2nd Aug 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024)

BACKGROUND

For anyone who stopped watching the Descendants series after Descendants 3 (2019), you can be forgiven for assuming that this whole Disney movie series was done, completed, and finished. For those who stuck with it and watched the animated short film Descendants: The Royal Wedding (2021), you’ll have noticed that Disney were toying with the idea of expanding the series, looking to Alice in Wonderland (1951) for inspiration.

I did watch Descendants: The Royal Wedding, but I didn’t think they would be making another movie based on Wonderland and its characters. I thought it was just there to say “look what we can do”, assuming that not many people were going to be asking for a further movie, so it wouldn’t be made. I was wrong.

I forgot that Descendants as a franchise was a big property for The Walt Disney Company and that, to them, it would make perfect sense to make a fourth Descendants movie. To the rest of us, maybe a “Descendants 4” didn’t make sense.

Without a key member of the cast, Cameron Boyce, as well as seeing the effect his passing had on the rest of the cast and crew, it seemed unthinkable for Descendants to go on without him. I wasn’t happy with the idea of this new movie; others felt the same way.

I can’t say I kept up with any further news, other than to hear that Descendants 4 was in the works. I didn’t know when the release date was, I didn’t know who the cast were, I didn’t know what the plot was, and frankly, I didn’t care. As 2024 began, and trailers and interviews started popping up online, I paid a slight bit of attention. I knew that if I wanted to review the Descendants original trilogy, I couldn’t just ignore Descendants 4 – which came to be known as Descendants: The Rise of Red, to distance itself from the original films.

It is only fitting for Descendants: The Rise of Red to not be numbered, as it is not a sequel to Descendants, but a spin-off, with just two original cast members returning: Fairy Godmother, and, thankfully, Uma. When I heard Uma was back, I was vaguely intrigued.

Yet I still wasn’t excited. I only watched the movie this week, not being enough of a fan to watch it on its premiere date or even its premiere weekend, so by the time I got round to watching Descendants: The Rise of Red, the reviews were already circulating and the results were mixed.

After watching Descendants: The Rise of Red, I felt that the music was comparable to Descendants, as was the talent of the main cast, however, what really let it down was the story. Ten minutes before the end, I felt like the plot was leading up to something, and then – nothing happened. It was disappointing, because I thought so much more could’ve been done with the storyline, but the character development did not allow it to happen in the way I’d hoped it would. More on that later. On a more positive note, if you disregard the Descendants trilogy, which you can do here, Descendants: The Rise of Red is a pleasant enough movie, still full of colour and clever ideas. In the context of the Descendants series though, it fell a bit flat for me.

PLOT

Descendants: The Rise of Red begins with a voiceover from the one and only Uma, who says that Ben and Mal, now King and Queen of Auradon, along with Evie and Jay, have sailed away to other realms to promote harmony and peaceful relations with Auradon. Mal has named Uma as Principal of Auradon Prep in their absence.

Uma arrives at Auradon Prep and is welcomed by Fairy Godmother, who is also moving on to a new role as President of Auradon University. As her first order of business, Uma says she plans to invite Red, daughter of the Queen of Hearts, to come from her home of Wonderland to Auradon Prep, as part of the Villain Kid initiative that Ben started all those years ago. Fairy Godmother is uncertain by this addition to the school, as Wonderland is a hostile land, and its leader never wanted to join Auradon, therefore, the rabbit hole, the portal to Wonderland, was walled off, so no-one could enter Auradon from there. Uma says that the VKs would’ve wanted this, especially Carlos, who is no longer with them but had always believed other VKs would get their second chance in Auradon like he had. The invite is sent.

In Wonderland, we see that Red is actually quite the rebel. She doesn’t like her mother’s tyrannical way of ruling, has no desire to grow up to be like her, and just wants to get out of there – except the Queen of Hearts won’t allow it. Dodging the guards after vandalising the Wonderland Plaza, Red is rescued by her friend Maddox Hatter, son of the Mad Hatter. He tells her that perhaps someday she’ll be able to have a new life somewhere else, showing her a project he’s been working on: a pocket watch, which is actually a time machine. But Maddox quickly pulls it away from Red, telling her it’s much too dangerous; altering the fabric of time can lead to disastrous consequences. Red is then sent back home, sneakily taking the pocket watch with her. The next day, Red meets with her mother, the Queen, who is just about to punish her Army Captain, the Jack of Diamonds, for not finding the criminal who vandalised her plaza – not realising that the criminal was in fact her daughter! The Queen then tells Red to decide how the Captain should be punished. She isn’t able to do it, disappointing the Queen of Hearts, but the disappointment is short-lived, as Maddox arrives with a letter. It’s the letter from Auradon. Red doesn’t believe her mother would ever let her go to Auradon Prep, since the Queen despises Auradon, but surprisingly, the Queen readily accepts the invitation, telling Red to pack. She obviously has a plan…

Back in Auradon, we meet Cinderella and King Charming’s daughter, Chloe, sister of Chad Charming, who is practising for the Auradon Swords and Shields team with her dad. She is very excited to be heading to Auradon Prep, and her parents are very proud of her, so much so that she gets a gift of glass sneakers. Chloe and Cinderella head to the welcoming ceremony at Auradon Prep for the new students, with King Charming going to see Chad at college instead.

The Queen of Hearts drives Red through the rabbit hole over to Auradon for this same welcoming ceremony. Their car is thoroughly inspected by security and they able to proceed inside the castle. The two soon come face-to-face with Cinderella and Chloe. The Queen of Hearts and Cinderella clearly have some bad blood between them, with Cinderella referencing some sort of prank that happened to the Queen when they were at school together. We also learn that the Queen’s name is apparently Bridget. Chloe tries to be nice to Red, but Red has no time for “goody-goodies”.

At the welcoming ceremony, Fairy Godmother introduces Uma as the new principal of the school, but as Uma is giving her speech to the new students, she becomes distracted by the Queen of Hearts shuffling a deck of cards. Uma asks her to stop, but the Queen refuses, throwing the cards into the air. The cards then transform into soldiers from her army. Uma is captured, Fairy Godmother’s wand is broken, and everyone runs in terror – though the Queen of course blocks off all the exits. The people have no choice put to bow to the Queen of Hearts, the new ruler of Auradon. Except Cinderella will not kneel to the Queen. The Queen of Hearts tells her daughter to punish Cinderella for this act of treason, reiterating to Red that her plan is for the two to rule side-by-side, with the Queen’s hand-held looking glass even showing this future. Red, in a moment of weakness, sentences Cinderella to be beheaded. Seeing what she’s done, Red then pulls out Maddox’s time machine/pocket watch and plans to go back in time to fix this, except Chloe tries to attack Red at the same time, to stop her mother being taken away, and touches the pocket watch. The two go back in time together.

Confused as to where – and when – they are, since Red was never given instructions on how to use this pocket watch, Chloe and Red find themselves in an empty part of what they assume is still Auradon Prep. It’s not. It turns out instead of going back two minutes, like Red planned to just take her mother’s cards off her to stop the coup, they have actually gone back two decades, and this isn’t Auradon – it’s Merlin Academy, the school that existed prior to Belle and Beast’s creation of the United States of Auradon. Red and Chloe come up with a new plan to stop the Queen of Hearts’ takeover of Auradon; perhaps they can stop the prank that made the Queen so bitter in the first place.

Merlin, the Headmaster of Merlin Academy, obviously, finds the two girls and assumes they are transfer students, immediately taking them to his Alchemy class. The security here is much more lax than at Auradon Prep; apparently, anyone can just walk in! At Alchemy class, Red and Chloe are assigned mentors – their mothers. Well, the teenage versions of their mothers, known here as Bridget and Ella. Bridget and Ella don’t exactly fit in with the rest of the students, but Bridget tries to be kind to everyone – even the Villain Kids. Yes, more VKs – and some of these happen to be the teenage versions of the VK parents from the first three Descendants films! The leader of this VK group, which includes Captain Hook, Maleficent, and Hades, is actually Uliana, Ursula’s younger sister, so Uma’s aunt. She doesn’t like Bridget or Ella, tormenting them constantly. But as Bridget hands out cupcakes to everyone, complete with flamingo feathers, Uliana decides she wants some of the feathers and starts to eat them. Bridget warns her she shouldn’t have too many, but Uliana doesn’t listen and promptly turns into a flamingo. Despite falling into water and the spell wearing off, Uliana wants revenge on Bridget and starts to plan with her evil sidekicks.

Red and Chloe know that this act of revenge is due to take place at the Castlecoming dance – see what they did there? – and follow the VKs to find out exactly what it will be. They go to Ella’s house to get some advice, and find that she is being used as a servant by her stepmother. Ella informs them that Uliana is trying to live up to her sister’s meanness and that she picks on Bridget because she’s weak and won’t stop trying to be friends with them. Ella then tells Red and Chloe that the VKs normally hang out at the Black Lagoon. Red and Chloe go there, where they overhear their plan: to make a cupcake from the Sorcerer’s Cookbook that will turn Bridget into a monster in front of the whole school. No, there aren’t any buckets of pig blood here like in that infamous prom scene from Carrie (1976), so if that’s what you were hoping for, well, then you’ve got some major issues!

Since Bridget is a keen baker, Red and Chloe ask if she happens to own the Sorcerer’s Cookbook, but she does not, saying it is likely banned for student use, with Merlin probably having the only copy hidden in his office. Red knows to stop the prank they have to get that book before the VKs do; Chloe thinks they should just tell Merlin. Red goes alone to steal the book, with Chloe going to Ella for more help. Ella tells her that sometimes you have to cross that line between “good” and “bad” to do what’s right. Chloe goes to Merlin’s office to help Red. The VKs see the two go into the office and watch them. Red and Chloe fight off the magical defence systems in Merlin’s office, with some struggles, but the VKs enter at the last moment and grab the book. They are then frozen because the book can’t fall into the wrong hands, i.e., a villain cannot open it. Chloe tells Red to open it, to prove that she isn’t evil, and sure enough, the book opens for her. They hear Merlin coming to the office and escape through a window. Merlin sees the frozen VKs and gives them detention.

Red and Chloe hide the book, stopping the prank on Bridget. They then go back to the present, though Red is scared they haven’t done enough to change events. As they approach the ceremony in Auradon again, Red hears the Queen of Hearts refuse to stop playing with her cards during Uma’s speech, just like the first time. Red braces herself for the coup all over again, but it turns out the Queen is actually just excited for her daughter to be in Auradon and throws heart-shaped bubbles into the air. She is also wearing a white and red dress, not just red, as more evidence that she has changed.

And that’s the end of the story. Or is it? In typical Descendants fashion, we are then told by Uma that this isn’t the end of the story, and that we’ll have to wait and see whether Red and Chloe’s time-travelling escapades have actually done more harm than good…

CHARACTERS & CAST

Naturally, Descendants: The Rise of Red focuses on the new Villain Kid, Red. Although she is the daughter of the oppressive Queen of Hearts, Red is not evil. She doesn’t want to rule Wonderland, or want to be remotely like her mother. The only thing Red really wants is to get out of Wonderland and live her own life, where she doesn’t have to feel like a big disappointment. Red is a bit of a rebel though, even if not villainous, and doesn’t spend her time being sweet and kind to everyone. She breaks the rules, pushes the boundaries, and yet, she is still caring. She wants to change her mother’s past so that she doesn’t need to feel angry and hateful towards everyone. She is devoted to her mother both in the past and the present, despite herself, protecting Bridget from bullies in the past, and relenting to her mother’s wish for Red to be a strict ruler at times. Red is a complicated girl, figuring out everything as she goes along, but her heart is in the right place most of the time.

Kylie Cantrall was cast in the role of Red. Cantrall began her career online, singing and performing on YouTube, later releasing her own music. She gained a presence in acting from Disney Channel roles, like Raven’s Home (2017-23), in the role of Jasmine in 2018, and the lead of Gabby in Gabby Duran & the Unsittables (2019-21). In 2023, Cantrall was cast as Dani in Season 4 of the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019-23). She also provided the voice of Savannah in the movie Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021). Cantrall had a link to Descendants prior to her role as Red, appearing alongside Cheyenne Jackson in the TV special Descendants Remix Dance Party (2020).

Chloe is the daughter of Cinderella and King Charming, so she has been brought up to be kind, selfless, hard-working, and loyal – which is quite amusing since her brother, Chad, turned out to be a bit of a jerk! Chloe is intelligent and athletic, so would easily thrive in a school like Auradon Prep. She behaves like a princess should, however, she soon finds that this annoys Red, who isn’t your typical princess, villain or hero, and learns through their time-travelling journey together that it isn’t always so easy to determine what a “good” person or a “bad” person is, realising that she needs to decide what are the right and wrong actions for her, not just fitting everything and everyone into a simple category.

The part of Chloe went to Malia Baker. She began her acting career with a few small roles in series like The Flash (2014-23) and The Twilight Zone (2019-20), before starring as Mary Anne Spier in the Netflix series The Baby-Sitters Club (2020-21). After this, she appeared in the second revival series of Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2019-22), in the role of Gabby Lewis for its second season.

For their parents, we have the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella. In the present day, the Queen of Hearts is hard-to-please, easy-to-anger, and generally unlikeable. She rules Wonderland with an iron fist, everything being exactly to her satisfaction. On the other side of that, we have Cinderella. She is kind, caring, and the epitome of goodness. Despite her difficult upbringing, she has come out of it unscathed and unresentful, whereas the Queen of Hearts seems to blame everyone else for how she is feeling, turning her back on anyone who was cruel to her. They are the polar opposites of each other at this stage, with Cinderella trying to get the Queen to forget whatever prank was played on her at school, when they used to be friends, and let go of some of that hatred. It doesn’t work.

The Queen of Hearts was played by Rita Ora here. Rita Ora is best known for her singing career, where she has had such hits as “How We Do (Party)”, “R.I.P.”, “Anywhere”, and “Lonely Together”. She has also featured as a judge and host on talent shows such as The Masked Singer and The Voice. On screen, Ora was cast as Mia Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) and its two sequels, and later appeared as Dr. Laurent in Detective Pikachu (2019). She also voiced the character of Sir Luthera/Wandering Blade in the animated series Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (2022-23).

Making a surprise appearance as Cinderella in Descendants: The Rise of Red was actually Brandy Norwood, who was cast in this same role for the 1997 live-action television movie Cinderella, which was produced by Disney but was based on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, not their animated movie. Although an unexpected casting choice, it was welcomed by many fans of the 1997 movie. Paolo Montalban, Brandy’s co-star, also returned to his role of Prince Charming, though now a king, for this Descendants movie. Brandy was originally known for her singing career though, releasing her debut album in 1993. She won an American Music Award in 1996 for Favorite Soul/R&B New Artist, a Grammy for her song “The Boy Is Mine” in 1999 for Best R&B Performance, a Teen Choice Award in 1999 for Choice Female Artist, and a Kids’ Choice Award in 1996 for Favorite Singer, amongst many accolades. Brandy was also a judge on the first season of America’s Got Talent (2006-present), was a contestant on Season 11 of Dancing with the Stars (2005-present), and has acted on various series including Zoe Ever After (2016) in the lead role, and Queens (2021-22) as Naomi Harris-Jones. Rita Ora was a big fan of Brandy when she was younger, so was so excited to be acting alongside her[1].

We also get to see the teenage versions of the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella, and their characters might surprise you. In actual fact, the Queen of Hearts, or Bridget as she is known at this point in time, is very kind, wanting to be friends with everyone, even the villains. It’s quite a shock for Red when she finds out that her mother changed so much just because of something that happened to her at school. Cinderella, or Ella as she is known, is not as nice and sweet as you might expect either. She is best friends with Bridget, and has a crush on Prince Charming, but despite Cinderella in many adaptations of the story not being angry with the fact she is treated as a servant and not seen to match up to people’s ideas of royalty, in this movie, Ella does seem to feel she has been treated unfairly and holds a grudge against the princesses, as we see in some of the scenes of Ella talking to Chloe. Ella tells Chloe “her princess is showing”, which isn’t the kindest thing to say to someone who has lived quite a sheltered life; there are better ways of voicing this! It’s also odd to hear Ella say her best friend is “weak”, when she talks to Red and Chloe about why the VKs pick on Bridget. It’s a very strange take on the character, but I guess it is more layered than many other versions. It is just at odds with Brandy’s portrayal of Cinderella, I think.

Bridget was played by Ruby Rose Turner, with Ella being portrayed by Morgan Dudley. Ruby Rose Turner had previously been cast as Cami in the series Coop & Cami Ask the World (2018-20) for Disney Channel before Descendants: The Rise of Red. Morgan Dudley recently appeared in the Netflix movie A Tourist’s Guide to Love (2023) as Robin.

Now, for the VKs. The leader of this new group is Uliana. As Ella says to Chloe and Red, she is trying to “out-mean” her older sister, Ursula, by bullying many of the royals. She has a group of sidekicks around her, including the mistress of all evil, Maleficent, and God of the Underworld, Hades, which is a little bit weird, seeing as I highly doubt those two would be anyone’s sidekick, but never mind. To be honest, I find the whole concept of these particular villains being at school odd, and it’s very hard not to get confused by all the multiple storylines from the animated films, as well as those in Descendants. Even though Descendants clearly has its own story, and is not related to the animated films, I can’t forget the canon of the animated films when it comes to the villain parents in Descendants.

Anyway, Dara Reneé was cast as Uliana, having been cast as Kourtney Greene in the Disney+ series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. She had also appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie Freaky Friday (2018), and, alongside Kylie Cantrall and Cheyenne Jackson, was a part of the TV special Descendants Remix Dance Party (2020). Reneé is very much the star here, with the rest of VKs not making a big impression on me.

There are only two returning characters and cast members for Descendants: The Rise of Red, and they are China Anne McClain, returning in the role of Uma, and Melanie Paxson, returning as Fairy Godmother. Although the movie does not revolve around them, and they are minor, supporting roles this time around, it felt comforting to have these two back. It made me settle into the story a bit easier, knowing those two were there, even if Mal, Jay, Evie, and Ben were not.

MUSIC

The music of Descendants: The Rise of Red, on the whole, is decent. I do like the first song of “Red”, performed by Kylie Cantrall. This is our first introduction to the character of Red, and it’s a strong, powerful song, where we see that she is not her mother’s daughter and wants nothing more than to escape her. She also gets a kick out of destroying her mother’s castle grounds and dodging her guards apparently! On 21^st June 2024, “Red” was released as the second single from the movie, and it was performed by Cantrall as part of “NerdNite” at Vidcon in Anaheim on 28^th June[2]. Alex Boniello also performs on this song as the Jack of Diamonds, Head of the Queen of Hearts’ army. Boniello had previously performed the roles of Moritz and Connor Murphy in the Broadway productions of Spring Awakening, from 2015 to 2016, and Dear Evan Hansen, from 2018 to 2020, respectively.

Red then gets a duet with her mother, performed by Rita Ora, called “Love Ain’t It”, when they arrive at Auradon, as the Queen of Hearts tries to convince her daughter to rule Wonderland just like she does. This is also when we see the hostility between the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella. Honestly, I didn’t like this song much at all, and probably even found it worse than the duet Mal has with Hades in Descendants 3. It doesn’t match my style or taste in music and is nothing to do with the singers. I’m a big fan of Rita Ora’s music normally. Malia Baker, as Chloe, also gets to have a duet with Cantrall as Red, and that is “Fight of Our Lives”, when the two figure out how to work alongside each other, despite their differences, so they can fix everything and get back to Auradon. I don’t mind the chorus too much on this one, but I don’t love the rap portions particularly.

Chloe later has a duet with her mother, performed by Morgan Dudley, but when she’s younger. This is the song “Get Your Hands Dirty”. They are actually cleaning up Lady Tremaine’s courtyard together, though this is all about Ella telling Chloe that life isn’t always “black and white”, when Chloe isn’t sure what to do about stopping the villains; she knows breaking into Merlin’s office is wrong, but should she do it anyway “for the greater good”, to stop the VKs? This is quite a pleasant song, and I like the melody.

Now for the big group numbers. There are two of these. The first one is “Life Is Sweeter”, where Red and Chloe are introduced to all the students at Merlin Academy, as Bridget hands out cupcakes to everyone. This is my second favourite song in the soundtrack, after “Red”. It’s a hopeful, positive song with all the heroes, showing everyone in harmony – until the VKs come along. But that makes it all the more fun! It also gets a reprise at the end of the movie, performed by Ora and Cantrall. The other group number is just for the villains, and it’s called “Perfect Revenge”, whilst they are discussing the best revenge plan for Bridget. Again, it’s a bit too “rappy” for me, but Dara Renée is very good here as Uliana. I also liked the “poor unfortunate soul” line. Clever.

We also have three shorter songs that appear in the movie. One of these is “Shuffle of Love”, performed by Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget. The full version of the song appears on the soundtrack, but it only appears briefly in Descendants: The Rise of Red, when Red and Chloe are talking to Bridget in her room, and she mentions a new dance she’s created. It would’ve been a good song to use if they’d had the Castlecoming dance scene… It is played during the End Credits too. Then there is a brief version of Cinderella and Charming, performed by Brandy and Pablo Montalban, singing “So This Is Love” from Cinderella (1950). But the best one is “What’s My Name (Red Version)”. Uma performs this during the Welcoming Ceremony at Auradon Prep, just her and her pirates, which I very much enjoyed. The full version was actually the first single from the soundtrack to be released, on 26^th April 2024, and features Kylie Cantrall as Red too.

Another song that appears on the soundtrack is a remix of “Life Is Sweeter”. Finally, a cover of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” is also listed on the soundtrack, performed by Cantrall, along with “Descendants: The Rise of Red Score Suite instrumental”, composed by Torin Borrowdale. The song “Bad Reputation” might sound familiar to anyone who likes 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Shrek (2001), or Red, White & Royal Blue (2023).

Much like its predecessors, the soundtrack for Descendants: The Rise of Red topped the US Billboard Kid Albums and US Soundtrack Albums charts, however, it has so far only peaked at No. 60 on the Billboard 200 chart, whereas the previous three Descendants soundtracks had reached No. 1, No. 6, and No. 7 respectively on that same chart.

PRODUCTION

Although a potential new Descendants movie exploring the realm of Wonderland was teased at the end of the animated short film Descendants: The Royal Wedding in 2021, it wasn’t for another year that this movie would be announced.

At the D23 Expo in September 2022, a new Descendants film was officially confirmed as being in production, under the working title Descendants: The Pocketwatch, clearly referencing the pocket watch that Red uses to go back in time. This title was perhaps a bit too “on the nose” so in March 2023, the official movie name was announced as Descendants: The Rise of Red. It would also seem that Disney were careful not to refer to it as Descendants 4, not wanting to annoy original Descendants fans any more than they already had! It also makes it clearer that this was going to be a spin-off, not a sequel. It was also said that Descendants: The Rise of Red would premiere on Disney+.

In March 2023, it was also confirmed that the original VKs would not be returning but that Uma and Fairy Godmother would be. Other casting news at this time was that Brandy and Paolo Montalban would be reprising their roles of Cinderella and Prince Charming from Disney’s live-action 1997 film Cinderella. Rita Ora was named as the Queen of Hearts, Kylie Cantrall was named as Red, her daughter, and Malia Baker was cast as Chloe, Cinderella’s daughter, alongside a list of teen actors who would be portraying students at Merlin’s Academy, like Villain Kids and Princes and Princesses. One of these was going to be a younger version of Rapunzel, named Zellie, whose scenes ended up being cut for time.

It was also believed at this time that the basic plot would be that Chloe and Red would be using the magical pocket watch to go back in time after chaos breaks out during the celebration of a new royal baby. This got fans very excited over the possibility of this being the announcement of Mal and Ben’s baby, even though they weren’t scheduled to return, as well as speculation over who else in Auradon might be having a baby[3]. This storyline was still being written in articles talking about Descendants: The Rise of Red as close to the premiere date as May 2024. This idea was clearly scrapped, for unknown reasons. All I can say is that I’m glad Disney couldn’t write a storyline of Mal and Ben having a baby, despite some fans clearly wanting this. Ben and Mal must still be in their early-20s at this stage. Come on, give them a chance to live their own lives first!

This new movie meant new characters to the Descendants franchise, and as per usual, their costuming did not disappoint. Much like the earlier Descendants films, there is still the same emphasis on characters having signature colours. In this case, Red and the Queen of Hearts, obviously, wear red, with Chloe and Cinderella wearing the expected blue. Bridget, a kinder version of the Queen of Hearts, wears pink, and Ella actually has more turquoise than blue in her costume, probably to distinguish between her and Chloe. Because Ella has turquoise in her clothes, it means that Uliana has a mixture of colours, like purple, to reference Ursula, and turquoise, to reference Uma, so the family colour chart is still the same. Unlike the Descendants trilogy though, we don’t see nearly as many princes and princesses wearing pretty dresses and tailored suits. The “VK look” of leather trousers, boots, and jackets certainly seems to have caught on, even in the past! Chloe isn’t even wearing a dress in present day Auradon, whereas Audrey, Mulan, Chad, and Ben are all costumed in typical royal and aristocratic fashion in their pastels and soft fabrics in the earlier movies. Tony Award-nominated costume designer Emilio Sosa took over the costume designs from Kara Saun for Descendants: The Rise of Red. Like Saun, Sosa was also on Project Runway, becoming the runner-up in Season 7. He went on to design costumes for various musicals and plays, such as Porgy and Bess, for which he received his Tony Award nomination in 2012, Sweeney Todd, and Annie Live! (2021).

There were also all new sets, like Wonderland. Wonderland is set in picture-perfect landscaping, with perfectly manicured gardens, a huge red castle, and many references to their “wonderful” queen. It is a much better version of Wonderland than what we see in the ABC spin-off series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013-14); also Disney, also live-action, but with the benefit of ten more years of CGI development. Anyone who has seen this series will know exactly what I’m talking about! Later, we get a brief look at the Villains’ hangout of the Black Lagoon, where they actually go inside an old, dead anglerfish… Eww. It might not even be dead, which makes it even more gross!

Again, similarly to the Descendants trilogy, the cast were put through tough training schedules, for dancing and sword-fighting. The dance routines aren’t quite as big as those in the first three Descendants movie. Although there are some ensemble dances, they don’t open and close the movie, and don’t feel like big celebratory moments with all the young cast, but the choreography is just as complicated and contemporary as you’d expect.

RECEPTION

Descendants: The Rise of Red held its red carpet on 10^th July 2024 at the Disney Studios in Burbank, which the cast attended, before premiering on screen on 12^th July; however, this was not on Disney Channel as you might expect. It was first shown on Disney+.

After Disney’s streaming service became such a huge success on its debut in the US and Canada in November 2019, before hitting the global markets in 2020, it was decided that Disney Channel would shut down in certain countries, the UK included, in the early 2020s, with content moving online instead, although Disney Channel does remain in America. Descendants: The Rise of Red will have a Disney Channel premiere on 9^th August.

Luckily, having its release on Disney+ only increases a movie’s chances of having high viewing figures, and Descendants: The Rise of Red was no different. It became the most viewed Disney Channel Original Movie premiere in Disney+ history – though in all fairness, I don’t think there have been too many of those so far – having 6.7 million views in its first three days on the platform. This is comparable to Descendants 3, which was viewed by 8 million total in the three days after its premiere date[4].

However, high viewership does not always correlate with audience reaction. In this case, Descendants: The Rise of Red suffered more negative reviews than those within the original Descendants trilogy. Some of these opinions were established from the point that production of Descendants: The Rise of Red was confirmed, due to the fact that making a new Descendants movie without Cameron Boyce was seen as an insult to his memory by a small proportion of fans. The fact that some of the original cast members confirmed they would not be returning to this “sequel” as well, having moved on to other projects since, made this original opinion even stronger, as these fans felt that the original cast were also against a new Descendants film. Some of these fans even debated “boycotting” Descendants: The Rise of Red for this reason, but whether they did or not, I don’t know.

Others were excited by this movie, and were quick to point out that Descendants: The Rise of Red was not being promoted as a sequel, and is in fact a spin-off. These fans liked the idea of new universes being explored outside of Mal and her friends in Auradon.

This was prior to the movie’s premiere, and yet even after the premiere, the reviews seem to fit into two different camps once again. The more positive camp say that the movie does feel like an extension of the Descendants franchise, with some great music, costuming, and set pieces, and just said that it was not better than the original trilogy because it was different, so perhaps shouldn’t be compared to the original movies anyway. It was deemed “good enough” but not exactly special.

The more negative side said that there was some confusion over the characters, especially as the original actors from the 1997 Cinderella film were brought back for Descendants: The Rise of Red, even though their backstory wasn’t going to be the same as the 1997 film. I will admit this did take a bit of time for me to get my head around. I had to basically forget everything that I had seen in Cinderella (1997) and adjust to the fact that Cinderella and Prince Charming actually met at school here. I have only recently watched Cinderella, so it wasn’t too difficult for me to do, but had you been a huge fan of that movie, watching it multiple times throughout your life, I can understand this new backstory being too much to get on board with. Others also felt that the story was rushed, and full of plot holes, which is a typical comment with many time-travel-based movies; everyone gets confused.

So, what did I think of Descendants: The Rise of Red? I thought it was alright, but I won’t be rushing back to watch it. Some of the music did feel similar to the Descendants trilogy; I liked Uma returning, if only for a few brief scenes; and I found many of the new characters quite likeable and well-acted, such as Red, Chloe, and Bridget. But parts of the story did confuse me. The biggest issue I had was that it felt to me like the story had been leading us in a new direction, a big twist, which never came to pass. Instead, we got the ending we’d all been expecting, which isn’t new or exciting. This relates to the “prank” that is played on Bridget. Although Red and Chloe believe the VKs would be carrying out this prank on Bridget, I thought that this was going to be red herring, and that Ella was going to have played the prank on her. I felt this because Ella wasn’t overly nice about Bridget, saying she was “weak”, and not accepting Bridget for the nice, sweet person she was. I wondered if maybe Red and Chloe would have stopped the VKs in their tracks, but then at the dance would come to find that Ella, Chloe’s mother, had actually done something to hurt or embarrass Bridget there, perhaps to try and impress her Prince Charming. This might have explained why Cinderella seemed to feel guilty over Bridget’s past in the present time, and why she became so kind and good, as a way of righting her past wrongs. This would have also fixed the “plot hole” of the VKs being frozen by touching the Sorcerer’s Cookbook, which would have surely happened in the original timeline, since Chloe and Red didn’t put magic on it, so they couldn’t have even carried out their plan. Anyway, we got what we got, and it was a predictable ending, which felt like a big let-down and a missed opportunity.

LEGACY

Much like the first three Descendants movies, clothing, novels, and toys were available to purchase around the time of Descendants: The Rise of Red’s release date. Some of these toys included dolls, produced by Mattel, of the new characters, like Uliana, Red, Chloe, and Bridget. Some of these dolls were also produced with a version of the Sorcerer’s Cookbook[5].

It would also seem like Descendants: The Rise of Red was made with a sequel already in mind. Uma’s voiceover at the end of the movie suggests that Chloe and Red have messed up the timeline by going back in time, and that the consequences of this have yet to be discovered. This turned out to be exactly the set-up for another movie that it intended to be, with “Descendants 5” first announced in February 2025. An official title for the movie was announced on 6^th May 2025: Descendants: Wicked Wonderland, signalling that this movie will take place in Wonderland.

Furthermore, at the D23 Expo in August 2024, it was announced that some of the cast of Descendants: The Rise of Red would be reuniting for a concert tour in Summer 2025. But this isn’t just a concert for Descendants fans, because this concert tour also involves cast members from the ZOMBIES franchise, making this the Descendants/ZOMBIES: Worlds Collide Tour. From Descendants: The Rise of Red, fans can look forward to seeing Kylie Cantrall, Dara Reneé, Malia Baker, and Joshua Colley on stage, alongside stars of ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires Freya Skye, Malachi Burton, and Mekonnen Knife. The tour kicked off in San Diego on 17^th July 2025, and will end in Fort Worth, Texas on 16^th September 2025.

Within the Disney Parks, costumes and props from Descendants: The Rise of Red have been spotted at the attraction Walt Disney Presents at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. Costumes of Red, Chloe, Bridget, and the Queen of Hearts, along with a replica of the Sorcerer’s Cookbook, are currently on show in one of the exhibits, as promotion for the new film. These exhibits swap out constantly, so it will likely only be around until hype for the film has died down.

This Halloween season, a new version of the DescenDANCE party that first debuted in 2019 after the release of Descendants 3 played at the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween parties in 2024 at Rockettower Plaza Stage in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, this time using music from Descendants: The Rise of Red[6].

FINAL THOUGHTS

Descendants: The Rise of Red received mixed reviews on its release. This may have surprised those at Disney, but it really shouldn’t have done. It was always going to be difficult to follow something as popular as the first three Descendants films, especially when Descendants 3 and Descendants: The Royal Wedding tied up everything pretty well. Without Cameron Boyce, it didn’t seem right to some fans to continue the franchise, so selling Descendants: The Rise of Red on this loyal group had to be tough.

I didn’t think Descendants: The Rise of Red was a bad movie, and if it hadn’t been linked to the Descendants franchise, I might have liked it more. It reminded me a little bit of The School for Good and Evil (2022), which I very much did like, probably more so because it wasn’t linked to Disney animated films. Having characters go back in time to see these great villains of Disney Animation just seemed strange; seeing them in the future is much easier to accept than seeing them in the past, when we already think we know what they’ve done from some of the best Disney animated movies ever made. It didn’t work so well.

The time-travel angle does give Disney some scope to rectify some of the viewer complaints and comments, such as around character development and predictable storylines, but it remains to be seen whether Disney can live up to this potential.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Entertainment Tonight, ‘Descendants: Rise of Red: Go Behind the Scenes of Brandy’s Cinderella Return! (Exclusive)’, Entertainment Tonight YouTube Channel, 7^th July 2024.

[2] Credit: Disney, ‘Kylie Cantrall Paints Wonderland “Red” In New Music Video From “Descendants: The Rise of Red”’, DisneyPlus.com, 21^st June 2024.

[3] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Descendants 4: The Rise of Red – what we know about the new Disney film’, BBC.co.uk, 27^th March 2023.

[4] Credit: Phil Wood, ‘‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’ Breaks Three-Day Disney+ Viewership Record’, WDWNT.com, 17^th July 2024.

[5] Credit: Author Unknown, ‘Celebrate the Release of Descendants: The Rise of Red with New Products and Soundtrack!’, D23.com, 12^th July 2024.

[6] Credit: Cade Handley, ‘New ‘Descendants: The Rise of Red’ Exhibit at Disney’s Hollywood Studios’, WDWNT.com, 12^th July 2024.

26th Jul 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Descendants 3 (2019)

BACKGROUND

Descendants had become a huge entertainment property for The Walt Disney Company in the space of just a couple of years. With two movies, a few television spin-offs, a series of novels, costumes, and merchandising, Descendants was great for business.

So, it made sense for the Descendants franchise to increase its potential with one more movie, to create a trilogy. Uma had told us at the end of Descendants 2 (2017) that the story still wasn’t over after all, so a “threequel” just made sense.

Disney film trilogies aren’t actually all that common. No Disney animated film has currently stretched to three movies, with sequels even being relatively rare, although it has been said that Frozen III is in the works. Only Pixar’s Cars and Toy Story franchises have gone as far as three movies, although Toy Story has of course reached four, with a fifth apparently in development.

In Disney Channel movie history, Descendants became the fifth franchise to reach at least three films, after Zenon, Halloweentown, The Cheetah Girls, and High School Musical, but making Descendants 3 was still a big deal. The identity of Mal’s father was being teased; Uma was going to make a return and she wasn’t going to be happy; plus, Descendants 2 talked about a whole new generation of Villain Kids making their way to Auradon. A lot was going to happen and the fans were excited about where Descendants 3 would take them.

Little did we know that the hype train was about to come to a crushing stop.

On 6th July 2019, the news broke that Cameron Boyce, the actor who played Carlos, had suddenly passed away, at the age of just 20, a month before Descendants 3 would be released. I remember where I was when I found out, because I was away on holiday. My thoughts instantly turned to Cameron’s family, and to the cast of Descendants, who I knew would be absolutely devastated to lose one of their closest friends, and someone they had been working alongside for four years. Promoting this movie was going to be a struggle for them, and watching the movie was going to be difficult for the fans.

I was in my late-20s when I watched Descendants 3 and I was not looking forward to it. I knew it would be difficult to watch, even for me, someone who hadn’t grown up watching this cast. They were a similar age to me, so I was just devastated for them. I can’t imagine how the young fans of the franchise must have felt at this news. It might have felt to them like a close friend had suddenly gone from their lives and they didn’t know how to handle it.

Before this week, I had only watched Descendants 3 once, on its premiere date in the UK. After that, I had bought the DVD but I hadn’t watched it again. In all honesty, I wasn’t a fan of the story or the music. I was not sure whether or not the news of Cameron’s passing had been the main factor in me not enjoying Descendants 3. On re-watching it this week, I found my opinion had only changed slightly. It is most definitely my least favourite of the three, although I did like the ending and felt that the finality of it was fitting, as well as ending the series on a high note, especially in light of the tragic news.

PLOT

Descendants 3 begins with Mal giving us all a brief recap about the journey of the VKs in Auradon so far. We then find that the four VKs, Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos, are at the Isle of the Lost to announce the new VKs that have been selected to come to Auradon, to study at Auradon Prep as they did. At a ceremony for “VK Day”, it is confirmed that Dizzy, daughter of Drizella; Celia, daughter of Dr. Facilier; and Squirmy and Squeaky, twin sons of Mr. Smee, will be the next four to go to Auradon. They will be picked up and brought to Auradon soon.

Back in Auradon, Mal has been keeping watch for Uma as she is worried about her return and what threat she may bring to Auradon when she does. Ben tells her not to worry and that they’d better get going to pick up the new VKs. They go outside, where many other Auradon residents are, supposedly to watch the new VKs journey to Auradon on television. It then turns out that this is a surprise proposal, with Ben proposing to Mal. She happily accepts, and everyone is so happy for them both. All except Audrey, Aurora’s daughter, who has returned to Auradon. Her grandmother, Queen Leah, is furious with Audrey for ruining their family’s legacy by not becoming Ben’s queen. But there’s no time for bad vibes, because Mal, Ben, Carlos, Jay, and Evie have to get to the Isle to collect the new VKs.

As the group are about to leave the Isle through the barrier, disaster strikes. Hades rushes towards the closing barrier and tries to pull himself through. Mal transforms into her dragon form to try and fight him off, but Hades attacks her, using his “ember” to drain her of her magic. Using the last bit of strength she has, Mal successfully pushes Hades back through the barrier, and they return to Auradon. But that’s not all. Audrey, angry at Mal for “ruining her life”, goes to the Museum of Cultural History to steal the Queen of Auradon’s crown. At the same time, she is drawn to Maleficent’s sceptre, which also resides there as an exhibit. Audrey takes both the sceptre and the crown and becomes a villain.

With all this happening, Belle and Beast, and Fairy Godmother, are concerned about the safety of Auradon. Mal proposes that the best solution is to close the barrier forever. Ben is not happy with this solution, as it ruins his whole plan to unite Auradon and the Isle of the Lost eventually. Mal says it is their only choice and he reluctantly agrees to it. Mal goes to talk this all through with Evie, however, Mal does not mention that it was actually her idea to close the barrier and Evie believes Mal won’t let that happen, pleased that Mal is soon to be an official royal and she can make important decisions like that. At Evie’s house or company headquarters, because she’s now a big-time fashion designer, Audrey arrives, showing that she was the one who stole the artefacts. Mal tells Audrey not to use Maleficent’s sceptre, because the magic is too dangerous and too powerful. Audrey doesn’t care, having gone full villain at this point, and turns Mal into an old hag. Evie, Carlos, and Jay see what has happened and ask if Mal’s magic can reverse the spell on her. Mal says that there is only one thing that can reverse the magic of the sceptre; Hades’ ember.

The four VKs, and Celia, because she knows where Hades’ lair is, head to the Isle on their scooters, using the same magic spell that Mal used in Descendants 2 to get across the water without opening the barrier. Meanwhile, at a birthday party for Jane, Carlos’ girlfriend and Fairy Godmother’s daughter, Audrey has arrived and puts a sleeping curse on the gathering. Jane avoids the spell by jumping into the Enchanted Lake, whose waters can reverse magic spells, until it dissipates. She then calls Ben to tell him what has happened to the others. When the VKs arrive on the Isle, Mal is freed from the “old hag” spell, since there is no magic on the Isle. They go to Dr. Facilier’s Voodoo Arcade where Carlos sees a news report on television saying that all of Auradon is under a sleeping curse. This further motivates Mal to get Hades’ ember. The others try to retrieve their scooters from Harry and Gil, who have stolen them, whilst Mal and Celia rush over to Hades’ lair, where we learn that Hades is in fact Mal’s father. Hades naturally does not want to part with the ember, but after some persuasion, he hands it over to Mal, warning her that she is only “half Hades” so its powers won’t work in the same way. Mal says she’ll take her chances and leaves with it, being told not to get it wet. Who knew magic embers were like gremlins?

Back in Auradon, Audrey appears to Ben, saying she’ll reverse the curse if he makes her his queen. Obviously, Ben refuses this, so instead of putting Ben to sleep, Audrey curses him with something else, and then she starts turning some of the Auradon residents to stone.

The VKs then leave the Isle – via the barrier that Jay has the remote control for. Which is odd, because they arrived on their magic scooters over the water; why didn’t they just drive on the road to the Isle? Anyway, they couldn’t retrieve the scooters, so I guess they are walking now, but just as the barrier is about to close, Harry and Gil jump through it. The ember is knocked out of Mal’s hand, but luckily, Uma appears in the water and catches it. She turns into her human self again, and says that she’s been looking for a hole in the barrier, but couldn’t find one, though she did get to see from afar all the wonderful things that Auradon has that the Isle does not. Uma says she’ll drop the ember in the ocean unless Mal agrees that all the VKs on the Isle be given the chance to go to Auradon. Mal agrees through desperation. Uma, Harry, and Gil then join the others on the quest to lift the curse.

In Auradon, Carlos’ dog, Dude, still talking after the events of Descendants 2, tells them that Audrey put some of the residents to sleep and others turned to stone. The group go to the castle to find Ben, but Audrey has been watching them through the sceptre and curses the suits of armour to attack them. Luckily, the VKs outsmart the spell and move on. They then go to Audrey’s school dorm room to try and find her. She’s not there, but Uma reads her diary and discovers that she spends a lot of time at Fairy Cottage. The team then split up, with the boys going to find Ben, and the girls going to Evie’s house.

At the house, they find Doug, Evie’s boyfriend, asleep, and she wakes him with true love’s kiss. But Audrey tries to use magic to trap them in the house. Using both their magic powers combined, Uma and Mal manage to defeat the spell, showing that they actually make a good team. Meanwhile, the boys discover that Ben has been turned into a beast. Carlos gets him to calm down by removing a thorn from his paw, and then Jane comes along and shoots him with water from the Enchanted Lake to – mostly – remove the curse. It seems the water is not all-powerful though and leaves Ben with fangs and some grizzly facial hair!

They then meet the others at Evie’s house, before heading out to Fairy Cottage, with Ben leading the way since Audrey had taken him there before. Only a traumatised Chad, Cinderella’s son, is found, as he had been helping Audrey until she went a bit too evil. Afterwards, Ben wonders why Uma is helping them, to which Evie says it’s because Mal promised to let all the VKs leave the Isle. Mal then confesses that her plan was, and still is, to close the barrier to the Isle – forever. Celia is angry that she will have to choose between her new life and seeing her father again, and snatches the ember, throwing it into some water. Uma and Harry angrily leave, and Evie tells Mal how disappointed she is in her, for getting her “happy ending” but not letting anyone else get theirs. Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Ben are then turned to stone by Audrey. Mal seems lost about what to do next.

She hears Celia calling for help and follows the sound, to see Audrey holding her hostage at the top of a tower. Mal still has the unlit ember and using her dragon form tries to relight it, but it doesn’t work. Uma sees Mal struggling and uses her magic to help relight the ember. It works and Mal battles Audrey. The ember breaks all the spells, but wounds Audrey.

An unconscious Audrey is being watched over by Leah, as Ben, Mal, and his parents discuss what to do next. Mal knows that only Hades can revive her with the ember, but Ben doesn’t believe he’ll ever do that for them. Mal tells Ben that Hades is in fact her father, so he should help. Ben orders his guards to bring Hades to them. Hades then arrives handcuffed. He is reluctant to do anything for them, since Audrey is a villain, and why should she be helped just because she’s “one of them”? She went evil and should be treated as all the other villains have been. Mal eventually convinces him to use his ember to help Audrey and she is revived. Audrey is very apologetic about what she’s done, with Leah saying sorry for putting pressure on her, and Ben and Mal apologising for how they hurt her. Hades then hands the ember over to Mal to keep.

Later, there is an engagement party for Mal and Ben in Auradon. Mal gets up to give a speech, but says that she does not want to be Queen of Auradon because it is not a united realm. She tells everyone that without the help of “the villains”, Auradon would be in ruins. Good and bad can come from anywhere, regardless of who your parents are, so fear of the villains doesn’t help deal with anything. Mal proposes that they do finally unite the Isle and Auradon, by destroying the barrier once and for all. Ben and Fairy Godmother approve, and with the wand, the barrier is replaced with a bridge. All the residents from both the Isle and Auradon come together to celebrate, in a display of unity.

The movie then ends with Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos walking across the bridge to the Isle to finally see their parents again.

CHARACTERS & CAST

There is plenty of action in Descendants 3, but unlike in the other two movies, quite a few of the main characters aren’t really used, sadly. At least not to their fullest. The movie is instead mostly about Mal and Audrey, or about Mal and Uma, with Evie, Jay, Carlos, Ben, and the others only being used as sidekicks, in my opinion anyway. I think this is why I struggled with the film in part, because I feel like this movie is too plot-driven, and not character-driven.

Mal seems to have settled in very comfortably to her new royal role. Her and Ben are making serious decisions about Auradon together, and the thought of becoming queen after the two of them get engaged doesn’t faze her one bit, which is quite the transition from how she was in Descendants 2. It’s also a surprise that she would want to take down the barrier between the Isle and Auradon forever, since she was set on staying there in the previous movie when she was having a crisis of confidence. It just seems like Mal’s whole behaviour has changed so much between Descendants 2 and Descendants 3, and I couldn’t get on board with it. She’s no longer Mal, she’s Queen Mal, which is fine; I get that royal life would change a person, but I thought Mal didn’t want to change herself…

I also struggled with her and Ben’s engagement. It seems to me that between each of the Descendants movies, only a few months can have passed, despite the movie’s being made two years apart. Supposedly, Descendants 3 is set after they have graduated from Auradon Prep, though it is not mentioned[1], so, in my mind, I’m watching two 18-year-olds get engaged, which seems odd to me to put in a Disney Channel movie. I understand that in fairy tales and Disney’s animated movies many of the princes and princesses get married when they are young, but Descendants feels too much like real-life to me that this doesn’t feel overly appropriate. Obviously, they are in love and they are a cute couple, but I just don’t think this plot point was necessary to the overall story. She didn’t need to get engaged to Ben to be able to get her opinions across on Auradon matters; Ben would’ve wanted to hear them regardless of whether she was an “official royal” or not. It is possible these two are 20-years-old at the time of Descendants 3, because four years passed between the making of the movies, but I find it hard to believe that Dizzy has waited two years since her official invitation from King Ben to join Auradon Prep before actually being confirmed as coming over. I get that they’d need to do health and safety assessments, and educational plans, and emergency contact forms, and all that paperwork, but two years is just ridiculous!

As for Evie, Jay, and Carlos, they unfortunately don’t seem to have much to do in Descendants 3. Evie’s biggest plot point is around her having her first kiss with Doug and worrying that it may not be true love as she tries to wake him from the curse, but this is all resolved in one song. She’s got her fashion business empire now, and a house, and she seems to be the mentor for the new VKs, but that’s about it. Jay has no sports team to be involved with here, so his main story is about his blossoming bromance with Gil as they plan to travel the world together at the end of the movie. Carlos is concerned about missing Jane’s birthday party at the start of Descendants 3, and then not much else happens. They just seem to be helping hands, and it’s a shame that they didn’t get to do more, whereas in Descendants 2, they had a lot of time together to talk as a group, about how they were feeling, and each one had an important emotional breakthrough in one way or another.

Dove Cameron, Mitchell Hope, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart, and Cameron Boyce all returned to reprise their roles of Mal, Ben, Evie, Jay, and Carlos, respectively. Dove Cameron received the Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actress for her role as Mal in 2020, and since Descendants, Dove Cameron has continued to act on screen, for example in the musical comedy series Schmigadoon! (2021-23), and having a voice role in the animated series Big Nate (2022-present). She released her debut album Alchemical: Volume 1 in December 2023 and her song “Boyfriend” was a viral sensation in 2022. Mitchell Hope continues to appear in films, such as Let It Snow (2019) and the Prime Video film Don’t Make Me Go (2022).

After receiving a main role in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists (2019) – which was great and definitely deserved a second season – Sofia Carson went on to appear in multiple Netflix films including Feel the Beat (2020) and Purple Hearts (2022), where she also wrote for and performed on the soundtrack. Carson also performed at the Oscars in 2023 alongside Diane Warren, singing the song “Applause” from the movie Tell It Like a Woman (2022), which was up for Best Original Song that year.

After Descendants, Booboo Stewart was cast in Season 4 and 5 of the series Good Trouble (2022-24), and is a member of the band That Band Honey, as well as being a mixed media artist. The world lost a very gifted actor when Cameron Boyce passed away due to complications from epilepsy in July 2019. He would’ve gone on to have a successful career. Boyce was set to co-star in Adam Sandler’s Hubie Halloween (2020) at the time of his death.

Uma, Harry, and Gil also returned to Descendants 3, and I must say, I wasn’t enjoying the movie all that much until Uma came back. She gave some much-needed energy to the film. Uma and Mal learning to get along and using their magic together is very touching, as is seeing them reconcile when the barrier goes down, since you can see how much that means to Uma, and how upset she was when it seemed that Mal was going to go back on her word just to get Uma to help her fix Auradon. Harry and Gil don’t add too much to the overall story, but they gave a much-needed injection of humour, from how they find Auradon to be a weird but wonderful place, stealing people’s money and eating too much fruit! At the end of the movie, Harry is rejected by Uma as he’ll flirt with anything that moves, so randomly, he seems to get together with Audrey, which is an amusing twist.

China Anne McClain, Thomas Doherty, and Dylan Playfair returned to portray their characters of Uma, Harry, and Gil, respectively. After Descendants, China Anne McClain was cast in Hubie Halloween (2020) and returned to Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (2006-present) where she plays the character Jazmine Payne. Doherty went on to star as Max Wolfe in the reboot of Gossip Girl (2021-23) and appeared in the horror film The Invitation (2022). Playfair continued to appear in the sitcom Letterkenny (2016-23) as Reilly, and then played Coach T in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (2021-22).

After missing out on Descendants 2, Audrey made her return to Auradon for Descendants 3. She was the resident mean girl of Auradon back in the first movie, but things certainly take a turn here, as she becomes a full villain, thanks to Maleficent’s magic, which is ironic given her family’s history with her! Audrey uses magic to try and “fix” her life, by convincing Ben to make her queen. It’s not the most tragic backstory for a villain, but it’s not the worst. She does have a lot of pressure from her grandmother to marry a king and become a queen, so it wasn’t entirely her fault that she went off the rails. For me, Audrey wasn’t an entirely convincing villain, as she seemed more crazed and hysterical than evil, though I did like her menacing singing of “Happy Birthday” as she cursed Jane’s birthday party. Sarah Jeffery returned to play Audrey. She had provided the worse of Audrey in the animated series Descendants: Wicked World (2015-17), despite missing out on Descendants 2. Jeffery went on to appear as Cristina Santos in crime drama Shades of Blue (2016-18) and was later cast as Maggie Vera in the reboot of the series Charmed (2018-22).

There is also the new VK, Celia. She seems to be close friends with Dizzy, another VK who is getting the chance to go to Auradon, but since Dizzy spends much of her time asleep, it is Celia’s opportunity to bond with the original VKs; Dizzy got to do that in Descendants 2. Celia is a trickster, like her father, Dr. Facilier, but wants to go to Auradon, and is very excited about the opportunity she’s being given. She is an immense help to the VKs as they look to find Hades, as she used to run errands for him so knows where he spends much of his time – which is how she avoids that pesky sleeping curse. Jadah Marie was cast in this new role of Celia, younger sister of Freddie, who appeared in the animated series. Before her casting in Descendants, she had appeared as Tasha in the sitcom Mann & Wife (2015-17). She also sang alongside Sarah Jeffery for the Christmas song “Audrey’s Christmas Rewind”, released in December 2019, and appeared in the Netflix series Julie and the Phantoms (2020), which was partly directed by Kenny Ortega.

Now to the last new character to mention: Hades. I’ve already said my bit about the Descendants’ villain portrayals being a bit weak for the parents. I can’t exactly say that for Hades, because he looks like a rock ‘n’ roll singer crossed with a biker, and he certainly is not flamboyant. He can indeed be menacing, but these moments do not last long, since he doesn’t want to be too mean to his own daughter. I can, however, say that I did not like this portrayal of Hades, although I know the majority of Descendants 3 viewers and critics did enjoy it. This Hades is nothing at all like the Hades that James Woods voiced for Hercules (1997). That was apparently the point, since Cheyenne Jackson, the actor who was cast as Hades for Descendants 3, did not want to use anything of Woods’ interpretation of the character[2]. This disappoints, but does not surprise, me. Kenny Ortega did want the actors to have their own take on these famous Disney villains, so it fits for the movie. The character himself is not actually that bad, much like how I felt about Kristin Chenoweth’s Maleficent, but they aren’t my Maleficent or Hades. The reveal of Hades as Mal’s father put an end to months of speculation. This couple pairing did please me though, as it makes quite a bit of sense, because, going back to the animated series House of Mouse (2001-03), there was an episode where Hades was trying to ask Maleficent out on a date.

Cheyenne Jackson began his career on the stage, appearing on Broadway in musicals such as understudy roles for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Aida in the early 2000s and later in Xanadu as Sonny from 2007 to 2008. More recently, Jackson played The Wolf and Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods on Broadway in 2022. On screen, he has had roles in the anthology series American Horror Story from 2015 to 2018. He also had a recurring role in the series Julie and the Phantoms (2020), alongside Jadah Marie and Booboo Stewart, and was cast as Max in the sitcom Call Me Kat (2021-23), with Mayim Bialik. Jackson also came third in Season 7 of The Masked Singer (2019-present).

MUSIC

Unlike Descendants and Descendants 2, there are more songs on this soundtrack that I don’t like than I do like. There is actually only one that I really like and unsurprisingly, that is “My Once Upon a Time”; I always like the big emotional songs. It’s a bit of a power ballad, with Mal knowing that she has made a mess of things with her plans for the barrier, upsetting her friends, and that she’ll have to find a way to fix them without the support of Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Ben who have been turned to stone. It’s a lovely song, and Dove Cameron’s vocals are stunning. The only problem is that in the movie, the song is not its full length and it is broken up with a scene of Mal pleading with Uma to help her, which kind of spoils it a bit.

There is one other song that I don’t mind too much and that is “Night Falls”, performed as the group battle the suits of armour. It has some great harmonies, and it has a good beat to it, but when they, in true Disney fashion, defeat them with a dance battle, it gets a bit weird for me! It charted at No. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. I also have mixed feelings about “Queen of Mean”, Audrey’s solo about how she’s going to get what she wants once and for all. I don’t like the rap portions, but the more melodic sections are quite nice. “Queen of Mean” reached No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and spent eight consecutive weeks in that chart, making it the longest charting Descendants song. I know it was definitely the most popular song when the film came out.

Then we’ve got the two big production numbers, one to open the movie, and another to close, as per the first two Descendants movies. The opening number is “Good to Be Bad”, a hip-hop number with street dance choreography to match. It’s not about being evil or mean, unlike “Rotten to the Core” and “Ways to Be Wicked”, but instead it’s a celebration about the new VKs getting their chance to go to Auradon, as well as the original VKs recognising the importance of the Isle in their upbringing. It’s a catchy number, but I don’t prefer it to the other two opening songs. “Break This Down”, the final song, I also don’t prefer to “Set It Off” from Descendants, or “You and Me” from Descendants 2, but it is a cheerful song all about unity, and it is nice to see residents from the Isle and Auradon dance together.

So, for two songs that I unfortunately don’t like at all. The first is the rock ‘n’ roll duet between Mal and Hades, “Do What You Gotta Do”. She’d already had a duet with her mother in the first film, so I suppose it made sense for her to have a duet with her father, but this is odd. The two are mostly just trading barbs with each other, about how Hades wasn’t there for her as a child. It’s a strange song, I think, and it doesn’t move any of the plot forward. “Evil Like Me” at least showed the power Maleficent had over Mal, and how she felt she had to follow in her mother’s footsteps to make her happy.

The other is “One Kiss”, performed by Sofia Carson as Evie when she is readying herself to kiss Doug and wake him from the sleeping curse. Sofia Carson has a beautiful singing voice, and she hadn’t had a solo in Descendants prior to this, so it was nice to see that. However, again, this song felt like an unnecessary addition to the soundtrack, other than to showcase Sofia. I felt very much like Mal and Uma, thinking just kiss him already!

There are a few other songs on the soundtrack that vaguely appear in the main movie. One of these is China Anne McClain’s cover of “Dig a Little Deeper” from The Princess and the Frog (2009) in the End Credits. This matches the two The Little Mermaid (1989) covers that appeared on Descendants 2, to show that the new VK is the child of that film’s villain. Another is Audrey’s sinister version of “Happy Birthday”, which I very much like, and Ben’s reprise of “Did I Mention” from the first film which he sings as he proposes to Mal.

Outside of this, there are also two other songs that are additional to the movie. One is “Rotten to the Core” (D3 Remix), which features other VKs other than the original four, including Harry, Uma, Audrey, and Celia. I’ve never really liked remixes, but it’s good to update the original song with these other VKs to give them a chance to shine too. The other is “VK Mashup”, which is, as you’d expect, a mashup of some of the big VKs songs from all three movies. An excerpt of the Descendants 3 score, composed by David Lawrence once more, also features on the soundtrack. All cast sing for their characters in Descendants 3.

The Descendants 3 soundtrack peaked at No. 7 on the US Billboard 200 album chart, in a lower position than either of the two movies before it. It did, however, still top the US Kid Albums and US Soundtrack Albums charts. It was also nominated for Top Soundtrack at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, but lost out to the soundtrack of Frozen II (2019).

PRODUCTION

Descendants 3 begins in a different place emotionally to the first two films. In the first movie, the Villain Kids only know the Isle and how to be evil or mean. In the second movie, they are adjusting to their new lives in Auradon, some quicker than others. Descendants 3 already feels more like there is unity between the Isle and Auradon, as the VKs are no longer ashamed of their past in the Isle, and know that the young VKs who still remain there should be able to choose their own path, which is why they are letting more attend Auradon Prep.

With this in mind, we see that the Isle of the Lost is actually cleaner, brighter, and the residents are much happier, because they know that Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos are now championing their rights over in Auradon. I did say that the villains would clean up the place if they felt properly motivated! Unless the residents of Auradon did it as some sort of community project, or by way of apology for twenty years of banishment and neglect… Either way, it looks pretty good and to properly pay tribute to their four “success stories”, each one now has an area of the Isle named after them: Carlos’ House, Evie’s Alley, Jay’s Way, and Mal’s Court.

There are also new sets featured on the Isle again. One of these is Hades’ Cave, which looks like a typical “man cave”. It’s dark, there is stuff all over the place, and he must’ve taken some interior design tips from Gaston, because there are sheep-skin rugs everywhere. This is the place where Hades wants to sit and be angry by himself, so naturally, the front entrance has a big sign saying “GET LOST” across it. Another new set on the Isle is Dr. Facilier’s Voodoo Arcade, which is huge, brightly lit, and features lots of games and stands, like a carnival would look. There are also references to Dr. Facilier’s “friends on the other side”, with a giant picture of one on the entrance way. The actor who played Dr. Facilier in Descendants 3 in a few brief scenes was Jamal Sims, who happened to be the choreographer on this movie. Sims had previously worked with Miley Cyrus, on the choreography of her song “Hoedown Throwdown” from Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) and on her Wonder World Tour in 2009. He has also regularly appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009-present) as a choreographer and guest judge.

The costumes for Descendants 3 were made to feel more couture and be more finessed this time around, though there is still plenty of leather and high-heeled boots in the characters’ outfits. There are less cutesy dresses and suits though, probably because the characters spend more time on the Isle and battling evil in this story. There is also a layer of added sophistication to some of the characters, such as Uma, Harry, and Gil. In Descendants 2, their costumes were a little bit tatty, because of their difficult time on the Isle and the lack of access to high-quality fabrics, I guess. This time, they look more stylish and classier than in Descendants 2. China Anne McClain stated in a behind-the-scenes video that Uma’s costume was made to look like it was glistening; to reference the fact she had been in the ocean for a long time as she tried to find a way into Auradon.

Audrey also got a new look. She is wearing a pink dress reminiscent of her mother, Aurora’s, at the start of the movie, and has pink and blue streaks in her hair, to reference the Good Fairies’ fight over what colour Aurora’s dress should be in Sleeping Beauty (1959). I don’t particularly like that look. Her evil villainess look seems to suit her much better. She looks like a younger, brighter, more modern version of Maleficent.

As for Hades, gone are the flowing robes that we are used to, and instead we get a biker, rock ‘n’ roll outfit for the character, which matches Cheyenne Jackson’s choices for his portrayal of Hades, but not Disney Animation’s. We also got to see Ben briefly made up like the Beast. It apparently took five or six hours to put all the prosthetics on, which must have been a pain, but luckily, I doubt it took more than a day or two to film those scenes[3]!

As the premiere date came closer and closer, the cast obviously went out to promote the movie. At Disney Channel Fan Fest at Disney California Adventure Park at Disneyland on 27^th April 2019, Booboo Stewart, Sofia Carson, Dove Cameron, Cheyenne Jackson, Anna Cathcart and Jadah Marie came on stage to talk about their new movie. A video introducing the character of Hades was shown as well as some teaser trailers. It was also confirmed that Descendants 3 would air in August.

Following on from that, there were the usual interviews and behind-the-scenes videos released on Disney Channel to hype up the new movie. Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cheyenne Jackson, Booboo Stewart, and Kenny Ortega even appeared on Celebrity Family Feud, on 28^th July 2019, where they won $10,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

A fan dance party event was also held at the Marketplace Stage at Disney Springs at the Walt Disney World Resort from 26^th July to 11^th August 2019, showcasing some of the music from the movies. This was then moved to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café at Magic Kingdom for the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween parties. It seemed to just be a single DJ hosting the event there, however when it came to Disneyland for the Oogie Boogie Bash that same year, there were a group of dancers teaching guests specific dance routines to go along with music from Descendants[4].

There was also an addition to the A Descendants Short Story series and that was Audrey’s Royal Return, which aired on 5^th July 2019. It sees Audrey going to a spa and recapping the events of Descendants and Descendants 2 from her point of view, basically saying how Mal coming to Auradon has put everyone in danger, and that is why she stayed away from Auradon for a while, taking a break from it all at Fairy Cottage in the forest. But she misses Auradon and wanted to make a big entrance, so she has had a makeover at the spa to get her ready for that day. If this biased recap of events wasn’t enough for you, a more factual “Story So Far” video was also shown on Disney Channel.

RECEPTION

After all that build-up, everyone was ready for Descendants 3, however, in light of Cameron Boyce’s death, the red-carpet premiere that was scheduled for 22^nd July 2019 was cancelled. The Walt Disney Company instead made a donation to the Thirst Project, a charity organisation that Cameron supported. He had received the Pioneering Spirit Award in April 2019 for raising $30,000 for the Thirst Project, which aims to bring awareness and aid for the global water crisis. It was also announced at this time that Disney Channel would dedicate the telecast of Descendants 3 in Cameron’s memory[5].

Descendants 3 aired on Disney Channel in the US on 2^nd August 2019, where it was watched by around 4.5 million viewers on the night. It came to other Disney Channels worldwide in October that year. Most viewers liked the positive message of the movie, that good and evil aren’t destined, and that it’s the choices you make that define you, not where you’ve come from. This is basically what the whole series had been leading up to, as they could be seen as a discussion around what heroes and villains are. It was also appreciated that a three-minute tribute video to Cameron Boyce had been included in the original premiere. It showed behind-the-scenes moments from his career, such as making Michelle Obama laugh on the set of the series Jessie (2011-15), as well as some advice to the young viewers on how they can cope with grief.

Outside of that, there are some quite conflicting views. Many agreed that the film was tinged with melancholy as we all knew that this would be the last time all four of the VKs would ever be seen on screen together. It also made some of the lines that the characters speak even more poignant. Some absolutely loved the music and the film, claiming Descendants 3 as the best movie in the trilogy. Others didn’t agree with that statement, but did still find it to be a satisfying ending to the series.

That is my overall opinion on Descendants 3, but I also have some gripes about it too. One of these is around the music. I felt that some of the songs seemed to be shoe-horned into the movie, with very little purpose or story progression. I think some of the main cast were sidelined in Descendants 3 as well, with this story being about the fight between Mal and Audrey, with a little Uma thrown in, but not much from anyone else, which was disappointing, since the VKs friendship had been a key part of both Descendants and Descendants 2. The plot was also quite simplistic with many easy resolutions, such as Mal only needing to ask Hades twice to hand over the ember, despite that being the only piece of magic he has and the fact that he hadn’t spent much time with his daughter at all in her life up until that point, and the final battle between Mal and Audrey being underwhelming to say the least. It just seemed that every moment of peril or conflict was over within a few seconds.

LEGACY

Descendants 3 seemed to put an end to the story as the realms of Auradon and the Isle of the Lost were finally combined, but that wasn’t quite the full finale.

In October 2019, for the Halloween season, a stop-motion short was released titled Wicked Woods: A Descendants Halloween story. In this five-minute short film, the four VKs, Uma, and Audrey are being hunted by the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Halloween night in the forest around Auradon, as the Horseman searches for a new head. It turns out he just wanted some candy and leaves the group alone once he’s got some! There was a song written for this short, “Keep Your Head on Halloween”, and the original cast returned to voice their characters, so it must’ve been recorded before Cameron Boyce’s passing as Carlos is a part of this story.

After that, in August 2020, an animated series of shorts aired on Disney Channel that followed Evie and Mal’s preparations for Mal and Ben’s upcoming wedding, titled The Planning of the Royal Wedding. These episodes are only a few minutes long, and look at typical wedding planning activities, such as cake tasting and seeing the wedding dress. This series was made to build anticipation for the 20-minute-long Descendants: The Royal Wedding that would air the following year. Sofia Carson and Dove Cameron returned to reprise their characters here.

On 13^th August 2021, Descendants: The Royal Wedding aired on Disney Channel. Much like the series of shorts around the planning of the wedding, but unlike the three main films in the series, Descendants: The Royal Wedding is an animated short film. Naturally, it centres around the wedding of Ben and Mal. Everything is seemingly going to plan, however, Hades accidentally sets fire to all of the decorations at the church and goes off back to the Isle. Mal, Jay, Evie, Ben – and Audrey, who has turned nice for once and become the official wedding planner – go to speak with him as Mal needs her father at her wedding. Whilst in the Isle, Fairy Godmother and Ben’s parents magic themselves there, and Ben and Mal decide that, as all the people they love are here, they should have a small ceremony in the forest. After this ceremony, everyone is reunited at the wedding reception at the castle. All the cast members return to voice their character roles, although a few characters are missing such as Jane, Harry, and Gil for unknown reasons. Carlos is also not here, however, there is a touching tribute made to him. Jay and Evie give Mal a wedding gift of a charm bracelet featuring charms that reference each of the four VKs, which is sweet. I personally didn’t need this entry in the Descendants series, and I don’t like the animation style, but I understand that many viewers would’ve wanted to see this to fully complete the storyline. The short film does also end with a reference to new stories beginning. A rabbit hole, as well as painted red roses, are shown at the very end of the special, hinting at a new Descendants story potentially coming.

So, those were the official Descendants entries that specifically tie up the stories of Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos. Aside from those, sing-along editions of all three Descendants movies later aired on Disney Channel. There was also another television special, Descendants Remix Dance Party, that was shown on Disney Channel on 20^th March 2020. It was a one-night only dance party hosted by Cheyenne Jackson as Hades, set in his “Club Ember”, where songs from all three movies were featured. Disney’s Descendants: The Musical also became available for licensing for local productions to stage in 2020, following in the legacy of other Disney Channel Original Movies, like High School Musical (2006) and Camp Rock (2008)[6].

FINAL THOUGHTS

By making Descendants 3 and then the animated short film Descendants: The Royal Wedding, Disney successfully brought the stories of Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos to a close. It made sense to make three feature-length movies because Descendants was one of few Disney franchises that had matched the popularity of High School Musical on any level.

Yet, all good series must come to an end and it was only right that Descendants ended in the way it did for the four original VKs. There was an air of finality to the series, and I was happy with how it finished. Even though I am not a fan of Descendants: The Royal Wedding, with its creation, viewers did not have to feel cheated of seeing Mal get her “happily ever after” with Ben.

Some time has passed since these features were released, and the actors have moved on to other projects. Not having Cameron Boyce and Carlos involved in feature Descendants projects would make any look back on these VKs quite unlikely.

However, Descendants has remained a popular franchise and with its fairy tale setting, similarly to the ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18), there are opportunities to explore other characters. Rightly or wrongly, Disney Channel have done just that with their most recent Descendants entry: Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024).

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Alex Reif, ‘Film Review: “Descendants 3” (Disney Channel)’, LaughingPlace.com, 25^th July 2019.

[2] Credit: Zach Johnson, ‘Bringing Down the Barrier: Behind the Scenes of Descendants 3’, D23.com, 2^nd August 2019.

[3] Credit: Disney, ‘Behind the Scenes of Descendants 3! Compilation: Road to Auradon: Descendants 3’, Disney Descendants YouTube Channel, 6^th September 2019.

[4] Credit: Sieera Vieregge, ‘Just Announced! The DescenDANCE Party Is Coming to Walt Disney World!’, DisneyFoodBlog.com, date unknown.

[5] Credit: Denise Petski, ‘‘Descendants 3’ Red Carpet Premiere Event Canceled In Wake Of Cameron Boyce’s Death’, Deadline.com, 11^th July 2019.

[6] Credit: Logan Culwell-Block, ‘Stage Adaptation of Disney Channel’s Descendants Now Available for Licensing’, Playbill.com, 5^th March 2020.

19th Jul 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Descendants 2 (2017)

BACKGROUND

Since Descendants (2015) ended with Mal saying that this wasn’t the end of the story, it was only too obvious that Disney were planning a sequel. Plus, the fact that Descendants turned out to be a hugely successful Disney Channel Original Movie meant that the decision was even more simple. A no-brainer really.

With the potential for new villain kids to be introduced to the series, as well as the incredibly talented and likeable original cast returning, Descendants 2 intended to be bigger and better than Descendants. It didn’t disappoint.

The music is amazing, the sets are fantastic, the new characters are just as entertaining as the originals, and it followed a very relatable story, about struggling to fit in and trying to find your place in the world. In this case, it is Mal who isn’t coping so well in Auradon, whilst the other three have settled in extremely easily. Everyone can relate to this, that first day of school, or first day of a new job, when everything has changed and you have no choice but to just get on with things, even if it seems like you’ll never manage it.

Despite being 24 at the time of Descendants 2 being released, I’m not ashamed to admit that I was very excited for the movie and was counting down the days to its air date. I had actually recently started a new job and it wasn’t at all what I had expected, so I needed something to look forward to. That just so happened to be Descendants 2. I’d also missed out on the excitement of Descendants, choosing to watch it on DVD months after its release instead of seeing it live on Disney Channel, so I wanted to recapture that feeling I used to get about DCOM premieres when I was younger.

Thankfully all that build-up hadn’t been for nothing, because I loved Descendants 2. It was thoughtful, sweet, and for once, I actually liked every song that appeared in the movie – that doesn’t happen very often with me. I listened to the soundtrack on the drive to work for a little while, as a way of calming myself down since I didn’t like driving.

Sadly, it didn’t work and I stopped driving; I still don’t. I also did not manage to stick it out in that job and quit, but although Descendants 2 doesn’t exactly remind me of great times in my life, it hasn’t been tainted and rewatching it this week, it made me smile. It is my favourite movie in the series and I was so pleased to see that it had done well, because the talent of the main actors continues to shine through here.

PLOT

Descendants 2 begins with Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos crowded around a cauldron, clearly trying to enact some kind of spell. Cursed apples start to appear inside the cauldron, at which point, the VKs pass these apples out to all the students and teachers of Auradon Prep. Beast and Belle, King Ben’s parents, even fall for the trick. But don’t worry too much, because this isn’t like the Evil Queen’s poison apples; nobody is dying or falling into a coma. They just make everyone less well-behaved. No school work gets done, graffiti gets sprayed everywhere, and they all seem to be goofing off in one way or another!

We then see that this whole scene had only been happening in Mal’s mind. She is in fact standing in front of a crowd of press, sporting a new blonde hair-do, struggling to find the right things to say as photos of her are being snapped. Luckily, Ben comes to the rescue and tells all of the reporters to get lost. He then has to leave to do king stuff, so Mal is left alone with her thoughts again, which are quite disturbing at this point in time. Mal is dealing with the pressures of being the King’s official girlfriend, having to make visits to royalty, do interviews, and she is soon to become a Lady of the Court, which will be officially announced at Auradon’s upcoming Cotillion dance. It would be an understatement to say that Mal is nervous and stressed out. She has been using spells to try and make herself fit in and be perfect for everyone, and not understanding why she still has these impulses to be go back to her evil ways, whereas Jay, Carlos, and Evie do not feel that way at all. Evie is loving life in Auradon, making dresses and designing clothes for all of the students; Jay is still very much a jock, now captain of the school’s Swords and Shields team; and Carlos has a crush on Jane, Fairy Godmother’s daughter, and has his dog, Dude, to look after.

Meanwhile, over in the Isle of the Lost, Uma, the daughter of Ursula, and Harry, the son of Captain Hook, are angry that Mal is living the royal life over in Auradon, whilst they have been left in the dismal ruins of the Isle, not being allowed to get their “second chance” like the others had. Seeing Mal on TV in news reports only makes them more furious.

Back in Auradon, Mal takes Ben out on a picnic with all of his favourite foods, as he keeps giving her extravagant gifts, like a purple scooter. However, Mal actually forgot what day it was and had to use her spell book to make all of this. As Ben searches for napkins in their picnic basket, he finds the spell book and is annoyed that Mal would lie to him about still having it, and not turning it over to the museum like she promised. Ben doesn’t seem to understand how hard this transition has been for Mal, and upset, she packs up all of her stuff, including her mother, Maleficent, who is still a little lizard from the events of the first movie, and flees back to the Isle, using a spell and her scooter to get across the water.

Once in the Isle, Mal heads to Lady Tremaine’s hair salon where she asks Dizzy, Drizella’s daughter, to give her a new look, to make her feel more like her old self, which she does by turning Mal’s hair purple again. As Mal and Dizzy are finishing up, Harry enters the hair salon and orders Dizzy to hand over all the money in the till. Mal says hello to her “old friend”. Harry responds that Uma won’t be giving Mal back her turf, but she isn’t concerned; she says she’ll just take it back as she plans to stay in the Isle.

Evie has realised that Mal has run away and goes to Ben for help. He says that he has to go to the Isle to get her back, but Evie reminds him he knows nothing about that place. Despite not wanting to go back there, Evie says she, Jay, and Carlos will go with him. They take the limo over the barrier to the Isle and cover it up with a tarpaulin so no-one will know they are there. After a brief makeover and lesson in how to behave correctly on the Isle, the four go to Mal’s old hideout to find her, except Gil, son of Gaston, spots them and runs to tell Uma the king is here.

Ben manages to speak to Mal, and tells her he loves her. Mal says that she isn’t good for him or for Auradon and that she is going to remain in the Isle where she belongs. Heartbroken, Ben leaves as she wishes, but Evie, Carlos, and Jay take their eyes off him for one minute, and he’s gone. Uma has him and she wants a meeting with Mal. Mal, irritated at her friends for being so careless, goes to Uma where Uma announces her terms for Ben’s release: she wants Fairy Godmother’s wand by noon tomorrow or else Ben dies.

The VKs come up with a plan. Carlos and Jay go back to Auradon so they can 3D print an exact copy of the wand, whilst Evie and Mal go to the hair salon to make smoke bombs to use as a distraction during the swap, since Uma will realise that the wand is a fake quite quickly. Evie and Mal also have a heart-to-heart, where Mal reiterates that she doesn’t want to go back to Auradon. Evie offers to stay too, but Mal says she belongs in Auradon.

The next day, Ben and Uma talk as they await Mal and the others. He invites her to Auradon, to get her second chance, but Uma doesn’t want a pity hand-out; she wants to make her own way there. Mal and the VKs, plus Dude the dog who snuck back with Carlos and Jay, and Lonnie, Mulan’s daughter, who blackmailed her way into this plan, arrive at Uma’s boat with the fake wand, ordering her to give Ben to them. Uma’s not an idiot though, and she wants proof the wand works. Mal puts a spell on Dude to make him talk – and Dude starts talking, but only because he ate a magic truth gummy the day before and has been talking ever since! This is enough evidence for Uma though who doesn’t know this, and the swap is done. But Uma then immediately tries to destroy the barrier between Auradon and the Isle, which she is unable to do. A fight ensues and after a – quite lengthy – sword fight, a huge smoke bomb is thrown, giving the VKs, Ben, and Lonnie their chance to escape. They pile into the limo and head back – with Mal’s spell book accidentally being left on the Isle.

Back in Auradon, Mal is told by Ben that she doesn’t have to attend Cotillion if she doesn’t want to. Jay, Evie, and Carlos then talk to her, saying that she should’ve told them how she was feeling because they all think about their old lives on the Isle from time to time. Again, she is told she doesn’t have to go to Cotillion that night, but she should probably give it a try and if it doesn’t work out, then they won’t stop her returning to the Isle.

As everyone arrives at Cotillion, which is being held onboard a ship, Mal makes her big entrance, having decided to attend after all. However, as Ben is about to enter, he makes a shocking announcement – that Uma is here and he is in love with her! Everyone is rightly angry with Ben for hurting and humiliating Mal, even his parents who can’t understand what has happened. Jane then reveals the stained-glass window of Ben and Mal that he had commissioned, showing Mal that Ben does love her for who she is, not for the princess she tried to be. Uma is fuming though, and orders Ben to declare his love for her, by giving her the ultimate gift: destroying the barrier between Auradon and the Isle. Fairy Godmother refuses to do this, and Mal realises that Uma must have put a spell on Ben. She then declares her love for Ben and kisses him, with true love’s first kiss breaking the spell.

Uma then dives into the water, and using her mother’s magic necklace, transforms herself into a cecaelia – half-human, half-octopus, like Ursula – and starts to attack the boat. Mal shocks everyone, including herself, by transforming herself into a dragon to fight Uma. Ben jumps into the water to break up the fight, saying that this is not the way to resolve their differences. The two do stop fighting, with Uma simply turning away from the party and heading back to the Isle. Mal returns to her human form and her and Ben reunite. Mal’s spell book is returned to her, as Uma did steal it, but she hands it over to Fairy Godmother to put in the museum. Evie then asks Ben if Dizzy could be invited to Auradon, saying she has a whole list of kids from the Isle who would benefit from spending time there. Ben happily agrees, and everyone at Cotillion then parties away, much like they did at the end of Descendants, glad to see that the craziness has ebbed once more.

Uma then appears to the audience, saying the story is still not over…

CHARACTERS & CAST

Since Descendants ended with Mal and Ben embracing their feelings for each other, it is only fitting that Descendants 2 would focus on their new relationship – except everything isn’t all happy and rosy with them. Mal is struggling to fit in with her new “princess” role now that she’s Ben’s official girlfriend, using spells to make everything she does perfect. Ben is unfortunately too busy with King duties to help her and is quite unsympathetic when she tries to explain why she’s turned to magic again. This causes a huge falling out between the two of them, and even when Ben goes to the Isle to try and win Mal back, the conversation ends up taking a turn and Mal tells him to go back to Auradon without her – and then Ben is snatched by Uma and her gang, in a nice little twist on the usual “damsel in distress”! It’s not until the Cotillion dance that the two are able to reconcile again, and that’s after Uma has come in to try and spoil everything. Mal is really put through the wringer in this movie! Luckily, it’s a happy ending for Mal and Ben by the end of Descendants 2. Dove Cameron and Mitchell Hope reprised their roles here from the first film.

Whilst Mal begins to look back at their times on the Isle, Evie is having a great time in Auradon, now becoming the resident designer at the school, and is excitedly preparing everyone’s outfits for Cotillion. Evie is also happy in a relationship with Doug, Dopey’s son, who is helping Evie run her new fashion business. When Evie is forced back to the Isle to convince Mal to return to Auradon, she instantly sees the difficulties that the children there are still facing, and begins to feel guilty about the fact she was given a fresh start and these kids aren’t allowed to. One of these is Dizzy, Drizella’s daughter, as in one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Dizzy shares Evie’s love of fashion and is not evil at all. In fact, she’s being treated badly by her grandmother, Lady Tremaine, much in the same way that Cinderella was. This gives Evie the idea to ask King Ben to give some other villain children a chance in Auradon like she got, and he’s very happy to do so.

Sofia Carson returned to play Evie, as did Zachary Gibson as Doug, who had previously had a minor role in the Disney Channel movie Zapped (2014) prior to his casting in the Descendants series. Anna Cathcart was chosen to portray the new character of Dizzy. After Descendants 2, Cathcart was cast as Kitty Song-Covey, sister of the main character, in the Netflix film series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018-21). She later reprised this role in the spin-off series XO, Kitty (2023-present). Cathcart’s first major screen role was in the educational children’s series Odd Squad (2014-present) as Agent Olympia.

Jay is still a big presence in Auradon Prep’s sports teams and instead of seeing him play Tourney in this movie, they have a new sport: Swords and Shields, which seems to be a mix of traditional sword-fighting and fencing, so there is less chance of blood and limb loss. Although Jay helps out Mal, Evie, and Ben over in the Isle, fighting off Uma and her gang of pirates with his impressive sword fighting skills, his main storyline in Descendants 2 actually involves Lonnie, Mulan’s daughter, and Chad, Cinderella’s son. Lonnie wants to join the school’s Swords and Shields team, but as Chad points out, a team can only consist of its captain and eight men; no girls allowed. Jay, as captain of the team, is reluctant to go against the rule book, but when Lonnie convinces Jay to let her help over in the Isle, he sees what a talent she is and gets her on to the team: by making her the captain, since the rule book doesn’t specify that the captain has to be a man. Nice loop hole there.

Booboo Stewart returned to his role as Jay for Descendants 2, as did Dianne Doan and Jedidiah Goodacre as Lonnie and Chad respectively. After Descendants, Doan was cast as Mai Ling in the series Warrior (2019-23), and later was cast in the recurring role of Kora in the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-20). Goodacre was cast in the Disney Channel movie Zapped (2014) prior to his role in Descendants. He later played the role of Dorian Gray in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018-20).

Carlos is also involved in the plan to rescue Ben in the Isle, but he has other things on his mind too. One of these is around keeping the four VKs together. He doesn’t let Mal and Evie go off to have “girl talk” alone, wanting them all to be there for each other, so it’s not just girls against guys. They all have shared experiences in the Isle, so they should all be able to share their feelings about Auradon too. Carlos is definitely the peacekeeper in the group. Another thing he has to deal with is the fact his dog, Dude, has suddenly started talking. This occurs as Carlos asks Mal to give him a “truth gummy”, as he hopes to be able to ask Jane, Fairy Godmother’s daughter, to be his date for Cotillion, but he’s too shy to do it. However, Dude then eats the gummy and starts talking. It’s not really an issue, but Dude doesn’t have the benefit of human experience to be able to filter what he says, so he talks at all the wrong moments and is quite blunt in what he says. Despite not having this truth gummy, Carlos finally gets up the courage to ask Jane to the dance and she gladly accepts, giving us another Descendants couple to root for.

Cameron Boyce returned to his role as Carlos, as did Brenna D’Amico as Jane. D’Amico’s first acting role was in the first Descendants movie. She later appeared in the first two seasons of web series Chicken Girls (2017-present) as Sandy, and is still appearing in movies such as The Never List (2020) and in the upcoming Saturday at the Starlight. Dude was voiced by former Saturday Night Live (1975-present) cast member and writer Bobby Moynihan, who was on the show from 2008 to 2017.

Now for the new VKs. The main one is obviously Uma, daughter of Ursula. She has been forced to run night-shifts at her mother’s fish and chip restaurant and is incredibly bitter about Mal and her friends’ rise to fame in Auradon, having been passed over for her chance to get over there. Uma despises Mal and thinks it’s about time she got to have a taste of what’s in Auradon. But she doesn’t want a handout, as she turns Ben down for an invitation to come over there; Uma wants to get there on her own. And how does she do that? With magic, of course! That obviously doesn’t work out for her, but she promises that this isn’t the end of her story and that she’ll be back.

China Anne McClain was cast as Uma. McClain’s acting career began at a young age. She turned down the chance to appear in the Disney Channel movie Jump In! (2007), instead choosing to star in Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (2007-present), which she has recently returned to. McClain also starred alongside Cameron Boyce in the Adam Sandler films Grown Ups (2010) and Grown Ups 2 (2013). For Disney, her first major role was as Chyna Parks in the series A.N.T. Farm (2011-14), before starring in the Disney Channel movie How to Build a Better Boy (2014). Most interestingly, she was cast as Freddie, daughter of Dr. Facilier, in the animated series Descendants: Wicked World (2015-17). When McClain was cast as Uma, her sister, Lauryn, took over this voice role.

A villain would be nothing without her sidekicks and Uma gets two of these: Harry, son of Captain Hook, and Gil, son of Gaston. Uma seems to be the brains of the operation, Harry is the brawn, and Gil is the…comic relief, or pretty face? I’m not sure how Gil is of use to Uma, but he’s there anyway, and his dim-wittedness is quite amusing. Dylan Playfair was cast in the new role of Gil, having previously acted as Knox in the teen sitcom Some Assembly Required (2014-16). Thomas Doherty was chosen to play Harry. He had previously played Sean Matthews in the Disney Channel series The Lodge (2016-17).

MUSIC

Much like Descendants, Descendants 2 features many big, high-energy, colourful ensemble numbers. Within the soundtrack’s six original songs, only one of these does not fit that description and that is “Space Between”, the duet between Mal and Evie. Similarly to “If Only” from the first movie, this is the emotional calm moment of reflection in the film. Mal and Evie are saying to each other that even though they may not physically be in the same realm together, they’ll always be there for each other, as Mal has said she will not be coming back to Auradon with the others. It’s very touching, and Sofia Carson and Dove Cameron’s voices blend so well together. It’s beautiful and my favourite song in the soundtrack.

Another number that is not a huge ensemble number, I suppose, is “Chillin’ Like a Villain”, which involves Evie, Jay, and Carlos teaching Ben how to act like someone from the Isle, since he almost gets beaten up for trying to shake hands with a random stranger! Despite not having backing dancers, “Chillin’ Like a Villain” still includes some quite complicated choreography. It might sound patronising to say this but I can really see how much Mitchell Hope’s dancing as improved between Descendants and the sequel. All four of them look perfectly in sync with each other and not one bit of it looks awkward – apart from the moments when Ben is supposed to not be fitting in with the other three, of course! This song itself is incredibly catchy and gets stuck in my head on a regular basis. It was actually filmed during a typhoon in Vancouver. It was the final day when they could film in that particular set, so they just had to roll with the punches, with half of the set apparently blowing away and the whole place almost flooding!

So, to the big production numbers. Let’s talk about “You and Me” first, even though it’s the finale piece. It’s an upbeat, hopeful song, much like “Set It Off” in Descendants, though it does have a touch of melancholy to it as they talk about what they’ve learnt through this whole experience. It was filmed on a flooded yacht deck, which required two huge water cannons to get the deck sufficiently flooded. The cast are literally dancing in ankle-deep water, but nobody seems to slip and injure themselves. It must have been a nightmare for costuming, hair and make-up, and health and safety, but I bet it was so much fun to film[1]!

Then there is “Ways to Be Wicked” which opens the sequel, warning the viewer that they’d better be ready for this bigger and better movie! It starts the film off with more of a bang than “Rotten to the Core” did in Descendants. It also helps that it confuses everyone because the VKs seem to have gone bad, passing out cursed apples to everywhere at Auradon Prep, whereas we left them at the end of Descendants vowing to be good!

Now to the new, true villains, who get to have just as much fun as the heroes. Uma gets her very own song to introduce her to the audience and that is “What’s My Name?”. China Anne McClain pulls this song off brilliantly, as it needed some real power and strength to it. This shows that Uma is not someone to be messed with. This is my second favourite song in the movie, because I always love the villain song in Disney’s animated movies and this certainly feels like one. The only thing that I don’t love is Harry’s little rap bit in the middle. It wasn’t really needed, and this song is meant to be all about Uma, so don’t pull focus away from her, Harry! The song takes place in a restaurant, so there’s lots of dancing on tables and chairs, and even dancers flying from bits of ceiling decoration.

The final number within the movie to mention is “It’s Goin’ Down”. This scene was originally only going to be dialogue, but apparently, it was changed to be a rap battle after being inspired by some of the songs within the musical Hamilton. I particularly like the piece that Ben sings in the middle of all this hostility, as he gives a heartfelt plea to Mal and Uma to stop all this fighting – even though he’s tied up and walking the plank at this point so he doesn’t really seem to be in the best position to try and call a truce! This song gets an even bigger stage than the others in the movie as it takes place in the docks and on Uma’s boat. It also ends with a huge sword fight, which must have been difficult to choreograph.

Descendants 2’s soundtrack debuted at No. 6 in the Billboard 200 chart, which doesn’t match up with the original movie’s soundtrack which topped that chart. Descendants 2, however, did equal its predecessor by topping the Billboard US Kid Albums and US Soundtrack Albums chart. But that doesn’t mean that the soundtrack was received poorly. The soundtrack topped the iTunes album chart on 24^th July 2017, just a couple of days after its release, and the six songs from the movie filled the Top 10 of the Soundtrack Songs chart for Apple less than 24 hours after the movie aired[2].

As well as songs from the movie, a version of “Kiss the Girl”, sung by the cast as the End Credits song, and “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, by China Anne McClain, also appear on the soundtrack. These songs are clearly there to reference the fact that Uma’s mother is from The Little Mermaid (1989), just in case it wasn’t clear! There are also three songs from Descendants: Wicked World on this soundtrack, as a kind of cross-promotion, I guess.

One other thing I will mention is that all the cast members seem to sing for their characters in Descendants 2. In Descendants, singer-songwriter Jeff Lewis was credited as providing the singing voice for Ben, however, for Descendants 2, Jeff Lewis’ name only appears as a credit for “You and Me”, alongside Mitchell Hope’s. Hope does definitely seem to be the sole singing voice for Ben in both “Chillin’ Like a Villain” and “It’s Goin’ Down”.

Composer David Lawrence returned to compose the score for Descendants 2.

PRODUCTION

Since Descendants had been such a huge hit, and because Mal teased a sequel at the end of the movie itself, hype around a potential sequel began as soon as Descendants finished airing in 2015. The cast had been asked about whether there would be a sequel during interviews after the movie had premiered, such as at the D23 Expo in August 2015, however, they refused to comment on it. It wasn’t until October 2015 that Disney Channel officially confirmed that they would in fact be making a Descendants 2.

The first behind-the-scenes video was dropped in November 2016, which showed glimpses of the new sets as well as clips of the cast sword fighting. The cast interviews promised that the movie would be huge. “Ways to Be Wicked” became the first single of the soundtrack to debut after playing on Radio Disney on 13^th April 2017, a day before it became available to purchase online. Shortly after, the premiere date was revealed: 21^st July 2017.

The movie was of course promoted in all the usual ways, with interviews and performances. It was revealed that there were going to be more action-packed scenes, with the cast going through around 20 hours of sword training, more visual effects, and bigger sets, with more dance numbers and superior music[3]. The cast were also invited onto Good Morning America to perform “Ways to Be Wicked” and “What’s My Name?”.

Kara Saun, the costume designer for both Descendants and Descendants 2, who was a finalist on the first season of Project Runway (2004-present) talked about how she came up with the costumes for the newer characters. She said that she did a lot of research, by watching the Disney animated films that the villain parents come from and going to Disney’s Animation Research Library to look at artwork. From that point, she would look at the parent’s signature colour and incorporate that into the child’s clothing. However, they couldn’t have the same colour, which became a bit of a problem when adding in these new VKs. Both Gaston and Captain Hook are known for wearing red, but it was decided that Harry’s signature colour would be red, and Gil would have burnt orange instead, which references some of the early artwork on Gaston which used that colour instead of red, apparently. Uma also could not be purple like Ursula because that’s Mal’s colour. Instead, Saun looked to Ursula’s eyeshadow to find Uma’s colour of turquoise[4].

Sofia Carson, Dove Cameron, Booboo Stewart, Cameron Boyce, and China Anne McClain, joined by Kenny Ortega, were all seen at the D23 Expo on 14^th July 2017 to promote the film. There was a mini parade that ran through the conference centre featuring these six in vehicles, with Mark Hamill and Stan Lee following behind them. The day before, they had also been the Grand Marshals in the pre-parade at Disneyland, prior to Mickey’s Soundsational Parade coming through. “Ways to Be Wicked” played as they went by.

RECEPTION

Descendants had reached over 100 million viewers worldwide not too long after its release, having had 6.6 million viewers just on its US Disney Channel premiere date. Disney wanted to do something bigger for Descendants 2.

It was decided that the movie would air on 21^st July simultaneously across six different networks in the Disney-ABC Television group. These channels were Disney Channel, ABC, DisneyXD, Freeform, Lifetime, and Lifetime Movies. It was reported that the movie reached 13 million total viewers across those six networks, with Disney Channel’s audience reaching 5.3 million on the night. Descendants 2 also broke social media records for Disney Channel, reaching 174.1 million video views, 90.8 million impressions, and 14.6 million engagements by the time of its release[5].

The cast were involved in a live party on Disney Channel for the premiere, which featured games, Descendants 2 gossip, and surprises, seemingly taking place between the channel’s programming on that day. There was also the ABC After Party with Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart and China Anne McClain, which aired straight after the movie’s premiere.

Many viewers liked this darker sequel, enjoying the lively musical numbers and the messages about fitting in and the class inequality between the fortunate of Auradon and the unfortunate of the Isle. The new characters were received well, and the majority felt that this was a step up from Descendants, as the sequel had promised to be. If you liked Descendants, the critics were sure you’d like Descendants 2. Most of the negative reviews came from people that already hadn’t liked the first one, but there were additional comments around the CGI not being good enough. That’s probably because there is so much “big budget” CGI in movies nowadays that people forget that television movie budgets aren’t nearly as much, even if it is Disney! Descendants 2 was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Television Presentation in 2018. It sadly lost out to Twin Peaks: The Return (2017).

It came to light shortly after the movie premiered that there had in fact been a particular moment that was filmed but cut from the final edit. This was a kiss between Harry and Gil, a photo of which Thomas Doherty and Dylan Playfair put on social media. Though this scene was cut from the movie, in the novelisation of Descendants 2, there is a line which mentions the two characters kissing. It is at the point when they are watching Uma arrive at Cotillion on television, and seems to just be a kiss of celebration that their plan has worked and they can finally get off the Isle. I don’t believe it was meant to be anything serious or romantic, so I can see why it wouldn’t be needed in the film, but I can also see why it could’ve been there, since it was such a small moment[6].

LEGACY

In 2016, the four VKs returned to the Disney Parks for another holiday show, after they were seen in 2015’s show. This was Disney Parks Presents: A Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration, a show featuring musical performances and a look at the Disney Parks for the holiday season. With Cameron Boyce and Sofia Carson hosting from Walt Disney World, and Booboo Stewart and Dove Cameron at Disneyland, they performed a new version of the song “Rotten to the Core”, renamed to “Jolly to the Core”. China Anne McClain was also a performer during this show, as she had been announced as a new cast member addition for Descendants 2 back in June 2016. An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the sequel was also shown to further hype the sequel. In 2017 for the holiday season, Sofia Carson recorded a new version of “Chillin’ Like a Villain” called “Chillin’ Like a Snowman”, which she performed at Magic Kingdom during the Disney Parks’ festive television special that year.

After Descendants 2, as a sequel was once again teased in the movie itself, this time by Uma, many fans were excited to see what would come next. In February 2018, Descendants 3 was officially announced as coming to screens in Summer 2019. I actually find it a little bit unfair how and where Disney decided to announce Descendants 3, as it was during the premiere of ZOMBIES, another musical DCOM, on 16^th February 2018. Were the cast and crew of ZOMBIES really not allowed their own moment in the spotlight? Could the Descendants 3 announcement not have waited until afterwards?

Anyway, to make the wait for Descendants 3 easier for fans, a new ten-minute live-action short film called Under the Sea: A Descendants Short Story premiered on 28^th September 2018 on Disney Channel. It followed on from the teaser of the official announcement, where Mal has just seen a glowing orb in the woods, whispering her name. Mal sees Dizzy on the beach outside of the woods on the Isle. It turns out Dizzy is wearing Uma’s necklace, so she has been sort of possessed by her. Harry and Gil arrive to warn Mal away from the Isle and let her know that Uma is looking for revenge. Mal then dives into the water, where she sees Uma. This seems to only be a hallucination and Mal is back on the beach, talking to Dizzy. Mal is scared that danger is coming to Auradon. The short features a cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” by Dove Cameron. The cast reprised their roles here.

Under the Sea doesn’t add much to the Descendants franchise, and it seems to have only been made as a way of bridging the gap between the release dates of Descendants 2 and Descendants 3. It also sought to build anticipation for the next film, but it did confuse some viewers, including me, since it didn’t give us any more information about Descendants 3. We already knew about the glowing blue orb being Mal’s father, and we’d already managed to speculate who Mal’s father must be.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Making a sequel can be a tricky undertaking, especially when that sequel has promised to be more extravagant than its predecessor.

Managing fan expectations is perhaps the most difficult task, but there are other potential risks. Like, what if the new characters don’t come across well on screen, or don’t gel with the originals? Or what if the music isn’t good, or the story confuses viewers?

Luckily, Descendants 2 didn’t have anything to worry about because a large proportion of Descendants fans loved the sequel. Not everyone would say that the sequel is better than the original, like me, though. I liked the sequel more because it was a bit darker and touched on real-life issues like dealing with your past, and creating an environment with equal opportunities for all. It felt less like a fairy tale than Descendants, in a good way.

Due to the success of Descendants 2, this was not the end of the series, and there was still more to come from this cast.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Kimberly Nordyke, ‘Sword Training, 1,500 Costumes and Water-Filled Dance Numbers: Behind the Scenes of ‘Descendants 2’’, HollywoodReporter.com, 21^st July 2017.

[2] Credit: Melinda Newman, ‘Disney Channel’s ‘Descendants 2’ Soundtrack Strikes a New Wicked Chord After Original Hit’, Billboard.com, 2^nd August 2017.

[3] Credit: Kimberly Nordyke, ‘Sword Training, 1,500 Costumes and Water-Filled Dance Numbers: Behind the Scenes of ‘Descendants 2’’, HollywoodReporter.com, 21^st July 2017.

[4] Credit: Beth Deitchman, ‘The Villain Kids are Dressed to Thrill in Descendants 2’, D23.com, 21^st July 2017.

[5] Credit: Disney ‘‘Descendants 2’ Premiere Reaches 13 Million Total Viewers’, TheWaltDisneyCompany,com, 24^th July 2017.

[6] Credit: Noelle Devoe, ‘Thomas Doherty Shares the Surprising Kissing Scene That Was Cut From ‘Descendants 2’’, Seventeen.com, 25^th July 2017.

12th Jul 202429th Sep 2025 by The Disney Purist

Descendants (2015)

BACKGROUND

Despite Disney Channel continuing to dish out new original movies to hordes of eager tweens and teens on a regular basis, nothing had captured anyone’s attention quite like the High School Musical trilogy.

That wasn’t for lack of trying though. Disney Channel have always made good movies, with their musicals generally being their most successful films, and in the years after the release of High School Musical (2006), we were given some great ones, including Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), as well as Lemonade Mouth (2011) and StarStruck (2010).

Although the reception to all of these was positive on the whole, they hadn’t matched the fame of the High School Musical franchise. Disney Channel knew they needed something bigger, something more marketable, something more familiar. And so, with that in mind, they went back to the Disney animated movies to find their inspiration.

So, were given Descendants, a movie that used some of the most adored Disney Villains of all time as its basis, but there’s always a twist, especially in Disney – and that twist was that Descendants was going to be about… the villains’ kids? Who saw that coming?

As a hardcore fan of the Disney Villains, I was concerned when I heard about Descendants. I wasn’t watching Disney Channel much at the time – I was “too old” for that – but there was such a buzz around the announcement of Descendants that I must’ve just heard about it online. I had never considered the possibility of the Disney Villains having children, with many of them seeming to have died in their respective movies, but let’s not worry about canon here; it all gets very complicated if you do.

In a way, I was right to be concerned. I first watched Descendants on DVD, having received it as a Christmas present in 2015, and seeing the over-the-top, flamboyant, and might I say weak, portrayals of some of my favourite villains was not what I had wanted to see, although I was not overly surprised to see this change in these characters – this is a Disney Channel movie after all. However, in another way, I wasn’t right to be concerned, because luckily, Descendants isn’t about the classic Disney villains, it’s about the kids, and the four main characters were instantly likeable and their star quality amazed me.

As the movie went on, I liked Descendants more and more, and forgot about the villain parents. I ended up being very impressed, surprising myself as I had only wanted to watch it so I could be bitter about the villain portrayals. My pettiness is disappointing, I know.

PLOT

The story of Descendants begins with a classic storybook opening, except this is 2015 so the story is actually on a tablet, because no young person reads actual books anymore, do they? Anyway, this backstory tells us that when the Beast and Belle married, Beast decided to unite all the neighbouring kingdoms, naming them the United States of Auradon and he became king of all of the realm, seemingly by his own decision, with no election held so that the people could decide who might be ruler of Auradon. I guess democracy is dead in fairy tale world! To stop any further evil from disrupting everyone’s “happily ever afters”, all the villains and bad guys were banished to the Isle of the Lost and refused entry to Auradon.

Around twenty years later, Belle and Beast’s son, Prince Ben, soon-to-be crowned King Ben at the young age of 16, states that as his first official proclamation, he has ordered that some of the villain children from the Isle be allowed to start a new life in Auradon, as they should not be punished for their parents’ mistakes. The four kids who will test out this new idea are the children of Cruella De Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Jafar from Aladdin (1992), the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and of course, the mistress of all evil, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (1959).

A limo comes to collect the four teens, Carlos, Jay, Evie, and Mal, but they are uncertain about going to a boarding school full of “prissy princesses and perfect princes”. Maleficent is eager for them to go though, as she has never given up hope of escaping the Isle and ruling over Auradon. She pushes her daughter, Mal, to agree to her plan, to find Fairy Godmother’s wand and break the barrier between the two lands so that she can storm Auradon and usurp the throne. They agree and head to Auradon in their fancy limo, although they initially believe it to be a trick as they are driven towards a huge ocean, but there’s an invisible road that appears with the click of a button. How lucky is that!

At Auradon Prep, the four villain kids, or VKs, receive a mixed reception, with many suspicious of their intentions. The most suspicious of these is Audrey, Ben’s girlfriend and the daughter of Princess Aurora, so yeah, there’s bad blood between her and Mal already. Ben is still sure of his plan and welcomes them all warmly. The four are led to their dorm rooms and they begin to settle in to their surroundings before their first day of school the next day. Except Mal just wants to get this wand for her mother and get out of here, so she gets the other three to focus on their actual mission. Evie discovers, via her magic compact mirror, that Fairy Godmother’s wand is housed in The Museum of Cultural History and it’s just a short walk away. After breaking into the museum that night, using Maleficent’s spell book that she gave to Mal, which can only work in Auradon, not in the Isle, they find the wand, but Jay tries to grab the wand and the alarm goes off. They run back to school and are not caught, although Mal is annoyed; they actually have to go to class tomorrow now!

During the school day, the four VKs struggle with their class Remedial Goodness, a new class just for them, of course, and find that many of the students and teachers are scared of them. Evie just wants Chad, son of Cinderella and Prince Charming, to fall for her, despite Doug, Dopey’s son, being interested in her; Jay finds that he’s good at Tourney, a sport that seems to be a medieval version of lacrosse; and Carlos learns that dogs can actually be friendly, despite his mother telling him that dogs are vicious pack animals that will hunt him down and attack him. Mal, however, is intent on completing her mother’s wish and goes to Fairy Godmother’s daughter, Jane, for information. Now that Fairy Godmother is a teacher, she apparently never uses her wand anymore, much to Jane’s annoyance as she wants to use it to make herself beautiful. Mal tries to get Jane to like her by magically changing her hair style and telling Jane she should tell her mother how she feels. This doesn’t work, but Evie says that the wand will be used at Ben’s Coronation later in the week. Mal asks Ben if she can sit in the front row for the ceremony but he tells her those seats are only for his parents and his girlfriend. That gives her an idea.

With Maleficent’s spell book, Mal and the rest of the VKs are able to make cookies that contain a love spell. Using some clever reverse psychology and emotional blackmail, Mal convinces Ben to eat one of the cookies and he falls in love with her instantly. After Auradon Prep win their Tourney game, Ben declares his love for Mal, much to Audrey’s dismay who starts to date Chad, which upsets Evie as she wanted to be his girlfriend, and was willing to do his homework for him just to get him to like her. Mal tells her she can do so much better than him, which is mostly definitely true! Evie decides that with Doug’s tutoring, she’ll focus on her school work, and she begins to like Doug instead.

Later on, Mal tells Evie that Ben has asked her out on a date and helps get her ready. Ben takes Mal for a cute picnic by the Enchanted Lake. Despite Mal believing the two of them are very different, they end up bonding over their struggles to deal with their parents’ expectations of them, and how they just want to choose what they want to do with their lives. Mal realises that actually, she does like Ben and now feels guilty for the spell.

The next day, as Family Day is coming up and the VKs parents cannot come to visit, a special video call is set up for them. Mal tells her mother about the Coronation and that gives Maleficent the date for her revenge plan to take place. The four teens now aren’t sure about this plan, but on Family Day, tensions run high as Mal runs into Queen Leah, Aurora’s mother and Audrey’s grandmother, and the teens realise that nobody wants them here, giving them motivation to carry out the plan to steal Fairy Godmother’s wand. Mal doesn’t want to keep Ben under the love spell though and makes something to reverse it.

On Coronation Day, Ben and Mal arrive together in a carriage. During the ride to the cathedral, Mal gives him the brownie and tells him to eat it later in the day, but he doesn’t listen and takes a bite right there. He says he doesn’t feel any different and reveals to Mal that he knew about her love spell and that it washed off after he went swimming in the Enchanted Lake during their date. Surprisingly, Ben is not angry and thinks it’s cute that Mal put him under a spell just because she was jealous of Audrey and didn’t think Ben would like her without a spell. Ok Ben, you just keep believing that delusion if it makes you feel better!

During the ceremony, the wand is stolen and the barrier between Auradon and the Isle of the Lost is broken. Maleficent is overjoyed and magics herself to the cathedral. In a shocking discovery, it was actually Jane stealing her mother’s wand, wanting to make herself beautiful like Cinderella. Mal takes the wand from her in a seemingly selfless act, but she refuses to return it, not wanting to disappoint her mother. She says that she just wants to be good, and doesn’t want to go through with this, giving the wand back, but as her, Evie, Carlos, and Jay vow to each other that they’ll choose good over evil, Maleficent arrives and freezes everyone except the four. She takes the wand from Fairy Godmother’s hand, but the VKs fight back and retrieve it. Maleficent then transforms into a dragon and attacks them. Mal uses a counterspell which turns Maleficent’s dragon into a lizard. Everyone is unfrozen and Mal returns the wand to Fairy Godmother, who tells Mal that Maleficent was shrunk so that she would become the size of the love in her heart, which, naturally, is quite small!

After all that mess, it’s time to party and celebrate Ben’s Coronation Day. The students do this with a dance number and fireworks outside of Auradon Prep, which are being watched from afar by the other villain parents. As we continue watching all the students partying together as friends, we see Mal’s eyes flash green, and hear her say that the story isn’t over yet.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Mal is Maleficent’s daughter. She seems to be the villain kid who is most inclined towards being evil, compared with the other three, and that is because her mother is one of the most evil villains of them all. Maleficent is also the only villain who thinks they can get off the Isle, so all that scheming and wickedness would’ve rubbed off on her daughter! But Mal actually doesn’t want to be evil like her mother. After getting to Auradon, she realises that she wants to be a good person and that she likes Ben, and that he makes her happy, whereas being mean and cruel doesn’t. Mal stands up to her mother, which must’ve been incredibly difficult for her, and is ultimately the one who outsmarts and defeats her. Mal was played brilliantly by Dove Cameron. At the time of Descendants, Cameron was performing the dual role of both Liv Rooney and Maddie Rooney in the Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie (2013-17), for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children’s Programming in 2018. She had also starred in the Disney Channel movie Cloud 9 (2014).

Evie is the daughter of the Evil Queen. She has been brought up to believe that beauty and money are the most important things in the world, so all Evie needs to do is stay young and stunning and bag herself a rich prince – according to her mother. Although Evie attempts to do this by flirting with Chad, it doesn’t work out for her, and she learns that actually she is intelligent, creative, and independent; she doesn’t need a guy to give her life meaning and she can be successful on her own terms and with her own talent. Though I like Mal, I also really like Evie, because she’s very optimistic and level-headed. Sofia Carson was cast as Evie, who had first appeared on Disney Channel in a guest role on the series Austin & Ally in 2014. After Descendants, Carson starred in a different Disney Channel movie, Adventures in Babysitting (2016).

Carlos is the son of Cruella de Vil. His mother taught him to be scared of dogs, after all her traumatic backstory with them, I suppose. She also seems to treat her son like her own personal slave, not wanting him to go to Auradon so he can do her hair… Carlos is funny, helpful, kind, and a complete scene-stealer. Carlos is one of the first to stand up to their parents, as he shows his mother that she was wrong about dogs by getting himself a pet, the school mascot, Dude. Even in Descendants, you can see that Carlos is being set up to be the one that holds the four of them together, despite the difficulties they’ll face. The very talented Cameron Boyce played the part of Carlos. Prior to Descendants, Boyce had been cast as one of the kids in the Adam Sandler film Grown Ups (2010) and its 2013 sequel. He was famous on Disney Channel for his role as Luke Ross in the series Jessie (2011-15), where Debbie Ryan played the title character. Boyce also voiced Jake in the animated series Jake and the Never Land Pirates from 2012 to 2014.

Jay is the son of Jafar, and due to there not being any magic on the Isle of the Lost, Jafar and Jay make their living by stealing from others. Jay does the exact same thing when he gets to Auradon but he soon learns that he doesn’t need to be doing that because he has his own skill – and that is being a great Tourney player, which automatically makes him a jock and part of a team. He is the most confident one of the four, but he can be a bit hot-headed, easy to anger if someone disrespects him. Booboo Stewart, who played Seth Clearwater in The Twilight Saga (2008-12), was cast as Jay. Stewart had also played Warpath in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) before his role in Descendants.

Before we get to the “heroes”, it’s probably worth briefly mentioning the villain parents. Although not as menacing or as wicked as their animated counterparts, the villain parents are much more kid-friendly in Descendants and I guess it makes sense that they aren’t particularly strong or confident now because they have been banished to the Isle for twenty years and can no longer practise magic or make big evil plans. Stand-up comedian Maz Jobrani portrayed Jafar here, and Wendy Raquel Robinson, who had roles in The Steve Harvey Show (1996-2002) as Regina, and The Game (2006-23), as Tasha, played Cruella de Vil. Kathy Najimy, who starred as Mary Sanderson in Hocus Pocus (1993) and its 2022 sequel, as well as Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act (1992) and its 1993 sequel, was cast as the Evil Queen, and the fabulous Kristin Chenoweth got the almighty task of playing Maleficent. Chenoweth is known for numerous roles, including originating the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked, as well as her screen credits, like Mary Jo Gornicke in RV (2006), Olive Snook in Pushing Daisies (2007-09), and Mildred/Miss Codwell in Schmigadoon! (2021-23). Chenoweth was also cast as Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray Live! (2016) with Dove Cameron playing her on-screen daughter, Amber.

For the heroes, obviously the main one is Ben. Ben is one of the few residents of Auradon to welcome the Villain Kids to Auradon Prep, but that’s probably because it was his idea to bring them there. If you don’t stand up for your own decree, no-one else will! Ben is very kind and understanding; he should be since his mother is Belle. Ben is played by Mitchell Hope, with Descendants being his breakout role. I actually very much like this character and think Hope portrayed the charm and sincerity of Ben well.

His parents, King Beast – the man still isn’t allowed a name? – and Belle were played by Dan Payne, who has appeared in many Hallmark holiday movies, and Keegan Connor Tracy, respectively, who was cast in the role of the Blue Fairy in the ABC series Once Upon a Time (2011-18). Then there is Fairy Godmother, the kind and fair headmistress of Auradon Prep. She is determined to teach the VKs how to be good, no matter how they behave. Melanie Paxson was chosen to play the part of Fairy Godmother. Fans of the Nickelodeon show True Jackson, VP may know her as Doris Aden, but prior to that, she had appeared in sitcoms such as Notes from the Underbelly (2007-08) and Happy Family (2003-04).

Descendants benefits from a large and varied supporting cast, with many other “royal children” who have not been mentioned, simply because it would take too long to write about all of them! Some of these characters do become more involved in later stories.

MUSIC

The soundtrack of Descendants features a lot of big, show-stopping ensemble numbers. The one song in the movie that goes against this is “If Only”, my favourite song in the movie. It’s an emotional, heartfelt solo performed by Mal, as she thinks about what she really wants from life. It’s a calm moment of meditation in amongst a story that is full to the brim with action and conflict. There is also a reprise of “If Only” later on, as Mal tearfully makes the antidote for her love spell for Ben the night before the Coronation.

“Rotten to the Core” is a huge production number with complicated choreography and a little bit of parkour that sets up the movie to focus on these four villain kids. It shows them in their natural habitat of the Isle of the Lost. It immediately grabbed my attention when I watched the movie for the first time and kept me interested in what was still to come. Another big dance number is featured at the end of the movie with “Set It Off”. After Ben’s Coronation, it’s time to party and the Auradon Prep students show us how it’s done. It’s a positive, happy ending to the movie, showing that they are “all in this together”.

So those are the songs that I do like in Descendants. Now for the ones I don’t like so much. The first one is “Did I Mention”, which is the song that Ben sings in front of all the Auradon Prep students, publicly declaring his love for Mal thanks to the love spell she put on him. It’s not that I don’t like the music, I actually do because it’s very catchy, and it’s hilarious to see Ben acting so earnestly when it almost feels embarrassing for the onlooker! The only issue I have is the dance moves. Mitchell Hope doesn’t seem to be the most natural dancer, and seeing the backing dancers next to him makes it all look a little bit awkward. Not that I’m one to judge. My dance abilities go about as far as the Macarena and the Cha-Cha Slide! Maybe it’s just the shoulder pads on Ben’s Tourney uniform throwing him off balance! Singer-songwriter Jeff Lewis, who was a contestant on The Voice Season 4, is credited as Ben’s singing voice in this movie, although the soundtrack lists Mitchell Hope as an artist as well.

Another number is “Evil Like Me”. Mal is trying to live up to her mother’s legacy and struggling to find the motivation to follow in her footsteps, so it’s a duet between the two, all happening only in Mal’s mind. It feels very Broadway, very showy. Again, it’s not so much the song that bothers me, but the idea behind it. To see Maleficent, one of the most devious female Disney villains of all time, dancing around and saying things about being “finger lickin’ evil to the bone” does not compute in my mind. If I forget it’s meant to be the Maleficent, it’s fine though, and Dove Cameron and Kristin Chenoweth really pull it off.

The musical piece I dislike the most is “Be Our Guest”. It’s an odd hip-hop/rap version of the classic song from Beauty and the Beast (1991) that the Auradon Prep students perform to welcome their families to Family Fun Day. I personally found it cringey to sit through because I’m so familiar with the actual song, and didn’t feel it needed to be updated. They also mention fine dining and eating “the grey stuff” still, but the only food I can see is this scene is a chocolate fountain, so that’s false advertising in my book.

On the soundtrack, “Believe” by Shawn Mendes is the final song, featuring in the End Credits. It’s ok but not something I’ll rush back to listen to again. “Believe” was nominated for Choice Movie TV Song at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. There is also the score composed by David Lawrence, who composed the scores for other Disney Channel Original Movies, including High School Music (2006). “Descendants Score Suite”, featuring excerpts from the score, was included on the official soundtrack. Lawrence was nominated for Outstanding Music Composition at the 68^th Primetime Emmy Awards. Descendants’ soundtrack topped the US Billboard 200, US Kid Albums and US Soundtrack Albums charts on its release.

PRODUCTION

Talk about Descendants started quite early on in production. In December 2013, the basic plot outline, i.e., four children of Disney villains being allowed to attend school at Auradon, was already known, as well as the names of the villain kids, and who their famous parents are. Kenny Ortega had also been named as director, which would have added to the excitement around the film, since he was well-known for being the director of the High School Musical trilogy – and we all know how well those did[1]. Ortega was the choreographer on many movies including Xanadu (1980) and Dirty Dancing (1987), and went on to direct Newsies (1992) and Hocus Pocus (1993), both for Disney. Casting and photos from shooting were later revealed in 2014, with a release date confirmed as being Summer 2015.

Kenny Ortega later stated in an interview that it took five months of auditioning before they found the four actors who would become Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay. He stated how impressed he was with them, and the fact that they took their roles seriously. Ortega also said how he liked that they were able to refresh these classic characters from Disney Animation, as well as be able to create new characters that would resonate with a new generation of Disney watchers[2].

Not only did the team on Descendants create new characters but they also had to create two new worlds. Auradon became the new magical kingdom, with its grand architecture, beautiful landscaping, and of course, its beautiful castle, which you can see during the “storybook opening” and coincidentally looks pretty similar to Cinderella Castle from the Disney Parks. This is the complete opposite of the Isle of the Lost. The Isle’s buildings are derelict, covered in grim and graffiti, and it looks like a dark, dismal junkyard. I’m sure if the villains hadn’t been condemned to a life there, banished from civilisation, they might have been a bit more motivated to clean the place up. As it is, that was not the case!

Descendants is also known for its stunning costumes. Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay begin their story in heavy leather outfits. The steampunk look of the Isle of the Lost is in sharp contrast to Auradon, where the princes all wear suits, and the princesses wear pretty dresses. Evie, being such a fashionista, is inspired by these clothes and makes new creations for the four. Although they wear dresses and suits, especially at the Coronation where it is a given, they still manage to retain some of that steampunk style, with leather incorporated into many of their outfits, perhaps as a way of complementing their journey to goodness without forgetting their roots.

RECEPTION

Since there was such a buzz around the release of Descendants, it is only natural that there was some serious promotion for the movie, not just on Disney Channel, but outside of it, with the four main cast members being interviewed by news outlets and media channels in the days and weeks leading up to the release date, saying how honoured they were to be cast as these famous villains’ children and how proud they were of the movie.

On Disney Channel, a 23-episode series of short clips were shown every day prior to Descendants’ premiere date. This series was called Descendants: School of Secrets, and showed a mysterious and unnamed student using a hidden camera to show footage from inside the world of Auradon Prep, revealing the mixed reaction of the students after the announcement that four villain children would be attending their school soon.

After all that press, Descendants finally premiered on Disney Channel on 31^st July 2015, where it was viewed by 6.6 million people on the night. It didn’t reach the UK Disney Channel until 25^th September 2015, by which point the reviews were already out.

Many of these reviews were positive, likening Descendants to High School Musical, albeit not regarding Descendants quite as highly. The soundtrack was generally regarded as being just as strong as that of High School Musical, and some praised the costumes and the message of being yourself, and good overcoming evil. The performance of the four lead actors was also considered to be very strong on the whole. The best description of Descendants that I read in any review was ‘High School Musical meets Once Upon a Time’, which I feel is a very accurate description of this movie[3]. On the more negative side, some complained over the auto-tune sound to some of the music, which I’ll admit you can hear in places, such as during “Rotten to the Core”, as well as the original villain characters not being accurate to their animated counterparts, which I’ve already had my say on.

Kenny Ortega won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Children’s Program from the 2016 Directors Guild of America Awards for Descendants, and the screenwriters, Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott, won the Writers Guild of America Award for Children’s Longform Program. I think these awards are a testament to how well Descendants was received not just by children or teenagers, the target audience of the movie, but by the movie-making industry itself. Descendants was big news.

LEGACY

Right after Descendants had aired, a new animated series was announced, titled Descendants: Wicked World. The series ran for two seasons, from September 2015 to March 2017, with many of the original cast reprising their characters in these voice roles. The events of this series took place after Descendants. New characters, both from Auradon and the Isle of the Lost, were also introduced, including Freddie, the daughter of Dr. Facilier, who was voiced by China Anne McClain, which might sound confusing if you have already seen Descendants 2. More on that another time.

Descendants: Wicked World was apparently the first Disney Channel Original Series to be based on a Disney Channel Original Movie. It is also worth noting that three songs from this series appear on the Descendants movie soundtrack, released before this animated series aired. Descendants: Wicked World was nominated for Choice Animated TV Show at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards.

Despite some of the cast and Kenny Ortega attending the D23 Expo in August 2015, as well as being interviewed about the success of Descendants, they refused to confirm whether a sequel was in the works, even though Mal implies at the end of the movie that there is more to come. Fans didn’t need to wait too much longer for confirmation, because in October 2015 on Instagram, Disney Channel confirmed that Descendants 2 was in production. No air date was given at this time, though many assumed it would be released in Summer 2017. To celebrate the news of this sequel, Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart, and Kenny Ortega went to Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort to perform on stage for fans.

As well as these on-screen continuations, the world of Descendants gave more opportunities for Disney merchandising, as novels, costumes, clothing, and toys were released shortly after to cope with the success of the movie and its new fans[4].

For the 2015 Disney Parks Unforgettable Christmas Celebration taping at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, the four VKs performed the song “Rotten to the Core”, cementing them as a major entertainment property within the Disney Company. Not just anyone gets invited to these kinds of Disney Holiday shows! In 2016, they returned again for Disney Parks Presents: A Descendants Magical Holiday Celebration, a show featuring musical performances and a look at the Disney Parks for the holiday season. With Cameron Boyce and Sofia Carson hosting from Walt Disney World, and Booboo Stewart and Dove Cameron at Disneyland, they performed a new version of the song “Rotten to the Core”, renamed “Jolly to the Core”. China Anne McClain was also a performer during this show, as she had been announced as a new cast member addition for Descendants 2 back in June 2016. An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the sequel was also shown.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After much anticipation prior to the release of Descendants, it did not disappoint. It received positive reviews, and many liked the new take on a classic Disney story of heroes and villains, where the villains’ children realise that they do not have to follow in their parents’ footsteps, and that they can choose their own path.

Though I was initially disappointed by the portrayal of these devious Disney villains, I found myself completely absorbed in the story that was being told to me. It wasn’t even about those villains; it was about Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos.

The success of Descendants, almost ten years after High School Musical premiered on Disney Channel in 2006, showed that Disney Channel yet again had another musical hit. And, much like High School Musical, there was more story to come.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Marc Snetiker, ‘Disney plans live-action movie ‘Descendants’ featuring villains’ kids’, EW,com, 12^th December 2013.

[2] Credit: D23, ‘Talking Disney’s Descendants with Kenny Ortega’, D23.com, date unknown.

[3] Credit: Amy Amatangelo, ‘‘Descendants’: TV Review’, HollywoodReporter.com, 28^th July 2015.

[4] Credit: Doug Marsh, ‘Disney Descendants Celebrate at Disneyland’, LaughingPlace.com, 22^nd October 2015.

5th Jul 20242nd Nov 2025 by The Disney Purist

StarStruck (2010)

BACKGROUND

Everyone remembers their first celebrity crush.

For me, there have been many. Some fleeting, some with more staying power. I know, I need help, it’s just so hard to find good support groups these days.

I’m not even talking about my first celebrity crush here, but I am talking about my first Disney Channel crush. Ethan Craft from Lizzie McGuire didn’t interest me, nor did Jake Ryan in Hannah Montana. Zac Efron did to a point, but it wasn’t until I was sixteen and I watched Sonny with a Chance for the first time, on a family holiday to Walt Disney World of all places, that I first saw him: Sterling Knight, playing the obnoxious but charming Chad Dylan Cooper. With that blond hair and those blue, blue eyes, I was hooked.

So, imagine how pleased I was to find that in 2010, just a few months later, that I’d get to see him in his very own Disney Channel movie, StarStruck, where he would be singing and playing the guitar. All my fangirl dreams had come true.

StarStruck followed in the footsteps of highly successful Disney Channel musical films, like the High School Musical and Cheetah Girls franchises. Sadly, StarStruck never quite hit those heights, but I loved it, and I know some friends of mine who didn’t even particularly watch Disney Channel at the time, because we were probably considered to be “too old” to be watching it, also quite liked it.

My love for Sterling Knight only lasted about a year and a half, and he soon graduated from Disney, moving on to new projects. I moved on too, to university…and the band Big Time Rush. Please, judge me quietly. But I never forgot about StarStruck and every time I rewatch it, it’s a real blast from the past. I can still remember the songs and many moments from the film, even after all these years.

That was a window into my awkward teenage years. I’m very sorry if it was embarrassing to read. I did say judge me quietly.

Now, let’s get to the story of StarStruck.

PLOT

StarStruck begins with a nighttime aerial view of Los Angeles, moving inside the Staples Center where teen heartthrob and singing sensation Christopher Wilde is performing a concert to crowds of adoring fans.

We then see that this is just a news report on the concert which is being watched by a teenage girl called Sara, as her parents and sister talk about packing for their upcoming trip to Los Angeles to visit their grandmother. Sara is a huge fan of Christopher Wilde. She’s hoping to meet him whilst in L.A., having researched all of his usual hang outs. You’d be forgiven for thinking that StarStruck is about Sara, but it’s not. It’s actually all about the sister, Jessica, who hates celebrities and the shallowness of fame. Shock horror – she doesn’t even like Christopher Wilde and has no desire to go to L.A!

On this lovely family holiday to L.A. from Kalamazoo, Michigan – the first time I’d ever heard of this place – Sara ends up dragging Jessica to an Under-21s club, where she’s heard a rumour that Christopher Wilde is due to sing there. Jessica is ordered to stay in their grandmother’s bright pink car and wait for her.

Meanwhile, Christopher Wilde’s parents/managers want him to move into acting as well as keep up with all of his singing commitments. A director, Alan Smith, comes to visit them and says that he doesn’t like how Christopher is portrayed in the media, looking like some sort of spoilt punk, so he tells him to stay home this weekend and keep out of the tabloids, or he won’t get the movie deal. Only, Christopher promised his girlfriend, starlet Alexis Bender, that he would sing at the club for her birthday. His friend, assistant, and chauffeur, Stubby, sneaks him in through the back, and he does perform, before quickly exiting the club. Jessica has got bored of waiting for Sara and tries to find her. She goes to the back entrance to the club – and is hit on the head by the door that Christopher Wilde is leaving from. Horrified that this girl might threaten his efforts to stay out of the press, Christopher bundles Jessica into his car and drives her to the hospital to get checked out.

It turns out Jessica is fine and just wants to go home. Christopher then gets a call to say that the director is at his house, and his parents tell him to get back quickly. Using a doctor’s car to avoid the paparazzi, he takes Jessica to his house and hides her upstairs, telling her to wait for him to return. Christopher meets with Alan and his daughters, who ask him to perform for them. After he does this, Jessica has got bored of waiting (again) and heads to his garage; Christopher follows. She orders him to take her home now. Once they get to Jessica’s grandmother’s house, Christopher finds he has been followed there by the paparazzi. He asks Jessica if he can stay in her grandmother’s garage. Jessica doesn’t want anything more to do with him, but lets him stay there anyway as he seems desperate.

The next morning, Jessica finds that, thankfully, Christopher has left before anyone could accidentally discover him in the garage. Sara hears a news report about Christopher Wilde, saying that he was spotted at his house party with a different girl, not his girlfriend, Alexis – gasp! Sara and Jessica argue about the authenticity of this piece of gossip, at which point Grandma tells them to take the car and go to the beach.

The two end up at Malibu Beach, because Christopher Wilde surfs in Malibu, you know. Jessica then sees Christopher sat on the beach. She goes over to him and asks why he is here and not at home. He tells her that his house is surrounded by photographers and needs a different car to get back. Jessica swaps keys with Christopher, but as he is about to leave in “Petunia”, Grandma’s pink car, the paparazzi swarm the car park, so the two get in the car, don (bad) disguises, and leave. They then decide to go sightseeing for the day.

As their perfect day together comes to an end, the photographers begin following Christopher again. Jessica sends them down a back road and they get lost. They argue about Jessica’s terrible navigational skills and Christopher’s bad driving, before realising that the car isn’t moving anymore. And that is because they’ve landed in mud or quicksand. The car sinks into the muddy pool. Christopher and Jessica get to solid land, but they’re still arguing, even more so now that Jessica will have to explain what happened to Petunia.

Christopher gets annoyed at Jessica for ruining his perfect day with her grumpiness, and she tells him that he is acting like a spoilt brat and doesn’t understand how he can have any real friends. The conflict ends when Christopher pulls Jessica into a lake, and the two start to get along, having a heart-to-heart about how Christopher feels pushed into doing things to further his career by his parents, but all he wants to do is sing. Jessica tells him he should do whatever makes him happy.

As they finally return to the beach and are about to kiss, Christopher realises they are back in the real world and tells Jessica she can’t tell anyone about their day together, and asks for her camera so that none of the photos from the day can get out to the press. Jessica is both angry and heartbroken, and leaves, just as Christopher is surrounded by fans. But an eagle-eyed photographer notices something between the two of them and takes a photo of Jessica, for further research. Jessica is upset for the rest of her family’s L.A. visit, and as they leave, her grandmother tells her that life has a way of working itself out.

Christopher is told by Director Alan that the story has got out and he must deny knowing Jessica if he wants this movie deal. He goes on the celeb news programme “StarStruck” and says he never met her. That doesn’t stop the press camping outside Jessica’s family home in Michigan though, as they wait for her side of the story. Her parents now know something has happened to Jessica in L.A., but she can’t talk about it. Eventually, Jessica realises that the only way the press will leave is if she talks. She gives a brilliant speech about how the media build people up into celebrities, only so that they can tear them down again, to sell papers and magazines. This is incredibly accurate even today in the social media age and sounds all too familiar. I love this speech. Jessica also says that she never met Christopher Wilde, so now everyone thinks she lied about meeting him.

Christopher gets his movie deal, but after seeing Jessica on television giving this speech, and after a few harsh words from Stubby, he realises that he has been an idiot and goes to make amends. He tells Alan that he doesn’t want to be involved in his movie anymore, and fires his parents as his managers.

At Jessica’s school dance later, only Sara seems to believe that she really did meet Christopher Wilde and the other students ignore her or talk about how crazy she is. That is until Christopher appears on the stage. He sings to Jessica and apologies for treating her the way he did. Jessica isn’t entirely convinced, until reporter Libby Lam comes into the dance and Christopher tells the whole world that he was the one who lied: he does know Jessica and he thinks she’s the most amazing girl he’s ever met. He then promptly tells the reporter to leave them all alone. This works on Jessica and she forgives him. Christopher asks her to go on a real date with him, and they hold hands, and dance the night away together. Oh yeah, and Sara is finally given the opportunity to meet Christopher Wilde – and instead, faints in Stubby’s arms… That’s obsessive fans for you!

CHARACTERS & CAST

Christopher Wilde is a teenage superstar. He’s known for being a singer, but his parents/managers want him to take advantage of that star quality and go into acting as well. Christopher doesn’t necessarily want to do this, but he feels he has no choice but to go along with it, even if that means ignoring the people he wants to be with the most, and forgetting about what he wants to do with his life. Jessica tries to encourage Christopher to make his own choices, but he struggles to accept that he has the power to do that and ends up hurting her instead. It takes Christopher a while to figure out how to regain balance over his life, but he does so eventually and manages to regain Jessica’s trust too.

Sterling Knight was cast as Christopher Wilde. Knight made his film debut starring alongside Zac Efron in the romantic comedy film 17 Again. His famous Disney Channel role is playing Chad Dylan Cooper in the series Sonny with a Chance (2009-11), alongside Demi Lovato. He then returned to the spin-off series So Random! (2011-12), the sketch comedy show-within-a-show that Sonny and her friends perform on. It’s odd that Chad Dylan Cooper would choose to perform on So Random! since the character supposedly hated the show. Maybe Mackenzie Falls was cancelled or went on hiatus or something? He was a fan-favourite character though, so it wouldn’t have been right to leave him out of the spin-off. After this, Knight went on to have a recurring role in the sitcom Melissa & Joey (2010-15). Recently, Sterling Knight seems to have stepped away from the spotlight. I can only hope that he is doing well and living his best life.

Jessica Olson perhaps is not the most likeable lead character of a Disney Channel movie. She is very opinionated and stubborn, thinking her views on life are superior to her sister’s, with Jessica believing that Sara is just delusional and celebrity-obsessed – which isn’t wrong, but Jessica doesn’t need to be quite so aggressive with her words! I will admit that I struggled to like Jessica when I first saw the movie. She doesn’t come across well and she’s mean to Christopher Wilde, which is just so wrong. It’s not until Christopher tells Jessica that they can’t see each other again, and he doesn’t let her down gently either, that I started to side with Jessica and not Christopher. She also gives that amazing speech talking about the toxic methods of the press in their pursuit of celebrities, so that’s the point where I started to like the character a lot more.

Danielle Campbell was chosen to play the role of Jessica, having had a guest role in the series Prison Break (2005-17) when she was just ten years old prior to her Disney casting. She was actually “spotted” when she was having her hair cut in her hometown of Chicago and was asked to audition for an agency[1]. After StarStruck, she appeared in the movie Prom (2011) and was part of the main cast of the fantasy drama series The Originals (2013-18) as Davina Claire. More recently, Campbell was cast in the thriller anthology series Tell Me a Story (2018-20) in the roles of Kayla Powell and Olivia Moon, and had a guest part in The Rookie (2018-present) in 2024.

Stubby, or Albert J. Stubbins to use his full name, is Christopher Wilde’s very cool, fun-loving friend. He also seems to act as Christopher’s personal assistant and chauffeur, which might not seem great to hire your friends as your “help”, but hey, let’s just hope he gets paid for it! Stubby doesn’t get nearly enough screen time in StarStruck, but his loyalty to Christopher is clear, when he tries to convince him to stay home and not perform at his girlfriend’s birthday party, and again when he tells Christopher that lying about Jessica is not right and that he seems to have changed, not for the better either.

Brandon Mychal Smith was cast as Stubby. He was another cast member from Sonny with a Chance (2009-11) and its spin-off So Random! (2011-12), playing Nico Harris. Prior to that, he also had roles in other Disney Channel and Nickelodeon series, including Phil of the Future (2004-06) and Unfabulous (2004-07). In more recent years, Brandon Mychal Smith was a series regular in the Hulu miniseries Four Weddings and a Funeral (2019), cast as Craig Thompson, and voiced Michelangelo in the animated series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2018-20).

Sara Olson is Jessica’s older sister. She is an original member of Christopher Wilde’s fan club and, with her friend AJ, they tracked Christopher Wilde’s locations over an eighteen-month period in preparation for her family’s trip to L.A. She also claims to text him every day, and during the film, she finds his address from documents in his car and then proceeds to drive to his house… There’s a fine line between a dedicated, loyal fan, and an obsessive stalker. Unfortunately, I think Sara crosses that line more times than she stays behind it! Sara should not be a role model for anyone, and you should not be impressed by the lengths she’ll go to meet Christopher. But Sara is funny, and the contrast between her love for Christopher and Jessica’s initial hatred of him is what gives us the conflict that we’d expect from these two very different sisters. I am impressed that Sara doesn’t seem to be at all jealous of her sister’s relationship with Christopher though. If that were me, I’d be fuming!

Maggie Castle was cast as Sara. Just before StarStruck, Castle had appeared in The Time Traveler’s Wife, alongside Rachel McAdams, playing the sister of McAdams’ character. She then played Jenny in the comedy horror series Todd and the Book of Pure Evil (2010-12) and its 2017 animated film.

So those are the four main characters, but there are two more that I’d like to mention. These are “the fantabulous, fabulous” Alexis Bender and Director Alan. Alexis is an up-and-coming actress who is in a “relationship” with Christopher Wilde, though this all seems to be for publicity to help further both of their careers. Alexis is fame-obsessed and just wants to be a big star, which you can’t blame her for if that’s what she wants from life. She dumps Christopher when she finds out about Jessica, but bounces back quickly, announcing she has a date with some guy called Zack.

Alexis Bender will look familiar to Disney fans as she was played by Chelsea Staub, or Chelsea Kane as she is known today. Chelsea Kane had been cast as Stephanie in the Disney Channel movie Minutemen (2008) and went on to star as Stella Malone, alongside the Jonas Brothers, in the Disney series Jonas (2009-10). Also for Disney, she voiced the character of Bea Goldfishberg in Fish Hooks (2010-14). Outside of Disney, Kane placed third in Season 12 of Dancing with the Stars and played the part of Riley in the ABC series Baby Daddy (2012-17). She returned to voice acting again in 2019 to voice the character of Loy for the series Archibald’s Next Big Thing (2019-21).

Finally, the only reason I want to mention the director is because of the actor who played him. That actor is Matt Winston, and I know him from the Mary-Kate and Ashley film Passport to Paris (1999), where he was cast as the girls’ chaperone Jeremy Bluff. When I first watched StarStruck, I recognised him instantly from that film – which says more about me than it does anything else. Winston also had guest roles in a couple of Disney Channel series before StarStruck including Hannah Montana (2006-11) and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-08).

PRODUCTION

Considering StarStruck is set in Los Angeles, it makes the most sense for the movie to be filmed there and to feature a lot of big tourist attractions, especially within the scenes of Christopher and Jessica sightseeing.

Some of these spots include Malibu Beach and Venice Beach; the Hollywood Sign; the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre; the Sunset Strip; and Griffith Observatory, although this seems to just be an aerial shot, much like the Staples Center at the start of the movie. The Club Under-21 scene, where Christopher Wilde is performing “Shades” for Alexis’ birthday, was filmed at the Key Club on the Sunset Strip. It was a concert venue which closed in 2013[2].

Since Christopher Wilde is such a big star, naturally Disney wanted to show just where he spends all that money. Well, Christopher Wilde is apparently a collector of fast supercars. If you’re a supercar fan, then you’ll have lots of fun spotting the makes and models of them. Some luxury car brands that are seen in StarStruck include Ferrari, Chrysler, Pontiac, Mercedes, and Porsche. But if you’re anything like me and have very little interest in cars, then you’ll probably only notice the colour!

Christopher Wilde is meant to be a teenage popstar, so about 17 years old. Jessica Olson is a 15-year-old high school girl. Danielle Campbell’s age just about matched her character – she was 14 at the time of filming – but Sterling Knight was 20 when he filmed StarStruck. This led to some speculation about why the two characters did not kiss in the film. Instead, the movie ends with the two holding hands, wearing sunglasses, dancing slowly, and a bit awkwardly, I think, as Stubby’s dance number “Party Up” lights up the school dance. Many thought a kiss would’ve been appropriate at this point, and Jessica and Christopher lean in as though they are about to, before being interrupted by Sara.

Rumours abound that the two did not kiss in the movie because of the age gap between the two actors. This might have contributed to the decision; however, it is worth noting that in many Disney Channel movies, the lead couple does not usually kiss in their first movie. One example of this is Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical; their first kiss takes place at the very end of High School Musical 2 (2007). Another example of this is within the ZOMBIES franchise, with Addison and Zed’s first kiss also happening at the end of their second movie, ZOMBIES 2 (2020). So, it’s not actually that unusual for Jessica and Christopher to have not kissed in StarStruck.

The screenplay for StarStruck was written by Barbara Johns and Annie DeYoung. DeYoung had previously written the Disney Channel co-production 16 Wishes (2010), as well as the Disney Channel Original Movies Princess Protection Program (2009) and Return to Halloweentown (2006), going on to work on a further DCOM, Girl vs. Monster (2012). Johns went on to work on the drama series Firefly Lane (2021-23).

Michael Grossman directed StarStruck, having previously directed episodes of the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 (2005-08) and the Nickelodeon TV movie Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh (2008). Grossman went on to direct episodes of other series such as Pretty Little Liars (2010-17) and Drop Dead Diva (2009-14).

MUSIC

Another element of StarStruck that led to some misinformation was around its soundtrack and whether or not Sterling Knight sang the songs.

Sterling Knight addressed this in a Twitter post back in February 2010, seemingly before the movie’s premiere date. He stated that he had wanted to sing all the songs for StarStruck, but only showed up one week before shooting began, so he simply did not have enough time to record all the soundtrack. The only song that Knight does sing is the title number “StarStruck”. It’s a great song for the opening concert scene and starts the soundtrack off with a bang. Drew Ryan Scott finished up the vocals on the rest of Christopher Wilde’s songs[3]. He is a singer-songwriter who has written songs for artists including Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and Selena Gomez. It is unclear why Sterling Knight was cast late for StarStruck, and who – if anyone – was scheduled to portray Christopher Wilde instead of Knight.

Although Knight did not sing much of Christopher Wilde’s music for StarStruck, he has sung for other Disney Channel projects, including for the Sonny with a Chance CD, so he absolutely would’ve been capable of singing all the songs if he’d had time. Knight can also play the guitar so it would seem to me that he does play the guitar live in the movie.

The soundtrack of StarStruck involves a mixture of romantic songs, as well as some pop songs. There is also a song that only appears on the soundtrack and in the “Extended Edition” of the movie, “Got to Believe”. The song itself is alright, but I don’t feel that it adds anything to the overall story, which is obviously why it did not make the final cut.

My least favourite song is “Shades” and that is mostly for the awkward dancing involved in the performance of the song at the club. It pains me to say it because I can see that Sterling Knight was trying so hard to look like a natural performer, but it just doesn’t come across here. This is in complete contrast to Brandon Mychal Smith who looks incredibly confident in his rapping and performing skills, both in “Shades” and “Party Up”, the song that wraps up the movie, which I do really like[4].

My favourite songs in StarStruck are “Hero” and “Something About the Sunshine”. “Hero” is the main love ballad of the film, with it being performed as a slower, acoustic version during Christopher Wilde’s party, as well as in one of his recording sessions. I like the slower version the best, with just the guitar in the background. It’s a really cute song. For “Something About the Sunshine”, this sounds like a summer road-trip song. It entirely matches the picture-perfect day that Jessica and Christopher have together, because it’s cute, bright, and cheerful, like everything is perfect and it’s just those two in the world. Anna Margaret features as the female vocalist in this song. She went on to perform songs for the Disney Channel movie Den Brother (2010) and for the Shake It Up: Break It Down album.

The final song to mention is “What You Mean to Me”. It’s another sweet, romantic song, as Christopher tells Jessica that he is sorry for trying to pretend she never existed just to keep his career on track. It would have to be quite a song to make up for all the humiliation that Jessica has faced – and luckily, it is. To perform it in front of a crowd of high school students is another step up too.

There are three songs within the soundtrack that are not performed by any of the characters in the movie and are only there for background noise. All three of these songs are actually very good, considering they are just meant to be creating an atmosphere and are not supposed to pull focus from the main action.

One of these is played during Christopher’s house party: “Welcome to Hollywood” by Mitchel Musso, who was cast as Oliver in Hannah Montana (2006-11) at this time. I used to really like Mitchel Musso’s music, and bought the CD of his debut album. “Make a Movie” by singer Jasmine Sagginario, who won Radio Disney’s 2009 N.B.T. (Next Big Thing) competition, and “New Boyfriend” by Anna Margaret can both be heard during the high-school dance, on either side of “What You Mean to Me”.

David Lawrence is credited as the composer of StarStruck’s score. He has composed the music for various other Disney Channel Original Movies, including the first three Descendants films; Teen Beach Movie (2013) and Teen Beach 2 (2015); Good Luck Charlie, It’s Christmas (2011); and the High School Musical trilogy.

RECEPTION

To promote the release of StarStruck, Disney Channel released numerous promotional videos to air between their programming over the months leading up to the premiere date. These included behind-the-scenes clips and interviews with the cast, and music videos. There was also a tour bus with a StarStruck poster pasted to the side of it being driven around Hollywood. This was used for a “StarStruck Tour” series of videos, “hosted” by “tour guide” Saralou, who just so happened to be Tiffany Thornton, the actress who played Tawni in Sonny with a Chance (2009-11), taking the five main cast members on a tour of L.A. It included a few facts about Hollywood and L.A., as well as some funny moments between “Saralou”, Sterling Knight, and Brandon Mychal Smith, who were all working together on Sonny with a Chance at the time[5].

StarStruck premiered on Disney Channel in the US on 14^th February 2010, so Valentine’s Day. The premiere generated 6 million viewers. StarStruck was the first Disney Channel Original Movie to debut on a Sunday night. Oh, how nice for all those American Sterling Knight fans to have been able to watch his new movie on Valentine’s Day… That was not the case for me as I’m British, so I had to wait until 14^th May 2010 – a whole three months later – for StarStruck to premiere in the UK and Ireland. That has always been quite normal, albeit quite irritating, with many Disney Channel Original Movies premiering in the UK anything between a week or two after the US premiere up to a few months later. Thankfully with Disney+, US and UK release dates for new Disney movies are much closer together, usually just a day or so apart.

As many TV movies do, StarStruck received mixed reviews. Some of the more negative reviews said the plot was predictable and unrealistic, disliking the clichéd storyline of a famous person falling in love with a normal person. Some also found the character of Jessica to be unlikeable, which I agree with to a point. Others felt the movie was ok, but nothing in comparison to High School Musical (2006). But many viewers were very positive about StarStruck, enjoying the movie’s soundtrack, saying it was sweet and that Sterling Knight was perfectly cast as Christopher Wilde. This is the side of the fence that I sit on.

In recent years, there are plenty of Disney fans who say that StarStruck is underrated and that, in a way, it was quite progressive by dealing with real-life issues such as addressing the difficulties of coping with fame, especially as a child or teenager, even if the role of the paparazzi in StarStruck perhaps comes across as a bit over-the-top[6].

Michael Grossman, director of StarStruck, was nominated at the Directors Guild of America Awards, in the category of Outstanding Directing – Children’s Program, for the movie, but lost out to Nickelodeon’s The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (2010).

LEGACY

StarStruck, unlike some other Disney Channel musicals, did not span any further movies or any spin-offs. The time for making a sequel has most definitely passed now, and the only likely plot they could’ve come up with for StarStruck 2 was for us to see Jessica and Christopher navigating their new relationship whilst Christopher went on his world tour. It’s not a particularly unique concept, so it’s understandable that Disney didn’t feel the need to make this sequel, though it would’ve been nice to have explored Sara and Stubby’s relationship a bit more as they are thrown together multiple times in StarStruck, but nothing ever comes of it.

StarStruck was released on DVD as an “Extended Edition”, which involved the song “Got to Believe” and a brief scene before the song showing that the Internet hates Jessica for being in an assumed relationship with someone famous – and that was before social media became such a big thing. It may have been years since StarStruck first came out, but the world has not changed. If anything, these kinds of incidents have gotten worse.

You could also buy the soundtrack for StarStruck on CD at the time, as well as online. Being such a big fan of Sterling Knight, I obviously got both the CD and the DVD when they were released, and still have them to this day.

At the US Disney Parks, StarStruck was a small part of the short stage show Disney Channel Rocks, which ran at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World from 2010 to 2013. This show had performers singing some of the best songs from many Disney Channel musicals including The Cheetah Girls, Camp Rock (2008), Jump In! (2007), and of course, High School Musical. From StarStruck, the song “Party Up” was performed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

StarStruck may have a few clunky lines and some awkward dance moves – specifically within the whole “Shades” scene in the club – but that’s my opinion from watching StarStruck as an adult. As a teenager, I absolutely adored this film, and any time that Sterling Knight was on screen, I didn’t really care what was happening; I just wanted to look at him.

Even now, I enjoy going back and watching some of my childhood favourite movies, as I know many adults do – though they may not like to admit it. I know I’m not alone in enjoying that feeling of nostalgia, remembering simpler times in life. It reminds me of less complicated times, when the pressures and struggles of being an adult hadn’t hit me yet.

StarStruck may not have been the best DCOM for some, but to me, it had everything I was looking for, and it’s one of the best Disney Channel musicals in my opinion, even now.

It’s a movie perfect for anyone who is prone to celebrity crushes. They aren’t realistic, but they are fun, and if watching StarStruck lets someone dream that perhaps one day, something like this might just happen to them, then that is perfect escapism.

Just don’t turn into Sara and become an obsessive stalker. That is a step too far.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Radio Disney, “Radio Disney’s Celebrity Take with Jake: Behind the Scenes of StarStruck”, Radio Disney YouTube Channel, 18^th February 2010.

[2] Credit: Radio Disney, “Radio Disney’s Celebrity Take with Jake: Behind the Scenes of StarStruck”, Radio Disney YouTube Channel, 17^th February 2010.

[3] Credit: Chip, ‘Sterling Knight Addresses Rumors that he didn’t sing in Disney’s “StarStruck”’, ChipandCo.com, 12^th February 2010.

[4] Credit: Disney Channel, “StarStruck DCOM Extra: Making Music”, Disney Channel YouTube Channel, 2^nd February 2010.

[5] Credit: Disney Channel, “StarStruck Tour”, Disney Channel YouTube Channel, 12^th February 2010.

[6] Credit: Nicholas Howe, ‘DCOMs: 5 Things That Made StarStruck Great (& 5 Things It Needed To Fix’, ScreenRant.com, 10^th May 2020.

28th Jun 20242nd Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

#61 Strange World (2022)

BACKGROUND

The 2020s have, so far, been a difficult time for Disney Animation.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of streaming services making the viewing of new content easier and more convenient, it’s been hard trying to get audiences back into movie theatres. Film studios are ever hopeful that their movie will be the one to coax people out of their homes, but so far, only a handful of movies have done this.

At the Disney Studios, this issue is continuing to cause problems, with neither Encanto (2021) nor Wish (2023), both being “safer” musical movies, having succeeded in this endeavour, although Encanto did succeed in becoming a major success after its release to Disney+. We’re still talking about Bruno.

So, it’s not really a huge surprise that with Disney Animation “turning left” in making Strange World, i.e., choosing to go to Adventureland and not Fantasyland, with an action-packed, non-musical movie, that the viewers just did not come.

When Disney Animation made a string of non-musical movies in the 2000s, during their “Post-Renaissance Era”, many of these did not do well. Think of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) or Treasure Planet (2002); those movies are now considered “cult classics”, but they underperformed at the box-office and ultimately led to the downfall of traditional 2D animated Disney movies. Strange World is similar in both its genre and its aftermath.

I was not excited to watch Strange World. After seeing the trailer, I didn’t think it looked particularly interesting, and it reminded me of DreamWorks’ film The Croods (2013), which I was never bothered by and have never seen.

But because its Disney, I knew I had to watch Strange World – just not in the cinema. Luckily, in December 2022, a month after its release in theatres, it came on to Disney+ and I decided watching it at home, over the festive period, would be the best option.

Strange World certainly is not terrible, as some reviews have unfairly claimed, but it is different. Unfortunately for Disney, their adventure-type films have not been seen as the best throughout their history. In actual fact, Strange World isn’t bad. It’s not exactly what you might expect to see from Disney Animation, and it’s not a film I want to rush back and see, but I quite liked it in places. I went into Strange World expecting an adventure film, and that’s exactly what I got.

PLOT

The plot of Strange World follows the Clades, a famous explorer father-son duo. Their community of Avalonia is completely encircled by mountains. Many have tried and failed to get through the mountains, to seek out Avalonia’s future, but one man, Jaeger Clade, is determined to do so. Alongside him is his son, Searcher, an unwilling participant in these journeys. Whilst out on the latest expedition to go beyond the mountains that enclose Avalonia, Searcher Clade discovers a strange, electric plant, which him and the rest of the crew decide must be the legacy to bring back to Avalonia. Jaeger Clade disagrees, wanting to push forward to explore past the mountains as planned. Disappointed nobody wants to join him, Jaeger Clade continues the mission on his own – and is not seen again.

The movie then jumps twenty-five years later where this plant, now named Pando, is the main power source for all of Avalonia, and a whole new way of living was founded off the back of its discovery. Searcher is now a farmer, farming the Pando plant for the city, and is married to Meridian, a pilot. Together, they have a sixteen-year-old son, Ethan, who is soon to be trained in farming, as Searcher wants his son to take over the business someday.

Then, a huge airship, the Venture, lands in Searcher’s fields, and it turns out to be Callisto Mal, the president of Avalonia and one of Searcher’s crewmates on their expedition twenty-five years earlier. She needs Searcher’s help in discovering why the Pando plant is dying and how it can be reversed. Ethan wants to go on this journey, but Searcher refuses to allow him to go along. Searcher, Callisto, and the rest of the crew start their mission by following the Pando roots, which run deep underground. However, Meridian soon flies down to them to say that Ethan, along with the family’s three-legged dog, Legend, has stowed away on the airship. As this happens, all of them are attacked by pink pterodactyl-type creatures, with the pilot of the airship being killed in the process. Meridian takes control and they crash land on a subterranean, strange “world”, with Searcher and Legend being thrown overboard and separated from the crew. Ethan wants to look for his father, but is told that he needs to wait until the Venture airship is repaired, since they know nothing about this place.

Meanwhile, Searcher runs into a blue blob that steals his handkerchief. The blue blob then proceeds to show this handkerchief to some tentacled creatures that attack Searcher. He is saved in the nick of time by a huge, hairy man with a flamethrower. It turns out this man is actually Jaeger, Searcher’s long-lost father! It takes a while to convince Jaeger that he has been reunited with his son; it’s kind of an awkward moment. Jaeger then runs toward the Venture as he needs the airship to get to the other side of the mountains, as per his original mission, which he still has not completed after being stuck in this place for years.

Ethan has managed to sneak away from the crew, and, using a skiff, races around the area looking for Searcher. He soon comes across the same blue blob from earlier, which he names Splat. Splat has Searcher’s handkerchief still, and Ethan asks Splat to lead him to his father. As this is going on, Searcher catches Jaeger up on what he’s missed over the last twenty-five years of his life! Jaeger is disappointed to hear that Searcher is “just a farmer”, dismissing all of Searcher’s achievement. But this argument is soon stopped as Jaeger spots one of Ethan’s playing cards on the ground. He tells Searcher that Ethan is in a lot of trouble, about to be lured to his death. They race to find him.

Ethan has indeed been lured to the Reapers, those tentacled creatures, but Jaeger comes along to burn them with his flamethrower just in time. Except there are too many of them, and Jaeger makes all three of them jump onto what seems to be a river of fish. The Reapers continue to chase the trio, and when all looks lost, Callisto and Meridian arrive to drive them away on their skiffs. They get away from the Reapers by using Pando bulbs Ethan collected earlier which electrocute the creatures.

Now safely back on the Venture, the crew can investigate what’s causing the Pando to die by using a sample of its root. But family tensions continue to boil over, as Searcher becomes jealous of Ethan and Jaeger bonding, believing that Ethan will want to be more like Jaeger instead of like him. In attempting to get father and son to communicate better, Ethan suggests they all play a game called Primal Outpost, which is an environmental based game. All this does is cause further argument and, frustrated, Ethan walks away. See, the Clades are just like every other family when the board games or card games come out!

The crew arrive at the Burning Sea, which seems to be a lake of acid. With Splat the blue blob now on side to help, it communicates with these little green things to drive the airship through the area, to avoid the acid sprays. More Reapers come for the crew, and the team use their Pando bulbs to keep them away. Continuing to follow the Pando roots, they see that the roots are getting stronger the deeper down they go. As they get nearer to the heart of Pando, the crew believe they are about to be attacked by more Reapers and those pink pterodactyls – but they go straight past them, on to the heart of Pando. Searcher believes that those creatures are pests, with Pando diverting its energy to fighting them off instead of keeping its crops alive on the surface. Crushing some Pando bulbs and putting the dust into Jaeger’s flamethrower, he sprays these pests, killing them. They believe this must be how they are meant to save their Pando plant.

As the crew set about making their pesticides, Ethan starts to feel that this isn’t right, that they shouldn’t be killing these creatures. Searcher reminds Ethan that this is what farmers do, to which Ethan responds that he doesn’t even want to be a farmer, wanting to explore new lands instead. Searcher thinks this is all Jaeger’s fault, filling Ethan’s mind with these ideas, but Ethan says he’s just trying to lead his own life, and jumps off the airship, onto the river of fish. Searcher follows him in a skiff to apologise, saying that he never wanted to be like his father, trying to force Searcher into following his exploring legacy, but in fact, he is forcing his own legacy onto Ethan. As this conversation has been going on, their skiff has gone across to the other side of mountains. Searcher and Ethan discover that Avalonia is just surrounded by water. But then they notice the mound behind them is moving, and turn around to see an eye looking back at them! Avalonia was built on top of a living creature, so the “world” they’ve been going through is actually this creature’s insides. Eww…

Searcher and Ethan quickly realise that the Pando plant is an infection, attacking this creature’s heart, and that the strange creatures they are planning on poisoning and killing are actually the immune system, trying to keep the being alive. Realising their mistake, they set out to destroy the Pando instead and save the creature. As Searcher and Ethan explain their discovery to the others, Jaeger gets annoyed, and just wants to finally finish his mission of getting to the other side of the mountain, and sensing he’s not wanted, goes alone. Callisto locks all the Clades in a cupboard, so that they will not stop the original plan; Avalonia needs Pando and this is the only way to keep it alive. Luckily, by using Legend the dog, and Splat, they get Legend to open the door and free them. Searcher and Ethan then get on the back of one of the pterodactyls and ride to the heart, whilst Meridian takes control of the Venture once more.

At the heart, Searcher tries to dig a hole into the Pando root, so that the immune system creatures can get direct access to heal the creature’s heart. Ethan is told to round up as many Reapers as he can. Searcher is electrocuted whilst attempting to dig this hole and his shovel breaks. Jaeger then comes back to help, saying that his legacy was never about his mission, but is actually Searcher. They both work together using an axe to get to the core. A hole opens up and Reapers fill the area, destroying all of the Pando root. But it wasn’t enough; the heart is not healed. When all looks lost, a flurry of little orange creatures rush over the surface of the heart. They are there to restore the heart back to health. After some time, the heart is revived again, and starts beating. The plan worked! The team then head back up to the surface – after making a quick pit stop to the other side of the mountains, so that Jaeger can finally complete his mission.

One year on, Ethan has become an environmentalist, studying and collecting resources from the Strange World alongside his partner, Diazo, and Avalonia has moved on to using wind energy as its primary energy source. Jaeger and Searcher are now closer, and Searcher continues to run his farm alongside Meridian, growing normal crops this time. A final shot shows the camera zooming away from Avalonia and showing the turtle-like creature that Avalonia was built upon swimming over an ocean-covered planet.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Searcher Clade is the middle generation character. It’s clear from the start of the movie that he is very different to his explorer father and that the path he is going on at that point is not for him, and that he needs to find his own purpose. He seems to really thrive in the farming industry, with the Pando plant discovery being credited to him by the people of Avalonia. He tries to push his son Ethan into following in his footsteps, but soon realises he is doing exactly what his father did to him and knows for Ethan to be happy, Searcher has to let that dream go. Searcher is a good father, albeit quite a protective one, who is also embarrassing at times, as we see when Ethan is trying to talk to his crush, Diazo, and Searcher butts in, introducing himself and generally being weird.

Searcher was voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, who said the personal story behind the film appealed to him the most as it was clear it had come from a true place. He also was able to bring in his own family experiences to the character. Gyllenhaal has had roles in movies such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). More recently, Gyllenhaal portrayed the villain Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019); and Dalton in Road House (2024).

Jaeger Clade is the eldest Clade, and though he is a great explorer, very determined and brave, Jaeger also knows it, so he finds it difficult to check his ego at times and just be a father and grandfather without that determination getting in the way. He is completely fixated on his own mission, to get to the other side of the Avalonia mountains, that he doesn’t initially want to help Searcher and the others with their mission to save the Pando plant because he’s spent a large part of his life on this one expedition, foregoing his responsibilities as a father and a husband, and is still upset that Searcher did not want to be an explorer like him. In the end, though, he realises that he needs to be with his family and that he can’t always think of himself, and he repairs his bond with Searcher.

Jaeger was voiced by Dennis Quaid, who was incredibly enthusiastic about the role. Quaid said the Clades felt like a real family, with real issues and that some of the conversations and conflicts they have are reminiscent of any family at the Thanksgiving dinner table. He liked that Disney were being very open with these discussions, but also making them funny. Quaid also starred in The Day After Tomorrow (2004), as the father of Gyllenhaal’s character. He has starred in numerous movies throughout his career, including Innerspace (1987), alongside Meg Ryan and Martin Short; The Rookie (2002); and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). In 2024, Quaid portrayed President Ronald Reagan in the movie Reagan. And, for all the 90s kids out there, you’ll know Quaid from The Parent Trap (1998), where he played Nick Parker, the father of the twins.

Ethan is the youngest family member at sixteen-years-old, and is Searcher’s son and Jaeger’s grandson. Ethan is at a point in his life where he’s trying to figure out who he wants to be and what he wants to do with his life. He knows that he doesn’t want to be a farmer, and that he wants to experience what else is out there, beyond Avalonia. His father struggles with this idea, and thinks that, whilst out on this mission, that Jaeger has spent time trying to convince Ethan to be an explorer, not listening to Ethan and what he wants. Ethan perseveres though, and doesn’t give in, explaining to his father that it’s his life and he should do what he wants with it. Ethan is also the peacekeeper and the environmentally-conscious one in the family. He finds happiness in the end, researching and resourcing from the strange world. Ethan is the first openly gay character to feature in any Disney work. Ethan’s family are wholly accepting of his sexuality, so this isn’t even a story about him having to seek approval from his parents as you might expect.

Comedian, actor and writer Jaboukie Young-White voiced the role of Ethan. Young-White has written for shows such as Big Mouth (2018-present) and American Vandal (2017-18), and appeared as a correspondent on Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show from 2018 to 2021. Young-White also released his debut music album in August 2023.

Meridian is Searcher’s wife and Ethan’s mother, but is also a pilot, and ends up playing a pivotal role in the expedition as the original crew pilot is killed by a creature whilst the airship is crash-landing. She was only there to try and retrieve Ethan who she knew had snuck aboard the ship. She is a very caring mother, and a very experienced and brave pilot, having to get them through multiple scrapes and navigate difficult terrain. She knows that Ethan is loving exploring this new area, and that he seems to have found what’s right for him; Meridian is the voice of reason and understanding. Originally, Meridian was going to have a backstory, which involved her being a stunt pilot. She loved to fly, but after a crash which she was lucky to walk away from, she had been scared to fly again, having to fly a plane once more to save her family. This backstory ultimately was not used[1].

Meridian was voiced by Gabrielle Union, who was drawn to Meridian’s strength and parenting approach, feeling that it was similar to her own self. She has done voice work for Disney previously, as Nala in The Lion Guard (2016-19), but she said to be able to do a full Disney animated feature was a “dream come true”. She liked how she could contribute to the character, with many of her adlibs kept in the final cut, and she was pleased that Meridian looked like her, with authentic hair and Afrocentric features[2]. Union first appeared in “teen movies” such as She’s All That (1999), 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), and Bring It On (2000), moving on to other roles such as Special Agent Burnett in Bad Boys II (2003); Mary Jane Paul in the series Being Mary Jane (2013-19); Zoey Baker in the remake of Cheaper by the Dozen (2022); and Jenna in the Netflix film The Perfect Find (2023).

There is also Callisto Mal, the president of Avalonia and leader of the exploration. She is a strong leader, but very set in her ways and the aims of the mission. Once the Clades realise the Pando plant is killing the creature that Avalonia sits atop, Callisto does not stop trying to kill the creatures (now shown to be an immune system) and even locks the Clades in a cupboard on the airship as they try to get the other crew members to stop what they are doing. Eventually, though, Callisto sees sense when the Clades show her exactly what the plant is doing to this creature and she helps makes things right again. At one point, the writers were unsure how many of the crew on the expedition should survive, and whether they should all be killed by monsters, except Callisto, who would be the sole survivor in order to “break her” and give her some emotional depth[3]. This idea was not realised.

Lucy Liu voiced Callisto. Liu rose to fame as one of the three Charlie’s Angels, alongside Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in the 2000 film and its 2003 sequel. She also played the role of O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill (2003) and its 2004 sequel. More recently, Liu appeared in the Netflix film Set It Up (2018) as difficult boss Kirsten, and as Kalypso in Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023). For Disney, Liu has also voiced characters such as Mei for Mulan II (2004) and Silvermist in the Tinker Bell series of films.

A couple of other actors to mention are Karan Soni and Alan Tudyk. Soni voices the very funny, but kind of minor, character of crew member Caspian. He has some great lines, delivered with perfect comedic timing. It’s a shame Caspian wasn’t used too much in the overall story. Soni rose to fame in the role of Dopinder in Deadpool (2016), going on to reprise this role in its sequels. He also appeared in the movies Ghostbusters (2016); Detective Pikachu (2019); and Not Okay (2022), as well as having a voice role in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as Pavitr Prabhakar. On television, Soni had a role in each of the four series of anthology comedy series Miracle Workers (2019-23).

Alan Tudyk has had a role in every Disney animated movie since 2012. For Strange World, he voiced the very brief role of the pilot on the Venture who dies right at the start of the mission, as well as the narrator at the start of the film. Tudyk’s other Disney voice roles include: King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Duke of Weselton in Frozen (2013), Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6 (2014), KnowsMore in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), and Valentino in Wish (2023). Outside of voice acting, Tudyk was the voice and motion capture for Sonny the robot in I, Robot (2004), and also appeared in the films Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), as Steve the Pirate, and Trumbo (2015), as Ian McLellan Hunter. He also portrays the title character of “Harry” in the series Resident Alien (2021-present).

PRODUCTION

After Moana was released in 2016, Don Hall started working on a new project to direct. Strange World was just one of a few ideas that he had been working on and had pitched to Disney. The idea for the movie came from the question: what kind of world did we inherit from others, and what world will the new generation inherit from us? It was to be a generational story of how the world has been developed, or harmed, at various points in time, although the very first pitch was about what would you do if you found out you were living on a living thing. Clearly, both of these ideas made it into Strange World in some form.

The story was originally being developed with Chris Williams, who had co-directed Big Hero 6 (2014) with Hall, however, Williams left Disney to work on The Sea Beast (2022) for Netflix. Roy Conli came on board as the producer for Strange World in 2018, and had previously collaborated with Hall on Big Hero 6. He liked the father-son angle of the story. To get writer and co-director Qui Nguyen to join the project, Hall called the movie Indiana Jones meets National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983).

Strange World was inspired by multiple movies from completely different decades of film-making. For example, Hall stated that he was inspired by movies of the 1970s and 1980s, like Star Wars, as well as Disney animated films, like Peter Pan (1953) that were all about adventure. They were also inspired by the “pulp fiction” era of the 1900s to the 1950s, where magazines were printed onto cheap wood pulp paper – hence the name – as well as movies like King Kong. These choices gave a nostalgic feeling to the adventure film[4].

Work on the film was going well, however, in 2019, Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) was announced at the D23 Expo as the next Disney animated film release, so Strange World was put aside so that Don Hall and Qui Nguyen could come onto the project as director and screenwriter, respectively, for Raya and the Last Dragon instead. They both felt they knew the story of Strange World well enough to leave it for a while and focus on Raya[5].

Creating the world of Strange World, or sub-Avalonia as it is also called, was a complex challenge, since the area had to look like the most bizarre landscape ever, and yet also refer to the plot-twist of the movie by showing that everything within this landscape is alive. The team working on Strange World consulted with biologists and scientists, and researched ecosystems, organ functions, and cell structures so that everything that exists within Strange World would be grounded in real science, although it was never meant to exactly replicate the anatomy or internal workings of any creature or a turtle specifically, despite this being the creature Avalonia resides on.

They chose a jungle-like landscape for sub-Avalonia but did not use the colour green. The pinks, blues, and purples of the scenery is in stark contrast to what would be expected. Strange World includes some of the largest environments created at Disney Animation and they had to include everything: from the smallest blade of grass, to the biggest structures. Disney also had to make this place feel alive, in both the backgrounds and the characters.

Everything had to feel like it was a part of the overall environment, since this place is constantly in motion, so the ground can suddenly give way, as Ethan finds out when he thinks he’s landed on solid ground but he is actually on top of an organism that flies away, and the trees even breathe; the trees were made to represent bronchial tubes as the first organ that the crew falls into is the lungs. This means that the Burning Sea with its oceans of acids is actually the stomach, and the creatures that seem to attack the crew are parts of the immune system. The flying fish that the Clades travel across whilst trying to avoid the Reapers are actually the bloodstream, with a red channel and a blue channel to mimic oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.

Some of the creatures that exist within Strange World include the Filterlope, which is a six-legged deer which filters and purifies everything that it comes into contact with; the Nub McNubbins, which are the little orange things that ride around on the six-legged dinosaurs, looking for damage tissues that they can repair, so they represent stem cells; the Reapers with their long tentacles are part of the immune system, looking to swallow any foreign objects to keep away harm; and the T cells, the pink pterodactyls, are another part of the immune system, seeking to destroy harmful particles, working similarly to white blood cells[6].

Splat, the blue blob, is a form of dendritic cell, which scouts out the area, finding antigens so that it can defend its organism. That is why when Splat first meets Searcher, he takes his handkerchief and tries to lead him to the Reapers so that they can destroy him[7]. Splat’s not being mean, that’s just what he’s been trained to do. In the end though, Splat sees Ethan as a friend, because Ethan heals Splat after he is terribly burnt by a Pando bulb – that scene actually made me really sad; I don’t like seeing things getting hurt, especially when they’re cute, like Splat. Splat’s character design looks simple but it was quite challenging, since it has so many limbs and all of them stretchy.

The difficulty in animating the worlds of Strange World was in keeping it relatable, grounded in reality, but also beautiful, just not so appealing that it detracted from the story. It couldn’t pull focus but needed to be imaginative. I think the animators did a great job in creating this bizarre world, and the science behind it and all the creatures was fascinating. In contrast to sub-Avalonia, we also see the city of Avalonia, which, despite being a technologically progressive place, contains quite an old style of architecture with many stone buildings, kind of reminiscent of towns in Spain or Italy, which I found to be an interesting twist on a futuristic world.

MUSIC

Composer Henry Jackman wrote the music for Strange World, having previously worked on Winnie the Pooh (2011), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), for which he won the Annie Award for Music in an Animated Feature Production in 2013, Big Hero 6 (2014), and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) for Disney. Jackman has also composed music for non-animated action films including Kick-Ass (2010) and its 2013 sequel; Captain Phillips (2013); Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its 2017 sequel, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and its 2019 sequel. Hall and Nguyen wanted Jackman to evoke the adventure mood of the film.

The score definitely evokes the feeling of adventure and peril. Some of my favourite instrumental pieces include “The Fate of Strange World” and “Resurrection”, which play as Pando is destroyed and the creature’s heart is revived. This is the big emotional scene in Strange World. Naturally, I pay more attention to the score in those quiet moments when you’re being made to think, and those are my favourite types of pieces. I also like “A New Perspective”, which plays during the final scene.

There is only one song in Strange World, and it’s a bit of a strange one. “They’re the Clades!” plays as we are given some backstory into the explorer family of the Clades, as a documentary-style film plays. The music was written by Jackman, with lyrics by Kevin Del Aguila. It does fit the comic-book style opening scene that the movie has, being quite loud and exuberant, and it throws you straight into what the Clades do. It’s kind of catchy, but it’s not going to go down in Disney history as one of their best songs! “They’re the Clades” has a reprise at the end of the movie as well, during the End Credits. These songs are performed by James Hayden.

RECEPTION

Strange World was released in theatres on 23^rd November 2022 – in some countries. Disney decided not to theatrically release their movie in certain territories, such as the Middle East, China, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan. This is due to the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ content, with the character of Ethan, which Disney did not want to have to edit out to make it fit the culture of these areas. Pixar’s movie Lightyear, released in June 2022, had been banned in a few countries, like the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia, due to controversy over a brief scene of a same-sex couple kissing[8].

The inclusion of an openly gay character was not only seen as “problematic” in these areas, but also within the United States. A teacher in Florida was reported to the school board by a student’s mother in 2023 after showing the movie Strange World to her fifth-grade class. The parent reported the teacher for “indoctrination” and an official investigation was set in motion after this complaint, as it was in possible violation of the Parental Rights in Education Act, which banned the teaching of gender and sexual identity in schools in the state. The teacher had felt that Strange World was an appropriate movie for her class to watch as it related to their studies on Earth science and the ecosystem, and did not choose to show it to her students for any other reason, having also received permission slips from the parents to allow their children to see the PG-rated movie[9].

This just shows how divisive Strange World has become, although many critics did like the progression of including a gay character in a Disney movie. The environmental message was also praised by some, although others found it slightly too preachy. In general, audiences liked the bright, colourful animation, and the overall themes of the movie, around family dynamics, exploration, and understanding each other, but felt that the movie’s plot was “dull” and lacked drama.

Strange World was not nominated for Best Animated Feature in any of the major award ceremonies, and was only nominated for a couple of awards for storyboarding at the Annie Awards in 2023. It was also nominated at the Visual Effects Society Awards in 2023, but again, did not win.

Potentially because of the controversy around the LGBTQIA+ content, and for the lack of desire by viewers to see movies in theatres, Strange World became a box-office bomb. Despite being released around Thanksgiving, generally considered a very good time to release new movies, especially family-friendly ones, Strange World only made $18.6 million in that five-day window[10]. Globally, the movie only grossed $73.4 million, and with an estimated budget of $180 million, plus its advertising costs, that was a big loss.

Strange World was then released just a month later on Disney+ on 23^rd December 2022, just in time for the festive season, where it became one of the top 10 most streamed films on the platform in its first three weeks[11].

LEGACY

To promote the release of Strange World, the Disney Parks offered some limited time experiences from November 2022 to January 2023. These included a sneak peek of the movie at Walt Disney Presents in Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort, as well as at Disneyland Paris.

At Disney California Adventure, guests could learn how to draw Splat and the Clades’ dog Legend at the Animation Academy, and photo opportunities were available at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. These included “magic shots” of Splat appearing in Disney PhotoPass photos. There was also some merchandise available for Strange World, including play sets, books, and plush toys of Splat.

Since Strange World was not a successful movie for Disney in terms of box-office results, and to some extent reviews, very little else related to Strange World has been seen at the Disney Parks, although surprisingly, Ethan Clade as a meet-and-greet character made his debut at the runDisney 10-miler race in April 2024, standing in front of a sign for Clade Farms. This appears to be the first time that any character from Strange World has been spotted at the Disney Parks as a meet-and-greet opportunity. Whether or not that changes soon, and more characters from the movie will be seen more frequently or even just at Special Events remains to be seen.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is a shame that Strange World was not received as well as hoped, or as well as previous “Revival Era” animated features, especially after having read some interviews with the cast and creators for this piece, as it’s clear just how much passion and emotional experience went into the making of the movie.

Disney have tried to be more progressive in their characters, and have been much more diverse in their casting choices and ethnic representations recently. Even a decade ago, this was not the case. It is disappointing to find that people haven’t warmed to this film as much as they did with 2021’s hit Encanto, possibly because Strange World is not a musical, and adventure films are not as widely popular with a large audience.

I do think Strange World needs to be seen a couple of times to fully appreciate the artistic talent that went into creating that world, and the emotional arcs that take place. There is a lot going on, and it is difficult to figure out where to focus initially, whether that’s on the family aspect, or the environmental theme.

If anyone is unsure about whether to watch Strange World or not, I say be brave like the Clades and give it a go.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes: Lightning Lynx”, from Strange World (2022), Disney+ (2023).

[2] Credit: Alison Stateman, ‘Behind the Scenes of Disney Animation’s Strange World’, D23.com, 17^th November 2022.

[3] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘Making ‘Strange World’: The Origin, Evolution and Progressive Representation of Disney Animation’s Sci-Fi Adventure’, TheWrap.com, 25^th November 2022.

[4] Credit: Camille Jefferson, ‘Behind the Scenes With the Makers of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Latest Film, Strange World’, Disney News (online), 14^th October 2022.

[5] Credit: Drew Taylor, ‘Making ‘Strange World’: The Origin, Evolution and Progressive Representation of Disney Animation’s Sci-Fi Adventure’, TheWrap.com, 25^th November 2022.

[6] Credit: Disney, “Creature Feature”, from Strange World (2022), Disney+ (2023).

[7] Credit: Disney, “Strange Science”, from Strange World (2022), Disney+ (2023).

[8] Credit: Jamie Lang, ‘Disney’s ‘Strange World’ Skips Markets Where LGBTQIA+ Content Is Banned Or Censored’, CartoonBrew.com, 22^nd November 2022.

[9] Credit: Ed Pilkington, ‘Florida teacher defends showing Disney movie: ‘I’m just being accepting’, The Guardian (online), 14^th May 2023.

[10] Credit: Anthony D’Alessandro, ‘The Biggest Box Office Bombs of 2022: Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament’, Deadline.com, 14^th April 2023.

[11] Credit: Amanda Lamadrid, ‘Strange World Ended An Incredible 30-Year Disney Movie Rating Streak’, ScreenRant.com, 14^th April 2023.

21st Jun 20241st Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

#48 Bolt (2008)

BACKGROUND

In the midst of the Disney “Post-Renaissance Era”, the Disney Studios were struggling, as you can tell from the uninspiring era name, suggesting a decade of movie releases that never hit the heights of the famed “Renaissance Era” of the 1990s.

Disney Animation had tried to move into comedy and adventure films in the 2000s; that hadn’t worked out. They then moved away from 2D animation, and threw themselves into the world of computer animation; that also hadn’t impressed audiences.

It was getting to the end of another decade and Disney Animation wasn’t matching up to outside animation studios like DreamWorks and Blue Sky Studios – just think of how popular Shrek (2001), Madagascar (2005), and Ice Age (2002) had been at this time, spanning long-running franchises, some of which are still going today.

Not to mention Pixar, who was way ahead of everyone in terms of their CG movies, full of humour, heart, and soul. But since Disney merged with Pixar in 2006, the success of those movies could almost be considered a success for Disney Animation.

A new animated movie had to show that Disney Animation was a force to be reckoned with once more. That movie which drove the company onwards to better days was actually Bolt. In some ways, anyway.

Bolt is an underrated Disney film, and one that is not usually talked about. I don’t personally know anybody that has watched it, or, if they have, they clearly didn’t like it enough to mention it!

The first time I watched it was purely so I could say I’d watched all the Disney Animated Classics. I didn’t choose to watch Bolt out of any interest for the story. I remember deciding that I didn’t like it at all after that first watch, and that I would never watch it again.

But I did watch it again, with some reluctance, and actually…. I kind of liked it.

Bolt doesn’t have the most interesting storyline, but it has some touching moments, and the relationship between Bolt and Penny, his owner, is sweet. I also found that I liked the “showbusiness” elements to the plot, both the behind-the-scenes moments, as well as those featuring the awkwardness between Penny and her uncaring agent, which is actually quite topical, given what we have heard from former child stars about their time in showbusiness, and what we are still hearing today.

PLOT

The story begins with us seeing a White Swiss Shepherd in the Silver Lake Animal Rescue Center, where he’s playing with his squeaky carrot toy. A little girl walks in to the centre and decides that she wants this little puppy. She gives him a tag, showing his name is now Bolt.

Five years later, we see this twelve-year-old girl, named Penny, still with her dog, Bolt. She gets a call from her father, telling her he’s in trouble and that she can’t go home, but not to worry because he has altered Bolt to give him powers so she will be protected. Penny and Bolt try to track down her father, coming across the evil Dr. Calico, who has captured him. They discover that Dr. Calico is in Bolivia so they head to the airport, however, they are being chased by agents of Dr. Calico. With the help of Bolt and his special power “the super bark” all the bad guys are thrown back and the two are safe to go on. We then find that this almost ten-minute sequence is actually not how the rest of the film is going to go because we discover this is all just a television show that Penny and Bolt star in together.

The Director of this TV show relays the importance of ensuring that Bolt doesn’t know that this is a show, as his belief that Penny is in danger makes his “acting” more real. However, the Network says that the show is getting too predictable and they need to do something about getting their ratings back up. Penny is upset that Bolt can never act like a normal dog, because of the Director’s rules; Bolt has to stay shut in the trailer and can never be taken home with Penny because he has to believe that everything in the show is real.

The next day, a new shoot for the show begins. The shoot ends with Penny being captured by Dr. Calico and shut in a huge box. The Director believes that ending the show on a cliffhanger will help ratings, but this traumatises Bolt who is not allowed to know that Penny is safe until they film the next episode. When Bolt is taken back to his trailer by a handler, he escapes and runs around the studio lot trying to find the box Penny was placed in on set. He finds it, but smashes into a window as he tries to get to it. Bolt then collapses into a box. This box is then sealed up and put in a van, with it eventually being delivered to New York City. Bolt breaks out of the box and begins to run around the city, not knowing where he is or where Penny is. At one point, he believes he’s found the real Dr. Calico, but it’s not him. Bolt then follows a Portaloo being taken across the city on a truck, believing this to be the box Penny is trapped in, but he finds she isn’t there. He then tries to ask for help from dogs on the street, but their owner thinks Bolt is lost and attaches a lead to him, so he runs away into the park, getting his head trapped between some railings. A trio of pigeons help him free himself from the bars.

Bolt then sees a Styrofoam packing peanut attached to him. He believes this has weakened him and that is why his powers aren’t working. Bolt tells the pigeons he needs to find one of Dr. Calico’s cats. The pigeons have no idea what he’s talking about but take Bolt to Mittens. This is some sort of act of revenge as Mittens coerces the city’s pigeons into getting her food regularly. Bolt threatens Mittens and holds her over a road until she tells him where Dr. Calico is. She has no idea what he’s talking about but claims she does just to get him to stop. Bolt attaches her to his lead, so that Mittens is like his prisoner. She shows Bolt a top-secret map of the entire Earth, which is actually just a map of Waffle World locations across the US. Mittens says he must get from New York City to Hollywood to find Dr. Calico. Thinking this is the end of her involvement with this strange dog, Mittens hopes she’ll be freed, but she’s actually dragged along for the ride – quite literally.

First, the two hitchhike in the back of a U-Haul van. Mittens tries to knock out Bolt with a baseball bat she’s found in the back of this van, but she falls and knocks over a box of Styrofoam onto Bolt who freaks out and jumps out the van, taking Mittens with him. They end up in Ohio. Mittens then teaches Bolt how to beg for food at a nearby trailer park. In one of these trailers is a hamster in a ball who loves TV; his name is Rhino, randomly. He spots Bolt and being a big fan of his asks to come along on Bolt’s mission; Bolt allows it.

Their next plan to get to Hollywood is to jump off a bridge and onto a moving train. It is at this point that Mittens realises that Bolt doesn’t actually have super powers, but that he’s on a TV show. She’s horrified and tells Bolt not to jump, but he doesn’t listen. The jump down onto the train, unsurprisingly, doesn’t work out as expected and after avoiding being decapitated by a railway signal, the trio roll of the train. Mittens angrily tells Bolt he’s not a super dog. Bolt doesn’t care what she thinks and starts barking at her, to get her to continue their journey, but the barking alerts a nearby animal control worker who catches Bolt and Mittens and puts them into his van. Rhino sees all this and follows the van. Rhino gets out of his ball and opens up Bolt’s cage, allowing him to jump out. Bolt is disappointed to find that he hadn’t been able to bust himself out of his cage, proving that he really doesn’t have powers. He touches his bolt-shaped “birthmark” and realises it is just ink… Mittens was right; he really isn’t a super dog. To try and motivate Bolt, Rhino tells him that he is a hero, because he still thinks Bolt is a super dog, and that they must go and save Mittens. Bolt knows it’s the right thing to do so they head to the animal shelter. With some clever distractions from Rhino, Bolt easily frees Mittens from her cage and the three leave the centre – after Rhino, back in his ball, knocks out one of the workers and then crashes into a helium tank which blows up a car in the parking lot…

They then get on another van where Bolt tells Mittens he doesn’t know who he is if he isn’t a superhero. She tells him about how easy life as a regular dog is, with all that food and warm fires to sit by. As they travel from Ohio to Las Vegas, Mittens teaches Bolt how to be like a regular dog, since she was a house cat once upon a time. In Vegas, Mittens shows Bolt the little homes she’s made for them both, hoping they can forget this quest and just have a life out in the wild. Bolt says he has to get to Penny. Mittens is upset and tells Bolt that Penny is just an actress and doesn’t care about him; no human cares about their pet. It turns out Mittens’ owners moved away one day and left her to fend for herself. Bolt goes on to Hollywood alone, leaving Mittens to tell Rhino that Bolt said he had to face Dr. Calico alone, to keep up Rhino’s delusional. Rhino insists they go after him, because you can never abandon a friend in a time of need.

Meanwhile, Penny is heartbroken, having still not found Bolt. Her agent tells her that they have found him, but it’s actually just a replacement dog who looks like him. The Network tells Penny she’ll have to continue the show with this dog, or else the show will get cancelled and many people will lose their jobs. Talk about emotional blackmail…

Bolt finally makes it to the studio, with Mittens and Rhino making it too. Bolt hears Penny and runs over to her – but is devastated to find her hugging a different dog who looks just like him. Believing Mittens to have been right about humans all along, Bolt leaves. In actual fact, this was all just a rehearsal for the show that Mittens has also overheard, but what Bolt didn’t hear is Penny saying how much she misses the real Bolt.

In a new scene for the show, Penny is tied up, hanging from the ceiling when new Bolt arrives, but he is scared of all the actors and the whole set and runs away, knocking over the scene’s lit torches, setting the whole stage on fire. Mittens catches up with Bolt by the studio entrance and tells him that Penny does care about him. Bolt then feels that something is wrong and runs over to the studio. He gets into the building thanks to Rhino, whose plastic ball keeps a door open long enough for Bolt to get inside. Penny has managed to release herself from the ceiling but can’t find a way out. Bolt hears her coughing and follows the sound right to her. The two are so happy to be reunited, but the whole set is coming down and Penny is struggling to breathe. Penny attaches a lead to Bolt and asks him to find a way out for them. He drags her to a vent, but she is too weak to move. Penny tells him to go without her, but Bolt, ever the loyal dog, refuses to leave her. He barks near the vent to try and get help, before passing out himself.

Luckily, the bark echoes through the vent and gets to the rescue workers outside. They get in to the studio and find the two of them. Penny’s agent tells her that they can get more work from this incident, but her mother angrily tells him they quit. Penny and Bolt are rushed to hospital, with Rhino and Mittens hitching a ride there too.

We then see a girl being told that her injuries were severe and that her face had to be reconstructed. Don’t worry; this isn’t Penny. Well, not really. It’s a different actress and this is another scene from the show, which ends with “Penny” and “Bolt” being abducted by aliens. We move to Rhino who is distraught about this new reboot. I feel your pain, Rhino. Who hasn’t been disappointed by the recasting of a character in a show or by a terrible reboot? We’ve all been there! We now see that Bolt, Mittens and Rhino are living together with Penny, who has retired from acting and living a happy, normal life with her favourite dog.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Bolt is made to believe that everything that happens on the set of the TV show is real: that he has a “super bark” that can knock people backwards; that he has laser beam eyes; he can jump long distances; he has super strength. This has got to be a form of animal cruelty, doesn’t it? It’s no wonder he spends much of his time being mocked by animals in “the real world” who think he’s completely delusional, when it’s not even his fault! I feel really sorry for Bolt when he eventually realises that he is just a dog, but it is nice watching Mittens teach him how to be a normal dog, like learning to beg for food from people’s RVs on the trailer park; telling him how dogs drink out of the toilet, which Bolt is grossed out by; and saying how dogs like to curl up and sleep by the fire, which Bolt much prefers, and he starts to accept his new status in life. With his heroics by saving Penny, because apparently nobody in the crew cared enough about their star to save her, Bolt shows how he is super in normal ways, not magical ones, and it’s very sweet and touching when the firemen figure out where they are in the studio from his real life “super bark”.

John Travolta was chosen to voice Bolt. It may not seem like the obvious choice for such a sweet, naïve character, but actually Travolta does a great job with the role, giving much emotion to some of the movie’s big moments, like discovering that he’s not actually a superhero, and finding out that Penny has supposedly replaced him. Travolta is known for his early roles in movies like Carrie (1976), Grease (1978) and Saturday Night Fever (1977), with him earning Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for that role, as well as for Pulp Fiction (1994). Around the time of Bolt, he had also appeared in Wild Hogs (2007) and the movie version of the musical Hairspray (2007). More recently, Travolta has appeared in television series like The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) as Robert Shapiro and in the comedy-action series Die Hart (2020), alongside Kevin Hart.

Mittens ended up being my favourite character, because we first see her acting like a mob boss, controlling the pigeons and making them get her food. The character of Mittens also reminded me a lot of Jessie from the Toy Story series, because it turned out she was abandoned by her previous owners who just moved away and left her too. In the scene when Mittens shows Bolt this little home she’s made for them and Bolt says he has to find Penny because she’s his “person”, Mittens cannot understand this and tells him how she was abandoned and that humans don’t care about animals. In the end though, she does get her forever home with Penny and realises that Penny does truly love Bolt.

Disney wanted someone with an authentic New York accent to voice the character of Mittens, with actress Susie Essman being given the part. Essman is best known for her role as Susie Greene in the series Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-24), as well as for her recurring voice role of Mrs. Lonstein in American Dad! (2005-present).

Rhino, the hamster – who is “1/16 wolf with a little wolverine” – is a very energetic, crazy character! Rhino spends almost the entire movie in his hamster ball, constantly in awe of Bolt. He clearly doesn’t understand what TV is, so that is his excuse for continuing the fantasy that Bolt is a famous superhero. He’s a little bit too loud for me, but I know he was a favourite with some critics. John Lasseter brought in his pet chinchilla during production for the animators to use as inspiration for the design of Rhino. The animators also adopted a hamster called Doink! who lived at the studios[1]. Mark Walton had been a storyboard artist on Tarzan (1999), Home on the Range (2004), Chicken Little (2005) and Meet the Robinsons (2007). He was originally the “scratch voice” for the character of Rhino during storyboarding, but the team gave Walton the role as they felt no-one else could do the voice as well. Walton left Disney around 2009 and has worked at Illumination since 2023.

Then there’s Penny. She is a child actress, only twelve years old, and she clearly has a difficult time dealing with all the responsibilities that go with fame. Her agent seems quite pushy, not letting her spend time with Bolt and convincing her to give interviews on all these shows like The Tonight Show to publicise the series. It’s very sad to see Penny lose Bolt, who was seemingly her only access to any sort of normal childhood, and it’s obvious that she hates how Bolt is treated by the show and how it made him hypervigilant and unable to relax. It’s such a great moment when Penny and her mother stand up for themselves by quitting show business. They then get to live a happy life away from all that pressure.

Penny was voiced by Miley Cyrus. Cyrus does well acting in those dramatic moments, like the studio fire, delivering her lines with a lot of emotion. I teared up when Bolt decided to stay with Penny when she’d collapsed from smoke inhalation and couldn’t escape. It did take me a while to get used to her voice though, as it didn’t sound as young as I was expecting – Penny is meant to be twelve-years-old after all – but Cyrus admitted in a behind-the-scenes video on the making of Bolt that her voice is quite deep, so she had to make it sound younger[2]. I did get used to it in the end, but initially I was sceptical about her being chosen for the movie, believing it to just be a marketing ploy to get younger fans back to watching Disney movies, since at the time, Cyrus was best known for her starring role in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana (2006-11). She later starred in the movie LOL (2012) and is now one of the most successful recording artists, with some of her most popular singles being “The Climb”, “Party in the U.S.A”, “Wrecking Ball”, and “Flowers”.

There are a few other “human characters” to mention, those being involved in the Hollywood side of Bolt. The first is The Agent. He is awful, not caring at all about what Penny wants, not being bothered by the fact that Bolt is being mistreated by the studio, replacing her dog like it’s no big deal, and then trying to capitalise on her near-death experience. He’s very pushy and he has the most annoying catchphrase: “let’s put a pin in this conversation”. Despite the terrible character, I’m actually a fan of the actor who voiced The Agent, Greg Germann. He had played the role of Richard Fish on Ally McBeal (1997-2002) and was recently cast as Dr. Tom Koracick from Season 14 to Season 19 in Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present). The reason I’m a fan of his, though, is because of his portrayal of Hades in Season 5 of Once Upon a Time (2011-18); I love Hades as a Disney villain and I was glad that someone lived up to James Woods’ voice performance in Hercules (1997).

Then there is The Director, who is another toxic reference to the world of showbusiness. All he cares about is making sure his show doesn’t get cancelled. It is on his orders that Bolt is left alone in his trailer at the end of the day and that he never gets to act like a normal dog. The Director says “if the dog believes it, then the audience believes it too”. Yeah, ok – whatever helps you sleep at night, bro. The Director was voiced by James Lipton, who produced, created, and hosted the Bravo TV series Inside the Actors Studio (1994-2019), which interviewed people in the entertainment industry, like actors and directors. Lipton passed away in 2020.

Finally, we have the actor who voices the actor who portrays the evil Dr. Calico on the Bolt TV show, who of course had to be English because all the best villains are voiced by British people! Malcolm McDowell voiced the character. McDowell is best known for playing the main role of Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971). In more recent years, he played the part of Daniel Linderman in the superhero series Heroes (2006-10) and portrayed Rupert Murdock in Bombshell (2019).

MUSIC

Unlike other Disney animated movies, Bolt does not have a particularly memorable soundtrack, but that’s probably just because it’s not a musical, in the same way that none of the movies from 2000 to 2008 were the typical Disney musical.

There are only two songs in the movie, with only one being played in the actual movie, and the other being an End Credits song. “Barking at the Moon”, written and performed by Jenny Lewis, a former child actress, who appeared in the sitcom Brooklyn Bridge (1991-93). Lewis then left acting to focus on her music career, being the lead singer in the band Rilo Kiley in 1998 before launching a solo career. She provided the voice of the Assistant Director in Bolt as well. “Barking at the Moon” plays as Rhino, Bolt, and Mittens make their way from Ohio to Las Vegas, and Mittens teaches Bolt how to act like a normal dog. This song has a very country feel to it, which is appropriate for the road trip element of the movie, but I’m not a fan of this song, probably because I’m not a big fan of country music. I do like its lyrics referencing the importance of home though and I feel like it fits in well at this point in the movie. There is a brief reprise of the song at the end of the movie.

The other song is “I Thought I Lost You” performed by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta. It was written by Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele, who was the lead singer and bass guitarist in the band Boy Howdy in the 1990s and went on to co-write many hits songs for artists such as LeAnn Rimes, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Tim McGraw. I prefer this song to “Barking at the Moon” as it sounds more like a pop song and a typical song we’d expect to hear from Miley Cyrus during her Hannah Montana days. It’s also got a nice message about reuniting with someone you thought you’d lost. “I Thought I Lost You” was nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes, but lost to “The Wrestler” from the movie of the same name.

The score for Bolt was composed by John Powell, who had co-composed scores for DreamWorks movies such as The Road to El Dorado (2000), Shrek (2001) and Kung Fu Panda (2008), as well as Animal Logic’s Happy Feet (2006) prior to working on Bolt. Powell went on to compose the score for the How to Train Your Dragon film series, as well as live-action movies including Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and Don’t Worry Darling (2022). Powell is also known for his musical work on some the Ice Age films and the Bourne movies.

Within the score, I can’t say any instrumental pieces stood out to me whilst watching the movie, unlike my experiences with other Disney animated film scores. However, the ending piece “Home at Last” is probably the one I noticed most. The score does have a good mix of intense moments, like “Rescuing Penny”, and some more reflective ones, like “A Friend in Need”, so those match the tone of the movie.

PRODUCTION

Bolt started out as an original story idea called American Dog, written by Chris Sanders, who had co-written and co-directed Lilo & Stitch (2002). After the Disney-Pixar merger in 2006, John Lasseter came on board as Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation and was tasked with overseeing production on the movie. Bolt happens to be the first Disney film to be produced completely under his guidance.

With that in mind, Lasseter gave Sanders notes on how the movie could be improved. These were rejected by Sanders who then left the Disney Studios and ended up working at DreamWorks where he co-wrote and co-directed How to Train Your Dragon (2010) instead, a movie that spanned a hugely popular franchise[3].

In February 2007, two new directors were assigned to the project. These directors were Chris Williams and Byron Howard. Williams had previously worked as a Story Artist for Disney animated films like Mulan (1998), The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Lilo & Stitch (2002), and Chicken Little (2005). He went on to co-direct Big Hero 6 (2014) with Don Hall, as well as work on story for Moana (2016). Howard had worked as the Supervising Animator for Cobra Bubbles in Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Bear Kenai for Brother Bear (2003) before Bolt, and went on to co-direct Tangled (2010), Zootopia (2016), and Encanto (2021).

With a combination of Disney talent in the areas of story and character animation, it’s no surprise that Williams and Howard made sure to fully focus on these areas of Bolt. As is normal for any movie, some story ideas were originally conceived and then later cut, or reworked. Two of these were around Bolt’s realisation that he is not a super hero, and doesn’t have powers, like he’d been made to believe by the people behind his television series. The first idea was to have Bolt confront two mean dogs in an alleyway in Las Vegas. He would believe that his super bark and laser eyes will fight off the dogs, but it doesn’t work and he is brutally attacked. Mittens finds him hurt, but more than that, crushed that everything he thought was real and true was actually all a lie. This scene was potentially too traumatic to include in a family-friendly movie, so it was reworked. Another version of this scene was to have Bolt dive into a fast-flowing river to save Rhino who has somehow ended up in there, still in his ball. Bolt can’t get through the strong currents and hits up against rocks, needing Mittens to save him. Rhino believes Bolt did save his life, but Bolt knows he didn’t, touching the bolt on his back and knowing that he is not a super dog. Although this moment of realisation was again reworked, this moment of Bolt touching his bolt was kept[4].

As a tribute to Disney Animation’s days of 2D animation, the Art Department wanted to have painterly backgrounds that were realistic and simple, referencing a specific place or type of area, but without so much detail that it would detract from the actions of the characters. However, given that Bolt is a CG animated movie, a new type of software was created to allow for the computer-generated backgrounds to look as though they had been painted, by adding brushstroke and shadow effects to them. These backgrounds in Bolt clearly show the audience were in the US Bolt and his two friends are, such as parts of Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, and even Las Vegas, with a shot showing the Bellagio hotel and its famous fountains. The artwork is simple but realistic to the real world.

Art Director Paul Felix and Lighting Director Adolph Lusinsky also took a research trip across America, travelling 1,200 miles in two days so that they could look at the details of small towns as well as study the light in these different parts of America. For example, they looked at the Las Vegas desert to see how the heat affects how we see the landscape, and New York City has lots of buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, so seeing the sunlight reflect off those gave the scenery a different light quality.

In contrast to this familiar world, we also have a few minutes of “TV world”, where we are brought into the filming of the Bolt television show. This is filled with action-packed scenes of explosions, bombs, and bad guys, as well as superhero powers, like Bolt’s super bark and his laser eyes. It’s a typical spy-style television show, but we get the added twist of seeing it being filmed, with random additional references to things like boom mics, effects teams, and dog handlers, to take us out of that “fake world” and back to reality[5]. Shame Bolt isn’t allowed to ever do that! Speaking of this studio lot, it was made to resemble the Riverside Drive entrance of the actual Disney Studios in Burbank[6].

Making Bolt was quite the learning curve for the two directors, as this was the first time either Williams or Howard had ever directed a Disney animated movie. They found it to be a very fun and collaborative experience, with ideas from all departments being taken into account for the movie’s plot, characters, animation, and effects. They even had to create a whole new technology to deal with the stretchy leash that ties Mittens to Bolt for the first part of their journey together! The team also had a huge inflatable hamster ball, or what we would now call a Zorb Ball, blown up in the Studios for the workers to run around inside, so that they knew what it was like to be Rhino the hamster – or it was just a way of goofing off, but I don’t blame them either way. Ten weeks before the end of their tight production schedule on Bolt, all the men working on the project decided not to shave their beards until the movie was completed, supposedly as some sort of motivational tactic[7]!

RECEPTION

Bolt was released on 21^st November 2008, a week before Thanksgiving. This also happens to be the exact same day that the movie Twilight was released. Awkward…

Given the bad timing of releasing Bolt that could never have been predicted, the movie did not do as well as expected at the box-office during its cinema run. It was outperformed by many other animated family-friendly movies of 2008, including Pixar’s WALL-E, DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and Blue Sky Studios’ Horton Hears a Who! Bolt was also later beaten out at the domestic box-office by Marley & Me, coincidentally another movie about a dog, albeit a live-action rom-com. Bolt was even out-grossed by Chicken Little (2005), a Disney animated movie that was panned by critics and viewers alike.

Bolt later ended its run with a domestic total of $114 million, which, combined with $196 million from international markets, came to a global total of $310 million, which may have been a disappointment to Disney executives, but doesn’t seem too bad when compared to some of the box-office bombs that Disney experienced in the 2000s.

It is also worth remembering that Bolt’s reviews and audience scores surpassed those of both Disney’s Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons (2007)[8]. Although some felt that the story was lacking in both action and humour, others did find Bolt funny and liked many of the characters, especially Rhino, who injected a lot of energy into the plot. Many said it was a step up from Disney Animation’s previous work and felt that it was a good sign for the future of the company.

Bolt was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2008 Academy Awards, which is very significant, actually, as the last solely Disney, not Pixar, film to be nominated in this category was Brother Bear (2003). Bolt did, however, lose to Pixar’s WALL-E here. Not only that but Bolt was also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Annie Awards, losing to Kung Fu Panda; at the Golden Globes, losing to WALL-E; and at the Kids’ Choice Awards, losing to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. It was clearly a very competitive year for animated movies, and perhaps many viewers had decided not to give Disney a chance at the time, given their previous track record in the decade.

LEGACY

Bolt did not receive tons of celebrations on its release, so it is not surprising that the movie has not been referenced much by The Walt Disney Company since then.

In 2009, a short spin-off movie was made called Super Rhino. It really is a short film, only around five minutes long, which sees Rhino get some super power upgrades, like laser eyes, to save Penny and Bolt from yet another encounter with the evil Dr. Calico. Rhino even goes to a concert at the end of the movie and sings that big Hannah Montana hit “The Best of Both Worlds”. But alas, it was all just a dream, and Rhino is still not a superhero[9]. Given that Rhino became the standout character from Bolt, it was a good move to make a short film based on him. Mark Walton, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, and Malcolm McDowell reprised their voice roles of Rhino, Penny, Mittens, and Dr. Calico here.

To promote the movie’s release at the Disney Parks, at Walt Disney World within the Magic of Animation building at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which has since been replaced by Star Wars Launch Bay, Rhino, Mittens, and Bolt were all available to meet guests from November 2008. It is unclear how long the meet-and-greets lasted for, but it appears to have been for less than year. Ever since then, Bolt has been the only character to meet guests at Walt Disney World, and is not a regularly scheduled character – not a big shocker there. Bolt was seen as part of the Limited Time Magic: Dogs of Summer event at Magic Kingdom alongside Stitch, Pluto, and Doug in 2013, but was also randomly spotted at both Epcot and the Wilderness Lodge Resort in 2023. You can also catch a quick glimpse of a clip from Bolt as part of the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

At Disneyland, there was the Bolt Pre-Parade which began in 2008, with a float featuring Bolt, Mittens, and a few cheerleaders/dancers appearing before Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams. When that parade stopped running in 2008, the pre-parade then moved to Disney California Adventure to run before the Pixar Play Parade. The Bolt Pre-Parade used the song “I Thought I Lost You” as its soundtrack.

At Disneyland Paris, Bolt and Mittens were seen together in 2017 for a Guest Star Day, but Bolt was also seen sometime in late 2023 as a random character find. Bolt and his friends do not seem to have ever featured at the Disney Parks in Asia.

Merchandise including pins and plush toys were available around the time of Bolt’s release in 2008, but ever since then, it has been harder to find. For any fans of Bolt, it is likely that looking for merchandise around a milestone anniversary is the best bet.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite being the most critically and commercially successful movie from Disney Animation since Lilo & Stitch (2002) at the time, Bolt seems to have been promptly forgotten by many. Whether that is because it has always been considered lesser to the big movies of the 1990s, or because it had already been surpassed by later movies from Disney just a couple of years later, it is not clear.

It may not have been a big fairy-tale musical, or even a strangely comedic movie like Shrek (2001), but Bolt was definitely quite a few steps in the right direction. Even if you don’t like Bolt, you have to admit that is true. It did take a while for Disney Animation to figure out how to make visually appealing, interesting, and funny movies with their new medium of computer-animation, but by the end of the 2000s, it looked like they were just about there.

Bolt was a lot better than I expected, or remembered, with much more emotion to it than I’d anticipated, and that’s what I look for in any movie. It’s definitely worth a watch, and I’d like to think that I will choose to watch Bolt again some time, just because I want to.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bolt (2008)’, pp. 143.

[2] Credit: Act, Speak! The Voices of Bolt, Disney (2008).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bolt (2008)’, pp. 143.

[4] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

[5] Credit: Disney, “Creating the World of Bolt”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Bolt (2008)’, pp. 143.

[7] Credit: Disney, “A New Breed of Directors: A Filmmakers’ Journey”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

[8] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘Toon Tuesday: Disney tries to figure out why “Bolt” missed its box office target’, JimHillMedia.com, 6^th January 2009.

[9] Credit: Disney, “Bonus Short: Super Rhino”, from Bolt (2008) DVD (2009).

14th Jun 20241st Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

#11 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

BACKGROUND

After the Disney Studios had released their animated film Bambi in 1942, it became only too clear to Walt Disney that they would have to explore different ways of making movies.

When the US joined World War II in December 1941, the US Army tasked the Disney Studios with making propaganda films to help with the war effort. Many of the animators had also left the company to enlist in the army, so manpower was limited.

To deal with this, Disney Animation made a series of what became known as “package features”. Similarly to Fantasia (1940), these movies consisted of different animated segments joined together to make a full-length feature film. The Disney “package features” of the 1940s were sometimes made up of numerous short segments, often paired with musical accompaniments, and others consisted of just two longer stories.

That was the case for two of Disney’s movies: Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad also became the final film in what was to be known as Disney’s “Wartime Era”. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad consists of two different stories, each one just over thirty minutes long, which probably helps in terms of being able to focus on just two tales, instead of up to ten like in some of the previous package films.

These “package features”, although not generally remembered, either at all or for their animation quality, had a more important purpose: to keep the Disney Studios afloat. They are not be the best movies to have ever come out of the Disney Animation department, but they were good enough to keep money coming in to the Studios, and to keep the animators somewhat trained and entertained.

Despite the generally poor critical reception these package films receive, I do quite like The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and I like to watch it every Halloween for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment. That’s about as far and as “spooky” as I go in terms of “celebrating” Halloween! Many others also particularly like watching The Legend of Sleepy Hollow during the Halloween festivities, and the famous Disneyland ride Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride has kept the story of Mr. Toad, making The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad one of Disney’s more popular “package feature” films.

STORY #1: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, going against its title, begins with Toad’s story. The movie begins with the usual opening credits and title song, before heading into a library, where character actor, Basil Rathbone, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in fourteen films between 1939 and 1946, starts The Wind in the Willows section of the film. Rathbone asks: who is the most fabulous character in English Literature? He then lists a number of well-known characters, like Robin Hood, Oliver Twist, King Arthur. But no, he decides the answer to that question is J. Thaddeus Toad. I disagree with this decision.

We then go into the animated story, which follows J. Thaddeus Toad, owner of the Toad Hall estate in London, and his friends, MacBadger, Rat, and Mole, who try to keep Toad on the straight and narrow, and out of bankruptcy, but he becomes quickly obsessed with different “manias”, making him difficult to keep in line. To begin with, Toad is obsessed with his new gypsy cart which he drives around in with his horse, Cyril Proudbottom. Whilst out riding one day, Toad spots a shiny red car outside of a bar and begins a new obsession; he must have that car. Trying to stop Toad’s new mania, his friends shut him in his room and keep watch, but Toad manages to escape so he can get that car.

However, Toad is arrested for allegedly stealing this car. It turns out he actually bought it from a pack of weasels fair and square, trading Toad Hall for the vehicle, with a barman called Mr. Winky witnessing this event, but as the car was first stolen by the weasels, Toad has been blamed for the theft. Toad hopes that Mr. Winky will come to trial and resolve all of this, but that is not the case. Mr. Winky tells the court that Toad did steal the car, and Toad is found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London. Meanwhile, the weasels and Mr. Winky take over Toad Hall.

On Christmas Eve, Cyril Proudbottom goes to the Tower of London and, using a disguise, breaks Toad out of jail. He hijacks a steam train and uses that to get to his friend Rat’s house, whilst outrunning the police. At Rat’s house, Rat and Mole hope that Toad will get time off for “good behaviour” – oh please, don’t make me laugh – but when Toad shows up, they plan to prove Toad’s innocence, since the weasels do have the deed to Toad Hall so Toad must have been telling the truth about not stealing the car. They and MacBadger sneak into Toad Hall and manage to steal the deed back from the weasels and Mr. Winky, showing all the signatures on it, proving that a legitimate sale took place.

Toad is acquitted of his crimes and is free to return to Toad Hall. However, Toad has since developed a new obsession – for planes. On New Year’s Day, him and Cyril are seen flying over the estate as MacBadger, Rat, and Mole watch helplessly from the ground.

In all honestly, I don’t really like the Mr. Toad part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad but I still make myself watch it, just to get to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It’s a good thing they save Ichabod Crane until last or I wouldn’t bother with the first half of the movie, because Toad is so unlikeable.

Toad is nothing but a brat of an aristocrat, with no responsibility, no career, no purpose in life. So instead of actually helping to keep Toad Hall, his ancestral home and bright light of the community, by keeping it and himself out of financial ruin, he decides to continue spending ridiculous amounts of money, and getting himself into trouble, destroying public property, that then needs to be paid for. He’s a mess of a character. There is nothing I find likeable about him. He’s selfish, childish, naïve, irresponsible, reckless, arrogant – need I go on? Ultimately, Toad learns absolutely nothing and instead of his road mania, where he owned a bright yellow gypsy cart, and then his “motor mania” which led to him trading Toad Hall, a £100,000 estate, for a shiny red car, he ends up being obsessed with planes, and flies off on a Wright Flyer. It was all completely pointless, really. The character of Toad was voiced by Eric Blore, who appeared in numerous musical movies, including those starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, such as Flying Down to Rio (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935).

To their credit, Rat, Mole, and MacBadger do an awful lot for Toad, whether he deserves it or not. They try to keep him on the straight and narrow, but Toad is so difficult to communicate with that their advice falls on deaf ears. Toad’s horse friend, Cyril, even busts him out of jail. Cyril was voiced by J. Pat O’Malley. His voice might sound familiar as he went on to voice many Disney characters, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, plus the Walrus and the Carpenter, in Alice in Wonderland (1951); Jasper and Colonel in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961); and Colonel Hathi in The Jungle Book (1967). Claud Allister voiced the part of Rat. Allister had previously voiced the character of Sir Giles in the live-action/animated Disney movie The Reluctant Dragon (1941), and also appeared as Paul in the movie Kiss Me Kate (1953). MacBadger was voiced by Disney animator and writer Campbell Grant, whilst Mole’s voice actor was Colin Campbell.

Disney’s Toad seems to be a lot less apologetic and friendly than he is in the original story. Originally, he doesn’t develop a mania for planes at the end, instead righting his wrongs and compensating for his bad ways. I have no idea why Disney wouldn’t have wanted Toad to learn from his mistakes at the end. It hardly sets a good example for children but there you go! The main basis of Disney’s story is more or less the same as Kenneth Grahame’s original novel, The Wind in the Willows, though the additional short stories included in the original book were omitted.

In terms of music, the only original song in Disney’s story of The Wind in the Willows is “The Merrily Song”, where Toad and Cyril Proudbottom both sing that they are “merrily, merrily on our way to nowhere in particular”. It’s actually quite a catchy song, and it sums up Toad’s whole life well: that he has no reason to get anywhere, or do anything useful. The popular New Year’s Eve song “Auld Lang Syne” also appears in this story.

All the music for the songs in The Wind in the Willows were written by Frank Churchill and Charles Wolcott. Churchill had won the Oscar for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “Baby Mine” for Dumbo (1941) and he also co-composed the score for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He died by suicide in May 1942, before the release of Bambi (1942) for which he also wrote the music. Wolcott had previously worked as the General Musical Director for many of the “package features” at Disney, including Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944). The lyrics were written by Larry Morey and Ray Gilbert. Morey had previously co-composed the score for Bambi with Frank Churchill and worked on the music for the Disney live-action film So Dear to My Heart (1948). Gilbert had written the lyrics to the Oscar-winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Song of the South (1946) and written the lyrics for the songs in The Three Caballeros (1944) prior to this film.

It seems that The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad might have been the first adaptation of The Wind and the Willows on screen, but there have been numerous adaptations since. Julian Fellowes, creator of the period drama series’ Downton Abbey (2010-15) and The Gilded Age (2022-present) wrote a musical version of the novel in 2016, and Alan Bennett wrote a 1990 play of the novel. On screen, some adaptations include a live-action film which aired in 2006, starring Matt Lucas as Mr. Toad, Bob Hoskins as Badger, and Mark Gatiss as Ratty, as well as a 1995 animated film with Rik Mayall as the voice of Mr. Toad, Michael Gambon as the voice of Badger, and Michael Palin as Rat, with live-action sequences with Vanessa Redgrave as the Narrator.

STORY #2: THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW

For this story, we return to the library from the opening, and move on to American literature. The story of Ichabod Crane is narrated by famed singer and actor Bing Crosby, known for starring roles in such movie musicals as Holiday Inn (1942), alongside Fred Astaire; White Christmas (1954) with Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney; and High Society (1956), where he shared the screen with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong.

The plot for this segment follows Ichabod Crane, a tall, lanky man, arriving at the small village of Sleepy Hollow, outside of Tarrytown, New York, to become the next schoolmaster. Despite Ichabod’s strange appearance, he still finds himself able to charm the women of the village, however, the men, led by hard-man Brom Bones, do not warm to him, especially once Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of the richest farmer in the area, comes to town and starts flirting with Ichabod, making Brom, her unofficial fiancé, furious and incredibly jealous. Though Ichabod is entranced by Katrina’s beauty, he’s more interested in her family money, so is determined to win her hand – that sneaky gold-digger.

At the annual Van Tassel Halloween party, to which both men are invited, Brom tries to keep Katrina away from Ichabod, but to no avail. So, Brom decides that he’ll tell the spooky tale of the Headless Horseman, to scare Ichabod, who is incredibly superstitious and jumpy with things like that. The Headless Horseman supposedly waits in the woods on Halloween night trying to find a living head to replace his; the victim can only escape by crossing the covered bridge. Nobody else at the party is scared, but it works on Ichabod.

On Ichabod’s ride home, he is incredibly jumpy and his slow, old horse Gunpowder does nothing to speed along his journey. Consumed by fear, Ichabod’s imagination goes into overdrive, and he does encounter the Headless Horseman. After a chase through the woods as Ichabod attempts to reach the end of the bridge, we see the Horseman throw a jack-o’-lantern at Ichabod’s head, and the screen goes black…

The character of Ichabod Crane isn’t much better than Mr. Toad, since he is greedy and selfish, using Katrina to get her father’s money and to annoy Brom Bones. Before he meets her, he was using his students to get to their mothers to cook for him, so he could get free dinners, so that shows the type of man Ichabod Crane is. Even his horse doesn’t seem to think much of him! Animator Frank Thomas used his precarious experiences of horse riding to animate the scene of Ichabod riding Gunpowder at night.

Brom Bones is a typical man’s man, who thinks he deserves the respect of everyone in the town and to be able to marry the richest, most beautiful woman in the town – that being Katrina. Disney animator Andreas Deja used Brom Bones as an inspiration for his character design of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (1991), so if you know Gaston, you can imagine what Brom Bones is like without even watching the film! Katrina is flirtatious and takes advantage of her beauty, watching as men fawn all over her. She’s a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to take it.

Other than a few brief sound effects, the whole story is spoken and sung by Bing Crosby. Some of these brief lines of dialogue include a “yoo-hoo”, by Katrina Van Tassel, apparently voiced by Bea Benaderet, the voice of Betty Rubble in The Flintstones (1960-63). There is also the laugh of the Headless Horseman which was provided by Billy Bletcher, the original voice artist behind Pete, the antagonist in many Mickey Mouse shorts, and the Big Bad Wolf in Three Little Pigs (1933). The animation of this character was primarily completed by Woolie Reitherman and John Sibley. Clarence Nash, original voice of Donald Duck, made many of the animals in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Pinto Colvig, original voice of Goofy, did Ichabod’s scream[1].

Some aspects of Disney’s version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are quite different to the original story by Washington Irving. One of these is that it is strongly implied that the Headless Horseman was in fact Brom Bones in disguise, playing a prank on Ichabod Crane, and that Ichabod fled the town in fear for his life. Though we are meant to be watching the events of that night play out as they did in Ichabod’s terror-stricken mind, it would appear to the audience that the Headless Horseman was in fact real. Gunpowder, Ichabod’s horse, is also found the next day, whereas in the Disney story, he seems to have vanished too to make it seem even more likely that they were taken, or killed, by the Headless Horseman. Another change is that Ichabod is rejected by Katrina in the book at her family’s party, whereas that doesn’t seem to happen in Disney’s story. Also, the ghost has a full backstory in the original story, with the Headless Horseman being the ghost of a trooper who was decapitated during the Revolutionary War.

In terms of animation, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section used concept art from Mary Blair, who created the artwork for such places as the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World Resort, and the it’s a small world attractionand would later draw concept art for some of the “Silver Age” of Disney movies[2]. Mary Blair was a very famous artist for the Disney company, and her artwork is revered by many Disney artists and fans today. Walt Disney also visited Tarrytown to research the area, so that the animators could accurately replicate the clothing, buildings and landscapes. The church in the opening shot was made to represent the actual Old Dutch Church built in the area in the 1660s.

As well as this, some areas of the short film use recycled animation from previous Disney projects. These include images of the reeds swaying being taken from the Silly Symphony short The Old Mill (1937), and the character of Katrina Van Tassel being from the same model sheet as Grace Martin from The Martins and the Coys segment of Make Mine Music (1946). Ichabod’s horse also bears some resemblance to Cyril Proudbottom, Mr. Toad’s horse friend.

The reason I like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow isn’t for its story so much, though I do like it, but actually for its songs, all three of which are performed by Bing Crosby, with accompaniment by Jud Conlon’s Rhythmaires, who frequently collaborated with Crosby. All three numbers were written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul. Raye had written many songs for The Andrew Sisters, including “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and went on to write the song “Beware the Jabberwock” with Gene de Paul for Alice in Wonderland (1951). De Paul later contributed to the music in the 1954 musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

The first song “Ichabod Crane” introduces this odd-looking character to the audience, as he walks into Sleepy Hollow for the first time, nose in a book, not noticing everyone staring at him initially. It also shows how superstitious he is, avoiding black cats and not walking under ladders. Though he looks strange, many of the women seem to like him straight away – Brom and his lads aren’t too sure though. The next song is all about Katrina, so naturally it’s called “Katrina”. The lyrics frequently refer to her as “that little coquette, Katrina” and that she is, as we see all the men chasing after her, doing things for her without so much as a “thank you”. She’s just a flirt, and quickly gets her hooks into Ichabod.

Both of these songs are pleasant to listen to, but they are just introducing characters. The big song is “The Headless Horseman”, Brom’s story about the scary ghost that might come and get Ichabod if he’s not careful this Halloween night. It’s a very bouncy, jazzy tune, considering it’s meant to be about such a terrifying ghost. It’s a favourite of many Disney fans. Thurl Ravenscroft, original voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s, as well as one of the five singing busts in The Haunted Mansion attraction, was meant to sing “The Headless Horseman” for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Known for his deep, bass voice, it certainly made it sound spookier than Bing Crosby’s version, but for consistency they felt it was best to leave it to Crosby. Ravenscroft did later record the song though.

Oliver Wallace composed the score for all of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, having composed the scores for Dumbo (1941), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), and Fun and Fancy Free (1947) for Disney previously. Wallace also whistled for Ichabod Crane as he is riding through the woods[3].

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was adapted into a 1922 silent film, which is believed to have inspired Disney’s take on the story. In more recent years, there was a 1980 television movie, starring Jeff Goldblum as Ichabod Crane, as well as Tim Burton’s 1999 film Sleepy Hollow, which starred Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, Christina Ricci as Katrina, and Michael Gambon and Miranda Richardson as her parents. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction in 2000, and two BAFTA awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. From 2013 to 2017, FOX also made a crime horror series based on Irving’s story, also titled Sleepy Hollow.

PRODUCTION

Although not a particularly popular form of Disney animated movie, either with the general public or with Walt Disney himself, the package films were a “necessary evil” in order for the Disney Studios to continue to generate some much-needed income during the wartime era.

The rights to The Wind in the Willows, written by British author Kenneth Grahame and first published in 1908, were acquired by Disney in June 1938. A basic script and the song “The Merrily Song” were already developed by 1941, however, the project was then put on hold in October of that year. Development would not resume on this story until World War II ended in 1945[4].

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a short story published by American writer Washington Irving in 1820. It is based on a German folk tale, with the setting being moved to 1790 upstate New York. Disney began adapting Irving’s work in the early 1940s, but, like The Wind in the Willows adaptation, this was also put on hold when the United States joined World War II in 1941. Work later resumed once war ended.

These two stories were meant to become feature-length films; however, they did not contain enough content to make them the desired length so in 1947, following the format of previous 1940s Disney animated movies, they were paired together. The original title for this movie was to be Two Fabulous Characters, with the character of Jiminy Cricket acting as a host and introducer of the two stories, as per his role in Fun and Fancy Free (1947)[5].

This ultimately didn’t happen, and celebrity narrators were chosen instead, potentially as a way of increasing viewership. Basil Rathbone, well-spoken and eloquent, pairs well with the quintessentially British tale of The Wind in the Willows, whilst Bing Crosby’s warm voice and strange ad-libs, such as calling Ichabod “Old Ichy”, lightens the slightly dark material of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was also announced in 1948 that Bing Crosby and his four sons would be filmed in live-action, gathering around a radio to listen to their father tell the tale of the Headless Horseman as an introduction to the story within the film. This introduction was never filmed[6].

RECEPTION

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released on 5^th October 1949 in the US. As with many of Disney’s “package features”, it received mixed reviews. Much of the public felt that, although the majority of these movies were fine to watch and entertaining enough, they were not fully satisfying, and the animation was generally not particularly impressive.

In the case of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, it seemed to be one of Disney’s better “package features” at the time, with critics enjoying the narration of both Crosby and Rathbone and felt that it was an entertaining film, overall. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad even succeeded in winning an award; it won the Golden Globe for Best Cinematography – Color in 1950.

Viewers from both then and now are split over which story of the two is “the best”. Some prefer The Wind in the Willows’ mayhem and colour over The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; however, others feel the opposite way, preferring the spookiness of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – which also happens to match my own opinion. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’s Halloween setting allows it to be watched annually at a set time of year, so it is a regular viewing event for some, but the cult classic ride of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland has kept that story alive in the mind of others.

In 1955, The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow stories were both shown separately on the television series Disneyland, with The Wind in the Willows being shown first in February 1955, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow airing in October of that year, likely to coincide with Halloween. A 14-minute segment all about the life of author Washington Irving was shown alongside it. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was later released as a 33-minute feature in theatres in September 1963[7]. The Wind in the Willow was then re-released to theatres in 1978, retitled The Madcap Adventures of Mr. Toad, to accompany the theatrical release of the Disney movie Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978).

In the 1980s and 1990s, the two stories were then paired back together and released on VHS, before being released on DVD in 2000, and subsequently re-released numerous times on DVD and Blu-Ray, usually around a milestone anniversary.

LEGACY

On screen, the characters of Mr. Toad, Mole, and Rat later ended up in Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983). Mole and Rat appear as collectors for the poor, whilst Mr. Toad was cast as Fezzywig, Scrooge’s first employer. Mr. Toad also appeared in a couple of episodes of the House of Mouse (2001-03).

At the Disney Parks, the biggest reference to any story within The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, a dark ride attraction. It was an opening day attraction at Disneyland on 17^th July 1955, and continues to operate today, being a cult favourite of many park-goers. It consists of guests boarding 1900s era motorcars and driving recklessly around the English countryside like Mr. Toad. The journey begins with the cars careening through set pieces designed to represent areas from the movie, such as Toad Hall itself, through the village streets, across railway tracks as you’re chased by the police, through Mr. Winky’s pub, and then into a courtroom where you are sentenced to imprisonment. However, that was never good enough for Mr. Toad, so the vehicles escape their prison cells and drive back through the village, coming to the railway again where the drivers are not so lucky and they proceed to end their journey in a Disney depiction of hell. It’s a strange route through events of the movie as it doesn’t recreate them particularly faithfully, with the scene of Hell being completely new to this story. This scene was added to the ride to show the dangers of reckless driving – and that’s one way to put some people off driving for life! Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was later updated in 1983 to add new effects. Also at Disneyland, a miniature version of Toad Hall can be seen on the Storybook Land Canal Boats and the Casey Jr. Circus Train attractions.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride then became an opening day attraction at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, opening on 1^st October 1971. However, due to the popularity of Disneyland’s version, Magic Kingdom’s ride opened with two completely separate tracks which gave guests different experiences of the attraction. For example, one track followed a similar version to Disneyland’s attraction, ending in a recreation of hell after being hit by a train. The other track passed through three original scenes, those being Toad’s trophy room, the kitchen, and a gypsy camp – but it still ended with the vehicle being “struck” by a train and proceeding to take a ride through hell. Walt Disney World later added four-person vehicles to the attraction, instead of the two-person cars that Disneyland has.

In 1997, at Walt Disney World, it was announced that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride would be replaced with a dark ride attraction based on Winnie the Pooh and his friends, since these characters were incredibly popular at the time, with their merchandise even outselling that of Mickey Mouse. This announcement did not go down well with some people who fought to save Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, with actual demonstrations, petitions, and media attention being brought to the fight. But it was to no avail as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride officially closed at Walt Disney World in September 1998, with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh opening in its place in June 1999. Within The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride, during the scene of Owl’s house, you can see a picture of Mr. Toad handing over the deed to “the property” to Owl, as well as another picture of Mole tipping his hat to Winnie the Pooh, just to show that this was all a legitimate transaction and that Mr. Toad was happy to make the move! A statue of Mr. Toad can also be found in the Haunted Mansion pet cemetery. What a fun way to really annoy and taunt all those that wanted Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to stay!

Disneyland Paris was meant to have a version of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride when its park opened in April 1992, which would have supposedly been truer to the events of the actual film, with no mention of hell and just Toad flying in his plane as the ending, but it was never built. Instead, Disneyland Paris just got the Toad Hall restaurant, which serves the typically British dish of fish and chips, with its building designed to look just like the attraction building at Disneyland, i.e., a recreation of Toad Hall[8].

But don’t think The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has been forgotten at the Disney Parks, because it hasn’t, though it’s only really the US Parks that reference it. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, at the Liberty Square area of the park, you can eat at a quick-service location called Sleepy Hollow Refreshments. It doesn’t serve anything spooky, mostly variations on waffles and funnel cakes, but its exterior building was made to resemble the two-room cottage that Washington Irving purchased in Tarrytown, the location that inspired his story. You might see outside Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe a sign for a neighbouring building that highlights the location of “Music & Voice Lessons by appointment, Ichabod Crane, Instructor”, as per one of his jobs in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A window projection of Ichabod was also added to this shop for the 2024 Halloween season.

At Halloween, during Disney’s events, they like to make sure the Headless Horseman gets his moment in the spotlight. Every year, during both Mickey’s Boo To You Halloween Parade at Walt Disney World and during Disneyland’s Frightfully Fun Parade, the Headless Horseman, riding a horse and carrying a jack-o’-lantern rides down the parade route to signal the official start of the parade. There is one difference between these two appearances, and that is that Ichabod Crane can be seen ahead of the Headless Horseman, running in fear, at the beginning of Disneyland’s Halloween parade. Ichabod Crane does not seem to have ever done this at Walt Disney World for some reason.

At Walt Disney World, there also used to be an event held during the Halloween season at Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground, where The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was shown inside the Tri-Circle-D Ranch stables. The event even included a meet-and-greet with the Headless Horseman. This ticketed event began in 2017 and returned in 2018, but it is not a regular event now. There’s hope that it may come back one day. In the same area, there used to be a Haunted Hayride event which had the Horseman chasing the carriages into the night. These later became known as Haunted Carriage Rides, before being discontinued completely from 2012.

There were also experiences related to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that never happened. One of these was an idea submitted by Imagineer Ken Anderson in 1957 to use the Headless Horseman in the scary finale scene of the haunted house attraction that was being devised for Disneyland. This ultimately didn’t happen, and the haunted house later became The Haunted Mansion. When Liberty Square was being built in 1970 for Walt Disney World, Imagineer Tony Baxter pitched the idea of a whole dark ride based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for the new land. Guests would have ridden through scenes from the story whilst sitting in hollowed out jack-o’-lanterns apparently[9].

Shanghai Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland do not seem to reference the characters of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, not even during the Halloween season, which is perhaps not surprising. More surprising is that at Hong Kong Disneyland, there was a scary walkthrough attraction for Halloween named The Revenge of the Headless Horseman, which ran for Halloween from 2011 to 2014.

Merchandise for The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is not overly prevalent, however, for the Disney100 event as part of their Disney Decades Collection, for the 1940s, there were two toy sets available to purchase; one of Mr. Toad, and another of the Headless Horseman. Halloween is a good time to try and find something relating to the characters of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and milestone anniversaries of the release of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad should lead to new merchandise lines.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After the wartime era of Disney had ended with the release of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949, some felt that Walt Disney had lost his vision and direction, and that he was no longer relevant on the film-making stage. He was even called a “hack” by some. Fortunately, he would recover his reputation with Cinderella in 1950, which would be a critical and financial success.

Though the animation in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad film lacks detail and realism, clearly showing it was cheaper to make, I don’t think that is a bad thing, as it doesn’t take anything away from the story, and is bright and cheerful. I don’t think The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad should be overlooked and anyone that hasn’t seen it should go and give it a watch.

It might be just another Disney “package feature” but it’s definitely the best one.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1949)’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th October 2020.

[2] Credit: Eric Goldberg, ‘D23 Creepy Classics: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, part of Halloween Hullabaloo’, D23 YouTube Channel, uploaded 15^th October 2020.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1949)’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th October 2020.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)’, pp. 31-33.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 5 (2016), ‘The Disney Package Features’, pp. 65-73.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)’, pp. 31-33.

[7] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1949)’, CartoonResearch.com, 30^th October 2020.

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

7th Jun 20241st Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

#4 Dumbo (1941)

BACKGROUND

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) proved to the world that good stories could be told in the form of animation. Pinocchio (1940) is remembered for its impressive visual effects and detailed artwork. Fantasia (1940) pushed boundaries by perfectly synchronising classical music with differing animated sequences. Bambi (1942) painstakingly recreated natural landscapes and realistically animated animals.

Dumbo, on the other hand, released a year prior to Bambi, is not known for its artistic merits, not as much as the other four movies in Disney’s “Golden Age”. Instead, it is seen as one of the most emotional and heartfelt movies to have ever come out of the Disney Studios.

It is also known for being the film that managed to lift the Disney Studios out of financial difficulty, and for recapturing audience attentions again. Pinocchio and Fantasia had not been successful at the box-office. This was due, in part, to World War II disrupting their movie distribution. Fantasia had also not interested the general public, and even managed to anger some music critics for its rearrangements of classical music pieces.

The Disney Studios needed a guaranteed hit, and one that wouldn’t cost nearly as much as their previous movie releases. They needed to find a story with a simple plot, something that would be easy to adapt, and they couldn’t have as much focus on the artistry of animation; that would cost too much.

Luckily, a short story about a small elephant with big ears overcoming self-doubt would prove itself to be a great movie for Disney Animation’s next movie. With its heart-breaking moments and relatable troubles, it touched viewers who even today continue to name Dumbo as one of Disney’s best ever movies.

Dumbo has never been one of my favourite Disney movies though. I think Dumbo is a very cute character, but it’s not nice to see something so little and cute being bullied because of its appearance. The story has some surprisingly dark and sad moments, so it’s not exactly light-hearted entertainment by today’s standards, when Disney’s most treasured animated movies these days tend to be those musicals of the 1990s, or even more recent ones of the 2010s and 2020s.

Still, Dumbo was a milestone moment for Disney Animation, and its success helped the Disney Studios to stay afloat during a particularly difficult decade for the whole world.

PLOT

The story of Dumbo begins with baby animals being delivered by stork to animals in a travelling circus in Florida during wintertime, through storms and blustery weather. Sadly, one of these animals, Mrs. Jumbo the elephant does not receive her baby at this time.

The next spring, after the animals have been herded onto the circus train for their next set of engagements, one of the storks arrives late to deliver Mrs. Jumbo’s baby. After signing for her “package”, the customary “Happy Birthday” song is sung by the stork. Mrs. Jumbo opens up the bundle and sees her baby, which she has named Jumbo Jr. The other female elephants are eager to see, and at first, find it to be a cute little thing. But when little Jumbo sneezes, he reveals his huge ears. At this point, the female elephants all start to make fun of Jumbo, giving him the cruel nickname of “Dumbo”. Mrs. Jumbo doesn’t care what they think though, and vows to protect her baby no matter what.

Once the circus arrives at its next stop, it soon becomes clear that Dumbo’s large ears cause him to be quite clumsy, as he constantly trips over them. A group of teenage boys come to the circus and mock Dumbo, and despite Mrs. Jumbo’s attempts to shield him from view, one of the boys continues to torment Dumbo, to the point where Mrs. Jumbo picks up the boy and spanks him in front of all of his friends. Good for her, you might think, but the Ringmaster doesn’t see it that way, and begins to whip her in an attempt to stop this. Instead, Mrs. Jumbo throws the Ringmaster into a bucket of cold water, and is then locked up in a tiny cage and labelled a “mad elephant”.

This leaves Dumbo alone with the horrible female elephants who ignore him. But not for long, as a little mouse, Timothy Q. Mouse, arrives to stop these elephants from being cruel to Dumbo, telling them not to pick on little guys. Timothy scares the elephants away, as only a mouse can do, and tells Dumbo he’ll look after him, and that he could be a great circus star. That night, Timothy whispers into the Ringmaster’s ear whilst he’s sleeping, telling him to make a finale act of a pyramid of elephants where Dumbo will stand on top.

The next day, this pyramid of elephants is shown to a paying audience. After some difficulty, the pyramid, albeit a less than steady one, is complete and Dumbo, with his ears tied up, goes out to do his act, however, he gets stage-fright and tries to walk away. Timothy forces him to go out there, but as he runs towards the springboard that will catapult him to the top of the pyramid, his ears become untied and he trips, bouncing into the bottom of the pyramid, causing all the elephants to fall. The audience runs away in fear and the circus act is ruined. Because of Dumbo’s clumsiness, he is then demoted to being a clown instead.

As a clown, Dumbo is made a laughing stock, forced to ascend a high platform and then jump down into a bucket of pie filling. Dumbo is a hit as a clown, but he hates his new job. Timothy tries to convince him that this success is a good thing, but it doesn’t work; nothing will cheer Dumbo up. So, Timothy takes him over to Mrs. Jumbo’s cage so he can see his mother for a little while, except the cage is so tall that Dumbo can only interact with his mother’s trunk, in one of Disney’s most heart-breaking movie moments.

We then hear that the clowns want to raise the height of the platform to crazy levels so that their act can be even better, and they deduce that Dumbo won’t care because “elephants don’t have feelings”, since they are made of rubber… The clowns then proceed to accidentally poison Dumbo by carelessly allowing a bottle of champagne to fall into his water. After Dumbo gets hiccups from crying, Timothy leads Dumbo over to his tainted water supply, and the two become drunk, hallucinating about weird pink elephants.

The next day, the two find themselves waking up in a tree next to a gang of crows. That must have been some wild night! Timothy deduces that Dumbo must have flown them up to that tree, but the crows laugh at this theory, finding it absurd. After hearing that Dumbo was torn away from his mother, that everyone has isolated him because of his big ears, and that the circus has made him into a clown, the crows feel bad about what they have said and decide to help. They give Timothy a “magic feather” to give Dumbo the confidence to fly. Sure enough, it works – Dumbo can fly! Timothy plans for Dumbo to surprise everyone at the circus that night with his new talent.

As Dumbo is placed on the high platform as part of the clown act, due to jump down to the bucket below, Dumbo is ready to show he can fly – but he drops his feather midway down and loses all of his confidence. Timothy quickly tells him the feather wasn’t actually magic and that he can fly without it. At the last moment, Dumbo has faith and opens his ears, and flies all across the circus tent, terrorising the clowns below and blasting peanuts into the faces of the elephants that tormented him. Serves them right.

The movie ends by saying that Dumbo has become a major celebrity, with his ears even being insured for $1 million. Timothy becomes Dumbo’s manager and gets him a Hollywood contract. We then see the circus train going to its next stop. Dumbo flies behind it with the crows, before reuniting with his mother in their own private coach on the train.

CHARACTERS & CAST

Dumbo is a cute little elephant with big ears who becomes a huge star. Dumbo is an incredibly sweet character, and I think his hiccups are adorable. However, nobody else seems to see it that way because he’s “different”. I can definitely relate to Dumbo as a character, as I’m sure many people can. It’s not easy growing up when there’s something about you that makes you different from everyone else. I was the short kid with big ears and funny teeth at school. And kids can be cruel – but in this case, it’s not just the kids; the adults do it too. Although all the other female elephants initially think he’s the sweetest little baby they’ve ever seen, the minute his ears are revealed, they bully and tease him. It’s awful to see this, and then it gets worse, when the teenage circus-goers begin to torment him, which leads to Mrs. Jumbo attacking the kids. Who can blame her really? No-one dies, it’s not a big deal. Yet the Ringmaster locks up Mrs. Jumbo, separating Dumbo from his mother. If it weren’t for Timothy Q. Mouse, I don’t know how Dumbo would have survived all that. But luckily, that’s not the case and Timothy gives him the confidence to believe in himself that he can fly, which certainly shuts everyone up in the end. The movie has a nice message about accepting yourself as you are and showing that everyone has a talent.

The character of Dumbo was designed by animator Bill Tytla, who was best known for animating Stromboli in Pinocchio (1940) and Chernabog in Fantasia (1940). Since Dumbo does not speak at all in the movie, it was incredibly important that his thoughts and feelings were able to be read purely through his facial expressions. Tytla used his two-year-old son Peter as inspiration for this aspect of the character, giving Dumbo that innocent quality to him. In the 29^th December 1941 edition of Time magazine, there was an interview with Tytla about the fact he used his son as inspiration for the design of Dumbo, however, people seemed to take this fact literally, which led to Tytla’s wife, Adrienne, writing a letter to Time, which was published in their 2^nd February 1942 edition of the magazine. She said that she did not enjoy the jokes about how her son must resemble an elephant to have been the design inspiration for Dumbo, and included a picture of her son to prove he did not. After this, Peter received many fan letters, but it also got the attention of Walt Disney, who visited Adrienne to not-so-subtly, but kindly, inform her that she should ask permission the next time she wishes to discuss Disney matters with the press[1].

Dumbo has remained a popular character with Disney fans for decades now, but there is something a bit problematic about this. Although the main character is referred to as Dumbo for most of the movie, it’s his name on the title of the movie after all, and it’s the name we all know the character as, in actual fact his name is Jumbo Jr. If you think about it, aren’t we continuing the elephants bullying by calling him this? It’s been over eighty years now, so I guess that ship has sailed.

Similarly to Jiminy Cricket’s role in Pinocchio (1940), Timothy Q. Mouse is the confidante of Dumbo, and, since Dumbo does not talk, Timothy becomes his voice, standing up for him against the bullies. He takes Dumbo under his wing and plans to make him a big star, so that no-one will ever laugh at him again. Timothy Q. Mouse is the eternal optimist, determined to make the world a better and more understanding place. What a dream that would be… Disney’s Dumbo is based on an original story written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl. The biggest difference between the two stories is that there is no mouse named Timothy. Instead, Dumbo is helped to stardom by a little robin named Red[2]. Animator Fred Moore did much of the animation work on Timothy, managing to mix the comic and the more sympathetic scenes well. Moore had animated most of the character of Lampwick in Pinocchio (1940) before this.

Edward Brophy voiced the character of Timothy. Brophy worked with Buster Keaton on a few of his movies, like The Cameraman (1928), Doughboys (1930) and The Champ (1931). later appeared as the sidekick, Goldie Locke, in a couple of movies within The Falcon film series, which starred Tom Conway.

Although not hugely present in the movie, Mrs. Jumbo is a major supporting character for Dumbo. She is protective of him right from the outset, shielding him from the comments of the other elephants, and then beats up the horrible kids that start to make fun of Dumbo, which unfortunately means that she is taken away from her son and locked up…It’s a difficult series of events to watch, and you can feel how depressed both Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo are at being separated from each other. It’s just good that they are reunited at the end of the movie.

Verna Felton voiced the characters of both Mrs. Jumbo, who only has the one line in the movie, when she names her son, and Elephant Matriarch, the leader of the other elephants who makes many of the nasty jokes and comments about Dumbo and his ears. Felton went on to voice characters for other Disney animated movies: wholesome, helpful ones, like The Fairy Godmother in Cinderella (1950) and Flora, one of the Good Fairies, in Sleeping Beauty (1959), as well as cruel, villainous ones, including the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp (1955).

Another voice actor who first appeared in Dumbo and later voiced other beloved Disney characters is Sterling Holloway, who voiced Mr. Stork. Holloway went on to voice the characters of Adult Flower in Bambi (1942), the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Kaa in The Jungle Book (1967), and Roquefort in The Aristocats (1970). He was also the original voice of the lovable Winnie the Pooh.

Now for the last set of characters to mention. Let’s talk about the crows. The crows have come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years, due to some seeing the characters as perpetuating stereotypes of Black people. According to Disney, the crows were meant to accurately portray the “backchat” and “back and forth” between band leaders and their performers, which is frequently heard on band recordings of this era, including those of Louis Armstrong. It was never intended to be seen as stereotyping, with the only intention being to faithfully recreate the spirit of that type of music, as the crows’ main role in Dumbo is to perform the song “When I See An Elephant Fly”. They are also quite a sympathetic group of characters, who come to identify with Dumbo and help him to succeed.

Mainly because of the crows’ sequence, Dumbo on Disney+ begins with a warning message, highlighting the potential negative stereotypes within the movie. As time goes on, there will always be parts of “older” movies that do not age well. Providing we know the context of the time, I do not personally take issue with it, but I can see why others would. The only issue I have with this scene is that Cliff Edwards, a white performer and original voice of Jiminy Cricket, provided one of the crows’ voices, which doesn’t sit well in today’s world. The other crows were performed by Hall Johnson, who was a highly regarded African-American choral director, and members of his Hall Johnson Choir. Johnson didn’t seem to find anything racist in the work they were doing for Dumbo and was happy to continue his involvement in the movie[3]. Others, including Disney animator Floyd Norman and Whoopi Goldberg, have previously come out in defence of the crow characters.

The animation of the crows was completed by animator Ward Kimball, who had previously animated the character of Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940). To help with capturing realistic movements, live-action recordings were taken of the Jackson Brothers, a vaudeville act, dancing and these were used as inspiration for some of the sequence[4].

MUSIC

The score for Dumbo was written by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Churchill had worked on the soundtrack for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and had also contributed to the music on many other Disney projects from the time he joined the Studios in 1930, such as the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” for the Silly Symphony short Three Little Pigs (1933). After his work on Dumbo, Churchill composed music for Bambi (1942) and the song “Never Smile at a Crocodile”, which is a deleted song from Peter Pan (1953) and was co-written with Jack Lawrence. Churchill sadly passed away from suicide in May 1942, just three months before the release of Bambi.

Wallace joined the Disney Studios in the 1930s, composing the film scores for many of the Disney animated films, and some live-action ones, until his death in 1963. These included Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), as well as Dumbo. Churchill and Wallace won the Academy Award in 1942 for Best Original Score for their work on Dumbo. Some standout pieces from the score in my opinion are the “Main Titles”, which sounds just like the music you’d hear at a circus, and “The Dumbo’s Triumph”, which plays as Dumbo finally shows everyone just what he can do and gives those that bullied him their “just desserts”; it really is a triumphant ending to the movie.

Then there are the seven songs that make up the rest of the music on Dumbo. These were written by Churchill and Wallace, with lyrics from Ned Washington. Washington contributed the lyrics to songs in Pinocchio (1940), winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song along with Leigh Harline, and after Dumbo, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song again for “High Noon” from the 1952 film High Noon.

The first song is a bouncy little tune called “Look Out for Mr. Stork”, as all the circus animals, except Mrs. Jumbo, receive their babies from the storks. It’s not a big moment in the movie, so it’s not overly memorable but it’s not a bad song. Another similar song is “Casey Junior”, which plays as the circus train heads to its next stop, going through rain, storms, and hilly terrain to get there. These two songs were performed by The Sportsmen, who also performed one more song in Dumbo: “Pink Elephants on Parade”.

There are two remaining “small” songs in Dumbo to mention. The first is “Song of the Roustabouts”, which is another quite troublesome song, as it seems to feature Black railroad workers putting up the circus tent in an awful storm, with a couple of the lyrics seeming to reference that this is in fact slave labour… It is not clear what ethnicity the workers are, as the scene takes place in darkness and shadow, but it’s not a nice scene to watch anyway, as the animals are also being forced to put up this tent in the pelting rain and slippery rain. The song was performed by The King’s Men singing group. Finally, we have “The Clown Song”, which is just a few lines about how the clowns want a raise from their boss.

“Pink Elephants on Parade” is one of the bigger songs in Dumbo, and one of the most memorable, not even for its music, but for its abstract, bizarre animation. Within this scene, a drunk Dumbo hallucinates about all these strange elephants. They change shape and colour quickly and without warning. It’s quite disturbing, but this style of animation was ahead of its time in terms of colour, form, and surreal imagery, with surrealism being popular in the USA around the 1930s, when Dumbo was being made[5]. This is probably the stand-out part of Dumbo in terms of its artistic style, with the rest of the movie seeming less sharp and detailed in places, and backgrounds being simple watercolours. I don’t know how Dumbo wasn’t completely traumatised by having these images in his mind; I would’ve been!

“Baby Mine” is the most memorable song within Dumbo without a doubt. It’s the emotional tear-jerker moment of the movie, as we see Dumbo trying to spend some time with his mother after being separated from her. Since the cage Mrs. Jumbo is locked in is so high up, Dumbo can only interact with her trunk, and the moment when she rocks him is the sweetest part. It is incredibly sad to see Dumbo this upset and confused about why he can’t be with his mother. You wouldn’t believe it but actually in this scene Timothy Q. Mouse says “I hope she’s in” when they go to visit Mrs. Jumbo. He has no tact. Hello, she’s locked in a cage; of course she’s in! “Baby Mine” was sung by Betty Noyes, who ironically dubbed two of Debbie Reynolds’ numbers in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). “Baby Mine” went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 14^th Academy Awards in 1942. It has been covered by artists such as Michael Crawford, Bette Midler, for the movie soundtrack of Beaches (1988), and Sharon Rooney and Arcade Fire for the End Credits of the live-action Dumbo (2019).

The other most popular song in Dumbo is “When I See An Elephant Fly”, which is sung by the crows as they laugh about how an elephant couldn’t possibly fly. It has some very nice harmonies, and it is incredibly catchy, although the controversy surrounding the characters of the crows has somewhat tainted this song. It was performed by Cliff Edwards and The Hall Johnson Choir. A reprise of the song also comes at the end of the movie.

PRODUCTION

The original story of Dumbo was first written by Helen Aberson with illustrations by Harold Pearl in 1938. It was intended to be used for a novelty toy called a “Roll-A-Book”. These Roll-A-Books featured a few illustrations which appeared on a short scroll inside a box. By twisting a wheel on the box, it would reveal the next drawing, however, there are no known copies of this Dumbo Roll-A-Book, presumably because only a prototype was made before the rights were purchased by Walt Disney in 1939, having been brought to his attention by Kay Kamen in Disney merchandising who had seen the prototype. It was not unusual for Disney to purchase the rights to an unpublished story. The story was then passed over to Disney story men Joe Grant and Dick Huemer to adapt it for the screen. At some point around 1939, a 36-page book of the Dumbo story was published, with only a mention of Disney on the copyright page. It only sold just over 1,000 copies.

At the time of Disney’s development on Dumbo, Aberson and Pearl were a married couple, however, they later had a troublesome divorce, which led to Pearl attempting to claim that he was the sole creator of the Dumbo story years later. In actual fact, it is unclear exactly what Pearl contributed to Dumbo as it soon became clear that artist Helen Durney completed the original illustrations, not Pearl. It is possible Pearl had made rough sketches that had been enhanced by Durney. Pearl never wrote another children’s book, instead choosing to go into journalism; he died in 1975. Helen Aberson died in 1999 and did write more children’s books during her lifetime, though seemingly none of them were published. Aberson felt that proper credit for her contributions on Dumbo were not given by Disney[6].

With the rights to Dumbo in the hands of the Disney Studios, Joe Grant, one of Walt Disney’s most trusted story men, and Dick Huemer set to work on adapting the story for their next animated movie in early 1940. Grant had been brought to the Disney Studios in 1933 to work on the short Mickey’s Gala Premier (1933) and later worked on Fantasia (1940) along with Dick Huemer, who had worked on the Silly Symphonies prior to that. They made some early changes to the original short story, such as deciding to make Dumbo’s sidekick a mouse instead of a robin since elephants are meant to be scared of mice. Supposedly, the two wrote their story treatment and gave Walt just one chapter of the story at a time to keep him interested and wanting more.

Also around this time, the Disney Studios’ operations were moving into their newly built studios in Burbank, which had been built using the extraordinary profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). This makes Dumbo the first Disney animated feature film to have been solely produced at the Burbank Studios.

After a month of development, Walt looked at progress on the story and knew it would work. It was a simple story, and one that could be developed easily and for less money. With World War II raging on in Europe, cutting off around three-quarters of Disney’s overseas income, Walt Disney knew they needed a lower budget movie to hopefully bring them financial success after the box-office disappointments of Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940). By Autumn 1940, the movie had begun animation, and it was fully completed by the time of the infamous Animators’ Strike in May 1941, whereby the Studios lost many major animating staff including Bill Tytla and Art Babbitt. The strike was later settled in September 1941, but the controversy surrounding it had damaged Walt Disney’s reputation somewhat.

Luckily, Dumbo was not an expensive movie to make. It benefitted from having simple backgrounds, bright colours, a short, easy-to-adapt story, and less detailed animation. Disney’s next animated release, Bambi (1942), would be the complete opposite of Dumbo, with the animators focused on realistically recreating nature in the artwork. Many of the animators who had worked on the original Silly Symphony series of shorts, those who were more “cartoony”, therefore ended up on Dumbo. This turned out to be most of the “Old Guard”, like Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla, with many of those who would become known as the “Nine Old Men” working on Bambi, except for Ward Kimball, whose artistic style was better suited to Dumbo[7]. The animators spent time studying real elephants though, to understand how the animals move. There was also some research on circus attractions of the time, with traditional graphic posters being seen frequently within the movie, as well as during its opening titles. Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo’s mother’s name, although originally Ella in Aberson’s story, is a reference to the famous Barnum and Bailey African elephant who was the largest elephant in captivity and became an international star. Disney were also inspired by the Ringling Bros. circus attractions, with John Ringling’s Greatest Show on Earth being based in Sarasota, Florida in the winter, as Dumbo’s circus also is[8].

In terms of the story, unlike many other Disney animated films that have numerous deleted sequences, Dumbo had very few story changes during its eighteen-month production. However, one of these was later discovered in Disney’s Animation Research Library. It was a small sequence where Timothy explains to Dumbo why elephants are scared of mice: because back in prehistoric times, mice were huge and used to torment the elephants constantly. Despite elephants now being bigger than mice, their trauma has stayed with them since an elephant never forgets[9].

RECEPTION

With Dumbo’s final budget being less than $1 million, Dumbo stood to make big financial gains at the box-office, although it took some convincing for Disney’s Dumbo to be released just as it was. RKO, the distributor of Disney’s movies at the time, complained about the length of the movie, since Dumbo was only just over 60 minutes long. Walt refused to lengthen the story to satisfy their demands, not wanting to pad out the story with unnecessary plot points, so RKO had to distribute the movie as it was[10].

Luckily, the audience didn’t seem to mind that, and Dumbo did in fact do well at the box-office when it was released on 31^st October 1941. Considering much of the world was in the midst of war, it seemed to be the perfect way to escape from the horrors of realities for a while. Dumbo made around half a million dollars in profit, which helped to ease some of the Disney Studios’ financial difficulties.

The story of Dumbo was praised for its moral message, about not judging by appearances and not letting your circumstances determine your life choices. It was also found to be endearing and compassionate, with bright colours, humour, good music, and memorable characters. This type of movie was more what the people had come to expect and love from Disney, unlike Fantasia (1940).

Sadly, the celebrations didn’t last long. After the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7^th December 1941, the US were compelled to join World War II. The US Army moved into the Disney Studios lot, and asked Disney to contribute to the war effort by making propaganda films. Some of the staff obviously enlisted in the army as well.

Time magazine had planned on putting Dumbo on the cover of one of their December 1941 editions, after the successful theatrical release of the film in October. A black-and-white portrait of Dumbo had been drawn, ready for Dumbo to be the first non-human cover model for the magazine, which would have proclaimed him “Mammal of the Year”. This magazine was scheduled for 29^th December 1941. However, after joining the war, it was seen that having Dumbo on the cover of Time would not be fitting for the new world that the US had just found themselves in. Instead, on 29^th December 1941, a portrait of General Douglas MacArthur appeared on the cover, although a story was still printed in the magazine about the development of Dumbo[11].

LEGACY

Dumbo was later re-released into theatres in 1949, 1959, and again in the 1970s. In 1955, Dumbo was also aired as part of the Disneyland television series, albeit in an edited form. It has been shown on television in full as well.

A television series that used the movie Dumbo as a basis was the Disney Channel series Dumbo’s Circus. It was not an animated series, but used human-sized puppet suits of Dumbo and other circus animals, including a lion, a koala, and a dog. Dumbo could now speak and had started his own circus with these other talented animals. The show aired from 1985 to 1986. Dumbo as a character has also made cameo appearances in the movies The Great Mouse Detective (1986) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

Because the animated version of Dumbo will remain a beloved addition to the Disney animated classics for many more decades to come, as well as being remembered as the most financially successful Disney animated movie of the 1940s and potentially the most emotionally touching movie to come out of the Disney Studios, that made Dumbo the perfect candidate to get the live-action remake treatment.

Tim Burton directed the 2019 live-action remake of Dumbo, starring a CG elephant as the title character of Dumbo, who appeared alongside human actors such as Michael Keaton and Colin Farrell in new roles, and Danny DeVito as the Ringmaster. There are no talking animals here whatsoever, and the plot features a strong message around the poor treatment of animals in the circus. It also involves more historical context to the location and setting of the movie, unlike the animated Dumbo. New music was written for the movie, although “Baby Mine” did still feature in the 2019 remake. Dumbo (2019) was not a successful movie, critically or financially.

Outside of this, there was going to be a Dumbo II, which probably would have been a direct-to-video sequel. A sneak peek of this movie featured on the 2001 DVD release of Dumbo; however, the movie was ultimately cancelled in 2006. After Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, John Lasseter became the Chief Creative Officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation, and at this point he cancelled many sequels to Disney animated movies. The direct-to-video sequels have never had a good reputation, for story or animation quality. But this bonus feature on the 2001 DVD clearly shows that Dumbo II was in development, with animators informing the viewer that the sequel was to be set soon after the original movie, with the plot following the circus animal children, including Dumbo, becoming separated from their circus home and ending up lost in New York City. Timothy Q. Mouse was set to return, along with a number of new animal characters.

At the Disney Parks, Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a very famous and beloved Disney attraction, with a version still operating at all six of the Disney Resorts. It features elephants attached to mechanical arms that spin around a hub section, whilst guests control the height of their vehicle. The original version obviously appeared at Disneyland. It was supposed to be an opening day attraction, however, the ride had many mechanical issues meaning that it could not open on 17^th July 1955. It opened almost a month later on 16^th August 1955. The original ride featured ten elephants, all with hinged ears that were supposed to move but they never worked properly. In 1983, the attraction was moved from its initial location to become part of New Fantasyland. Unfortunately, two mechanical issues with the ride caused two separate guest injury incidents in 1989 and 1990 which led to Disney wanting a new updated version of the ride. Luckily, one had already been built for Euro Disneyland, but since the opening of that park was still two years away, this ride was instead taken to Disneyland and installed there. This update increased capacity by adding six more elephants. Fun fact: President Harry S. Truman reportedly refused to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant in 1957 due to the elephant being a symbol of the Republican Party[12].

Apparently, the original concept for Dumbo the Flying Elephant was for the ten flying elephants to be ten pink elephants, as per the movie, however, it was decided that perhaps using Dumbo’s drunken hallucination as the basis for a children’s ride wasn’t the best idea! The ride later opened at Walt Disney World Resort for its opening day on 1^st October 1971, though the elephants had no hats, and Timothy Q. Mouse standing on his disco ball was not there either; these features were added two years later. In 1993, Walt Disney World’s Dumbo the Flying Elephant increased capacity from ten to sixteen vehicles. It was then moved in 2012 to the new area called Storybook Circus, as part of the New Fantasyland expansion, taking the over the area once known as Mickey’s Toontown Fair. Timothy now sits above the entrance to the ride[13]. Storybook Circus is meant to resemble a travelling circus, with the pavement complete with animal footprints and even some faux peanut shells stamped into it to really give that circus feel. As well as the Dumbo attraction, where a second identical attraction was added, along with an indoor play area in the queue, this area has the Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station; a new interactive experience called Smellephants on Parade, which consists of a short trail of elephant statues with different scents on them; the Barnstormer coaster; and Pete’s Silly Sideshow character meet-and-greet location.

The concept for Storybook Circus was originally proposed as part of an expansion to Disneyland’s Fantasyland in 1976. The proposal involved show buildings decorated with striped circus tent awnings, and bunting and posters everywhere. There would have been a clown-themed restaurant, a small merry-go-round called Circus Parade, using circus animals instead of the classic horses, as well as Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Casey Jr. Circus Train being relocated there. Other attractions such as Mickey’s Mad House, a Wild Mouse coaster, and an Audio-Animatronics show on a moving track called Circus Disney, did not appear. Finances for the land had been diverted to other Disney Park locations, such as Epcot and Tokyo Disneyland, which both opened in the early 1980s[14].

At Disneyland Paris, they have also had Dumbo the Flying Elephant since their park opening on 12^th April 1992, which had sixteen elephant Dumbos from the start. There is a Casey Jr. Circus Train here, based on the one in Dumbo, called Casey Jr. – le Petit Train du Cirque, giving guests a view of what can be seen on Le Pays des Contes de Fées, their version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Disneyland also has the Casey Jr. Circus Train, which takes guests on a tour of the fairy-tale sights that feature on their Storybook Land Canal Boats. You can also find Dumbo the Flying Elephant at Shanghai Disneyland, again with sixteen elephants and as an opening day attraction, although this is the only version of the attraction not to be found in Fantasyland; it is actually situated at Gardens of Imagination. There is also the circus-themed snack bar Timothy’s Treats here.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, another sixteen-vehicle Dumbo the Flying Elephant has been found here since opening day on 12^th September 2005. Tokyo Disneyland has also had Dumbo the Flying Elephant since its opening day on 15^th April 1983, but this version is different to all the rest – and that is because it is the version of Dumbo that existed in 1983. It only has ten Dumbos and still features Timothy Q. Mouse spinning on his disco ball.

In terms of meet-and-greets, Dumbo has surprisingly been seen in recent years, though only at Disneyland as part of their Disneyland After Dark: Throwback Nite in April 2023. Dumbo had been a meet-and-greet character many years before, but is now an incredibly rare character to see. Dumbo is still a frequent character used within Disney merchandise lines, and songs or characters from the movie can be seen in some parades and nighttime shows such as the Festival of Fantasy Parade at Walt Disney World

Dumbo also made appearances in experiences that now no longer exist. During Magical: Disney’s New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations which ran at Disneyland from 2009 to 2014, Dumbo could even be seen flying over Sleeping Beauty Castle as the song “Baby Mine” played. There was also a series of floats in the Main Street Electrical Parade for Dumbo, with Dumbo even riding on one, and Dumbo began the Flights of Fantasy Parade at Hong Kong Disneyland. Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse were also seen playing the tuba as part of the Disney character orchestra during the Mickey Mouse Revue, which ran at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom from 1971 to 1980, before moving to Tokyo Disneyland, where the show ran from 1983 to 2009.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Dumbo’s constant presence in the Disney Parks in the form of Dumbo the Flying Elephant in particular has given countless children and adults memorable experiences of what it feels like to actually fly, remaining a very popular attraction all over the world.

Thanks to a touching message about accepting others for how they are and believing in the “underdog”, Dumbo has remained popular ever since its release dates, despite Dumbo being quite a sad film. It highlights the importance of family, and most importantly that unbreakable bond between parent and child.

Dumbo has become a quintessentially Disney story, one that helped families at a time of great distress and uncertainty in the 1940s, as well as continuing to be watched by families over the decades simply for its comforting nature.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 10: Final Edition (2021), ‘Dumbo’s Mothers’, pp. 234-241.

[2] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘The Original Story of Dumbo’, JimHillMedia.com, 27^th December 2004.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Debunking Meryl Streep, Part Two’, MousePlanet.com, 26^th February 2014.

[4] Credit: Disney, Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo (2010).

[5] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘Little Elephant, Big Heart’, pp. 48-49.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 10: Final Edition (2021), ‘Dumbo’s Mothers’, pp. 234-241.

[7] Credit: Disney, Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo (2010).

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Dumbo (1941), pp. 10-12.

[9] Credit: Disney, “Deleted Scenes”, from Dumbo (1941) 70^th Anniversary DVD (2011).

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 10: Final Edition (2021), ‘Dumbo’s Mothers’, pp. 234-241.

[11] Credit: Andrew R. Chow, ‘How Dumbo Almost Ended Up on the Cover of TIME’, TIME (online), 29^th March 2019.

[12] Credit: Werner Weiss, ‘The Original Dumbo Flying Elephants’, Yesterland.com, 17^th December 2021.

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Dumbo at the Magic Kingdom’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Dumbo’s Circusland at Magic Kingdom’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

31st May 20242nd Oct 2025 by The Disney Purist

#38 Fantasia 2000 (1999)

BACKGROUND

Fantasia 2000 was released almost sixty years after the release of Walt Disney’s musical and artistic extravaganza, Fantasia (1940), becoming the final movie of the “Disney Renaissance Era”.

Walt’s initial vision for Fantasia was for the movie to be re-released in various forms throughout the years, adding in new sequences whilst removing others, so that the programme was always changing. However, when Fantasia didn’t return a profit and annoyed or confused some audiences, this idea was shelved.

Attempts to revive Fantasia had been in the works for years afterwards, with a 1970s version coming the closest, a new concept called Musicana, which would’ve featured stories and music from different countries. This was again not moved forward as it was felt another Fantasia-type of film would not be profitable.

In the 1990s, Roy E. Disney felt like the time was right for a sequel to finally be produced, as the Disney Studios were releasing hit after hit with their “Renaissance Era” movies. Roy wanted this to be a tribute to his uncle, Walt, and all of the work that went into his original Fantasia, which was seen to be a “passion project”.

Because I don’t like Fantasia, I did not hold out much hope that I would enjoy the long-awaited, or perhaps not-even-asked-for, sequel of Fantasia 2000.

I’m not sure if I’d ever seen Fantasia 2000 before, perhaps once, so if I did, I obviously didn’t think much of it! When I came to watching it again, I was pleased to see that Fantasia 2000 is only around 75 minutes long, so 45 minutes shorter than the epic that is Fantasia, so at least I knew the pain of enduring the film would be limited.

But I’m glad to say that I actually quite enjoyed it. Not every section – some were a bit long and a bit strange – but others I very much liked, for both the music and the animation. After the second section started, I found that I was no longer feeling like this was just a film I had to get through and that actually, it might be good!

Like Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 consists of eight sections, mixing animation and classical music pieces together. The main differences between the two films are, obviously, new choices for the short sequences, as well as the use of computer generated imagery, in amongst the traditional animation techniques, which was becoming a more prominent part of animation, and a more popular technology.

The eight sections are:

“Symphony No. 5”: Beethoven
“Pines of Rome”: Respighi
“Rhapsody in Blue”: Gershwin
“Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102”: Shostakovich
“The Carnival of the Animals Finale”: Saint-Saëns
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”: Dukas
“Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1-4”: Elgar
“Firebird Suite – 1919 Version”: Stravinsky

STORY #1: SYMPHONY NO. 5: BEETHOVEN

Fantasia 2000 begins on a background of outer space, with images from the original Fantasia flying across the screen. One of these is archive footage of Deems Taylor’s original introduction from Fantasia; Deems Taylor was the Master of Ceremonies in the film. In this introduction, Taylor explains that there are three types of music within Fantasia: music that tells a definite story; music that paints a picture; and music that exists for its own sake. He states that the first piece is this last kind.

We then move to the stage where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been tuning up and James Levine, the conductor, has been getting ready. They then launch into Symphony No. 5, using Beethoven’s music of the same name, which may not be known to the general viewer by name, but it begins with the most well-known few notes in classical music, so you’ll definitely have heard of it before.

Much like the first section of Fantasia with Toccata and Fugue, Symphony No. 5 is another abstract animated piece. It starts by following flashes of light in the sky, resembling lightning strikes which move with the musical notes, before moving on to a flurry of coloured triangles dancing over the screen like butterflies. The landscape begins to resemble a volcano, with more dark triangles erupting out of them that then chase the colourful ones, becoming a battle between the two, with the light winning out over the dark in the end.

Symphony No. 5 is computer generated, with some elements hand-drawn and scanned into the computer system, making a collaboration between the new and old technologies. It looks good, seeing all the triangles moving together like a flock of birds, but this is my least favourite of the eight sections, because it lacks a story. I do prefer it to Toccata and Fugue from Fantasia though.

STORY #2: PINES OF ROME: RESPIGHI

In a difference from Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 has celebrity guests to introduce each of the sections of the film. These introductions were directed by Don Hahn, who produced many of the movies of the “Disney Renaissance Era”.

Pines of Rome is introduced by Steve Martin, who makes a couple of jokes about Fantasia, like how we should all be glad that Fantasia was renamed from its original name of The Concert Feature, and explains how Fantasia was meant to be added to after its release, before attempting to play the violin, instead throwing the bow across the room. It then moves over to Itzhak Perlman, who actually is a violinist. Perlman introduces the piece properly, saying how Disney thought a completely different story for this music to the lush landscapes that the title of the music might bring to mind.

Pines of Rome follows a pod of humpback whales – that can fly – particularly focussing on a young whale who gets trapped in an iceberg, before being helped to safety by its mother, with the whole pod flying off together soon after. It’s a bit of a random story, but still, I like it, though the music is the standout for me here. I also thought these whales seem to resemble the “space whales” that would be seen in Disney’s Treasure Planet in 2002.

Pines of Rome is an impressive use of computer-animation, something that Disney Animation had only been using sparingly in their predominately hand-drawn 2D animated movies of the 1990s. Fantasia 2000 gave the animators more freedom to experiment with this new technology, which would help them with the movies that were to come from the Disney Studios from 2005 onwards.

STORY #3: RHAPSODY IN BLUE: GERSHWIN

Quincy Jones then explains that we’ll be heading to New York City now, with inspiration from Al Hirschfeld for the animation style, and the music of George Gershwin as a background. Jones also introduces pianist Ralph Grierson.

This third section is Rhapsody in Blue, which is potentially most people’s favourite segment from Fantasia 2000, for its artistic merits. I think the animation is clever, especially the beginning where one line draws the whole New York skyline, and I like the overall plot of the piece, following four people through their time during the Depression in the 1930s: one stuck in a boring job, wanting to be a drummer; another out of work and down on his luck; a child wantomg to spend time with her parents; and a husband struggling to find joy in his life.

Rhapsody in Blue’s animation style resembles the work of artist Al Hirschfeld, who was happy for his work to be adapted and gave notes during production on the piece. Eric Goldberg was the lead animator behind Rhapsody in Blue, and approached Hirschfeld specifically about helping with this idea, as he was a huge admirer of Hirschfeld’s work, even using some stylistic elements in his work on the character of Genie in Aladdin (1992). The colour blue was used heavily in this sequence, naturally, given the title of the musical piece, with this even being the case with the skin colours of the human characters; different shades of blue and purple hint at differences in skin tones. It was an experimental piece of animation which worked well.

Since Rhapsody in Blue is drawn in the style of Hirschfeld, it seemed right for the name “Nina” to be incorporated into this sequence. Hirschfeld inscribed this name into much of his work as a reference to his daughter. “Nina” pops up three times here: once on the toothpaste tube, then on a coat’s fur collar, and again in a woman’s hair. Also, the bespectacled character, “Flying John” was based on animation historian John Culhane, who was also the inspiration for the character of Mr. Snoops in The Rescuers (1977)[1].

Goldberg was given the opportunity to make Rhapsody in Blue as a standalone short. However, during a screening of Fantasia 2000, which had a combination of new sequences and ones from Fantasia, they found that some of them just weren’t working well together. Roy E. Disney then asked Goldberg if he thought Rhapsody in Blue would be ready in time for Fantasia 2000; Goldberg said it would be, so it made it into the film after all[2].

STORY #4: PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2, ALLEGRO, OPUS 102: SHOSTAKOVICH

Moving on to Bette Midler, she shows some concept art of pieces that were intended for Fantasia but were never made, including a bug ballet, a baby ballet, and a piece inspired by music from the Weinberger opera Schwanda the Bagpiper. Midler goes on to explain that there was finally a success; Disney animators had wanted to do a piece following the story of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale The Steadfast Tin Soldier. They couldn’t decide what music to use, but finally settled on Shostakovich’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”, thanks to a suggestion from Roy E. Disney. The Steadfast Tin Soldier piece uses CGI characters with hand-painted backgrounds. It looks like a nod to the early work of Pixar Animation to me.

This fourth segment follows a tin soldier with one leg falling in love with a ballerina doll, originally because, when he first sees her, she is balancing on one leg so he thinks she is just like him. It’s fine though, it all works out, however, the evil jack-in-the-box in the room loves her too, so a fight ensues, with the soldier falling out of the window, into a sewer, then into the sea, where he is swallowed by a fish. That fish is then caught and brought to a fishmonger, and the soldier falls out of the fish’s mouth, returning to his place in the toy room, where there is another fight but this time the jack-in-the-box falls off the table and into the fireplace, leaving the soldier and the ballerina to reunite. What a weird story…But this version at least ends happily. The Hans Christian Andersen story has the tin soldier and the ballerina burn to a crisp in the fireplace…

This section of Fantasia 2000 is without a doubt the worst segment for me, purely because I have a fear of creepy dolls, puppets, clowns, anything with a human face that isn’t alive, so I do not like this story at all. That jack-in-the-box particularly freaks me out…

STORY #5: THE CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS FINALE: SAINT-SAËNS

On to the fifth section, which is introduced by James Earl Jones. He states that Disney animators have always had a history of drawing animals, so it would be only natural for Fantasia 2000 to include a piece inspired by “The Carnival of the Animals Finale” by Saint-Saëns. Jones says that this piece will answer the question “what is man’s relationship to nature?”, before being corrected by animator Eric Goldberg that actually this answers the age-old question “what would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?”

I love this piece, it’s my favourite in the film, because it’s so funny and silly; I also like the music. One flamingo is playing with a yo-yo, which is irritating the rest of the flock so they try to wrestle it away from him so he can continue doing the same as them, mostly just walking around in a line. This flamingo gets the better of them though, fighting against their attempts to make him conform, and the joke really is on them at the end, because he actually ends up having loads of yo-yos! This section is only two minutes long, which is palatable for anyone, but I feel like it could’ve been longer and still been just as enjoyable.

The original idea for The Carnival of the Animals segment was to have the ostriches from Dance of the Hours in Fantasia play with a yo-yo – this idea was devised by Disney story writer Joe Grant, who had worked on the original Fantasia – but instead of using the familiar characters of the ostriches, Disney ended up using the same idea but with flamingos, partly because they are more colourful[3]. This whole sequence was created in watercolours. Disney rarely used watercolours and when they did, it was mostly just for backgrounds, like in Dumbo (1941), or Lilo & Stitch (2002). It’s also interesting to see how the background colour frequently changes; when it is focused on the main flock, the background is orange, but when the “hero” flamingo is the focus, the background is green. That must have been quite difficult to keep track of[4]!

STORY #6: THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE: DUKAS

Of all of the Fantasia sections, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is easily the most well-known to the general public, so it made sense to add this segment to the program for Fantasia 2000, with this being the only story repeated from Fantasia. It is introduced by Penn and Teller, who do a couple of magic tricks for us, telling us that stage magic is all fake, but that Mickey is the “genuine article”, and that all of his magic is real. Penn then tells Teller that he is like the little sorcerer’s apprentice, with Teller then proceeding to cut Penn’s hair as revenge.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice shows Mickey using a magical hat to bring a broom to life so that it will fetch water for him, since he is so tired of doing his chores for the sorcerer. Eventually, things get out of hand though, as Mickey falls asleep and dreams that he is controlling the whole universe and all the oceans, clearly enjoying his power. When Mickey awakens, he finds that the room is flooded with water, and that he cannot stop the broom from collecting water. Mickey decides the best way to deal with the situation is to hack the unruly broom to pieces but that doesn’t work, and the wood shards come back to life, making more brooms than ever. They go back to collecting water and almost drown Mickey in the room. Finally, the sorcerer returns and is able to magic away all that water, though he is most annoyed at his apprentice. On returning to the orchestra stage, we then see Mickey shake hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski.

This story is the one that began the whole production of Fantasia, as Walt Disney wanted to make a new short cartoon that highlighted Mickey Mouse as the star attraction he is, and to give him an opportunity to act more expressively than he did in the short humorous cartoons. Mickey is obviously “the apprentice” here, with the Sorcerer being given the named Yen Sid, which is “Disney” spelt backwards. He is a strict man and one that is easily irritated. The disapproving look that he gives Mickey at the end of the story, with that raised eyebrow, was supposedly meant to be an imitation of the same disapproving look Walt Disney had[5]!

This story started out as a poem by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe, which was written in 1797, telling the tale of a sorcerer who leaves his apprentice with chores to do, however, the apprentice, fed up with having to do everything by hand, enchants a broom to do his work for him, but since the apprentice is not fully trained in magic, when things get out of hand, he is powerless to stop it. Eventually, the sorcerer returns and breaks the spell. French composer Paul Dukas then used this poem as the basis for his classical piece “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was first performed in Paris in 1897.

STORY #7: POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE – MARCHES 1-4: ELGAR

The next section begins as Mickey goes over to conductor James Levine, asking him to stall as he can’t find Donald Duck, the star of this next sequence. Levine tells us that Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” is normally used for graduation ceremonies these days, but here it will be a twist on the story of Noah’s Ark. Mickey tells Levine that Donald is just getting out of the shower and will be ready soon, so he can get started.

The animation begins by showing numerous animals heading off, in pairs, over to the Ark. Noah then comes to Donald, as he is Noah’s assistant, to tell him that there will be a flood and that Donald needs to help herd all the animals into the Ark, with some going more willingly than others. Daisy also arrives to get on the Ark; however, Donald can’t find her, and thinks she hasn’t made it on board. He tries to look for her, but the flood waters come, and he gets back inside, believing Daisy to be lost forever. Daisy thinks the same about Donald as she cannot find him either. Once the flood waters have receded, the animals are taken off the Ark, with Daisy leaving sadly. She then realises she has lost her locket, which contains a picture of them both together. Donald is clearing up the Ark and finds the locket – at exactly the same time that Daisy comes to retrieve it. They kiss and leave together, reunited again.

Pomp and Circumstance was an idea brought to the table by Michael Eisner as he’d just been to a graduation and felt the music would be good for Fantasia 2000 as it is familiar and universal[6]. The decision to use a biblical story alongside Elgar’s music did not sit well with everyone though, but I really like it, and think the ending of Donald and Daisy reuniting is really sweet.

Originally, George Scribner, director of Oliver & Company (1988), was tasked with taking that music and designing a Disney Princess processional to go alongside it. It would have followed the princesses, starting with Snow White and ending with Princess Jasmine, marching alongside their princes and their children, with cameos from other famous Disney characters. Donald Duck was supposed to be causing problems and ruining the stately processional at the same time. The story reel of this version of Pomp and Circumstance was shown once, apparently, on the Disney Cruise Line in 2009, but doesn’t appear to have ever been shown again[7]. Though the Disney Princess version did not work out, thanks to the idea of having Donald wreaking havoc, this led to the Noah’s Ark concept.

STORY #8: FIREBIRD SUITE – 1919 VERSION: STRAVINSKY

Angela Lansbury narrates the final sequence, Firebird using the music“Firebird Suite – 1919 Version” byStravinsky from the ballet Firebird. She says that Walt Disney once described the art of animation as “a voyage of discovery into the realms of colour, sound, and motion”, and that Stravinsky’s “Firebird” encourages such a voyage, before telling us that what we are about to see is a mythical story of life, death, and renewal.

The sequence follows a sprite, who accidentally awakens a volcano while she is turning winter into spring. This causes immense devastation to the Earth, which she then ends up rebuilding, making everywhere green and lush again, bringing life to the forest once more. I like the colour in the scene, and it had an obvious plot, which I like. I thought it was a good ending, and the music is incredibly powerful.

The “Firebird Suite” by Stravinsky had already been licensed to Disney, at the same time that another of his works, “Rite of Spring”, had been for Fantasia. Disney knew they needed an emotional ending to rival the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence from the original. It was based on a visit that Roy E. Disney took to Mount St. Helens post-eruption[8]. Many critics seemed to enjoy this section of Fantasia 2000, so I think it did the job of ending the movie on a high point.

PRODUCTION

Walt Disney’s Fantasia was released in November 1940, and received mixed reviews. Some liked the animation; others felt it was over long and tedious to sit through; music critics hated the orchestration and arrangement of beloved classical music pieces. It wasn’t at all what Walt Disney had hoped for, and the disappointing reviews stayed with him for a long time.

The whole idea for Fantasia was that the movie would be added to every so often, replacing some of the original sequences with new ones, making for a new experience every time. Some classical music pieces that were going to be included in later versions of Fantasia included Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”. But after the reaction to Fantasia, this concept was never moved forward.

In the 1970s, a new version of Fantasia, to be called Musicana, was in the works for a brief time, being worked on by veteran Disney animators Mel Shaw and Woolie Reitherman, which would have used stories and musical pieces from different countries to make a completely unique new Fantasia-style film. These sections included a jazz sequence set in the Deep South, a version of The Emperor and the Nightingale featuring Mickey Mouse, and the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, set to “Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov. Ultimately, this project was cancelled due to concerns over its profitability.

These attempts at reviving and revitalising Fantasia had not worked for decades, with the Disney Studios executives not wanting to take the risk of having a similar reception that Walt Disney received to his original film. It was actually because of a popular re-release of Fantasia in 1991 that Fantasia 2000 even came about. With the re-release, as well as the boom that The Walt Disney Company was experiencing in the 1990s both within Disney Animation and their theme parks, Disney had sufficient funds to look at making the sequel, and it boosted then-CEO Michael Eisner’s confidence in the project, though him and some other members of the Disney Company were not overly optimistic about it at times.

Fantasia 2000 had been the long-fought-for continuation of Walt’s Fantasia legacy. Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, was the real champion of the project, though the original movie had never left the minds of the Disney animators. Production on the sequel was greenlit in 1992. The aim was to release the film in 1997, but it took almost a decade to complete Fantasia 2000, as work on the film was being completed between other work for the popular “Renaissance Era” movies. The original name for this sequel was going to be Fantasia Continued, but as the release date started to approach the Millennium it was decided to tie the movie in with the year 2000.

Originally, Disney had wanted to keep half of the original Fantasia programme, and only create fifty percent new footage. However, the amount of original footage being chosen became less and less the further Fantasia 2000 got into production. For a long time though, Dance of the Hours and The Nutcracker Suite were going to be included along with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Eventually, Dance of the Hours was dropped and then The Nutcracker Suite was replaced with Rhapsody in Blue, leaving just The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which really did need to be included as it is such an iconic piece[9].

RECEPTION

Unfortunately, Fantasia 2000 wasn’t a box-office success, and in actual fact only just “broke even”. As Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was wrongly named “Walt Disney’s Folly”, perhaps it was more correct for Fantasia 2000 to be named “Roy Disney’s Folly”, as Michael Eisner supposedly referred to the film. Roy E. Disney had passion for the project, which was replicated by many of the animators who worked on Fantasia 2000, so that’s a harsh title. The movie is often overlooked, but I feel it has a place in Disney history.

In making a tribute to Walt Disney’s original Fantasia, given the initial response to that film in the 1940s, it was always going to be a risk to make a similar type of movie and release it in the 1990s. The 1990s were arguably Disney Animation’s best era, and potentially the best decade for The Walt Disney Company, and to have Fantasia 2000 be released at the end of the decade, it would seem a bit mediocre in comparison.

Fantasia 2000 premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City on 17^th December 1999, playing for three nights as part of a five-city concert tour, before moving to the Royal Albert Hall in London, and then to Paris and Tokyo, finishing in Pasadena, California on 31^st December 1999. These consisted of James Levine conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, whilst the animation was presented on a screen above the stage.

Fantasia 2000 was then released in theatres on 1^st January 2000, becoming the first animated feature film to be presented in IMAX, so it broke new ground there, although it did limit its release to solely IMAX theatres, of which there were not so many at the time. In Los Angeles, the Disney Company built a temporary IMAX theatre to show the film for its first four months of release, from January to April 2000[10]. Fantasia 2000 was released widely in regular theatres later in the year.

Reviews for the movie were fairly positive. The release of the movie in IMAX was a positive note for many critics, who felt it fully immersed the audience in the animation and in the music, though many did say that this did not help The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which, despite being restored somewhat, looked grainy according to some viewers, especially compared to the rest of the sequences which were all new and relatively technologically advanced. Again, some sequences were popular, and others were not, with Firebird, and the artsy look of Rhapsody in Blue being two of the best sequences, and the abstractness of Symphony No. 5 being one of the least popular. Everyone has different opinions on these.

Fantasia 2000 did win four Annie Awards for its technical achievements. One of these was to Eric Goldberg for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation on The Carnival of the Animals; another was to his wife, Susan McKinsey Goldberg for Production Design on Rhapsody in Blue[11]. It lost the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature to Pixar’s Toy Story 2 (1999). The soundtrack was also nominated at the Grammy Awards for Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture.

LEGACY

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given this is the never-ending story of Fantasia, there was supposed to be a sequel to Fantasia 2000. Some sequences had already been completed, or were close to being finished at the time that this sequel, to be named Fantasia 2006, was cancelled. It did not proceed potentially due to concerns about the commercial prospects of another feature film like Fantasia. Although Fantasia itself did prove itself to be an icon of Disney movie history eventually, that has not happened for Fantasia 2000. With its mixed reviews, as well as having to follow the greats of the “Disney Renaissance Era”, it was never going to give much confidence for Disney executives to green-light a further Fantasia project. However, we did get to see some of these completed sequences as standalone short films, so all was not lost.

The Little Matchgirl made its appearance in 2006, first at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France in June 2006, before being added as a bonus feature on The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD, also released in 2006. Both The Little Matchgirl and The Little Mermaid are Disney takes on Hans Christian Andersen stories. The Little Matchgirl short film was directed by Roger Allers, who had also co-directed The Lion King (1994) by this point, and produced by Don Hahn, who produced many of the hit Disney films of the 1990s including Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994).

The story follows a young homeless girl attempting to sell matchsticks to people on the streets of St. Petersburg to make some money for herself, however, no-one will buy any. Wanting to get out of the cold, the girl hides away in a snow-filled alley. To keep herself warm, the girl begins to strike her matches, each time seeing visions of happier Christmas times, with a house, a fireplace, good food, and her grandmother. But each time the match burns out, the girl is brought back to her reality of freezing alone on the streets. The next day, the girl is seemingly found in the alley by her grandmother, although, we soon see that the grandmother is a spirit and that the girl must have died in the cold… Not the happiest of tales. Apparently attempts were made to give it a happier ending, but none of these worked.

The story was first intended to be set to Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”; a piece of music that had been considered for the original Fantasia. It was not used, with Borodin’s “String Quarter No. 2” being chosen instead, and performed by the Emerson String Quartet. The Little Matchgirl was nominated for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards, but lost to a Norwegian short titled The Danish Poet (2006)[12].

One by One was directed by Pixote Hunt, who was the Art Director for The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and created the Symphony No. 5 section for Fantasia 2000. It was released in 2004 as a bonus feature on the DVD release of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.

This short film takes place in a town in South Africa and sees us follow a colourful feather as it flies into this town. A young boy finds the feather and, inspired by it, calls for his friends to fly kites with him. All the children of the town find materials they can use to make their own colourful kites, and walk in procession up to the highest hill. One boy lets his kite go first and then tells everyone else to do the same, with the whole sky awash with colourful kites. One by One takes its name from the song of the same name written by Lebo M. It was originally intended to be included in The Lion King (1994). This song was cut from the final movie, but was later used in the Broadway musical of The Lion King.

Another completed sequence was Lorenzo. Work had begun on this short back in the 1940s, but was revived and completed for Fantasia 2006. After Fantasia 2006 was cancelled, Lorenzo was instead released in 2004 after premiering at the Florida Film Festival in March of that year. It was directed by Mike Gabriel, who was the co-director for The Rescuers Down Under (1990) and Pocahontas (1995).

Lorenzo is a pampered cat who comes across a stray, street cat with no tail one day, proceeding to show off how fluffy and wonderful his own is. The street cat then curses Lorenzo so that his tail will have a mind of its own, making him dance all over the streets with it. Lorenzo then finds himself in a fountain and tries to drown his tail. That doesn’t work, so he then tries to break his tail off by slamming it in a door. That also doesn’t work, so Lorenzo ties his tail down to the train tracks, but the tail is too smart for that, and manages to untie itself. Lorenzo tries to electrocute his tail, but instead only harms himself. The street cat from earlier then gives Lorenzo a knife so that he may cut his tail off. A fight then ensues, with Lorenzo ultimately succeeding in removing the tail. That’s a bit of a gruesome story…

But the music is quite good. Gabriel chose a piece of tango music for the short, which works well here, giving it some suspense and drama. The music chosen was “Bordoneo y 900”, by Osvaldo Ruggiero, performed by Juan José Mosalini and his Big Tango Orchestra. Lorenzo was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards, but lost to Ryan (2004), a short animated film about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin.

Whilst working on Fantasia 2000, Roy E. Disney uncovered a project that had begun in 1945, a collaboration between his uncle, Walt Disney, and Spanish artist Salvador Dalí entitled Destino. This is the final completed sequence for what could have been Fantasia 2006. It was instead released separately in 2003 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France in June of that year. It was later released theatrically in 2004.

In the mid-1940s, Dalí was invited to work on this short film at the Disney Studios, completing plenty of concept art in his iconic surrealist style alongside John Hench, who went on to lead various projects as part of Walt Disney Imagineering. The story follows a young woman named Dahlia struggling to find her long-lost love, Chronos, the personification of time, as she travels across various strange landscapes, reminiscent of famous Dalí paintings. It’s not entirely clear to me what happens here, or whether the two are reunited in the final scene – let’s assume they do! The film is set to a piece of music called “Destino”, written by Armando Dominguez, performed by Dora Luz, who performed the song “You Belong to My Heart” for Disney’s The Three Caballeros (1944).

Destino was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards, losing out to the claymation short film Harvie Krumpet. Of these four completed sequences meant for Fantasia 2006, Destino seems to be the most remembered and praised, having been shown as part of numerous Dalí exhibitions around the world ever since its release in 2003.

At the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World, Destino plays in the main lobby of its building Gran Destino Tower, which opened in July 2019. Its Dahlia Lounge area was named after the heroine of the film, and photos of Walt Disney and Salvador Dalí appear on the walls of the lounge[13].

At the All-Star Movies Resort also at Walt Disney World, two buildings of the hotel are themed to the two Fantasia movies: one features the brooms from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence which appears in both films, and the second building is themed to The Steadfast Tin Soldier section of Fantasia 2000, complete with giant statues of the creepy jack-in-the-box, the ballerina doll, and of course, the one-legged soldier. Since Fantasia 2000 wasn’t released until a year after the All-Star Movies Resort opened in January 1999, Roy E. Disney, Chairman of Feature Animation at the time and producer of Fantasia 2000, had to give special permission for the movie to be referenced[14].

There are few references at the Disney Parks that specifically relate to Fantasia 2000. Apart from those two hotels, one other is that the Spring Sprite from the Firebird sequence has featured in a couple of shows and parades. One of these was Tokyo Disneyland’s 25^th anniversary parade, Jubilation!, where the Spring Sprite was added to the top of one of the parade floats; this parade ran from 2008 to 2013. The Sprite also appeared during the original World of Color show at Disney California Adventure. The music “Pines of Rome” has also been used in a few nighttime shows, including Epcot’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks, and World of Color. The whales from Pines of Rome also appear briefly in the finale section of the Wonderful World of Animation show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

There are no character meet-and-greets here for specific Fantasia 2000 characters, although at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, you can meet Sorcerer Mickey at Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams, located just outside of the ABC Commissary quick-service location, and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice scene appears in the Mickey’s PhilarMagic show which currently operates at all of the Disney Parks except for Shanghai Disneyland. Sorcerer Mickey merchandise is also likely to be the easiest to find, with anything specific to Fantasia 2000 most likely to be made for a milestone anniversary.

In recent years, Disney have gone back to their idea of making Fantasia into a concert experience. This is the touring concert Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert, where a live orchestra plays the classical pieces of music, whilst a screen shows the animated segments. The program contains a mixture of sequences from both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, although the program seems to change. It is unclear to me when Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert first began showing, with the earliest date I can find going back to 2012. It is currently still touring in 2024.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s great that Disney agreed to make Fantasia 2000, and I think I’ve found a new Disney animated film that I like. There are pieces of music I will certainly be listening to now, so Disney have succeeded in winning me over there. I surprisingly found myself getting teary at times: at the ending with the sprite, Donald and Daisy reuniting, the whales flying off into space, so that shows how much I enjoyed the film. I’m still thinking about it a few days later.

This film was much funnier, much less stuffy, and less serious than Fantasia, and it felt generally more familiar, with the music choices and animation stylings. I hope others join me in giving this one another go, even if Fantasia is too much for them!

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia 2000 (1999)’, pp. 112-114.

[2] Credit: D23, ‘The Fantasia Legacy: A Conversation with Eric Goldberg’, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, 16^th November 2020.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia 2000 (1999)’, pp. 112-114.

[4] Credit: D23, ‘The Fantasia Legacy: A Conversation with Eric Goldberg’, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, 16^th November 2020.

[5] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (2000).

[6] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (2000).

[7] Credit: Jim Hill, ‘Why For: The Disney Princess royal processional that you almost got to see’, JimHillMedia.com, 29^th April 2011.

[8] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (2000).

[9] Credit: Disney, The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (2000).

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fantasia 2000 (1999)’, pp. 113.

[11] Credit: D23, ‘The Fantasia Legacy: A Conversation with Eric Goldberg’, Disney D23 YouTube Channel, 16^th November 2020.

[12] Credit: Disney, “The Little Matchgirl (2006)”, from The Little Mermaid (1989) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2006).

[13] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Gran Destino Tower’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

[14] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: All-Star Movies’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.