Missed Potential: Descendants

Welcome  to the first article in my new series, Missed Potential. For today's title, we're taking a look at something that, while I do kind of like it, I hesitate to say it's great.

In 2015, Disney Channel premiered it's highly promoted film, Descendants. A movie about the children of Disney villains learning to be good. Since it's premiere it's received its fair share of both love and hate from viewers, gaining and average 6.4/10 on IMDB even though the most frequent rating on the same site was 10/10. It's been getting a lot of stuff even after premiering, including a series of animated shorts, some novels from a bestselling author, and even an upcoming sequel.

When I first heard about this movie, I was all on board for it. Unlike a lot of people on the Internet, I don't hate Disney Channel movies. I haven't seen all of them, but I actually enjoyed titles like Let it Shine or Geek Charming. But what I really liked about the premise to Descendants was that it could change Disney Channel's reputation in terms of quality. There was so much you could do with this. Unfortunately, some things went wrong. This article will start with a brief analysis of what worked in the movie and what didn't. Then I'll discuss what I'd change in it

Like I said at the beginning, this is not a horrible movie and there are quite a few things to like. The main thing for me is how there are some really good ideas. I love the idea of the villains' kids becoming good. The idea of a romance between the daughter of Maleficent and the son of Beast and Belle can make for a very interesting crossover. In fact, I really enjoyed that part of the movie (one song number not withstanding). Heck, give this idea to the people behind films like Tangled, Frozen, and the other recent Disney animated films and it could've been amazing. But let's start discussing the things that needed changing.

The Setting

Good grief, what were they thinking about this? Who thought it was a good idea to take the Disney fairy tale characters and put them in a more modern setting?

Nice try. But Once Upon a Time had the decency to explain how and why they moved to a modern setting. This movie doesn't. For crying out loud, the very first thing we see is that it looks like a storybook opening, only it turns out to be a modern tablet. We have football stadiums, limos, modern security systems, and a high school in the same world as fairies, Maleficent, and other fairy tale characters because... the script says so. 

I'm all for the concept of taking something to a unique universe whenever it works for the story like Treasure Planet. So maybe they were just trying to take a creative direction and build on a good story.

Well... That could've been wor— Let's not jinx it.

It feels like Disney Channel was trying to turn Descendants into another High School Musical. Probably so they could appeal to younger audiences and cash in on the success of movies like that. I will admit there were some creative ideas like creating a unique sport and a few other things. It does feel like they were trying to make this work sometimes. But in the end, I don't believe this change was needed or a good direction.

So instead of modernizing fairy tales and making a remix of Be Our Guest, they should've made it all feel like this is happening in the same time period as the animated movies. Once Upon a Time is able to combine various fairy tales into one universe without modernizing it, so why can't Descendants?

The movie states that the kingdoms from various stories are united now, and while I wouldn't go that far, there is something to it. Just have the settings for Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast closer together than you may have originally thought. The issue regarding the different architecture and similar things can be looked over a little. Sadly, I would have to get rid of Cruella de Vil and Carlos, since Cruella is supposed to be in a much more recent setting. Which brings me over to the next topic in this article.

The Villains

Behold, the most evil Disney villain. Run in terror as she dances after you.

Here it is. The part of this movie I absolutely hated! Seriously, I don't see the Disney villains when I look at these people. I see some kid's parents dressing up for Halloween. This might have worked if we were dealing with original characters and this was just a parody of fairy tales but it just feels like an insult to the characters.

Seeing Maleficent ham it up like she did in this movie was just painful to watch, and she's the one who got off easy! Look, even if it's not meant to be taken seriously, these characters should be given more respect than what we got.

It's like having Darth Vader act like this guy. It doesn't work!

So how do you fix this? Try making it feel like these are the villains we feared in our childhood.

Maleficent could be given an explanation for how she's still alive, like maybe her magic regenerated her after the fight with Prince Phillip. But she's weaker and that's why she needs the Fairy Godmother's magic wand. With it's power, she can regain her full strength. The other villains could be similar. Jafar could be trapped in his lamp by a protective spell, the Evil Queen having her face damaged, etc. As for how they have kids, that's more of a challenge, but it's not like they explored that in the movie anyway. So there are many options, like adoption, or maybe even the kids themselves don't know who their other parents were.

The Supporting Characters

The other fairy tale characters like Belle and Adam (Beast) were treated better, but I wasn't sure about Belle. I felt there could have been a scene of her comforting Ben when he was unsure of his decision to give the villain's kids a chance. Plus, it wasn't really great seeing her nearly faint at who her son was dating. Yes, it's shocking, but this is Belle, the girl who wasn't afraid to stand up to a Beast and even fell in love with him. The only good-guy I felt was really treated badly was Snow White as a reporter, but you can easily get rid of that by using my idea for the setting.

As for the heroes kids, that doesn't need much more explanation than: give the Fairy Godmother an apprentice instead of a daughter and don't make the other kids a bunch of High School stereotypes. Also, what was the point of Lonnie? Did she really add anything to the story?

The Main Characters

While the other main characters all had their good moments (and their cliche/bad moments), I believe that the strongest had to be Ben and Mal. I was fascinated by what they were doing with these two. It made a lot of sense for the son of the Beast to give these kids a chance because he was raised to never judge a book by its cover. The idea of the most evil villain's daughter becoming good was also a huge plus. I even love how their arc was handled.

In fact, their arc is one element I would keep mostly the same. However, Mal needs to show a little more evil in her at the beginning than just graffiti and taking candy from a baby. As for Ben, maybe show a few more traits that he inherited from his parents, such as Belle's love of books. I get the lesson is that they're not their parents, but they're still gonna have some things in common with them.

One thing they did show in this movie was how the villains didn't raise their kids with the same love that the heroes gave to theirs. That was a good idea, but it wasn't entirely well executed. 

For a good comparison, I'd look to the scene between Shredder and Karai in the episode, New Girl in Town, from the current TMNT series. Karai was able to make a disrespectful comment to Shredder, but one roar from him was enough to turn that confidence into fear. Then Shredder reminded her why they "had" to take vengeance on their enemies. It would have been great to have a similar scene between Mal and her mother.

Still, there's one important thing to all of this that needs addressing. That being, how the story starts.

The Impetus

The movie has it be that all the fairy tale kingdoms are united under the rule of Belle and Adam (Beast). But now their son is about to be crowned king for some reason and his first idea is to invite the children of villains over and give them a chance to be good. Okay, why was Ben becoming king when he hadn't even graduated school yet? His parents don't look old enough to retire. In fact, let's get rid of the coronation completely and try something else.

Many of the characters from various Disney fairy tales are gathering at the (former) Beast's castle for a ball, celebrating their good relations with one another and they could be bringing their kids along with them. This way, we get the crossover, and we don't have to go out of our way to create this 21st century type of kingdom. 

One day, Ben is out horse riding in the forest. He's thinking about how his parents have been trying to set him up with the daughter of Sleeping Beauty (who's not a typical mean girl in this version) when he spots some travelers under attack by a cloaked sorceress. Guess who. 

He jumps in to help and puts up a decent fight but is overpowered. The sorceress reveals herself to be the daughter of Maleficent and she's attacking because these travelers are in her mother's territory. She's about to make an example out of them when Ben reasons they can serve a purpose just by warning others to stay away from dark part of the forest. Mal can see that one of the travelers is a mother keeping her young daughter behind her. Then she agrees to let them go just this once. Ben could even notice when she nonchalantly tosses the young girl her doll back.

This way, Ben can actually have a motivation to give the villain's kids a chance. He witnessed the daughter of Maleficent herself show mercy and kindness. It could also spark his interest in Mal. Also, when he invites the villain's kids over, he could show he's not stupid by letting everyone prepare in case they turn on them.

Conclusion

Overall, Descendants had really good ideas, but it was also loaded with bad ones. I get that this isn't meant to be taken seriously, but the big problem is that this movie could have been so much more. If it was handled more like a theatrical film instead of a Disney Channel movie, it could have been a really awesome movie. The strongest part of the actual film is how they handled the arc between Ben and Mal, but even it could use a few tweaks. As I said before, I actually kind of like Descendants. It's very successful as it is, but it's also ridiculed.

If you disagree with anything I've said or think I missed something that needed changing, feel free to comment below.