Review: Descendants: A Royal Wedding

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The big day has finally arrived. Mal and Ben are about to be officially married, and the whole kingdom is excited to attend the party. But when Mal’s dad Hades shows up, things start to veer off course quickly. An accident causes the venue to go up in flames and Hades flees the scene as chaos reigns.

Mal and her fellow VKs follow him with some help from Uma, and eventually find him holed up in his lair. Ben is there too, trying to get him back to the wedding because he knows how much it means for Mal that he attend. Hades explains that it was all a misunderstanding caused by Maleficent and once harmony is restored, Mal and Ben decide to perform the ceremony right there.

Our Take:

Descendants has had a long run, and with the passing of Cameron Boyce, who played Carlos, back in 2019, it was hard to tell what would become of the franchise. Now Disney is attempting to tie off the story in an animated special that finally brings Mal and Ben together as husband and wife. It’s a perfectly serviceable 20 minute episode, but there’s really nothing too entertaining to speak of.

The overall setup of the plot is about as low-key as you could get. Hades seemingly sabotages the wedding, but it turns out to be a harmless misunderstanding caused by a runaway Maleficent being chased by Dude the dog, who bites Hades backside and causes him to spew fire, setting the room ablaze. The VKs only obstacle to tracking Hades down afterwards is a burning bridge which Uma quickly extinguishes. Without a real conflict, the entire episode felt pretty lifeless, like everyone already knows the ending and it’s just putting in the bare minimum to get us there. Which, to be fair, is probably what this special was going for.

The production values aren’t great—this is no big budget animated movie—but it’s nice to see Disney trying something new by going backwards to a version of the classic Disney fairytale movie look. The character designs are all nice enough, even if the animation itself feels like it’s lacking some frames every now and then. The voice work was the most distracting thing to me, though. Since it was recorded during the pandemic from everyone’s individual homes most likely, some of the characters don’t sound like they’re in the same place as the people they’re supposedly talking to. Dove Cameron in particular sounded like she was way too close and quiet for like, half of her lines.

Though this may be the finishing knot on the current Descendants franchise, there is a brief teaser at the end where the camera pans into a puddle and takes us into an alternate universe where there are painted roses and a deep rabbit hole. Could Alice be the main character of a new Descendants entry into the franchise? Disney hasn’t announced anything as of yet, but time will tell.

As for Descendants: A Royal Wedding, big fans of the series will likely have a good time seeing the romantic arc of Mal and Ben come to a conclusion, and there are a few fun moments from side characters like Uma and Jay. The little moment acknowledging Carlos’s absence was nice to see, as well. But there’s really not much else going on here to tempt more casual fans to check it out.