“The teenagers of Disney’s most infamous villains return to the Isle of the Lost to recruit a new batch of villainous offspring to join them at Auradon Prep.“
-Anonymous, IMDB
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
Disney Descendants 3 is definitely the highlight of the series, and probably the best way the original trilogy could’ve finished. Does that mean it’s entirely without flaw? Well no, not in the least. But there’s enough that I like about this film that it feels like it just barely manages to outweigh said flaws and feel like a pretty enjoyable movie.
My favourite thing about this film is the payoff of Audrey being the villain. Audrey is the daughter of Sleeping Beauty, who in the first film was dating Ben, the son of Belle and the Beast. Audrey ended up being publicly dumped by Ben in front of the entire school thanks to Mal using a love spell on him, which was part of Mal and the Villain Kids plan to try and steal Fairy Godmother’s wand. That event, how Audrey was humiliated in front of her entire school and more importantly, how Mal never faced any consequences for the love spell, sets up Audrey’s motivations in this film very nicely. Audrey, lonely and friendless, reaches her breaking point when Ben proposes to Mal, and ends up rationalising that “If they want a villain for a Queen, I’m gonna be one like they’ve never seen”. Audrey steals Maleficent’s scepter and begins terrorizing Auradon.
In between Audrey’s introduction and her ascension into villain-hood, we had an entire movie where she was nowhere to be found. It’s kinda brilliant, that right when you think that Audrey’s maybe been written out of the series she comes back badder than ever, and her lack of presence in the previous film feels like intentional set-up. No one ever follows up with Audrey, no one seems to care that she’s missing… it really helps reinforce how lonely and friendless Audrey becomes, and you can really sympathise with her feeling like she might as well risk it all and become a villain, because what does she stand to lose?
I’m rambling on too much about Audrey, I should try and give at least a few more other tidbits. I don’t mind the reveal of Hades as Mal’s Dad, mostly because Disney’s actually done it before in the “House of Mouse” series that I used to watch as a kid. He’s sadly under utilized though, despite playing an important role in the plot Hades spends most of his time offscreen back on the Isle of the Lost. I would’ve liked to have seen him involved in the plot more, maybe he and Mal have to defeat Audrey together? Their relationship as Father and Daughter is pretty frosty, so it would’ve been nice to see them get to interact more and slowly repair their relationship over the course of the film.
This movie ends with the barrier around the Isle coming down, meaning all the villains and their families have now been released and are free to do whatever they desire. It’s a logical conclusion to this series… it’s just not handled well, mostly because no one acknowledges that these people REALLY need some kind of support system set-up to help them transition into living in Auradon. The people of the Isle have been locked up in miserable conditions for some 20 years or so, and if they didn’t go into the Isle with trauma they certainly developed some during their imprisonment. So while it makes sense that you would end the series with them being freed, and everyone happily singing and dancing together, I find it really hard to turn off the part of my brain that’s thinking “Okay, but who’s helping these people with their trauma?”. Sure, as we’ve seen most of the kids on the Isle of the Lost just need some gentle guidance to stop their villainous ways, but what about the big Disney villains who were once major threats and who have now been given an all access pass off the island?
I think they maybe could’ve done a funny scene at the end of the credits where we see the main Disney villains… Jafar, Evil Queen, Cruella, etc, back in Auradon Prep getting the same “Goodness” lessons that their kids did in the first film. That alone would’ve been enough to show that it is something the people of Auradon are taking care of (And it’d be a fun excuse to see some of those original villains again).
Overall I would recommend Disney Descendants 3 for a movie night…. though you do have to commit to watching the previous films to understand all the context of this movie. It might be a bit of a slog, but at least the final film ends thing off on a somewhat higher note.
Bad Princess Movies 
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