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Descendants: The Rise of Red (PG), on Disney+
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Caution: spoilers.
This is the fourth full-length film in the "Descendants" franchise. Unlike the first three movies, it was released on Disney+ about a month before its TV premiere, so I consider it a web film. I want to say the title is a bit misleading, because the character Red doesn't really "rise" in any way. I mean, it sounds like she'd come to power, but she doesn't. So I don't really know what it means.
It begins with Uma becoming the new principal of Auradon Prep, and she decides to invite Red (Kylie Cantrall, whom I know from Gabby Duran and the Unsittables), the daughter of the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora) from Wonderland, to attend the school. Wonderland has been sealed off from Auradon for decades, because of the Queen's refusal to join the other kingdoms that make up Auradon. Red herself rebels against her mother by night, though no one is aware of this except her tutor, Maddox Hatter (the son of the Mad Hatter). Red feels stifled by all of her mother's rules, and isn't interested in becoming a queen, herself. To her surprise, her mother allows her to leave Wonderland to attend Auradon Prep. Meanwhile, Maddox has invented a time machine in the form of a pocket watch, which Red steals.
At the same time, Cinderella and King Charming (Brandy and Paolo Montalban, reprising their roles from the 1997 TV movie Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella) have a teenage daughter named Chloe, who is also about to begin attending Auradon Prep. (I have no idea whether this retroactively makes that movie part of the "Descendants" universe, as there seem to be some discrepancies between the two, such as Cinderella and Charming having known each other in school).
During the welcoming ceremony at the school, the Queen of Hearts stages a coup and orders Cinderella's beheading. Red uses the time machine, which takes both her and Chloe back to before Auradon had been established, when the school was known as Merlin Academy. Red had only intended to go back a couple of minutes to prevent the coup, but the watch decided this was the time they needed to be in. It's a few days until the Castlecoming dance, where someone would play a prank on Red's mother (then a teenage student at the academy), which is what made her turn evil. Before that, her mother (aka Bridget) had been the sweetest, most innocent and friendly person you've ever seen. Red and Chloe soon figure out that the person who is probably going to pull the prank is Uliana, the younger sister of Ursula the sea witch, who is the leader of a pack of a villain kids at the academy. (For awhile I wondered if they might be wrong, and someone else would pull the prank, maybe Red and Chloe would even accidentally do it themselves, somehow. But no, it was Uliana.) Spying on Uliana and her friends, they learn the nature of the prank, which is baking cupcakes that would turn Bridget into a monster. So, they decide to steal a magical cookbook from Headmaster Merlin's office before the villains could do so. (I really don't understand why they didn't just tell someone what the villains were planning. They could have told Merlin, or even just warned Bridget. But no, they had to complicate things.) Actually, Chloe did want to tell Merlin about it, but Red was determined to fix things herself. And ultimately, Chloe joins her.
Um... various other stuff happens, like Chloe and Red befriending Ella (who would become Chloe's mother in the future), and learning how hard her life was. And of course, Red and Chloe succeed in preventing the prank, then return to their own time, where they find the Queen of Hearts is now a good person. So there's no coup, and Cinderella is safe. I couldn't help but wonder how much of Red's life had changed retroactively without her having any memory of it. Like, was Wonderland never sealed off from Auradon in the first place? And was it now always a part of Auradon, or was it still independent? In any event, there's some narration that says the story isn't over, and messing with time was dangerous, despite everything seeming to turn out alright. So I look forward to another sequel.
Well, I did find this movie entertaining. There were some fun songs, and decent characters. But I found the story too simplistic in a number of ways, and various things didn't really seem to make a lot of sense. It really could have been better with some plot twists. And I feel like I'm forgetting things I might have wanted to say. But it's not really important. Anyway, I feel like this movie might be a set-up for a better movie to come. We'll see.