the second movie next month!
Since Mal’s father is Hades, does that make her a demi god?
holy shit i didnt even realize she sais "my hood" in the beginning it puts the icing on the black to white storyline. thing is its not this movie specifically I actually think its the second and third one with china as uma that really set it off for me. i dunno if I did it in my original comment explain it. but yeah it'll be interesting to watch you unpack the other two maybe in one video because they kionda meld together to me.
I ran across this video when our (mostly) benevolent dictator The Algorithm threw it at me and for once it didn't let me down. I love how you break down the plot, music, lore, and characters with humor, unselfconscious honesty, and a refreshing eloquence. I watched the full 37 min and immediately hit subscribe. I'm looking forward to seeing you break down the sequels.
I admit these movies are a guilty pleasure for me. Their tendency to replace real character nuance and development with just "I'm the child of (insert Disney character here)" as well as the classic Disney Channel over-the-top goofiness is balanced out by the really good songs and great chemistry between the four VKs. I recommend listening to Sofia Carson's pop cover of Rotten to the Core, btw. I think it blows the movie version out of the water.
Thank Goodness! I've been wanting to watch this, third times the charm!
Ok heard “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” and had to leave a like. Thanks for the memories of when I was a high child/watched a very distraught Tomska and realized I wasn’t actually high and others could see this beautiful monstrosity.
also, there are books that explain everthing, from the way the island work, to the reason they became friends, and actual scenes shpwing how terrible the parents are
They’re using a hurl to play tourney with lacrosse gear. It’s used in an Irish sport called hurling.
Descendants came out while Once Upon a Time was still running. Which has the exact fairytale characters in it.
I’m excited for a review of the second movie. I remember even as a kid being extremely bored by the second and no matter how many times I re-watched it I could not keep focusing on it. I didn’t really have a good attention span, but still on a second watch I could usually make it through movies. I watched Descendants 2 *three* times and still have no clue what happened in it. I think the music from the second movie was my favorite, though.
The dragon at the end…. She has that ability in the OG Sleeping beauty story too btw!
4:28 Lol I thought that was my search history at first 😅
Good video man! Hoodwinked is gonna be hilarious!
I’m working on it rn and I think so too!
I subbed after your Scott Pilgrim video. I love your sense of humor so you are now my new favorite commentary channel. I can't wait to watch your Barbie review. YOU ALSO NEED TO WATCH THE PROM PACT!!! My sister and I surprisingly loved it, it was the good kind of cheesy. But the main character is absolutely fucking terrible
THE CAITVI FANART 4:27
My bad, didn’t mean for you to see that
just wanted to say that 1. ohhhh my god i totally saw that thomas the tank engine movie, i remember loving it tbh, and 2. LOVE your sound/music choices for this vid. all the kirby music? the fez puzzle sound? masked man??? literally peak
I was a year older than Cameron was, and yet somehow I looked up to this kid! The day I found out about his passing, I broke down. May his memory be a blessing.
"i respect descendants as a movie but i'm still excited to rip into this movie satirically for the next 25 to 30 minutes" also me when i watched the movie a while back lol i just went on a mini rant in my mind. Watching the movie when it was a new big thing as a kid to now when you have a life to deal with and better media literacy is really surreal
I admit that I love the song "Did I Mention". It is such an infectious song and you can't help but sing along.
i used to be obsessed with these movies. somewhere deep in the corners of ao3 you can probably find an orphan account where 12-year-old me wrote evie/mal fanfictikn
I really like that you said actually nice stuff about the cast/movie while still pointing out the not-so-great stuff. A lot of people who do these videos act like these movies were made for adults and not kids and they just insult everything and everyone.