Raven Queen (film)

Raven Queen is a 2020 American musical fantasy animation film directed by Kenny Ortega and was released by Universal Pictures on July 10, 2020 to positive reviews and 6.6 million viewers. Raven Queen was released in the United States in a limited amount of theaters on July 10, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, it was also released through video on demand on the same day. and also release Launch in streaming service on Peacock.

Synopsis
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 Cheshire Cat, Evil Queen, Mad Hatter, and Red who have been imprisoned on a forbidden island with all the other villains, sidekicks, evil step-mothers and step-sisters. These villainous descendants (Kitty, Raven Queen, Madeline Hatter, and Cerise Hood, respectively) are allowed into the kingdom to attend prep school alongside the offspring of iconic Disney heroes, including Fairy Godmother, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Mulan and other characters. 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?

Plot
King Beast and Queen Belle marry and unite all the kingdoms into the United States of Auradon, where they are elected rulers of the new idyllic kingdom. All of the villains, sidekicks, and their accomplices are forced after their defeat to live imprisoned on the Isle of the Lost, a forbidden island surrounded by a magical barrier that inhibits magic and escape.

In present-day Auradon, Prince Dexter Charming, the teenage son of King Beast and Queen Belle, is about to ascend the throne. His first official proclamation offers a chance for four selected trouble-making teenage children of villains from the Isle of the Lost to live among them in Auradon and attend Auradon Prep. He chose: Carlos, daughter of Cheshire Cat; Cerise Hood, daughter of Red; Madeline Hatter, daughter of Mad Hatter; and Raven Queen, daughter of Evil Queen. King Beast is at first unwilling to agree to it because their parents committed unspeakable crimes. These villainous descendants are given news of this by Maleficent, that they are invited into Auradon to attend a prep school alongside the teenage children of iconic heroes. However, the evil teens are under pressure by their parents to help all the villains regain power by stealing the Fairy Godmother's Magic Wand. Raven, Maddie, Cerise, and Kitty arrive at Auradon Prep and set out to steal the wand using Maddie's magic mirror to locate the wand at a nearby museum. There, after seeing statues of Raven, Cerise, Madeline, and Kitty, Raven begins questioning about being good and evil. Ultimately, the villainous children fail to retrieve the wand after Cerise accidentally sets off the alarm and they escape.

On their first day, Jay is recruited for the school's tourney sports team. Carlos realizes dogs are not dangerous and befriends the school's mutt. Evie becomes infatuated with Chad Charming, Ashlynn Ella, Daring Charimg, and Daring Charming son and Daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming, who takes advantage of her by making her do his homework. Raven talks to Jane, daughter of the Fairy Godmother. Raven exploits and Jane's insecurity in her own appearance to her personal advantage by pretending to befriend Jane and even using some magic to change Jane's hair making her look more beautiful. After hearing about Jane's hair change, Mulan's daughter, Lonnie, and other girls ask Raven to change their hair too. Maddie learns the Fairy Godmother will use the wand at Prince Dexter's coronation ceremony and the entire school, including the villain kids, are invited. Ben visits and Mal asks him if she could be seated closer to the wand during the ceremony. Ben replies that only he, his family and girlfriend, Audrey, daughter of Aurora and Prince Phillip, her Best Friend Apple White, Blondie Lockes, Cedar Wood, C.A. Cupid and Briar Beauty will be allowed to be seated upfront. Raven hatches a plan to become Dexter's girlfriend in order to get the wand. While making a love spell in the form of a cookie, the group realizes the spell needs a human tear of true sadness for the love spell to be successful. Lonnie interrupts the group and reminiscences about the love she felt when her mother made cookies to make her feel better. She sheds a tear out of sadness when she learns that the villain kids have never known love — even from their own parents. Raven quickly snatches the tear and adds it to the cookie dough. Raven gives Dexter the cookie and the love spell begins to take effect. Cerise, Kitty, and Dexter work together to win the tourney game and Cerise is named MVP. Dexter declares his love for Mal in a song and asks her to the coronation, angering Audrey and causing her to go with Chad, which in turn upsets Maddie.

Chad has Maddie's magic mirror taken away and Maddie is forced to take a test without its aid. Maddie gets a 'B+' on the test proving she is intelligent without needing the help of her mirror and she tells Doug, son of Dopey, and his best friend Hunter Huntsman who believed in her. Dexter asks Raven on a date and Maddie helps her get ready. While on the date, Raven and Ben get to know each other. Dexter decides to go for a swim but Raven declines to join him. Raven begins to question whether she really does have feelings for Dexter. When Raven doesn't see Dexter surface from the lake, she jumps into the lake to find him, but she can't swim and when she starts thrashing around in the water, Dexter helps her get out. Dexter asks Raven if she reciprocates his feelings of love and she replies by saying that she doesn't know what love feels like. Ben says that he can teach her.

The villain kids' video chats with their parents for Auradon Prep's Family Day because the villains are not allowed to leave the island. They begin to form an escape plan for the coronation. At Family Day, Dexter introduces Raven to his parents as his new girlfriend, much to their reluctance and shock. There, Audrey's grandmother blames Raven about Evil Queen's actions and Chad also adds to the scorn. Maddie sprays Chad with a sleeping potion Raven had given her and he collapses. The villain kids leave the lunch and King Beast blames Ben for the turn of events. After the lunch, the other students, now including Jane, mock the villain kids much to Raven's anger, which leads Raven to her undoing Jane's hair and threatening to do the same to the other girls. The group reluctantly continues preparing to steal the wand.

The day of the coronation arrives and Raven gives Ben a cupcake with the anti-love spell. He reveals he knew all along because the spell was broken during their first date when he swam in the Enchanted Lake, which washed away the spell. In the panic, Raven asks if he had been faking his feelings for her since then, but he tells her that his feelings are genuine as he entrusts her with his signet ring. Ben believes Raven gave him the love spell because she had a crush on him and didn't trust it could happen on its own. During the coronation ceremony, Raven contemplates whether she should get the wand for her mother, or be the better person Dexter expects her to be. Suddenly, the wand is snatched up by Jane who wants to use it to give herself the magical makeover her mother won't allow. Unable to control the magic, Jane accidentally breaks the barrier around the Isle of the Lost. Sensing the barrier now gone, Evil Queen takes her staff and magically flies away in dark smoke. Raven manages to pry the wand from Jane to fulfill her mother's wishes, but Ben convinces Raven she is good and that she and her friends should follow their hearts, not their parents' evil ways. Returning the wand to Fairy Godmother, Raven admits that she and her friends are happier in Auradon and wishes to stay at the school to be with Ben because it makes her happy. Evil Queen arrives, renders everyone at the coronation frozen except for her and the villain kids, angrily saying that Raven failed them, and takes the wand from the frozen Fairy Godmother. Raven tries to convince her mom to stop by using a spell to take the wand from Evil Queen's grasp, but Evil Queen turns into an enormous dragon and attacks them. Raven uses her magic to stop Evil Queen by shrinking her down to a small purple lizard, equivalent to the amount of love in her heart. Everyone unfreezes and the villain kids resolve to be good. In the end, the whole cast sing and dance at the coronation after-party. But Raven gives the audience a sly smile and flashes her green eyes, hinting that it is not the end of the story.

The Descendants

 * Raven Queen - (Meg Donnelly) daughter of Evil Queen and Hades.
 * Cerise Hood - (Jayden Bartels) the son of Red.
 * Madeline Hatter - (Ariana Grande) daughter of Mad Hatter.
 * Kitty Cheshire - (Sadie Sink), the son of Cheshire Cat.
 * Dexter - (Jaeden Martell), son of Belle and the Beast.
 * Apple White - (Maddie Ziegler)
 * Blondie Lockes - (Willow Shields)
 * Briar Beauty - (Veronika Bonnell)
 * Cedar Wood - (Skai Jackson)
 * C.A. Cupid - (India Eisley)
 * Ashlynn Ella - (Miya Cech)
 * Audrey - (Sarah Jeffery), daughter of Aurora and Prince Phillip.
 * Chad Charming - (Jedidiah Goodacre), son of Cinderella and Prince Charming.
 * Lonnie - (Dianne Doan) daughter of Fa Mulan and Li Shang.
 * Jane - (Brenna D'Amico), daughter of the Fairy Godmother.
 * Doug - (Zachary Gibson), son of Dopey.
 * Daring Charming - (Toby Nichols)
 * Hunter Huntsman - (Felix Mallard)

Villains

 * Evil Queen - (Kristin Chenoweth) from Sleeping Beauty, Raven's mother, the leader of the villains and the main antagonist.
 * Red - (Kristen Stewart) from Aladdin, Cerise's father, who owns a junk shop on the Isle of the Lost.
 * Mad Hatter - (Jim Carrey) from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Maddie's father.
 * Cheshire Cat - (Amanda Seyfried) from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Kitty' mother.

Heroes

 * Queen Belle - (Keegan Connor Tracy) from Beauty and the Beast.
 * King Beast - (Dan Payne) from Beauty and the Beast.
 * Queen Leah - (Judith Maxie) from Sleeping Beauty, the mother of Princess Aurora and the grandmother of Princess Audrey.
 * Fairy Godmother - (Melanie Paxson) from Cinderella, the headmistress of Auradon Prep.
 * Snow White - (Stephanie Bennett) from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a local news anchor who reports on the activities at Auradon.

Other Characters

 * Coach Jenkins - (Reese Alexander) the gym teacher at Auradon Prep who is the coach of its tourney team.
 * Mr. Deley - (Jonathan Holmes) a science teacher at Auradon Prep.

Sequel
At the 2021 San Diego Comic Con, it was confirmed that a sequel is being made. Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott were confirmed on July 21, 2021, to return as the writers, as well as being the executive producers.

Trivia

 * While still in production, the movie was under the working title  'Off The Island'.
 * Keegan Connor Tracy, who plays Belle, also plays the Blue Fairy/Mother Superior in Once Upon a Time.
 * Sadie Sink got his frost tips just for this movie.
 * Ariana Grande and Meg Donnelly used wigs during filming.
 * This is the first time that the Classical Disney film canon united in a feature film.
 * As the villain kids progress from bad to good, the changes are reflected in their attire. They start out in their Isle of the Lost outfits, slowly decreasing in rebellious imaging, and finally to their coronation outfits and party clothes worn during "Set It Off".
 * This would've been the second time Meg Donnelly and Sadie Sink worked together. The first time was in Meg Donnelly's films, Disney's Zombies.
 * This film contains many references and allusions to previous and current Disney franchises.
 * The video game Kitty plays when the group first arrives at Auradon was originally created for the Nintendo games Super Mario Bros..
 * Auradon Prep's motto is "Goodness doesn't get any better."
 * During Rotten to the Core, if one looks closely behind the group's dancing, the can see another "Long Live Evil" tag with Cruella's outline. And when you look behind Cerise you can see the Jafar version of Long Live Evil.
 * If one examines the stained glass windows of the church where the coronation is held, the images include Quasimodo, Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, Belle, and Prince Adam, Alice, Fa Mulan, Li Shang, Tiana, various princes, and what appears to be Kristoff. The last image suggests Arendelle is part of Auradon.
 * In the film, the term "prince" seems to be synonymous with wimps as noted by Jay.
 * 18.2 million total viewers (so far) have watched Descendants.
 * Ariana Grande, who voice Maddie, originally auditioned for the part of Audrey.
 * Descendants is the #5 most-watched cable movie of all time.
 * In "Set it Off" a lyric in the song was "We got the keys. The kingdom's ours." which Dexter and Maddie sang is a reference to Sleeping Beauty where there is a lyric in a song "I got the keys to the kingdom."
 * Dude, the male dog that Kitty becomes attached to, is actually a female dog named Paisley in real life.
 * Kenny Ortega saw 600+ actors before casting Jaeden Martell as Prince Dexter.
 * Meg Donnelly was the first person cast in this movie.
 * Kitty and Dude (the dog) matched outfits after they met.
 * If you look closely during the coronation, the parents of Audrey (Aurora and Phillip), Chad (Cinderella and Prince Charming), Lonnie (Fa Mulan and Li Shang), and Doug (Dopey) are present.
 * There was originally going to be a character named Aziz, son of Aladdin and Jasmine but was cut out for unknown reasons.
 * Each offspring's name starts with the same initial letter as at least one of their parents. Jane and Lonnie are the only exceptions to this.