Descendants (2015)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

What a unique story line and plot for a movie. The kids of villains interacting with the kids of the heroes? I love it! The songs are fun, the lyrics are good and I like that the singing isn't constant, it's just some times throughout the movie. The characters are perfect and it really draws you in. I am so excited that there is a part 2! Kids will love this movie without a doubt.

The Devil That You Know: This Is A Children's Film That Promotes The Luciferian Archetype.The film ostensibly deals with an ethical dilemma. Will the teenage children of sinister Disney characters choose to follow in their evil parents footsteps,or decide to embrace their goodness and save the magical kingdom of Auradon. HARMFUL PSYCHOLOGICAL THEMES: The male character Ben tells the daughter of Maleficient her that he can 'see goodness when he looks into her eyes, not evil' When he asks her if she loves him, Mal says that she doesn't know what it feels like to love; Ben says he might be able to teach her.This particular theme is promoting the co-dependent idea of winning the love of a nasty hearted female through the power of romantic love. It is a psychologically unhealthy message & unfortunately children who have experienced abusive parenting will be highly susceptible to this dysfunctional notion. Any relationship based on one person trying to fix the other is doomed to failure.Those who make it their business to try to fix others are not empaths, they are people who were abused as children, their need to heal others stems from an internal sense of shame-they regard themselves as not being worthy of a normal (non-abusive) partner. Males who unconsciously seek nasty women as romantic partners are unconsciously trying to mend an inadequate mother.* The movie is intentionally being marketed to very young children. The shades of grey philosophy is too complex & confusing for young minds to process-it is developmentally inappropriate . A definite boundary between good and evil needs to be presented to very young children - it needs to be represented in a stark way, as in the contrast between black and white.HARMFUL SPIRITUAL THEMES This movie glorifies villains and it encourages very young children to explore dark energy. The general public is so brainwashed and desensitized these days that they will not understand that this movie is openly mocking God by glorifying the Luciferian archetype - how many parents will even realize that what they are putting in front of their children's minds is blatant mind control.The film makers are pushing a satanic Gnostic belief system onto innocent unsuspecting minds. Gnosticism teaches that Lucifer is not bad - just misunderstood. This philosophy is not harmless,it is an occult inversion of Christian teaching. Disney would never have been able to get away with this a few decades ago but anything goes these days. Early experience has an important influence on adult behaviour so when the young children watching this sort of material grow up they will easily accept occult and illuminati type themes due to the fact they have sentimental & warm childhood memories of films like this one.* Disney recently released the sequel to this film it's called Decendants 2 Long Live Evil. The title says it all.

As you'll read in the other reviews, it's very cheesy. 90's cheesy. You'll know exactly how the story plays out in the first 10 minutes.One thing I really enjoyed was the subversion of the deception revealed trope. You can't use a love potion on someone who's already in love with you! (I don't know if that counts as a spoiler, but I'll check the box anyway.My only complaint was why was Cruella trapped on an island of villains with Jafar, Maleficent, and the Evil Queen from Snow White? Wouldn't she just go to prison? Granted she is the most evil of all. There's a special place in hell for people who are cruel to animals, but my point is, she's not magically or physically strong. They could just lock her in a normal prison.Overall, it's not a bad movie. It's rated G, so it's extremely tame.

The movie Descendants has a good overall plot and strong backstory, however this movie's script, story line, and general message needs a stronger viewpoint that supports the idea of the story better. In the script there were several spots where the communication/dialogue between characters could have been reworded or improved. Also, I feel the overall message, or in other words, "learning lesson" of the story was a bit odd for a Disney Channel Original. Instead of them trying to teach kids to be themselves, it seemed more like they were implying that everyone who lived with the "good guys" we're completely perfect, and that in order for the kids of the villains to remain there, they had to be like them. Not everyone is perfect. I think it would have been a better if the resolution were that they remained the same, but their new friends excepted them as they were.