The unnatural hair colours are especially confusing for me bc in the previous films the only people with fully dyed hair were villains, a very clear difference between them and the good guys It's even a plot point that Mal feels the need to dye her hair blonde, a natural colour, in order to fit in with the good guys so giving specifically Cinderella and her family bright blue hair really messes with the franchise's established costume design 😭 I know it's a little thing compared to the rest of the film but it was how I knew straight away that this was NOT going to match up to the other films since they can't get one small rule right 🥲
The only thing I could think of to justify that was that Evie had her dress shop and the vk look became trendy… then Cinderella had bright blue hair too and it didn’t make sense. Not to mention that when the go back to the past everyone has some sort of colored hair too??
@@Aureilia my best guess is that they had potential to do bad. Like it sounds like the movie was planning on having Cinderella be bad in the end, so maybe it’s the continuation of the idea that our destiny is in our hands
It felt so unfinished, like they didnt even go to the ball at the end of it to make sure nothing else went wrong or tried to help ella get out of being grounded so she could go
@@poppybelle23 I'd like to think Fairy God Mother helped the same way she did in the original movie but being that she was a teen at the time it's unlikely
It definitely seems like they did some massive rewrites last minute because the movie spent most of its time setting up the dance but with no payoff? And apparently they actually cut two new characters from the movie in the middle of production, which further indicates to me that they made last minute changes to the script.
I like how young Cinderella's dress was literally made of rags, a friend said it looked cheap and I was like: "That's the point, her step-mom and sisters hated her and literally ripped her dress she made for the ball, so her outfit looking like she sewed a few rags together makes sense."
I was 100% expecting Cinderella was going to be the one to prank Bridget. The tension between her and the queen of hearts, Cinderella kept justifying it saying “it was just some stupid prank”, and the queen of heart warning red that they are all backstabbers after talking to Cinderella. It would have made for a compelling story. Plus a good misdirect. Also when they went back to the future before seeing the ball I thought nothing would have changed because they hadn’t stopped Cinderella. But nope. 😅 Edit: wow! Thank you everyone for the likes!
FR, the whole time I was just waiting for the twist and thought after the book scene with Ulianna and other VKs being stunned it was gonna pivot to Red and Chloe going to the ball and then it is revelaved it was actually Cinderalla who was at fault and they didn't stop anything in the end, especially with how much the present was focused on the hatred of Red Queen towards Cinderella. As someone else in the comments said it would've been a better lesson to see Red talking to Bridget during the dance to help her overcome humiliation and stay a decent person rather than the lesson being "uh just don't get bullied ig or you'll become evil even if you're the nicest person" I also lowkey felt with all the interactions it seemed like Bridget might have had a crush on Ella??? and maybe the being humaliated plus her abandoning Bridget for the prince kinda amplified that loneliness she felt, but that's just my gay delulu. Like with the whole talks between Red and her mom about love and it not being true and a weakness and then cutting to scenes with Chloe I deadass thought it was gonna parallel the Bridget/Ella and Red/Chloe relationships in like a romantic way. But Disney ain't gonna do that, they just choose to have the gayest interactions with girlies in Descendants series for some reason (e.g the Space between) and do nothing about it :P
Same. I feel like Ella was at LEAST a bystander while her prince's friends did the prank. And it's odd that people are taking the "monster" bit so literally, it could be metaphorically. (Like maybe Bridget was FRAMED by someone to be a terrible person and Ella chose to believe it and ditched her to be with the prince) Like if the villains were frozen in the original timeline, how would Bridget still be pranked? Someone other than Uliana must've done something
Rest in Peace, Cameron Boyce, you're still missed to this very day. I appreciated that they didn't recast Carlos, and had the other characters mention that they wished he was with them. Only Cameron could have played Carlos so perfectly.🕊️😇🙏
@@Judasbyladygaga and they could’ve taken advantage of the animated special by allowing Carlos to be in the wedding by doing what Pixar has done with their characters when their voice actors die and use archived recordings that haven’t been used before. It’s not like Carlos had much of an important role since the first movie, anyway. Maybe it would’ve made everyone uncomfortable and considered doing it but decided not to. We’ll likely never know.
Yeah but who's gonna tell charming? I mean I'm sorry but Chad bragged about being the son of Cinderella and Charming but Cinderella is dark skinned charming is Asian and their daughter is dark skinned meanwhile Chad is white and i know it's disney and they are trying to be all inclusive but come on
@@emmajensen1805because the brandy Cinderella movie with the Asian prince was purposefully a colorblind casting. Chad being white makes perfect sense in that context
Why is no one talking about the lack of chemistry as friends between red and chloe gay shippers want them to be a couple so bad yet they have no chemistry as friends i dont understand what im missing
@@user-ph9cf9cu7c I think it's similar to how with a boy and girl that have no chemistry together get shipped. The only difference is that it's a gay ship. I agree with you tho, it doesn't make sense to ship characters that have zero chemistry. They don't have to be friends, why can't they just be associates with no romantic interest? (I'm saying this as someone who loves romance but not every character needs to be in a relationship)
@@user-ph9cf9cu7cIf they were a boy and girl people would still ship them bc ppl ship anybody with anybody. Who cares!!! let people ship what they want it literally hurts nobody 😂 Yall get so weird when its a gay ship smh
@@jenmiranda13 Fr like are the standards for being a couple now people just having a pulse because platonic and romantic chemistry were not in the room with those leads
One thing that honestly irritates me the most is Chloe and Ella having Blue hair like what was the point of it? Coloured hair has always been such a VK thing. The Auradon kids were always normal looking the only AK that had this specific kinda look was Audrey in Descendants 3 and that only cuz she literally turns into a villain. Also, side note but Maleficent and Hades would so not be someone else's goons especially someone like Uliana, if they ever were in a gang they would be the leaders.
Say it louder for the people in the back! Everyone in Auradon has already been established as looking tame and normal. It's the VKs who have the fashion sense that turns heads. I _loved_ the fashion in the original trilogy. The VK had this asymmetrical, dark creative style that was likely made of scraps and even the AKs, whose looks were comparatively boring, still looked really good. Here, Cinderella wears a pimped-out ballgown and a huge ugly crown for no reason. For comparison, Queen Belle of the original movies wore simple business dress and suits most of the time.
@@uznaimat7072 Exactly and you could tell with the VK clothing that they very much looked like they were from the scraps and when they spend some time in Auradon, those were a lot more clear-cut and defined, simpler but still had that VK uniqueness to them. Here all the old VKs just had the most boring black attire and they weren't even on the Isle yet they could've easily had very put together outfits, the only one who had some sort of personality on her look was Uliana but then again she looks like an Uma 2.0
@@uznaimat7072 Ngl, I didn't pay much attention to Cinderella's outfit but now that you pointed it out it does seem a little over the top, they probably should've kept the theme but given her something modernized and simpler
@@GenerationNextNextNext It does but styling is one thing, hair colour is another. And it wasn't just Chloe even Cinderella had blue hair even the younger version, which only means that it's her "natural" hair colour
In my opinion, they should have gone to the dance and had a big fight scene revolving around Red trying to stop Uliana from turning Bridget into a monster. But then as a twist, have Uliana succeed in that and as Bridget is humiliated and starts to become evil, Red talks her out of it using what she’s learned about being good from Chloe. THEN have them go back to the present day. Something on those lines would have been climactic, very Disney and made a little more sense.
Yes, definetly. The message should have been: even if something bad happens to you, you should learn to work though it and move on instead of holding a grudge, taking it out on other or becoming an evil dictator later in life like we see the Queen of Hearts does.
The other option is make sure Ella is there for Bridget afterwards or some of the other students. I think the loneliness after that is part of what caused Bridget to snap. Now granted it was implied that Ella was at fault for what happened so idk.
I think movie was rushed because they wanted to start setting up for the second movie I feel like this movie was just to show all the characters and the plot but I still have hope i’m really hoping that the second part is better 
the reason it ended the way it did was for part 2, and yes, they could've polished the ending to make it better, but it wasn't as mad as other movies made, there are a ton of movies with worse endings. in my opinion, I just can't wait for D5 and 6, maybe even a seventh film, honestly
Tis what happens when a part 2 is announced during production, they change some things. Especially since all the "coup" scenes were shot at the same time, they couldn't really change the ending lol
@@zoeallen6734they definitely didn’t get good wigs, you can see the lace in every closeup. honestly those wigs were working the hardest because they were clinging on for dear LIFE
THANK YOU!!! I was trying to enjoy the film, but that was WAY too distracting. Between scenes the curls would be either looser or tighter after just walking through a door and it some scenes, the hair went down to her thighs and others scenes only down to the bottom or mid of her back. It also changed color here and there.
The whole time I was watching this movie, I thought they were hinting to the plot twist of Ella being the one who pranked Bridget. She hated royals and her expressions showed a lot when she looked at Bridget. She didn’t seem like the feelings were mutual. Plus, why was Ella “guilty of treason” and sentenced to death in the first place if she was Bridget’s only friend and did nothing wrong? It just seemed like the story was going in a different direction and they changed it last minute because the ending was so abrupt, I didn’t even realise it was ending. I wanted to like the movie but the more I think about how much better they could’ve made it, the lazier the writers seem. The potential was endless but wasted.
this was the same idea i had? like maybe uliana made ella give bridget the monster cake. I think they already set up the trilogy and that's the plot for the 2nd movie
I also thought Ella was going to be the one that pranked Bridget, so Bridget being so harsh on Ella and sending her to literal death made no sense, the writers definitely rushed a lot of things and the quality of the movie and storyline shows it
I agree, movies these days just aren't hitting the mark as they used to. Not just script writers, but set design and in some cases costume design is becoming lazy and cheap looking. What is going on?
One of the things I was confused about was Cinderella storyline .If her and the fairy godmother were teenagers at the same time, how was the fairy godmother able to give her that dress?
I'm guessing that in the next movie, we'll have a scene where the first spell that fairy godmother will successfully be to cast will be to give Ella a dress for Castlecoming.
This may sound stupid but maybe the young fairy godmother we saw was a different fairy godmother( Although we know she grows up to be the same fairy godmother from all the other descendants movies). The young one maybe a fairy godmother in training while the older one that Cinderella gets it’s just a different older fairy godmother.
@@jisoosupremacy2.0 descendants is not cannon with Disney movies. So Cinderella gets her fairy godmother when they are young and it all happens at castlecoming.
What I don't understand in the descendants timeline is that in Descendants 4 rise of Red how do all Disney characters know each other in Merlin academy if they're from different stories or time eras
Hi! I was a background actor for this movie (you can see me wearing all blue behind the girls at 14:47. That’s another continuity error cause I’m wearing that same outfit in the present and in the past lol) and yea a lot of things were cut from the film. Zelly/Meadow had a scene where she was playing a lute and singing but that was cut. At the very end of the film, Chloe was actually supposed to disappear but they changed it. We thought the next film would be about Red trying to save Chloe but I guess not now?? The first half of the movie was so good but then everything started feeling so rushed and the ending was so abrupt. I and some other background actors who were on the movie had a watch party the day it came out and we were all pretty disappointed lol The music’s great though and I did like Red as a character.
Chloe disappearing would have been a nice idea and i honestly wanted that but now im thinking whether they could even execute this concept properly with how the current story is plotted 😭😞
I expected Chloe to disappear. She broke a vase in Ella’s stepmothers house. That would have changed things. If Ella wasn’t able to go to Castle Coming, she might not have even fallen for Charming. But no, nothing happened. Everything was fine. It made no sense to end it like that.
Cameron's family thanked the film for his acknowledgment and they/Disney also donated to his foundation while China said having that moment was healing for her. I adore our original VK4 but I also understand that Dove, Sofia & Booboo feel it's too painful to come back & cherish their time together in the original trilogy in a way that they don't want to touch. I do have some issues with the execution of the ending and some things here & there BUT I appreciate the theming and character work a lot. I do think they rushed a 'just in case' ending in case this wasn't a hit that could leave things semi-resolved. With everything else yeah a lot of this is off canon for the original fairytales/movies but when it comes to Descendants I've accepted that they're simply an alternate universe of their own and not to connect them back to those things. Most interestingly tho, I am certain we will see Castlecoming feature prominently in the second movie if ONLY because Bridget's solo song is a full one but was only heard in her headphones. I'm anticipating the resolution for sure!
I think people forget that everyone has a different way of grieving. I can understand that doing the movie was helpful for China and not doing the movie was helpful for the others
i think this movie would honestly be really good if it was given a bigger budget and run time. The castlecoming party had so much potential and so did Cinderellas character. I thought she was going to help the VKs with the prank on bridget so I was disappointed that it didn't happen, bc i think that would explain the initial rivalry better. If this film was worked on more and had better writing and plot planning I think it would genuinely be up there with the original movies. But unfortunately the product just feels kind of empty and unfinished.
@@mgicllmgn6402 wow! I’m genuinely shocked by the amount of money given to this project. I can tell a big portion went to CGI and not enough to the script, with 70 million dollars this movie should have been longer and felt more complete.
The thing that annoys me especially about the ending is that, if it is supposed to end as a cliffhanger, why not have an actual cliffhanger? They should have ended it with Red and Chloe failing to retrieve the book somehow or, when they go back, the timeline actually ends up becoming worse, like Cinderella becoming evil instead or something.
i think not having it be a cliffhanger is a just in case thing, like if a sequel is never made, then at least the story was semi resolved, if we get a sequel it expands on the consequences of the actions of changing time from the previous film. They initially did announced two sequels were in development back in September 2021, and Rise of Red was the first to be announced, so i have a feeling that they planned out the storyline and maybe even have written the script for a potential D5, but are waiting for a greenlight, it seems they planned out the sequels but wrote the ending in a way where its a just in case.
tbh they never end descendants with a true cliffhanger. in the other movies, they act like everything is resolved and fine- then mal and uma would say “you didn’t think this was the end. did you?”
@@chamarimadison that’s true, but at least with the original trilogy each movie had a proper ending to the story they were telling. This one just ended with everyone thinking there should’ve been more time left to resolve the plot.
@@paintingdreams290 if that’s the case I just wish they’d had executed it better, and at least did what the other descendants movies did and have the sequels be sort of “stand alone” adventures. It never needed to be a two parter movie like this.
@@trinaqThe charm of the past movies was "Everything is about Mal, the others are just part of her story" For me, this 4th one is my favorite, the previous movies were just bad in a lot of things.
Personally I don’t like Chloe’s singing voice it’s too autotuned. Also I don’t like that Uliona is the main Villain. Then there’s the fact that in the first Descendants maleficent she stated that when she was mals age she was cursing kingdoms. I would love with they chose one plot and stuck with it. This would’ve been better as series.
I don't understand why they did so. If you look at the interviews they did the actress Chloe (Malia) can sing. Also, in descendants 1 in the song evil like me, she mentioned that she was insecure and a follower. I feel like after she got frozen, she decided to ditch them and actually start cursing entire kingdoms. Also, Maleficent could've easily been lying to her
yeah i really don’t get why the parents went to school as well?? i thought the lore set up in the first movie was that all of the disney stories happened naturally and then belle and the beast united them…. this feels more like ever after high with the generational destinies things
it was so bad i was sobbing like in their story they meet so why do they know each other here plus the book lore says that they wouldn’t have even gone to the school like they were out of district
Ulyana's existence is one big plot hole because they made her up just for this movie. Like, where is she in the present? Was she on the Isle with her family? Did the Queen of Hearts have her beheaded for what she allegedly did to her? If so, why wasn't Uma more hesitant to invite the Queen to the school? Does Uma know she has an aunt? Why can her aunt use her octopus tentacles seemingly at will but Uma seems to need to be in the water (D2's finale and I believe when she first reappears in D3)? If there is a sequel, I hope we get answers to some of these questions.
Also if that doesn't help with the ages of the characters. Ulyana, Maleficent, Hades, and Hook are all around the same age. But in like descendants, the children of them are around the same age as well, so it doesn't really make sense storyline-wise. Why couldn't the just make her younger Ursula
Also Ursula already had a younger sister in the Disney canon named Morgana from the sequel with Ariel’s daughter melody. Slightly confused with Descendents, are they suppose to be the children of the Disney characters or completely original since they use the names that aren’t from the original fairytales.
this movie it's full of plot hole I'm dissapointed by this spin off, it's not just bad this just make all magical story that disney build just not make sense
@@sakuratejina uylanna is morganna. They just changed the name. I think they did this so they don’t have two morgannas. Since we have Morganna le feys son. She was from sword in the stone.
They weren't capitalizing over Cameron's death. China Anne McClain was one of the directors in this movie and was one of Cameron's closest friends growing up. I believe China put that scene in to pay homage to him. Not only did they pay homage to him in that scene but they even donated to the Cameron Boyce Foundation.
I keep seeing how people are made that they continued the franchise, yet it’s almost a multiverse. And the main cast storylines already got wrapped up pretty well. I’m excited to see how the next 2 movies will be like
Yeah, the scene was clearly meant to pay respects to Cameron Boyce. Not everyone may have necessarily seen the Royal Wedding short film, and so it might've paid to reiterate his passing in RoR. Also, you never know if the original main cast ever decide to reprise their roles in a future work, so they might as well be honest about the fact that Carlos can never appear again now rather than later.
@@toothclaw6985well they made it clear that they wouldn’t come back because it wouldn’t feel right without Cameron. Also the fact that they are getting older could play a role
I will say though, i was very happy that they remembered Lady Tremaine was Korean. Idk why, but it was one of my favorite details from Descendants 3, so I was excited to see it held up in this movie.
Thanks for your thoughts, Caitlin. They're simply trying to cash in on a trend, and so many minor things took me out of the movie. For instance, the Queen of Hearts having an American accent as a teen, and a British one as an adult, and Chloe's distracting wig.
And even then it sounds so rushed in comparison to the original song, they don't get to just have this nice moment and relish in it they have to speed through it
I'm someone who has never involved myself in the Ever After High vs Descendants debates cuz I've always been a huge fan of both but this movie feels so heavily taken from EAH I can't help be disappointed by it. 1. Wonderland is a huge part of EAH lore so already one thing checked but that just a little coincidence that can easily be overlooked 2. But then they made all the OG characters just be students all together, another EAH thing. 3. They gave the characters surnames that are the exact same as EAH even tho og descendants didn't have that for anyone but now we have Chloe Charming, Maddox Hatter. 4. And this is the biggest one for me, just the existence of Chloe. I can't help but think she's literally a copy of Darling Charming. I mean what are the odds that both of them are Charmings, have curly lucious hair, short height, blue-white-silver colour theme, is a sword fighter AND a connection to Wonderland??!!!
There’s literally a line in the beginning of the EAH series where a villain is like “The heroes are just going to lock all the villains up on our own island and leave us there.” And a hero gasps and says “We didn’t say that!” Like that’s the EXCAT premise of Descendants…
@@kaishing-hon2692 For real, and I can't even deny the Mal/Raven and Ben/Dexter thing they look almost exactly identical but atleast Mal and Ben were different in personalities than Raven and Dexter but now with Chloe and all it's WAY TOO obvious they just tried to recreate Darling in every way.
There was rapping in EVERY song I hated that😭 I think fight of our lives is the worst song it just doesn't feel like descendants and sounds like it's playing through a radio
I know me too!! It was so annoying how all the verses were them rapping but then the chorus were like totally different😭. Like in Love Ain’t It, there was rapping in the verses but then when the chorus hit it was all gospel but also rap?😭 I hated the music in this movie so much 💀
YES. These songs were trying so hard to be it's going down. Not to mention the lazy lyrics in fight of our lives. It felt like that song was just a long way of saying "we both want the same thing" and telling the audience they are going to be working together now.
Nah, that also had plenty of errors in the plot too. For instance, people questioned how Raven was not related to Apple White if her mother was supposed to be Snow White's step mother. And how was Meshell Mermaid supposed to have a happy ending with her prince when , in the original Hans Christian Anderson version, she turns into sea foam? She should be a rebel, not a royal, but they acted like she was a royal, following her legacy. Ultimately, it made no sense that Headmaster Grimm was trying to get everyone to follow their storylines when so many, even their parents, had already deviated from their storylines. Even Red Riding Hood married Bad Wolf, which was how Cerise came to be. It seemed like Ever After High was trying too hard to implement Disney's version of fairy tales, and would have been best following the original fairy tales at their origin. I think it would have made more sense to create descendants than try to make them follow a legacy that had already been broken.
I always wondered why everything had to be so monochrome with the main cast like making cinderella and Chloe’s entire hair and wardrobe a vibrant blue. I think it would have been cuter and more natural if it was subtly incorporated rather than shoved in our faces like “This is the Queen of Hearts daughter. You know this bc she’s red, everywhere”
I feel like Ella getting grounded really has more to do with the story then they let on. Red and Chloe leaving early feels like them being kids and not really knowing what happened. But idk parts are rushed of the film and it’s weird
This movie was so wacky. It felt so unlike the previous trilogy, which I understand is due to the fact that the directors, producers, and cast are all very different, but even so, the core essense of descendents isn't preserved at all. And even if we were to judge the film independently and not take into consideration the previous ones, there is no consistency in the production. There are select scenes and bits that aren't awful, but it's not enough to save this movie and make it good.
This was half a movie. It set up a twist that just never happened (Ella being involved in the prank). It felt like they planned for it to be longer but were forced to cut it down by the studio.
If they didn't mention Cameron they would've gotten backlash for not acknowledging him and paying their respects. Definitely a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. Ultimately I think they did the right thing by adding that scene about Carlos.
I think that's probably what they were thinking. It's a tough/sad situation for everyone involved. If they kept the character alive they would have had the issue of recasting him if they ever brought him back, even as a cameo. I feel like fans would hate that more than what they officially did. I thought the memorial was sweet and I don't think they were trying to earn off of his death. It was a genuine tribute to Cameron.
They couldve given this film an unhappy ending as a kind of cliffhanger to get people more excited for the next one but instead they just made the ending unsatisfying
YES!!! This was my exact reaction!! It would've been good if they had ended up with a cliffhanger. People would be more hooked. Even though Uma said it was t the end, I don't know. That really didnt help much
@@milirodriguez8493 i would have eaten my shoe even for 5 secondes of Bridget wanting to open the mirror (like her getting ready for ‘prom’ and because of what happened today wanted to see the future and wants to open the mirror BOOOM end credits)
And you know, she did make a point earlier, WHY CINDERELLA???? I feel like we need new princess kids introduced. Where is Melody? What about Pocahontas? Or Rapunzel. Shoot SNOW WHITE!
The thing about having all the parents go to the same high school all at the same time not only throws the original fairytales in the bin but also completely discredits the first Descendants movies and the gravity of the main conflict in them.
yes like how did some of the original fairytales even happen if they all knew each other by highschool? Somebody mentioned how captain hook had a hook because of what happened with Peter when he was an adult, so why did his teenage version have one?
The fact that there is a grey area between truly good and truly evil is literally the whole reason behind Mal becoming Queen of both Auradon AND the Isle of the Lost in the last movie....because she realized that sometimes those who are evil CAN be good and those who are good, have the potential to become evil, themselves. Its not just one OR the other. Sometimes you can be both.
Chloe should have been the daughter of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. It would have added so much more to her dynamic with Red. Instead of their parents being old friends from school, they are enemies who haven’t seen each other in years
The charm of Descendants was that the Disney versions were canon in this movie. So to see the villains young selves in school together kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I thought it was cool since Descendants is actually owned by Disney, so this CAN be in the same world as each fairytale (if you exclude the timeline each character live in). Specifically with Cinderella I’m disappointed, neither the original 1950s movie or Brandy’s 1997 movie are canon in this. So this is basically just an alternate universe, which I guess is okay (and I am a bit intrigued) but still 🙃
I think that it was always meant to be an alternate universe. Because the original 1001 Dalmatians couldn't take place in the same world than the original Sleeping Beauty for exemple.
To be fair none of the villains were ever like their movie counterparts, maybe they were supposed to be old and washed up now that they're parents but Maleficent in particular is the polar opposite to her original appearance
It’s kind of difficult to have the exact same characters from Brandy’s Cinderella since we already had a different fairy godmother compared to that mother where the role was played by the late, great Whitney Houston.
To me, it’s obvious that they are trying to use this as a Part 1 film. It actually makes the lines “you didn’t think this was the end of the story, did you” make more sense, since there’s actually more to this specific story. Unlike D1-3 which were all kind of different stories with the same characters
Yea I get that too I honestly was enjoying the film a fair amount and only really felt like they could have paced the ending better to show that this was a part 1 in a more complete feeling way instead of making it feel rushed the way that it did😅
@@Laurica-lb6nvnot really… the point of descendants is to be about the children of fairytale characters. it wouldn’t make sense to end the series at the third movie when they haven’t introduced the descendants of all the main disney fantasy characters- and in some cases, the actual characters themselves- (snow white, hercules, moana, ariel, jasmin, merida, elsa, anna, tiana, or rapunzel to name a few), villians (yzma, mother gothel, claude frollo, hans, etc), and common fairytales in general.
@@m.ikayla_yeah there was a new interview released and China said the same thing- Descendants is never supposed to end: we will always get new villains and heroes along with the ones we haven't even touched base on yet. Also the “you didn't think this was the end of the story, did you?” definitely makes more sense here as in the OG ones it was just like they kept on adding more and more just to keep it going. Here we still have castle coming and what went wrong with time travel + more.
They had amazing set up but the ending?! MA'AM WHY DIDNT I SEE THE DANCE?! Also lowkey i thought ella was going to be framed for the monster curse thing and thats why bridgette was so mad at ella. The costumes for the most part were really nice. i wasnt a huge fan of the music, nothing stood out to me.
OMG I JUST REALIZED THIS. In the clip of love ain't it, the queen literally changes her outfit. From a black and red dress to just the red one. HOW COULD THAT HAPPEN!?! Also the plothole with the cookbook, I saw someone who came up with a cool theory on how the VKs could use it. They forced Ella to open it and at the dance revealed that, which would just make Bridget feel even more betrayed and humiliated. I personally love this take, especially since they made it clear pretty often that Ella was Bridget's only friend and best friend. Another thing abt the love ain't it song, for me it was more abt the motherly love red wants or is looking for and The queen just basically says: No u aint getting it from me.
I think personally that them mentioning Carlos was a way to honor Cameron Boyce in his passing. And also I feel like wonderland has so much potential but they just went back to the school for a time traveling plotline and if they fully leaned into the wonderland because this is a spinoff would be so much cooler.
In Sword in the Stone, Merlin was a teacher to Arthur. Making sure that the lad becomes a better kinder king. I can see Merlin leaving a grow up Arthur to start this school. Merlin doesn't age either, so he can still be teaching until he ready for the next part of his adventure.
Ohhhh that's why in the beyond the isle of the lost book we have the OG VKs visiting King Arthur! It ties the movie together a bit more too with the book!
@@karanghuman40 That make sense. Merlin sees that Arthur doesn't need him as much any more. Heck even in the the lore of King Arthur, Merlin is not around much. It like the magic of the land is fading and only two a wizard and witch are left. This explain why there is no magic as strong in the present time line.
@pinkprincess6136 Well, Merlin, beside the Sorcerer, from the Sorcerer Apprentice, Merlin should have been the strongest magical user. no doubt Merlin wanted to bring out the good of everyone, and if it got out of hand, he could handle it. Sadly, he I guess his dream has to wait for the next generation
I was so mad that all of the music just sounded like it came from zombies. The two franchises have very different sounds. I wouldnt have minded the style change if they hadnt tried to retain the style and some characters of the first movies, but if they wanted to change everything they did they shouldve just started on a clean slate
This move is so much like the Ever After High series that descendants replaced that I almost feel like it was intentional. All the way down to the undeniable tension between the female leads, and even the color pallets. The new school setting feels more like Ever After High. Not a criticism just something I noticed.
So happy to hear your thoughts about this Caitlin! As someone with a best friend who’s a screenwriter (so I hear here talk about it all the time) and who personally has a specially interest/hyper-fixation in movies and TV, I feel like this was just a really poorly written script. And, yes, I understand that they’ve already green-lit a sequel/5th movie, but I don’t think that’s an excuse for not giving a satisfying ending on this movie (you can have a satisfying ending and still add a twist at the end). Traditional stories, including movies, are normally supposed to have a 3 acts. I felt like this movie had a decent 1st and 2nd act, but the 3rd act (which is where the climax and the conclusion of the movie are supposed to be) was almost nonexistent. I was shocked to look at my screen as realise that there was one 3-5 mins left! Where was the Castlcoming dance? Why was Bridget so mad at Ella in the beginning of the film? I was honestly expected Ella to be the one to have pulled the prank on Bridget. I’m definitely still looking forward to the next movie because I hope I answer some of these questions and plot holes! Thanks for the wonderful breakdown as always Caitlin! Much love from the UK! 💖
one thing i did love was chloe's storyline with her mom about the adknowledge of privilege. specifically how they presented us the idea that "maybe people do bad things out of necessity", i dont think this topic was addressed in any of the previous movies so i really loved they brought it up
I agree, when red came on I was like “okaaaay there’s potential here, maybe I’ll like this one” And then I was thoroughly disappointed by the soundtrack lol
Guessing ROR was originally gonna end with Castlecoming but they ran out of runtime or budget so they rushed the ending. They’d probably have sung “Shuffle of Love” and “Bad Reputation” from the ST there. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go back for the dance in the sequel.
@@dancingsun2 Oh wow...that's weird, considering it's pretty central to the whole time travel plot...What were they wanting this movie to be, exactly? It felt so vapid and unwieldy
My only complaints were Chloe’s wig, the terrible cgi fish, not using Ursula (but her younger sister?), the villains not having enough screen time, and not going to the dance to protect Bridgette instead or failing once to see how badly Bridgette was impacted to change her entire personality. They need Kenny back for the choreography. Idk anything about filmmaking or what happened behind the scenes tho. I still liked it. I liked Red, Chloe, Queen of Hearts, Cinderella, Charming, Merlin, Ella & Bridget. I like their dynamics with each other, and both Red & Chloe’s arcs. Uliana, Maleficent, Hades, Hook & Morgie were good enough for me to want to see more from them. The story is a classic change the past to make a better future, but the future may not be what you wanted (aka be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it) by the end of the trilogy. The songs were pretty good, but the only one I’m adding to my playlist is “Life is Sweeter.” I hate the bad faith argument of “They made Descendants 4 to capitalize off Cameron Boyce” when it’s not true. It’s literally a 5 second homage to Cameron who left us way too early, and that’s it. Descendants 4 broke the viewership record for Disney+, so of course they’re going to do a trilogy. I think by taking the cookbook or messing with time, as the mad hatter’s son said, would change something drastically, and I don’t think it was just the Queen of Hearts. Edit: I almost put the villains should’ve been on the isle but that was established when Belle married Beast.
They could have just not made descendants 4 and I’m so sad that someone who was in something as amazing as the babysittter’s club was in this movie 😢 and I don’t know how Cinderella went to the ball if they met at prom??? And WHY DID THEY CHANGE THE QUEEN JUST GIVE HER A REDEMPTION ARC 😭😭😭 and no plot holes with Merlin! This just happened before the sword in the stone happened but why did the stepmother send Ella to school and where are the stepsisters?
2:47 I agree not seeing Gil or Harry was disappointing, especially with no explanation. They could have easily implied that they went with the others for seafaring assistance (being that they are pirates this would've made the most sense), extra protection, or something like that.
Honestly it wasn’t the plot or songs that were the problem, it was the directing. You can see with all the directing choices it is vividly missing Kenny Ortega eye and passion.
@@yanzzllo tbf, when brandy played cinderella in the 90s, Prince Charming's parents were a black mom and a white dad, and the prince was Filipino. Chad seems to get his whiteness from his grandpa 😂
What bothers me the most is that there was potential. The wonderful thing about Descendants was it FELT canon. By sticking to OG story plots from their movies, by having the “good people” have normal hair and clothes with the “bad people” having colored hair and intricate outfits. The originals had wonderful soundtracks, like I would un-ironically listen to it because it was just good. These new songs seem like the most average pop songs I’ve ever heard. I think the plot point of going back to the past and seeing the academy in it’s early years could have been great if they had stuck to canonical stories (Like Aladdin being a ‘street rat’ and Cinderella and Charming meeting at the ball) I think Disney is extremely desperate for money right now
4:50 On the topic of The Carlos/Cameron tribute in the movie. I want to say that I think fans using the "the og cast (Dove, Sofia, and Booboo to be specific) don't like it cause they said they don't think it's right to continue Descendants without Cam" thing is very unfair. The three said they personally don't want to be in anymore Descendants stuff without Cam, the Royal Wedding was there close out, and they were the ones to deliver the Carlos is gone news in the Royal Wedding. So anyone saying they don't respect the choice that Carlos is killed off doesn't make sense, and they never said Descendants itself continuing is wrong, just that they personally don't want to be involved in anything else related to Descendants without Cam. Those are two different things. I mean this is pretty confirmed by the fact Dove helped Rita Ora prepare for her role in this movie and understand the universe. If Dove was completely against the franchise continuing in general, why would she help and support Rita with preparing for this movie? I want to be clear that I don't like that Carlos was killed off either, it made me a little sick when I first watched the Royal Wedding. They easily could have said Carlos was off inside the building with Jane preparing the behind the scenes stuff of the wedding, and then poof him in during the Feeling The Love sequence since only Mal, Hades, Evie, and Ben are saying/singing anything. But I think it's not fair to say the tribute in RoR was some sort of plot to get more attention. Without announcing it publicly, Disney donated to the Cameron Boyce Foundation ahead of the red carpet premiere, and the producer of the movie talked about from the beginning they wanted to honor Cameron in some way in the film, and they did a lot of talking to get it right and not have it be disrespectful. So, you can hate that they're still going with the narrative that Carlos was killed, but it's not right to justify that dislike by saying the og 3 wouldn't like the franchise going on when that's not what they said, or by saying that they did it to capitalize off the attention. (there's also the fact that China helped out with making sure the tribute was respectful, and only focusing on what Dove Boo and Sofia would have wanted leads to fans completely disregarding China's feelings too. She wasn't in the first movie, but that doesn't mean she had 0 connection to Cameron and thus her role in the movie and the tribute mean nothing).
Love An’t it isn’t even about romantic love or being kind though. It is about red wanting love from her mom and kindness from her. She don’t need to fall in love to feel love. She never felt love cuz her mom don’t love her the way she want. I thought that was a beautiful concept over romantic love again. I love how the film concept of love is always non romantic love and how red crave what Chloe have so much. Imo it just a strange critique of the movie. I do agree the 2 part movie should be advertise cuz one part on a cliff hanger was super annoying. I hope a lot more is explain in the sequel. Seem to be the #1 comapin is that it is too short and didn’t explain enough.
wouldnt queen of hearts know how to deal with dragons aka the jabberwocky also wonderland is full of mystic relics that can alter , distort time space and reality it self i doubt mal would be more then just a simple card trick like with fairy god mother o - o did people forget what wonder land is
@@aroaceejtna8852 i mean the Queen of Hearts also knew both of Mals parents and possibly knows their weak points? also there seemed to be an implication that Mal was gonna be away for a "long" (i put in air quotes bc possibly not) time.
The “love ain’t it” is not about finding actual love, it’s about being loved royalty wise. Which is why QOH said something like it’s better to be feared than loved, and loved being as a royal person, you want to be feared, scare people, instead of being admired.
Also the hair color shows the differences between the heroes and the villians, the “villains” such as Mal, Evie, & Uma all have dark hair colors, purple, a really dark blue, a mix of blue & green as contrasted between a sky blue like color, golden blonde hair colors, like even bubblegum Pink hair and more.
The next one should be called “The Fall of Blue” and show how time travel actually made Cinderella the evil one. Young Ella made a lot of comments against royalty and was suspicious (“gotta get your hands dirty”), so Chloe and Red may go back in time again to stop her from letting that fuel her revenge streak.
Am I the only one who was bothered by the fact that basically all of the songs had hip-hop/rap elements and there wasn't really a heartfelt ballad or slower song at all (except for 'So This is Love' but it was like a minute long and just the beginning of 'Love Ain't It')? The upbeat hip-hop stuff is good and all when used in moderation but I miss the 'If Only' vibes
I personally liked it and in my opinion Red's a more interesting than Mal, not saying Mal's bad or anything. Movie should've been longer and I hope we seen more VK and AK's from the books like Hadie, Aziz, and Chester
Wait so if the queen of hearts is no longer evil does that mean that the wonderland being closed off was never a thing or something. Where is Red’s dad? If Bridget wasn’t a tyrant does she still end up with the same person and how is the daughter still red
@@EdnaModaaaaa its a worse one for it imo. Cramping all these iconic characters that are meant to exist in different places at different times all in one teen high, makes the world building seem astronomically small.
@@user-kt3qm8jy8yExactly! Like, I wish that instead of having them all exist and have children at the exact same time and place, they had done something like, having the characters be the grandchildren, great-grandchildren or distant cousins of SOME Disney characters, having been brought together at a magical school for a specific reason. It would have made more sense, but Disney just wanted to rip off Ever After High (which did the “fairytale characters going to high school” much better than Descendants did because the characters were new iterations, world-building was better and the lore richer).
@@user-kt3qm8jy8yespecially since the reason Auradon existed was because Belle and Beast brought all different Disney characters together into one place
9:10 - I don't understand this line of thinking. I mean it's not like Chloe was EXPECTING a gift for being a good person when she was doing whatever good deeds she did to earn them.
Brandy and Paolo’s chemistry was the highlight of the movie. Absolute stars in my eyes seeing them together again, I felt the magic that Disney has been lacking for so long
The more I watched it it grew on me, I genuinely hated it and all the songs at first. But I like it now, it's still my least favorite in the franchise tho. I hope they do better for D5
love aint it is the best song for me. great vocals. for me love in this context is kindness and her mom is telling her that there is no reason to be kind to others, and she does so when arriving there to like reflect on her own experience in merlin. also the line ''some people are mean because they dont want to feel¨, made me sob about, bc i been mean when i was really hurt by others , so i could run away from it. i felt like the only song that could have a deeper meaning for me as an adult, while most of the others songs were childish, and had mediocore singers sadly
both Cameron and his portrayal of Carlos were very close to my heart. losing them both was heartbreaking. i understand why they ended things the way they did but i feel like Camerons spirit in a sense coudlve continued to live on through his character.
truly what was that movie. honestly ive come to the same consensus that i did after watching the new Mean Girls movie. the movies on their own are fine i guess, but because of the huge franchises behind them they just fall so flat. The Rise Of Red didn’t feel like a Descendants movie at all. Also, Uliana’s existence confuses me so much. Like why couldn’t she just be Ursula???? If you’re gonna put one sea witch on land make it the main one. Same with Morgie! It’s clear they wanted to have another villian trio like Uma, Gil, and Harry. But why couldn’t he just be Gaston?? Why pick the most obscure character ever
I loved this movie. I've been here for this whole thing (I read the wikipedia entry like two years before Descendants existed and was really excited about it and would talk about it to anyone who would listen for a while and then was obviously watching the first movie when it aired), and I believe the movies take place in an alternate timeline to the original fairytales. I do wish we had seen Castlecoming, but people are saying they're saving that for the sequel, and that makes some sense to me. This movie introduced everyone in a really interesting way, but it didn't do much more than set it all up. And I think that's fine. In defense of Love Ain't It, they were referring to the old adage of being feared versus loved as a ruler. The queen is saying definitely feared full stop. It's about their reputations and respect that can be earned two ways. And in the beginning of the song, it's made clear that this mentality has also heavily influenced the relationship between Red and the queen. Because although the queen doesn't seem to want Red to be afraid of her, she is so cold in the way she's treated everyone else for so long that she can't truly express love towards anyone including her daughter. Also, Prince Charming probably noticed at some point when his wife didn't come home. Could be why he showed up. I don't find that to be a plot hole. Get Your Hands Dirty is great because most kids' tv talks down to kids and uses black and white morality with no grey area. The first three Descendants movies introduce the concept of people not being just flat out good or evil, and the second series so far takes that on a more personal level. YOU get to decide what is right in any situation. Your intentions matter, and you can cross lines for good reasons and still be a good person. So we're redefining what good even MEANS now. And as for the spelled book plot hole, I actually completely agree. UNLESS it turns out that they were not the ones who pulled the prank. I've heard theories that Ella being grounded because of her daughter is the real reason the timeline changed. That it was something they did involving the good guys because the good guys were actually the ones behind the prank. And when we go back to Castlecoming (hopefully) in the next movie, that might be what we discover Edit: @dancingsun2 was able to correct me on an earlier portion of this post in which I said the books backed up an alternate timeline. The books do not, and I think I blocked that out and skipped certain parts of the book because I hated that so much. I hadn't read them for two years, so I appreciate their fact check and encourage you to read their evidence below for the books being in the same universe as the disney movies about the original fairytales. So it seems the movies have chosen an alternate route, and I am really excited about it! The School for Good and Evil had these same issues where supposedly the fairytales happened as planned and yet they all went to school together first. I think the clear solution is what the movies have done- to roll with an AU! It's more fun and feels more tone appropriate to the series.
You mentioned the books. The books insinuate that the fairytale stories happened the way we know them too. I mean the first Isle novel says the villains have told the kids about their stories, about waking up from death on the Isle, I mean there's a whole scene of Mal seeing a glimpse of Maleficent arriving to Aurora's christening and the events of that. Descendants as a whole is obviously an AU, since it follows a path where the fairytale characters somehow unite after their stories are over into one land, one main kingdom, and all agree to let someone be the overall ruler. But it's pretty established from movies and books alike that the events of their fairytales did happen as we know them. For instance, they could say somehow some characters like Maleficent and Jafar went to Merlin academy when they were younger or something. But at some point they all went to their respective lands/kingdoms and lived out their stories as a dark fairy who crashes an event and the right hand man of a sultan who uses a street kid to get a Genie from a cave. So, the continuity issue RoR brings is seemingly having these fairytale stories take place in the context of a high school instead, like Ella and Charming meeting at school rather than having an encounter somewhere else and then truly spending time with each other at a royal ball where Charming has to find someone to marry. I don't recall anything from the movies or books that imply the fairytale stories happened a bit differently then we know them too, and I just went through all the books recently and took notes, so saying it's an AU so the fairytales happened whatever different way isn't true, since it was implied to be the opposite. But if there is anything you remember that does show the fairytales could have happened slightly differently I'd like to know, cause it would definitely help me get behind the Merlin Academy concept.
Very happy to see that there are other people out there who couldn't help but notice a LOT of chemistry between Red and Chloe. A real shame they probably won't get together in the end because it's Disney, would've loved a twist where they end up falling for each other. Also, the movie felt wayyyy too rushed. I guess it's because a big chunk of it was taken up by the intro sequence and the part in the past wasn't nearly long enough as a result but still, the lack of the ball at the end, barely giving ANY screentime to most of the past characters other than Bridget and Ella - it all felt way too rushed and I'll admit I'm looking forward to possibly seeing it elaborated on in the second movie cause I'm always a sucker for Descendants but I cannot help but feel disappointed overall
@@user-ph9cf9cu7c oh yeah but when it's about a man and a woman all it takes is for them to stand next to one another and suddenly they have crazy chemistry yeah? Grow up
@@kammyplays3885 I never stated that all im trying to say is y'all are doing what people do for male female friendships for female friendships cant you admit it's kinda hypocritical everyone just needs to let platonic friendships be and stop making platonic chemistry into romantic chemistry because usually it doesn't make sense
Yes the movie should have been longer and had a lot of plot holes. But don’t compare it to the og Disney movies because this is based off of a book and a modern day retelling of the fairy tales. I loved the songs and thought that the young versions of the parents were well done. Also I liked that they payed tribute to Cameron. Those tears that uma had were real. China knew Cameron longer than any of the other cast. Over half their lives.
I just don’t understand why the villains are called VKs? The only real VKs are Red and Morgie. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I just don’t understand
What I didn’t like was the inconsistency. We already know Cinderella’s story, it’s a classic fairytale. But then this movie says Ella fell in love at a school dance? We all know they met when the prince threw a ball to find a bride, it doesn’t work that all of a sudden they were classmates and knew each other existed. It just doesn’t make sense and it frustrates me.
