D3 review
Love love loved D3!!! What a perfect ending for the trilogy!
Mr Ortega made sure the messages of “family,” “acceptance,” “second chances,” and “celebrating our differences” came ringing through with fabulous music and dancing that was a lot of fun to watch —a lot of work for the actors too, I bet — but so worth it for the viewers.
It was great to see Ben as the Beast finally. Audrey’s turn to the bad side, especially after her Grammy berated her for letting the prince slip through her fingers, was a great way to show that bad can come from either side of the barrier. Then Hades part, although smaller than expected, brought the good in from the “wrong side of the tracks” — and his pride for his little girl was evident even though Mal had always felt he had abandoned her. I was so happy to see their relationship repair bit by bit as each of their scenes progressed. Dizzy and the Smee twins didn’t play big parts but this story has always been about the core 4 anyway — exactly as I wanted to see — with a pop of the newbies here and there to let us know there was a program initiate to get more VKs to Auradon as Ben dreamed to make happen. Mal’s unintentional selfishness to want to lock the barrier for good to keep the core 4s lives good and Auradon safe was a great way for Evie to teach about sharing the good life with all of the villain kids.
All 3 movies in the Descendants franchise were absolutely fabulous! The last 4 years have been worth the wait and D3 topped it all off with a perfect ending. I watched D and D2 again before watching D3 4 times last night. Seriously enjoyed every bit of all 3 Descendants DCOMs and felt they flowed wonderfully!!! Previously reading the books between the movies added to that flow and were just as enjoyable. What a wonderful feel-good Disney story with strong messages about important aspects of life that children need to be taught so we can hopefully end hate someday. Our real life world could learn a lot from this trilogy and I can’t wait to pass on my Descendants DVDs and soundtracks to my grandchildren one day so they can learn about acceptance in a fun and creative way.
The dedication at the start and the tribute at the end for the extraordinary young man, Cameron Boyce, were real tear jerkers but I am so glad he is getting recognition he so deserves! Hope his legacy lives on forever because he lived his life sending out the same messages that the Disney Channel stands for — family, acceptance, caring, sharing, helping, and celebrating differences. His family have a right to be so proud of Cameron and I thank them for sharing him with us for all of these years (since 2011 for me).
Regardless of what I say or others say — watch D3 yourself and make your own determination if you like it or not.