I'll admit, I was curious about what the next generation of Disney fairy tale characters would be like. And we have seen a few over the years. Melody is Ariel's daughter. Kiara is Simba's daughter. Neither of these characters are mentioned in Descendants. But Descendants has an intereresting world of its own.
King Beast and Queen Belle run Auradon, a state system of fellow kingdoms of other Disney royalty. They take care of matters of state between kingdoms run by Aurora, Prince Phillip, Snow White, Prince Charming, Rapunzel, Eugene, annd many other iconic Disney characters.
The book begins when Beast and Belle's son Ben is preparing to be crowned King himself, and he has a different perspective compared to their generation. Ben is a kind, understanding prince who has Belle's intellect and Beast's determination. He must prove to the council that he is ready to become king. He has done lots of research of Auradon's history to deliver his first official proclamation, and he has discovered the truth behind the Isle of the Lost.
The Disney Villians live on this island with their descendants, and they have become bored and resentful. They are given very little and their next generation makes due with what they have.
While all of the villians are unhappy with their situation, Maleficent is the most vengeful, and she trains her daughter Mal to be the same.
Mal is smart, opinionated and rebellious, but Malificent constantly belittles her efforts to make her proud. As the daughter of a human, Malificent views Mal as weak, insignificant and a failure.
Mal is used to this, but she doesn't give up, she teams up with Jay (son of Jafar), Carlos (son of Cruella DeVil) and Evie ( daughter of the Evil Queen) to win the approval of their parents.
The book switches back and forth from Mal and Ben's point of view. Both feel trapped, forced to follow the path of the previous generation.
It's an interesting take on what happens after Happily Ever After, and what kind of generation would follow the Kings and Queens of fairy tales.
It's also the prequel to the upcoming Disney Channel movie Descendants.
Descendants focuses much more on Mal, and we follow her plot to turn the tables on good and evil. Mal is a very well thought out character, and her struggle from what she wants to do and what is expected of her is very interesting. Evie, Carlos and Jay are also very well written, and they adapt to the world around them a lot faster than Mal does.
At times the novel goes overboard with teen lingo, but this is their target audience.
The story was very interesting, and Mal and Ben were my favorite characters.
I don't want to spoil the story for the upcoming movie and the book, but I liked it, and I'm going to watch the film.
Now, there is a similar franchise that has been successful with a similar but very different plot: Ever After High.
Ever After High follows the life of Raven Queen, the Evil Queen's daughter. She also has pressure to follow in her mother's foot steps, but she is not the same character as Mal. She is much more open minded and trusting. Dexter is also the son of Prince Charming and Cinderella, and he isn't as confident as Ben is, or as social.
I like both of these stories on their own, because they do different things with fairytale archetypes, and they focus on telling deeper stories. With that said, I'm looking forward to the Descendants and I hope that the movie is similar to the books I read.
No comments:
Post a Comment