Angelina Jolie’s big-budget film ‘Maleficent’ based on Disney’s original animated classic ‘Sleeping Beauty’ hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but Disney has already announced a new take on the infamous villain. Stepping into the legendary horned helmet is none other than the Wickedly talented, one and only Adele Dezeem Kristin Chenoweth. The actress who rocketed to fame playing Glinda the Good Witch in the Broadway smash ‘Wicked’ and gained further recognition as a regular on fan-beloved series ‘Pushing Daisies’ and a recurring guest-role on ‘Glee’ takes on her latest role as Maleficent in a Disney Channel original movie called ‘Descendents’. The film showcases the next generation of Disney villains with ‘Liv and Maddie’ star Dove Cameron playing Chenoweth’s daughter Mal.
‘High School Musical’ head Kenny Ortega is on board to direct this latest Disney tween flick and knowing Ortega’s work– not to mention Chenoweth’s singing chops– it sounds as if this will likely be another musical along the lines of the ‘High School Musical’ movies.
Included in the cast are Booboo Stewart (‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’) as Jay, son of Jafar; Sofia Carson as Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen; Cameron Boyce as Carlos, son of Cruelle de Vil; and Mitchell Hope as Ben, the son of Belle and the Beast.
These offspring of famous villains will attend a trendy prep school alongside the children of more altruistic Disney characters, Fairy Godmother, Mulan and Rapunzel.
Shooting begins this month and the film will hit airwaves next year at some point.
Here is the plot breakdown for the movie:
In a present day idyllic kingdom, the benevolent teenaged son of the King and Queen (Beast and Belle from Disney’s iconic Beauty and the Beast) is poised to take the throne. His first proclamation: offer a chance at redemption to the trouble-making offspring of Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, the Evil Queen and Jafar who have been imprisoned on a forbidden island with all the other villains, sidekicks, evil step-mothers and step-sisters. These villainous descendants (Carlos, Mal, Evvie and Jay, respectively) are allowed into the kingdom to attend prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes including Fairy Godmother, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Mulan. However, the evil teens face a dilemma. Should they follow in their nefarious parents’ footsteps and help all the villains regain power or embrace their innate goodness and save the kingdom?
Interestingly, they omit some of the bigger name protagonists, like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Ariel and so forth. Will those characters… or rather, their children appear?
One thing I want to point out is that the premise of this movie very closely resembles that of doll line/online animated series ‘Ever After High’. A spin off from ‘Monster High’, this concept features the children of classic fairy tale characters, namely Apple White (daughter of Snow White), Raven Queen (Daughter of Snow White’s Evil Queen stepmother), Briar Beauty (daughter of Sleeping Beauty) and Maddie Hatter (daughter of the Mad Hatter from ‘Alice In Wonderland’), among others. These characters are divided into two cliques, the Royals, the children of the “heroic” characters who are the entitled equivalents to the prom queens and football players of the school and the Rebels, the children of the villains who decide they no longer want to be the bad guys and want to be the stars of their own stories.
‘Descendents’ is strictly Disney-centric though, including non-fairy tale characters like Cruella and Carlos DeVil. No indication that it will in any way resemble the Disney TV series ‘Once Upon A Time‘ which features some of the same characters.
Will you be checking this Disney movie out? Will this be as huge as ‘High School Musical’ or ‘Camp Rock’? In other words will these characters wind up on tee shirts and bedding sets?
