As with the first two Descendants movies, my kids enjoyed them much more than I did. The idea of all the Disney villains being forced to live locked up (my magic) on an island by themselves does have a fun "Escape from New York" vibe to it, but this is the Disney Channel so there's teenybopper singing, dancing, and angst. For this installment, there is now a lottery of sorts where the children of a villains can get a a reprieve and get off the island, as did Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay. I found it odd how happy all the villain kids were for those chosen (this time the descendants Mr. Smee, Lady Tremaine, and Dr. Facilier's [they're really desperate for villains with that one]) when it wasn't them picked, but that's the good natured attitude of this film about evil people. Another annoyance is the film is padded out with some flashback musical montage sequences from the first two installments. Maybe the classic sins-of-the-father themes were an interesting starting point, as was the "Escape from New York" Disney villain prison island, but the songs are annoying and the petty teen drama is a lot to suffer through. Honestly, my favorite moment watching this film was hearing a cover of a T-Rex song during a milk commercial. But again, I was not the target audience for this film and my elementary age children absolutely loved it.
Review of Descendants 3
