Descendants: Wicked Wonderland Film Review

It appears as if the Descendants franchise has now become one of those franchises where Disney doesn't even bother to put in the effort to tell you that there's a new film out. As there is a new Descendants film out right now on Disney+ and yet Disney did nothing to tell you that the film was even happening in the first place and well as i've reviewed quite literally all of the Descendants films from the very beginning all the way up to The Quest For Red you all just knew that I had to review this film the first chance that I got and so then join me as I review the film that shows off it's version of Wonderland with the film in question being called simply just "Descendants: Wicked Wonderland" enjoy.

The plot of this film is some time after the events of the previous film Chloe and Red find there friendship tested when they are forced to team up with other villain kids to stop an evil version of The Mad Hatter from taking over Wonderland. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty average at best. This films plot is at best a very paint by numbers plot as you know full well exactly where this films plot is going to go and what the big dramatic third act moment will be and sure enough it does go exactly where you think that it's going to go. However tho this is something that doe work well enough to the films advantage as the films plot is meant to be this things where you can work out what's going to happen next as alot of the fun and craziness of these films is seeing the off spring from other well known Disney characters with this being something that has always been the main draw of these films and whilst yes the original three films did have more of a focus on plot here with these last two films it does seem as if the focus is shifting to be more seeing the kids of Disney characters then in actually giving the films decent plot and while the previous film had the nostalgia factor working for it this film doesn't have that and therefor the issues with the plot do become a bigger issue as the films plot when it does get some focus is at best thin and not that very well thought out with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Kylie Cantrall as Red , Malia Baker as Chloe Charming and Liamani Segura as Pink. Also starring in this film is Leonardo Nam as Maddox Hatter , Brendon Tremblay as Max Hatter , Alexandro Byrd as Luis Madrigal , Kiara Romero as Hazel Hook , Joel Oulette as Robbie Hood , Zavien Garrett as Felix Facilier , Ryan McEwen as Squirmy Smee , Dayton Paradis as Squeaky Smee , Paolo Montalban as King Charming , Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother , Awkwafina as the voice of Chessy Cheshire , Rita Ora as Bridget and Brandy as Cinderella.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty average at best. This is something that is to be expected at this point as this is still a Disney Channel Original Movie and those don't typically have great acting in hem and yet at the same time this film  acting was alot more better then what you would expect it to be with this being due to the fact that alot of this films actors are reprising their roles not only from the previous films but from other Disney films as well and therefor they would have a good idea on how best to act as there respective characters. With the best actor in this film being Leonardo Nam as Maddox Hatter as it does seem like that he is the only one there that is actually excited to be there as he is having such a blast acting in this film and infact alot of his scenes are the some of the more fun scenes in the film to watch as you never really know just how really over the top that he's going to go with the performance and whereas with every one else you really do get the feeling that they'd rather be anywhere else except making this movie right now you do really get the feeling that he really is genuinely excited to be there and that is something that really does shine through in his final performance. With the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script isn't that good as this films script doesn't give any of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the over all quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGIA for this film is Embassy Visual Effects , Image Engine Design , 1.618 VFX , Mr. Wolf , Distillery VFX , Ingenuity Studios , Curated , Hinesight Productions , The Sequence Group and Industrial Light & Magic. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty average at best. The fact that this films CGI is pretty average is something that is both surprising and at the same time not all that surprising it's not surprising in the sense that this is a Disney Channel Original Movie still and those don't have great looking CGI in them as they don't have the budgets for that but at the same time the fact that they managed to to get ILM to do effects work for this film does make it all the more surprising that the films effects are as OK as they are in the first place. While alot f this films CGI is pretty decent as there are some good looking effects when we get to Wonderland alot more of the films effects are just painful to look at as they are really bad alot of the time which is something that does make sense as this is still a made for TV movie but this is a nig franchise for Disney and yet there still churning out effects that look really bad with there being an almost laughably bad CGI cat in the film with the film being obsessed with showing us CGI filled establishing shots and all of them look bad as they make it look like that the film was made ten years ago. Whilst we do get some decent looking effects in Wonderland like alot of the trails that come off of Bridgit's cards look really good the Maddox's spies look really good when the film does have a bad effect in Wonderland it doesn't cut away from it rather it keeps it on screen for a long while when all this does is just make the effect look even more worse.

The key theme in this film is bonds and the lengths that people will go to to keep them as we see Chloe go to great lengths to keep her friendship strong with Red whilst new character Pink goes to lengths to keep her bond with Red going and Max tries to get a bond going with his father Maddox. This is a goo idea as it is a theme that these films really haven't hit upon before now only due to the fact that the film feels more like a trailer for it's soundtrack it does mean that we have to fit in an overproduced song alot of the time when that time could have been used to better explore those bonds and what it is that they mean to those people as we know full well what Chloe and Red mean to each other thanks to the previous but we don't know that with any of the other characters. With the big third act drama being about as predictable as you think it's going to be with it also not really working due to the fact that the films plot doesn't really leave room for this kind of moment to work and heck the previous film even had a very similar scene in it therefor it makes it pointless for them to have a scene in this film where the same thing happens, whereas if the film did take to the time to fully flesh out this theme and show us what these relationships mean to all of the people then it would have made alot more sense as to why this moment happens in the first place as this is something that would allow for this theme to be fully explored as it is something that none of these films have explored until now with alot them exploring the found family idea and what it means to be a family both of which are good ideas but to see this film tackle a different them is a breath of fresh air even tho it does hugely drop the ball with it, with the only thing that could have fixed this issue is doing a page one rewrite of the films script as the theme itself is so tied into the plot that you can't fix it with just one scene.

This film is a musical with songs written by Michelle Zarlenga ,  Chantry Johnson , Mitch Allan , Antonina Armato , Tim James Price , Thomas Armato Sturges  , Adam Schmalholz , Jordan Powers , Josh Cumbee and Jaheem King Toombs. Even tho this films soundtrack is listed as being a pop album it's not a Disney version of rap and hip hop album wit all of the films songs sounding the exact same with there being nothing in any of the films that makes them stand out from each other heck there's not even a different genre of music it's all just the same bland and safe stuff that Disney can push on to kids with nothing new added to them that makes them stand out with things being made worse when you take into account that the film uses alot of autotune which does make it hard to judge the singing from the films younger actors. With the films only decent and decently sung song being "The Girl I Used to Be" which is a decently written song about two characters looking back on there younger lives fondly remembering who they used to be and how much simpler things where back then when compared to how they are nowadays with the song itself also being the best sung song in the whole entire film which does make sense as the sing is sung by Brandi and Rita Ora both of whom are decent singers that can more then hold a tune with this song being the only song that has no autotune in it and it's not that hard to see why as the two singers are just that good with them more the holding your attention throughout the entire song with this song feeling more like a pop ballad type with all of the other songs feeling like over produced badly done hp hop songs as this song actually does do what it set it to do and that's make you feel something for characters that didn't get alot of screen time in there adult forms in the previous film.

Speaking of the moms they actually get to do alot more in the film this time around whereas in the previous film they were basically there in just the opening and the ending. Here tho they actually play a bigger role in the films plot which was something that was kind of refreshing to see as given the fact that both of them are played by big named stars it would have been understandable if Disney only had them appear at the start and at the end again and then just use them for marketing purposes but no they actually do something with them and while that something mainly has them contained to just the one room with alot of there scenes together being them just acting with other it was still fun to keep on seeing more of them in the film. Much like with the previous film tho there is one character that did get done dirty and if you've seen the previous film then you'll know what character it is as it's the same character and it still makes zero sense as this character would of course want to help out due to the fact that they have a stake in this fight to and yet the film barely features the character with them oddly enough only appearing at the start and the end of the film with this person having a few lines of dialog near the middle of the film of the film which makes there inclusion pointless as there role in the film could have been played by anything other character in the film and it would have made just as much sense, this is something that wouldn't be a bad things if it meant that we got to see more of the friendship between Cinderella and Bridgit as in the previous film we really only saw them as friends when they were young therefor seeing them act as friends as adults would have been interesting but the film doesn't give them a moment where they discuss what it's like being friends with the other when that would have been interesting to see in the film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty five minuets and twenty eight seconds. This is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for these films with this film struggling to each that as the films has a song play every couple of minuets it seems which to be honest was getting rather frustrating as alot of the songs aren't that good with alot of the song running time being somethin that could have been use to give the films plot alot more more focus with it feeling lie that the makers of this film knew full well that the films plot wasn't that good and therefor they just stuffed the film with songs and hoped that they we wouldn't notice with the film not really having enough plot to cover that amount of running time with the film only having enough plot for about forty minuets with the films songs lasting around thirty eight minuets in total. With the film not really using it's running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot as the film doesn't take to the time to add things to its plot that make it feel well thought out and while OK fair enough this film is made for little kids ad with little kids in mind there still needs to be some amount of plot development happening with none of the films songs adding anything to the films plot either with it being clear as day that the makers of this film are alot more focused in playing a song every five minuets then they are giving us a well thought out plot. The same thing is also true for the films character development as none of the films characters have a scene where they get to well developed which s fair enough for characters like Red and Chloe where you could make the point that they got there development in the previous film but none of the films new characters get anything interms of character development either with the film being more focused on giving us a forced romance then it is in giving us character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to itt ho.

So now then as this is a comedy  that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. The film does have some cute funny moments in it and while none of the films jokes are laugh out loud funny there still and attempt in there to give the film some actually funny moments with alot of the films best moments comedy wise coming from new character Hazel Hook as she is a funny character that if they do another one of these films they have to keep her character as she was a breath of fresh air with her sarcastic sense of humor. With the films best joke oddly enough not featuring her character as it instead feature the Smee twins who like there father are bit short up top as when they are told by Hazel to go and climb to see where they are instead of climbing a tree as she had suggested they do they instead start climbing each other which is a pretty cute joke and it is something that there characters would do with alot of the films jokes revolving around how Hazel has to look after them with the only thing that made that funnier was if someone like Pink got in on the act as well as she is a new character in the film therefor it still would have worked for her character to give the Smees orders only for them to mess it up as that is something that would have made her character more entertaining to watch with the rest of the films jokes being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall if you liked the blandness and the nothingness of the previous film then your going to love this film but it is getting more and more clear that this franchise is in need of a shake up as this film does prove that it is running out of steam due to the fact that everything about this film is just so bland in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images hat I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.

Descendants: The Rise Of Red Film SPOILER FILLED Film Review

The Descendants franchise is one that was a surprisingly big franchise for Disney as on paper the story of the kids about Disney's biggest human villains going to school with the kids of there biggest human heroes shouldn't work and yet it somehow did. With the franchise so far consisting of four films , several books a TV series and two TV specials and as such it wasn't all that surprising when a fourth films was announced and well then that very film has now been released and you all just knew that I had to check this film out the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED review of the film that is pretty much Star Trek: The Next Generation but for Disney characters with the film in question being called simply just "Descendants: The Rise Of Red" enjoy.

The plot of this film is Princess Red daughter of the Queen Of Hearts find her and the Chloe the daughter of King Charming and Cinderella going back in time in order to prevent something that happened to Red's mother when she first attended Auradon Prep. Now then interms of what I personally thought felt about the actual plot that's actually featu4ed / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the problem as the plot of this film wasn't all that good either and while yes it could be argued that the plot of all three of the previous weren't that good either they were at the very least plots where you couldn't see what the next big plot point was going to be where as with this film it's painfully obvious what all of the big plot points are going and because of that is the fact that this films plot looses any and all of surprises that it could have had this is despite the fact that the plot of this film is still a fairly decent plot in it's own right with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Kylie Cantrall as Red , Malia Baker as Chloe Charming and China Anne McClain as Uma. Also starring in this film is Dara Reneé as Uliana , Rita Ora as The Queen Of Hearts , Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget , Morgan Dudley as Ella , Joshua Colley as Hook , Peder Lindell as Morgie , Melanie Paxson as Fairy Godmother , Grace Narducci as Fay , Levin Valayil as Aladdin , Kabir Bery as Teen Aladdin , Shazia Pascal as Jasmine , Aiza Azaar as Young Jasmine , Jeremy Swift as Merlin , Leonardo Nam as Maddox Hatter , Alex Boniello as Jack Of Diamonds , Sam Morelos as Meadow , Mars as Young Maleficent , Anthony Pyatt as Young Hades , Julee Cerda as Evil Stepmother , Paolo Montalban as King Charming and Brandy as Cinderella.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Which is pretty par the course for these films and to this films credit the acting that's in this film was alot better then what it really had any right to be this is mainly due to the fact that the film really does have some actors from the previous films reprising their roles in this film and it really does have two actors reprising their roles from other films as well all of whom really would know best on how to portray there character in any given situation but at the same time this films acting really is also fairly held back by alot of the films newer cast members as actors like Rita Ora , Kylie Cantrall and Grace Narducci while they really are passable in this film just can't hold a candle to the rest of this films cast members in anyway whatsoever as there just really not that good from an acting point of view with the acting in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film really is just so bad as it gives none of this films cast absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is there respective characters personalities is even meant to be in this first place which is something that really does hold back the overall quality of the acting that's in this film as that's just how bad the script for this film really is.

Doing the CGI for this film is the legends and the really greats that are currently over at Ingenuity Studios. Now the  interms of what I personally thought /felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad which is something that does make sense as this film most likely didn't have that big of a budget in the first place and it's effects budget would have been even smaller then the films production budget and while yes all of the CGI in all of the previous films was never all that good in the first place the effects on those films at least looked like they were there on set where as here alot of the CGI looks fake at best and just down right cartoonish at worst and while having bad CGI in this film means that the effects in this film keep in line with the effects in the previous films bad effects are still bad effects.

SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

What was surprising was the fact that this film including a touching little tribute to actor Cameron Boyce. With the Uma character mentioning that her sending an invitation for the Princess of Wonderland to join Auradon Prep is something that he would have wanted which is both touching as it's a nod to the actor who of course passed away just before the airing of Descendants 3 but it's also dark as it kind of hints that his character died as he's only mentioned in the past tense where as alot of the other characters from the original trilogy of films are all referred to in the present tense which means that it's canon that a key character in this franchise died which is most likely the only thing that they could have done with his character as there was always going to be the elephant in the room of them doing another film in this franchise and he wasn't going to be in it and so the makers of this film did kind of have to address why not only he but also the rest of the original characters weren't going to be in this film and to the films credit they do it in a way that makes sense but for the rest of the original characters also leaves it open for them to return should they decide to do a fifth movie.

This film is basically the franchises version of Star Trek: The Next Generation in it certain characters from the original do appear but it mostly features and focuses on new characters and tells an original story. However tho that's not something that works well for this film as the last two films already introduced characters that could have taken over as the new lead characters should they have chosen to bring them back which would have worked really well as we the audience would have already have known those characters and so that connection would already have been there and yet the makers of this film instead chose to a whole cast of characters and just straight up ignore the fact that the previous two films already introduced characters that could have filled in the roles of the new leads characters which wouldn't be a bad thing if the new characters were interesting or even fun characters and yet there not all that interesting as all they are are just cardboard cut out replacements of the characters that there meant to be replacing where as with both Descendants 2 and 3 they had unique characters that all could have stood up on there own and feel different from the characters that there meant to replacing in the first place. 

As with all of the previous films this film is a musical and while it would be great to name who wrote the songs for this film or even what the name of the songs are sadly none of that is available online. With the songs in this film being perfectly in line with the songs from the previous film in that there nothing more then safe cookie cutter songs that would most likely get alot of air time on Radio Disney with the best song in the whole entire film being the sing that introduces the past versions of classic Disney heroes and villain which is a fun and unique number that is really well sung by actress Ruby Rose Turner but let's not only that song down but all of the songs in all of the films this one included is the fact that it's over produced and very busy and in the case of this film alot of the songs also have alot of auto tune which makes it feel like that your just listening to a machine and not listening to a character sing as they normally would do and while yes this film does have some decent songs in it sadly none of them are memorable songs that are going to stick in your head long after the film has finished.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running tie of exactly one hour and thirty one min uets and forty four seconds. Which is pretty on brand not only for this franchise but also for Disney Channel Original Movies as a whole as well but where as all of the other Descendants films have more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time this film doesn't as this film instead feels alot like a thirty minuet special that was instead stretched out to feature length with alot of the scenes in this film not really adding to the main plot of the film are instead just to pad out the films running time this is made worse when you take into account that this film has a time travel which then doesn't make sense as Red was only allowed into Auradon Prep due to the fact that years after Red's mother became a dictator and took over Wonderland and raised an entire army to help her do it that entire part of the country was then locked of and the entrance to it was closed for good and yet due to the time travel her mother is now good and yet for some reason Wonderland was still locked off even tho it wouldn't as she wouldn't have taken it over and raised an army as she'd now be a hero type of character this is something that could have been fixed if the film used some of it's running time to explain what's happened in this time line but it doesn't but I will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that means that I gave to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us un this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Which is to be expected as these films never really had that much great action in them with alot of them looking like action scenes that you'd find in a small budget TV show and to this films credit it does try to do something new with the action by having them incorporate alot more elements of CGI which yes does take away some of realism away from the action in this film but at the same time tho it is something that does make the action in this film feel unique and different from the action in the other films which mostly took part in obviously fake sets where as here they could at least make the effort to make the action look visually different from those in the rest of the films but that doesn't make the action in this film any good as all it does is make the action look passable which to be fair is also true for the rest of the films in this franchise as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall as a spin off film this film does fair really good but as a sequel film this film doesn't fair all that well as it finds a way to write out all of the main characters from the original films and essentially act as a way for new fans to join the franchise but at the same time tho there's nothing in this film to warrant it's existence in the first place in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Descendants fandom wiki page , the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very film that I used in this very review being the really great the official Disney fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very film and are really of course really up and really on the official Disney fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and really as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.