Will anyone be tuning into Disney's Descendants?

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:02pm

(Disclaimer: I checked five pages into the message boards and didn't see a thread about this yet, so sorry if I did miss it.)

Anyway, Disney Channel's Descendants movie seems to be fusing Ever After High dolls with High School Musical to create the ultimate piece of teen fan-fiction. While I think the...shall we say...artistic decisions made for this film are quite warped, I am interested in the music. Apparently, Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent (!!!) gets a big solo number, etc. If only the execution behind the interesting ideas made some sense. I may still tune in out of pure curiosity.

What about all of you?

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:04pm

Oh God, there's music in this?

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:04pm

Honestly, I'm very curious so I'll give it a chance. Mostly for Kenny Ortega, Kristin Chenoweth, and the fact this it's a musical and isn't being promoted as one like HSM or their Teen Beach series which are clearly musicals.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:15pm

K-Chen's song is called "Evil Like Me," and Shawn Mendes sings a likely end-credits tune called "Believe." I think the soundtrack is available for pre-order or something.

Questionable "artistic choices" include: costumes, the whole isle of banishment thing, continuity issues, and the names of the kids. In my opinion, anyway...

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:28pm

The names made me roll my eyes at first, but honestly it helped me remember who their parent was. lol. The costumes for the Auradon (?) Prep students (sons and daughters of the Disney prince/sses) are nice, and I don't mind the look for Maleficent or Jafar. I listened to a preview of "Evil Like Me" and IDK what to think until I see it in context. But the fact that Jafar is out of the lamp, Evil Queen is not dead after her fall as the old hag, etc. bothered me a bit. But again, I don't mind that on Once Upon A Time but this is kiddie.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:35pm

It's a musical?? Never knew. Who wrote the music?

The ads look ATROCIOUS. I was pummeled with them while trying to watch reruns of Wizards Of Waverly Place the other day.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 7:39pm

Here is an article profiling the score; it appears to have been done by several musicians including Andrew Lippa!

Updated On: 7/7/15 at 07:39 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 10:12pm

The biggest of the questionable artistic choices is the casting of the villains themselves. Kathy Najimy as the Evil Queen, who was the fairest of them all??? Kristin Chenoweth as the mistress of all evil, who should be tall and imposing. Wendy Robinson as Cruella de Vil is only incorrect ethnically, although in this day and age (especially since it's Disney) that's not really a big deal. Maz Jobrani doesn't look nearly menacingly enough to play Jafar.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 7/7/15 at 11:01pm

I wasn't planning on watching this, but looking into it, I'm also very curious. My step sister still loves Disney Channel, so I'll have to ask for the lowdown, I might even watch it with her when it comes on. 

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/8/15 at 9:40am

If I'm watching it, it'll be because I want to see how bad it is. This movie doesn't only looking insulting to Walt Disney & his legacy, but it just looks awful. Listen to their version of Be Our Guest, FGS. Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent is the most confusing casting choice I've ever heard of/seen. What makes them a cute, tiny woman would be perfect for such an iconic Disney villain who's known to be tall, graceful, but still 100% evil? Are they that desperate to hire a big name?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/8/15 at 12:43pm

Disney's descendants. 

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 7/8/15 at 12:59pm

Not interested in the slightest.

The new Gravity Falls on the other hand....

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 7/13/15 at 12:38pm

Update: As a collector of all things Disney, I must say that the merchandise showing up for this is really quite good. Retail PR at its finest...

[mattporter17]

Posted: 7/31/15 at 8:04pm

This is on right now.. and this first song is... interesting...

Random Fun Fact: Andrew Lippa wrote Chenowith's song...

Updated On: 7/31/15 at 08:04 PM

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/31/15 at 8:16pm

I watched it last week with the Watch Disney app and exceeded my expectations...it was horse ****

[mattporter17]

Posted: 7/31/15 at 8:32pm

Well, Chenowith's song was okay, but I really have no interest in finishing this, the rest looks so bad...

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 7/31/15 at 8:33pm

Does hate watching it count? Because I would hate watch it SO HARD, and then hate myself in the morning and promise myself to never do it again.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 7/31/15 at 8:37pm

I'm DVRing it. I've said it once and I'll say it again...I hope that they're not trying to represent this thing as canon. It just defies all logic, even by Disney standards. (I'll probably still get a doll from the lineup, though...Lol.)

[theaterfan15]

Posted: 7/31/15 at 9:22pm

0:25 to 0:35

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 8/1/15 at 12:42am

I forgot this was airing. I went to see Chicago instead. No regrets. Still, it's Disney Channel so I'm sure they'll re-air it.

[gleek4114]

Posted: 8/1/15 at 1:57pm

I watched it last night and I was less than impressed, which is what I expected. I thought Chenoweth was the highlight and I really enjoyed her song. The other 1 hour and 45 minutes was standard Disney Channel bubblegum pop crap. I thought this was such an interesting concept, but it just failed in execution. As good as Kristin's song was, it felt to sophisticated compared to what surrounded it. If only Lippa had written the entire score, it could have at least had more than one catchy tune. I probably would have enjoyed Kathy Najimy if she had gotten any once of a character to play. 

[StageManager2]

Posted: 8/1/15 at 2:44pm

I read that Prince Ben's parents are referred to as 'Queen Belle' (ok) and 'Prince Beast' (?). Why not 'King Adam'? In Disney canon, 'Adam' has been the Beast's official name, even if it's never mentioned in the movie -- or Broadway musical, for that matter.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 8/1/15 at 5:03pm

I thought I got out of watching this, seeing as my parents and I went to Idina's concert last night, but I woke up today to find that my mom had recorded it for the family to watch. (Even though my younger brothers had already seen it last night.)


Anyway, having watched a good 3/4 of the movie earlier, I can easily say that High School Musical was worlds better than this crap. (Even Teen Beach Movie was better.) The songs are strange. Kristin Chenoweth, while certainly trying her best to ham up her role (and also being the only singer to not have her voice drowned in autotune), wasn't enough to save what ultimately felt like a twelve-year-old's "modern high school AU" fanfiction featuring the kids of all the classic Disney characters. 


The only member of the cast that I saw any promise from was Dove Cameron. I could see her being G(a)linda in the Wicked film, if it ever gets made in time.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 4:22am

What a steaming pile of crap.

 

Rapping Be Our Guest?! 

 

This was just SO bad, I don't have the words to express it.

Updated On: 8/2/15 at 04:22 AM

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 12:25pm

For people in this thread saying this is crap and questioning artistic choices etc, apparently you are not the target audience. Per BWW, the show delivered ratings for Disney!  But what a bunch of...lol

PS: Haven't heard of the show till now, no interest in seeing the show just nauseous of all the blah blah blah in this thread!

Updated On: 8/2/15 at 12:25 PM