Descendants: The Rise of Red

image for Descendants: The Rise of Red

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Not suitable under 7; parental guidance to 11 (violence, scary scenes, themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Descendants: The Rise of Red
  • a review of Descendants: The Rise of Red completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 20 August 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 7 Not suitable due to violence, scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 7–11 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, scary scenes and themes.
Children aged 12 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Descendants: The Rise of Red
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild fantasy themes and violence. Some flashing lights sequence, and patterns may affect photosensitive viewers. (OC)
Length: 94 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Ben (Mitchell Hope) and Mal (Dove Cameron), newly married, have set sail from Auradon to make alliances with distant kingdoms and have entrusted Uma (China Anne McClain) as the new principal of Auradon Prep. As her first act as principal, Uma extends an invitation to attend Auradon Prep to Princess Red (Kylie Cantrall), the rebellious daughter of the tyrannical Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora), ruler of Wonderland.

To Red’s amazement, her mother accepts the invitation and the two travel to Auradon Prep’s start-of-term ceremony where the duo run into Cinderella (Brandy) and her daughter, Chloe (Malia Baker). To the two younger girls’ surprise, the Queen of Hearts and Cinderella were schoolmates! However, it is revealed that The Queen of Hearts holds a mysterious, bitter, resentment for Cinderella and all their past classmates.

The extent of the Queen of Heart’s bitterness is evident when she reveals soldiers she snuck in during the opening ceremony, and she stages a coup. After being manipulated into sentencing Cinderella to death, Red realises her mistake and activates a time machine she’d stolen from her friend, Maddox Hatter (Leonardo Nam). However, Chloe grabs Red at the last moment and both girls are transported back in time. They soon realise they have ended up decades earlier, back when their mothers were students together at Auradon Prep, known then as Merlin Academy. While they may not know why they were sent back to this exact moment, Chloe and Red must learn to work together if they want to fix the past to save the future of Auradon!

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Fantasy; Good vs Bad; Villains; Heroes; Bullying; Unhealthy parent-child relationships; Classism; Loss; Friendship; Celebrating Differences.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Red is seen vandalising the castle and, after slashing her mother’s portrait and destroying the courtyard, she is chased by the royal guard.
  • The Queen of Hearts is emotionally abusive and manipulative towards Red, including criticising her appearance and actions, and calling her a ‘disappointment’.
  • The Queen of Hearts frequently verbally berates those around her, using language such as ‘a sorry excuse for a soldier’ and ‘pleebs’.
  • Multiple characters verbally describe acts of violence (“poke thorns in his eyes”; “off with his head”; “prick her with 1000 thorns”; “burn her to a crisp”; “I’ll rip that magic tongue out of your throat”).
  • Chloe and another character are sword fighting for practice, in a highly choreographed scene.
  • The Queen of Hearts orders her guard to hold people at sword-point.
  • The Queen of Heart’s guard pushes and shoves people on multiple occasions, including throwing a male character roughly to the ground.
  • Chloe and Red fight each other over an object, in a highly choreographed scene with no injury.
  • Characters are bullied, with one character stealing cupcakes from another then smashing the plate, while others jeer in the background.
  • A giant eel attempts to eat Chloe, and Red beats it on the head with a stick until the eel retreats.
  • Chloe and Red are attacked by floating swords that repeatedly try to stab and cut them.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Red throws ‘smoke bombs’ that explode into loud, glittery, heart-shaped fireworks
  • When the Queen reveals her soldiers during the coup, loud thunder and lightning begins and a red tinge envelops the scene. The Queen can be heard laughing maniacally in the background.
  • When sentencing Cinderella, the Queen shouts, “off with her head!”, accompanied with a loud swell of music, thunder and lightning, and sounds of people screaming in the background.
  • A character, while visibly distressed and screaming, begins turning into a flamingo. She grows feathers, starts squawking and grows a beak.
  • A character falls backward into a water feature and emerges choking and sputtering.
  • A character sprouts large tentacles from their back.
  • A character looks scary, with blue fire for hair.
  • A giant anglerfish is shown emerging from the water, open mouthed, and several characters walk inside.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Chloe is visibly distressed and breaks down, crying for her mother, as Cinderella is being taken away to be (presumably) beheaded.
  • When asked about Cinderella’s fate, the Queen throws her shoes at another character’s feet where they shatter; implying her death. The character then begins crying and clutching the shards of Cinderella’s shoes.
  • A character mentions that both her mother and father had died, leaving her in the care of her emotionally abusive stepmother.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Red decides to change the past in order to create a mother who loves her, as she believes that her mother does not love her.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Chloe is visibly grossed out, as her parents slow dance and flirt to a rendition of “This is Love”.
  • Red shows interest in a male character, smirking and looking at him appreciatively.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • A character tells another to, “shut up”.
  • There are two instances where a swear word is replaced – “hex yeah” and “a total witch”.
  • There are some scenes including name calling, such as, “squid-face”, “peasant”, “goody-goody” and “evil”.

In a nutshell

Descendants: The Rise of Red is the 4th instalment in the Descendants franchise, and is a Disney film filled with singing, dancing and both classic and new Disney characters. However, this film does have some darker themes with an emotionally abusive parent withholding love from her child, as well as somewhat conflicting messages about good and bad behaviour. This, alongside some scary scenes, make the film best suited for children over 11, with parental guidance for ages 7 to 11.

The main messages from this movie are that being either good or evil is not as black and white as it seems; that anyone is capable of being good; and that it is important to work together to meet your goals.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Not letting others’ opinions define you
  • Friendship
  • Redemption
  • Embracing differences
  • Choosing kindness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • How the way they treat others can shape the way they view themselves.
  • How did the past shape the actions of the Queen of Hearts? Does that justify the way that she treats others?
  • Chloe learns that it is okay to break the rules, if it is for a good cause. In what situations is it okay to break the rules, and is what Chloe did (breaking and entering, stealing) ever actually okay?
  • The Queen of Hearts is cruel toward Red and damages her self-worth; this may be confusing for children.