Disney Channel Musical Month - Descendants 2

OK, one of the rules of Disney Channel Musical month when I was pre-planning it was that it was one entry per franchise. But one of the movies that’s listed as a musical on google I’ve skimmed through and decided it doesn’t count as one. And rather than watch the Cheetah Girls movie, I’ve decided to throw the rules in the trash and do Descendants 2.

Why Descendants 2 and not Zombies 2 or Camp Rock 2? Because I actually like this one and goddamn it, I need a break from the crap. We’ve got a few new talents, China Anne McLain is in this one, she was the lead protagonist in the show ANT Farm, where she was a musical prodigy, which bodes well. Thomas Doherty had at the time been doing another Disney show called the Lodge, which also had musical elements. Dylan Playfair is also a major addition, he was in a show called Some Assembly Required, a sitcom that whilst funny often suffered from having too many comic relief idiots. He played one of them, Knox, probably the dumbest but nicest of them.

I guess I should mention the main cast too. Cameron Boyce (RIP) was in the sitcom Jessie and he was an uncomfortably creepy child in that show. Dove Cameron got the special Guest Star accreditation in Austin and Ally but had been the star of her own Disney Channel show Liv and Maddie, she played both of them.

Sofia Carson had been in an episode of Austin and Ally as well but this was her first major role in television. Bobboo Stewart had the most experiences, he was in 3 of the 4 Twilight Films, played Warpath in X-men: Days of Future Past, the last good X-men film, but no major Disney Channel appearances [he would later be one of the villains in Lab Rats: Elite Force but we don't talk about that here]. Mitchell Hope had been in a couple of shows in 2012 and I hear was on the verge of giving up acting entirely before landing this role. 

With all that completely necessary preamble out of the way, let’s take a critical look at Descendants 2.

Disney Channel Musical Month - Camp Rock

Are you ready to Rock?!!

I said ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!!

Yeah, me neither, next up is Camp Rock!

You remember the Jonas Brothers? You might do because they reformed and released tracks as recently as last year. You might remember Nick Jonas from the awful song Jealous and his appearance in the Jumanji sequels. But before all that they were in a Disney sitcom called Jonas.

Meanwhile we have then up-and-comer Demi Lovato, who was the guilty pleasure of one of my old uni friends. She’s gotten onto Disney’s radar through a short series As the Bell Rings, she later got roles in Sonny with a Chance and of course, Camp Rock.

Camp Rock was released in 2008 and according to Wikipedia, source of only the most reliable of information, is the third most watched Disney Channel Movie behind only High School Musical 2 and Wizards of Waverly Place, the movie. Is it worth the hype? I think my intro joke kinda spoiled that it isn’t.

Disney Channel Musical Month - Let it Shine

Another musical where the music is mostly diegetic? Here’s hoping it’s better than the last one. Tyler James Williams, not to be confused with his brother Tyrel Jackson Williams (of Lab Rats fame), or his other brother, Tylen Jacob Williams...  Anyway, aside from playing the older version of his younger brother at one stage, he also played the main role in sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, a show produced by and based on the life of comedian Chris Rock.

He also did a rap-based Disney Channel Musical called Let it Shine (Honestly, I just did that opening because of the confusing naming convention. Interesting choice, Williams family, also I have nothing else to say for this preamble)

Disney Channel Musical Month - Starstruck

So… I like Austin and Ally, and I even, to an extent like High School Musical. So surely one that combines the two would be something I really enjoy, right?

Starstruck was released in 2010 and was one of the most popular February Releases for the Disney Channel. It was also the first Disney Channel Original Movie from the 2010s Did they start on a high note? Let’s take a look and see why my answer is no

Disney Channel Musical Month - Lemonade Mouth

I’ve got a confession to make, I’ve never actually seen Breakfast Club.

I know, take away all my film credentials… Oh wait, I never had any, I’m just some idiot with opinions. Anyway, in this chapter of Disney Channel Musical Month, we’re looking at Lemonade Mouth.

Based on the book by Mark Peter Hughes, Lemonade Mouth was released in 2011 to a mostly positive reception but unlike the ones we’ve covered so far this isn’t flamboyant and over the top, it is in fact a character-driven diegetic musical. Does it work, well, let’s take a look.

Disney Channel Musical Month - Descendants

In particular with the older Disney films, there’s a real sense of fun that came with the villains, that trend carried on all the way through to the 90s Disney Renaissance but of late has been replaced with either a twist villain or having no villain at all. Whatever you may think of this, you can’t deny that the change of narrative structure to focus more on the hero’s journey has robbed us of the fun of the Disney villain, and they know it’s a lucrative market as Maleficent and Cruella De Vil have both had live action films dedicated to them alone.

And so we come to Descendants, a Disney Channel Musical attempt to cash in the same market, and quite a successful one, we’ve had 3 musicals, a CG series, a live action short and a terrible animated short.

So today we’ll take a look at where it all began with the original Descendants movie

Disney Channel Musical Month - Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

It’s April which means, we’re a month late with the theme month!

The Disney Channel are known primarily for sitcoms, a few of which I covered last year and musicals. High School Musical is the most famous of these, with the 3^rd getting a full theatrical release but before and since there have been a whole bunch of them, some of them setting up their own little mini-franchises for better or worse. We’ve already covered the first High School Musical film and both the Teen Beach Movies but it’s time to look at a few more. Let’s start with a more recent Franchise, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S.

Based on a failed TV Pilot from 2012, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S was released in 2018, make of that what you will, and sharing the same writers of said pilot. The film was a success enough that a sequel was greenlit, Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2, maybe another time we’ll get to that but how does film stack up? Well…

Netflix (HBO Max) Retrospective - Titans Season 2 Episodes 10-11

We’re back with Titans, and seriously, there are 4 more episodes to go. Rule of thumb, if a show wants to tell one continuous story, it should do so over no more than 6 (at a stretch 8) episodes. If it’s a mystery story, I’d drop that to 3 episodes. There are exceptions, of course, Daredevil seasons 1 and 3 managed to be riveting over 13 episodes and I’m excluding stories that tell smaller stories whilst weaving in a larger one, like Young Justice or the like. And Hell, Doctor Who Flux managed to be a confusing mess in 6 episodes and likely would’ve done better with more time. But enough preamble, let’s take a look at the next 2 episodes of Titans and see if something actually happens in them.