The Descendants franchise is one of Disney Channel’s best movie series ever. The Descendants series has four movies that follow the children of iconic Disney villains as they leave their home, the Isle of the Lost, to join the “good” character of Auradon.
The four main original characters include Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen, Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, Jay, the son of Jafar, and Carlos, the son of Cruella de Vil. There is also a fourth movie with new characters, Rise of Red, which came out in 2024. These movies have many great characteristics, so we are going to rank them based on the best plot.
- Descendants – In this movie, the four main characters leave the Isle of the Lost to travel to Auradon to attend Auradon Prep. In this movie you get to know the characters, and everything feels fresh. This storyline is well thought out, and viewers are entertained by this unique new narrative.
- Descendants 2 – Mal feels the pressure of royalty as Ben’s girlfriend, and retreats to her old ways as a villain. Looking to renew herself, Mal ends up isolating herself from her closest friends. This movie brings a dangerous twist to the magic of the Descendants world. Viewers are given a reason to root for new characters, which helps build a connection between characters and audience. Viewers are also rooting against Mal because of her actions, so they are invested in the movie, hopeful to get a positive outcome for Mal.
- Descendants 3 – Four new villain kids from the Isle of the Lost join Auradon Prep. When closing the barrier between the two islands, Mal’s evil dad breaks through the barrier, and causes chaos. This movie is pretty forgettable, and the plot isn’t strong enough to keep the audience interested. It differs greatly from the previous two films because of new characters and stories. This causes the audience to feel disconnected from the Descendants universe, and the original charisma of the characters and storyline.
- Descendants – Rise of Red: “After the Queen of Hearts incites a coup on Auradon, her rebellious daughter Red and Cinderella’s perfectionist daughter Chloe join forces and travel back in time to try to undo the traumatic event that set Red’s mother down her villainous path.” (Google). This movie does not feature any of the original cast, so it feels like a completely different franchise. The best part of this movie was the music, which is the one thing that has stayed consistently good since the original Descendants trilogy. Other than the music, this movie was terrible. So much time had passed from the original movie, that the audience from the original movies was uninterested. It was hard to care about the new, irrelevant characters.
In conclusion, the Descendants franchise has many iconic movies, but there is a clear change in quality as time goes on. We agree that the first one is the best, and after that, the films went downhill.
