Saturday, September 5, 2015

Legacy, Redemption, Destiny, and Disney; A Faith- Based Look at 'Descendants.'

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
This summer has yielded a lot of good theatrical movies ("Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Inside Out," "Ant- Man," "Minions," etc.), but for this entry, I’ll be looking at a TV movie.
Normally, I avoid Disney Channel’s made- for- TV movies like the plague. A month or so ago, however, a new one premiered on Disney Channel that had such a cool and potentially interesting concept that I had to DVR it and give it a watch; It’s called, simply, ‘Descendants’ (Not to be confused with the George Clooney movie).
As the mythology behind this film, every Disney hero and heroine now lives in a kingdom called Auradon, and their teenage children attend a prep school there with the Fairy Godmother as the headmistress. The Disney villains, in contrast, have all been exiled to an island called the Isle of the Lost for their crimes, with a magic force field preventing them from ever setting foot in Auradon again.
As ‘Descendants’ starts, Prince Ben (Mitchell Hope), son of Belle and the now- human Beast, is preparing to take the throne. As his first royal decree, he proclaims that four of the villains’ teenage kids from the Isle of the Lost will be allowed to cross over and attend Auradon Prep, in an attempt to redeem their family names and show he doesn't believe kids should be punished for their parents' bad decisions.
      The four villainous offspring that are chosen for this experiment are an interesting bunch: Mal (Dove Cameron), daughter of the infamous Maleficent; Jay (Booboo Stewart), son of Aladdin’s nemesis Jafar; Evie (Sofia Carson), daughter of the Queen from ‘Snow White’; And last but not least, Carlos (Cameron Boyce), son of the fur- coat fanatic Cruella De Vil. None of them initially have any desire to accept Prince Ben’s offer, but Maleficent sees a way it can be used for their evil advantage; She tasks her daughter and the other three kids with going to Auradon Prep, finding the Fairy Godmother’s magic wand, and stealing it to help Maleficent and the other villains regain their power and take over the world (Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!).
      The wand is normally kept in a nearby museum, but when the villain kids break in to try and make off with it, they find that its security system is tight. Mal gets the idea to use a love potion to make Prince Ben fall madly in love with her, so that she could be allowed to be close enough to him at his coronation ceremony to make a grab for the wand when the Fairy Godmother removes it from its case. As she gets to know Ben more, however, she begins to sincerely fall for him and begins to question what she really wants out of life.
       Amidst all this, the other three villain kids are surprisingly adapting pretty well to Auradon Prep; The smarter- than- she- seems Evie turns out to be nearly as adept at chemistry and potion- making as her mother was, the athletic and aggressive Jay proves to be a natural at “Tourney” (The sport they play there: Sort of a soccer/ lacrosse hybrid) and learns to be more of a team player, and the severely cynophobic Carlos gets over his fear of dogs (The scene in which Ben helps him do this is hilarious and heartwarming). However, things go south in a hurry at the school's Family Day, as an awkward moment of Mal meeting Sleeping Beauty's mother leads to a misunderstanding among some of the kids and an outburst that causes the villain kids to be treated more like outcasts than ever. It all leads up to an action- packed climax at Ben's coronation, Mal and her three friends having to decide which side they're truly on, and a hint at a possible sequel.

I won't lie, 'Descendants' has some problems. In the songs, there is often obvious lip- synching. The songs themselves are good enough (More on that later), but it's something that can't be ignored. Also, Mal is made such a center of the story that the other villain kids don't get quite as much play as they should (Especially Jay and Carlos). For that matter, a lot of the hero kids in the school aren't used as much as they could have been, either, especially Mulan's kind- hearted daughter Lonnie (One of the first hero kids to really make an effort to befriend the villain kids), and Dopey's band- geek son Doug (A very funny character who ironically hits it off really well with Evie).

All of that being said, 'Descendants' was a fun, enjoyable movie nonetheless. It didn't take itself too seriously, had plenty of intentional humor, was well- enough acted for a Disney Channel movie, and had a decent story with enough nice twists to it that a couple moments near the climax really did take me by surprise. If you take it for what it is and what audience it's mainly aimed at, you should enjoy it.

The performances from the younger actors are all pretty solid. Dove Cameron nails the role of Mal. You can really feel how conflicted she becomes over what she's doing, and can sympathize a lot with her inner struggles. Sofia Carson makes Evie into a pretty well- developed character as well. Booboo Stewart (the only young actor in this I had seen in anything else before, from when he played the mutant hero Warpath in 'X- Men: Days of Future Past') did a great job as Jay, and he too is well- developed, going from a hotheaded, bullying spotlight- hog to being willing to help another player score the winning goal in a Tourney championship. Carlos ended up becoming my favorite character, as I expected he would be. He provides great comic relief, and Cameron Boyce's performance helps ramp up the humor even more (Especially the many scenes in which he's cringing in terror at one thing or another).
Among the adult actors, the only real stand- out is Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent. She is hysterical, so delightfully venomous and over- the- top, you can tell she's really having fun with this role. Cruella De Vil and Jafar are both rather under- utilized, but the Evil Queen at least has some funny lines later in the movie (Her reaction to seeing Snow White as a TV hostess is priceless).

Of course, considering that it's a Disney Channel movie musical directed by Kenny Ortega, who also directed 'High School Musical,' I must talk a little about the songs. When you get past the lip- synching, the songs (Other than possibly an acapella cover of the Disney classic 'Be Our Guest' that I didn't care for) are cool and fun to listen to and watch. My favorites are 'Rotten to the Core' (A catchy, energetic song at the start of the movie which serves to introduce the villain kids) and 'Did I Mention' (A silly, lighthearted song in which Ben, while under the influence of the love potion, wildly declares his love for Mal in song form). Another good addition to the songs is Maleficent's song, 'Evil Like Me.' While most of the songs in the movie have a modern- pop feel common to Disney Channel's TV movies, 'Evil Like Me' has more of a Broadway feel to it (Unsurprising, considering that Kristin Chenoweth is a Broadway veteran), adding a nice bit of variety to the soundtrack. The dancing's pretty good, too, especially for the final song "Set it Off."

I can think of quite a few Scriptural messages that can tie into 'Descendants.' One of the first is considering family, and how you shouldn't judge a person based on his or her past or family. Jesus Himself had a less- than- perfect family tree; Some of His ancestors included a woman who tricked her own unknowing father- in- law into sleeping with her in order to get pregnant (Tamar in Genesis 38), a prostitute (Rahab, seen in earlier chapters of the book of Joshua), a woman from an evil and rightly- hated tribe that most Jews wanted nothing to do with (Ruth, in the Bible book of the same name), and a king who had an affair with the wife of one of his most trusted military officers then had him killed in battle so he could marry her (David, 2 Samuel 11). From such a bizarre and flawed family tree came the Savior of the world. Similarly, in 'Descendants,' even though Mal and her friends had such vile fiends as parents, each of them ends up becoming his or her own person and making great unlikely heroes.
The opposite can hold true too, of course. Even good parents and families can produce offspring that don't hold to their parents' good examples. Hezekiah (Seen in 2 Kings), one of the best and most righteous kings Israel ever had, was succeeded by his son Manasseh, who for most of his reign was one of the worst and most wicked kings Israel ever knew. In 'Descendants,' we see a little of that principle as well, as Cinderella's son, Chad Charming, is quickly revealed to be a self- absorbed creep with none of the noble qualities his parents possessed.
Lastly, probably the most important Biblical theme seen in 'Descendants' is redemption. Mal, Evie, Jay and Carlos start out the movie as kids who really like finding random ways to be mean and cruel to others, clearly following in their parents' rotten footsteps. Over time in Auradon, however, they discover that the friends they made and the things they find out about themselves are what makes them truly happy, and ultimately find that they want to be good. In the same way, the Bible makes it clear in verses such as 1 John 1:9, Colossians 2:13- 14, Psalm 103:10-12, and  Ephesians 1:7-8  that no matter what a person may have done or how badly he or she may have fallen, they can be forgiven and redeemed through accepting Jesus, and His grace can transform them entirely. As one of my favorite hymns says, "The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives."
So, there we have 'Descendants': A fun, lighthearted little TV movie that shows how even someone who seems "Rotten to the Core" can be brought to the light.
That's all for now. A new entry of the Nightcrawler Experience should come in a few weeks. Until then, God bless you all!