Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024)

 

 

Streaming Service: Disney+

Movie Name/Year: Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024)

Genre: Fantasy, Musical, Adventure, Family

Length: 1h 31min

Rating: TV-G

irector: Jennifer Phang

Writers: Dan Frey, Ru Sommer, Lewis Carroll

Actors: Brandy Norwood, China Anne McClain, Rita Ora, Joshua Colley, Jeremy Swift, Kylie Cantrall, Ruby Rose Turner, Leonardo Nam, Malia Baker, Melanie Paxson, Grace Narducci, Paolo Montalban, Sam Morelos, Alex Boniello, Anthony Pyatt, Dara Reneé, Mars, Julee Cerda, Peder Lindell, Shazia Pascal, Morgan Dudley, Tristan Padil, Kabir Bery, Levin Valayil, Aiza Azaar

 

IMDb Blurb: Follows Red, daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Chloe, daughter of Cinderella, as they team up to save Auradon by traveling in back in time using the White Rabbit's pocket watch, to stop an event that would cause grave consequences.

 

 

Cat’s Point of View:

As predicted, my daughter was fairly chomping at the bit to watch this latest Descendants movie with me. Mission accomplished, and we were both pleased with the experience.

 

Let's dig a little deeper into that, though.

 

While, overall, we were happy with the overall experience of Descendants: The Rise of Red, it certainly wasn't a perfect movie. That being said, I have a feeling that it may be judged too harshly by critics – and, perhaps, even Disney fans, alike. The majority of the original characters that captured the hearts and imagination of their audience did not carry over to this new installment, and the general vibe of the film was slightly different.

 

 

Both aspects should have been expected, however, with a change in director and the tragic loss of a cast member in reality taken into consideration. I think the production team for this new story actually handled it rather well. Descendants: The Rise of Red made a point to honor their fallen cast member within the story, and not even in a subtle way (even if details were omitted). The story even carried forward the central theme of the prior movies where the status quo gets shaken up in the name of giving the children of villains (or in this case, a particular villain) a chance for redemption rather than inheriting the sins of their parents.

 

 

There might have been a few hiccups in the plot; however, I couldn't really call them plot holes until the full story is played out. While Disney hasn't confirmed any details regarding a follow-up movie, the story within Rise of Red makes it very clear that this particular tale isn't exactly over.

 

I also have a suspicion that theatrical blockbuster expectations have been placed on a movie within a series originally designed as a Disney Channel made-for-TV experience. All told, the effects were on-par with the previous movies, the set pieces were as colorful and interesting as ever, and over all held up to the concept of being a part of a fairy-tale universe. Was everything spectacularly successful? Maybe not, but honestly, unless someone was watching just to find the problems, I don't see them as being that glaring or distracting from the experience it was meant to be.

 

 

In usual Disney style, there were songs, everyone was dancing, and there were some life lessons and questions of morals and ethics posed in hopes of making you weigh it out and think about it.

 

Descendants: The Rise of Red successfully proved that it would be possible to continue this franchise as long as the narrative stays true to the heart of the movies that have come before.

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 47%

Metascore – None

Metacritic User Score – 2.3/10

IMDB Score – 4.6/10

 

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

 

Movie Trailer:

Riddle of Fire (2024)

 

 

Movie Name/Year: Riddle of Fire (2024)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

Length:  1h 53min

Rating: PG-13

Director: Weston Razooli

Writer: Weston Razooli

Actors: Lio Tipton, Charles Halford, Weston Razooli, Lorelei Olivia Mote, Austin Archer, Abigail Sakari, Phoebe Ferro, Charlie Stover, Danielle Hoetmer, Rachel Browne, Skyler Peters, Andrea Browne, Lonzo Liggins, Chuck Marra, Colleen Baum, Sohrab Mirmont, Kent Richards

Film Website: www.riddleoffirethemovie.com

 

IMDb Blurb: Three mischievous children embark on a woodland odyssey when their mother sends them on an errand.

 

Selina’s Point of View:

The trailer for Riddle of Fire was interesting if a bit cutesy. So, that’s what I was mostly expecting from the film. A cute little fairy tale, with a little-kid twist to it. Possibly with the shock value that comes with kids causing havoc and doing things you’d mostly expect from teens.

 

Instead of something simple, funny, and cute – I got something that was deep and full of whimsy. A fairy tale that had an air of danger. It was so much better than I’d even hoped. That says a lot, because it made #8 on my Top 20 movies to look out forin March. My hopes were already high.

 

I love the way Riddle of Fire was shot. There was a constant green tint that gave everything a very Celtic flair. It made the use of fairies and witches seem at home, though the magical language seemed to be Greek. It was a mash-up of lore that worked to make something that carried an ethereal feel to it.

 

There’s no way I can talk about Riddle of Fire without including my thoughts about Lio Tipton (Warm Bodies, Vengeance, Why Women Kill). I adore them. I think Tipton is extremely under-rated. They are one of those actors I would follow to just about any project. I have since Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) – despite most of their scenes in that movie being written in such a cringey way that I have to hide through the second-hand embarrassment the whole time.

 

I digress.

 

 

Lio Tipton has a range that not a whole lot of actors can boast. If you look at their early career, it seemed as if they were going to be typecast – but something sent that off the track and now you can really see how well they do just about everything. Their performance in Riddle of Fire was flawless.

 

Where kids’ acting is something I opt to only discuss in certain situations, I don’t mind talking about it here.

 

Naturally, kids are less experienced, and you need to have a different set of expectations for them. That’s just a fact. The kids in Riddle of Fire fit the feel of the film. I believed what they were selling me enough that their performances felt right for the fairy tale setting.

 

Weston Razooli (Anaxia, Jolly Boy Friday, Trials of the Red Mystic) made their full-length debut in Riddle of Fire. It’s a hell of a statement. There’s a bit of a tweak that can be made here or there, a scene that could be removed or altered, but it’s a damn fine debut. It’s high quality and feels as if a much more experienced director was at the helm. I will absolutely be looking out for more from him in the future.

 

I would recommend Riddle of Fire to anyone with a love for fairy tales.

 

 

Cat’s Point of View:

I absolutely adored Riddle of Fire.

 

That being said, I did have a few reservations when I first watched the trailer. I wasn’t sure where the film would land on the scale of watchability or if the story would come together. I had a few questions, but I was intrigued, and very excited that we got a chance to take an early peek at Riddle of Fire to offer a review.

 

This story is a bit of a re-imagining and twist on the “kids with bikes” adventure genre. These particular kids had dirt bikes rather than traditional bicycles, and they were armed with paintball guns rather than slingshots or home-made gadgets. I appreciated this new spin.

 

I was struck with some serious nostalgia as I watched Riddle of Fire. It was a bit of a time capsule bringing me back to a time when kids had more freedom (and general safety) to roam during the summer and get into all sorts of shenanigans. We just had to be back home before dinner.

 

Riddle of Fire was whimsical with its touches of fantasy – right down to the Celtic-like font that illustrated the credits and necessary captions and even the, what sounded like, Greek (if not Greek-adjacent) words of magic. It was a tale of immortal reptiles, bandits, and nomad fairies.  There was even a challenging quest for a special potion of healing in the form of a pie, which offered an excellent framework for the adventure to unfold.

 

I loved the humor and the thrill of the hunt, as well as the potential danger that the kids found themselves in. It was a test and testimonial for their friendship. The story stirred so many heartwarming feelings. Even the way that Riddle of Fire was filmed was an excellent strategy to deliver this modern fairytale. 

 

 

The fact that Lio Tipton (Warm Bodies, Why Women Kill, Vengeance) was involved with the film was another draw for me and one of the sparks for my initial interest in this production. I’ve been a fan of theirs from figure skating to America's Next Top Model (2003-2018) and into acting. Their journey has been a joy to watch and I really appreciate the depth they brought to their character here in Riddle of Fire. I was actually intimidated by the intensity of the look in their eyes at a few points.

 

When kids are involved – especially generally fresh and untested talent – things can be a bit unpredictable and sometimes the performances don’t quite hit the right note. It's just a bit of performance roulette that comes with the territory. In this case, the lack of some polish just enhanced the wild and unsupervised freedom of these mischief makers within the story.

 

Weston Razooli (The Book of Three Snakes, Trials of the Red Mystic, Jolly Boy Friday) really knocked this out of the park as a feature film debut as writer and director. I was, frankly, surprised that this was his first full-length outing. Of course, Riddle of Fire wasn’t flawless, but that just means he has so much room to grow into his craft. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

 

Riddle of Fire will be reaching theaters with a limited release premiering Friday, March 22^nd. I’ll definitely be rooting for this movie and hope it performs well.

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 89%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –None

Metascore – 49%

Metacritic User Score – None

IMDB Score – 7.0/10

 

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5

 

Movie Trailer:

Belle (2022)

 

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime ($3.99)
Movie Name/Year: Belle (2022)
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Drama
Length: 2h 1min
Rating: PG
Production/Distribution: Studio Chizu, BookWalker, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Kadokawa, Nippon Television Network, Toho Company, Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation, Toho, Golden Village Pictures, Purple Plan, GKIDS, Koch Films, BfParis, Wild Bunch Distribution
Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Writer: Mamoru Hosoda
Actors: Kaho Nakamura, Kenjirô Tsuda, Kôji Yakusho, Mami Koyama, Mamoru Miyano, Michiko Shimizu, Rina Izuta, Ryô Narita, Shôta Sometani, Tina Tamashiro, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Ikura, Ryôko Moriyama, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Yoshimi Iwasaki, Sachiyo Nakao, Sumi Shimamoto, Ken Ishiguro, Ermhoi, Hana, Takeru Satoh, Taichi Masu, Asami Miura, John Eric Bentley, Tom Bromhead, Tiana Camacho, Paul Castro Jr., David Chen, SungWon Cho, Courtney Chu, Victoria Dean, Jessica DiCicco, Brandon Engman, Larissa Gallagher, Jessica Gee-George, Heather Gonzalez, Barbara Goodson, Bentley Griffin, Martha Harms, Xanthe Huynh, Andrew Kishino, Anjali Kunapaneni, Wendee Lee, Ben Lepley, Lilypichu, Kyle McCarley, Noelle McGrath, Kylie McNeill, Julie Nathanson, Aaron Phillips, Zeno Robinson, Stephanie Sheh, Michael Sinterniklaas, Rachel Slotky, Laura Megan Stahl, Ellyn Stern, Frank Todaro, Cristina Valenzuela, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Aoi Yûki
 
IMDb Blurb: Suzu is a shy high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters "U", a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a globally-beloved singer.

 
Cat’s Point of View:
I have been chomping at the bit to watch Belle since it came to my attention in preparation for the Top 20 Movies to Look Out For in January 2022 article. I was so excited for Belle’s release that I listed it as my #4 pick.
 
Now that I’ve watched Belle (multiple times, at that) I sincerely wish that I’d listed it higher (especially since a certain Marvel movie I’d listed as #1 didn’t even release as planned that month).
 
At some point this month, Belle became available for rental On-Demand at a price that fit my budget. My daughter had also wanted to watch Belle and so the moment we saw it available, we knew it had to be watched ASAP. As I write this review, I’m actually viewing Belle again (in the background) for the 3^rd time. My daughter has already watched it 3 times, herself – one instance while I was out running errands. I digress…

 
Why so many times? It deserves it and we are eking out every moment we’re able to out of the rental period for Belle. I’d say it’s safe to call Belle one of my new favorite movies of all time.
 
What’s the big deal, you might wonder? Belle was gorgeous and profound. The music was sensational, the imagery spectacular, the story layered and nuanced, and the performances were emotional. I resonated with the narrative on so many levels. The first watch-through nearly involved ugly crying. Admittedly, I can be a sap at times, but the themes echoed some of my life experiences to a degree. Music helped me find my ‘voice’ and break out of my shell when I was younger and the digital universe helped me connect with some of the most important people in my life.

 
In my Top 20 article, I compared Belle to a mash-up of the universe style of Ready Player One (2018), some similar tech to Sword Art Online (2012-), and the classic fairytale of Beauty and the Beast. On the surface, the story tackles coming-of-age in this increasingly digital age with social media and the like. The plot takes on bullying – particularly the cyber variety where netizens are quick to harass and cancel people from behind their mask of anonymity. The characters also had to navigate the craziness of High School. I thought it was a brilliant touch that the story used a game something like Risk as imagery of how kids and young adults have to navigate school factions and the rumor-mill, and what an extra nightmare that sort of scenario would be for a shy, introverted person or someone struggling with anxiety.
 
What the trailer doesn’t make clear, however, is that Belle also takes on trauma and loss from multiple angles.

 

Each of these elements became woven so deftly into the story so that I cared deeply for the characters. I understood their drive. I rooted for their friendships. It celebrated the essence of Beauty and the Beast without delving into the Stockholm Syndrome story we’re all used to. It leaned, instead, on compassion and empathy as well as finding inner resolve and taking action to right wrongs rather than just paying lip service with platitudes.
 
I am absolutely in awe of the work Mamoru Hosoda (Samurai Champloo, Wolf Children, Mirai) accomplished as writer and director of Belle. Hosoda’s Studio Chizu was given an amazing 10th-anniversary celebration with this production. I have enjoyed his work in the past and I certainly hope that he brings more ambitious projects like Belle to the table in the future.

 
At the moment, Belle does not appear to be included on any specific streaming platforms; however, you can find ways to view it by clicking here for its JustWatch listing.
 
If you’re able to find it, I couldn’t recommend Belle enough. I can tell you with certainty that this movie will soon become part of our ‘wall-o-movies’ personal collection in my home and I will be looking to purchase the soundtrack as well. I can’t get these songs out of my head.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 95%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 95%
Metascore – 83%
Metacritic User Score – 7.7/10
IMDB Score – 7.2/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 5/5
 
P.S. – Stills from scenes throughout the movie are shown during the credits.
 
Movie Trailer:

The Failure of Critics: Cinderella (2021)

Streaming Services: Amazon Prime
Movie Name/Year: Cinderella (2021)
Genre: Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical
Length: 113 minutes
Rating: PG
Production/Distribution: Columbia Pictures, DMG Entertainment, Fulwell 73, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Amazon Prime Video, Sony Pictures Releasing, Amazon Studios
Director: Kay Cannon
Writer: Kay Cannon
Actors: Billy Porter, Camila Cabello, Nicholas Galitzine, Charlotte Spencer, Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, Pierce Brosnan, Tallulah Grieve, James Corden, John Mulaney, Maddie Baillio, Romesh Ranganathan, Ben Smith, Luke Latchman, Jenet Le Lacheur, Fra Fee
 
Blurb from IMDb:  A modern movie musical with a bold take on the classic fairy tale. Our ambitious heroine has big dreams and with the help of her fab Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
Critics never fail to disappoint me. Why did they start reviewing movies, I wonder? I started to give my opinions out of love.
 
I LOVE movies. I grew up on them. Throughout a rough childhood, films were my go-to escape. If anything, I started the blog in order to have a reason to watch as many movies as I could possibly get my hands on. Naively, I believed that most critics probably started the same way.
 
I’m not so sure now.
 
Now, I believe many of them probably started because they love to tear things down. They like to nit-pick. They need to be the most pretentious voice in the whole fucking room or they’ll wither away and die.
 
It’s easiest to see my perspective when it comes to films like Cinderella.
 
Cinderella is an entertaining rehash of a dated story set to a jukebox soundtrack. I had a feeling it might be cute, but it was so much more than that. It was endlessly entertaining. The songs were worked into the script with ease – and even when they didn’t seem to flow at first, they did by the end of the scene. Insanely talented voices, such as Camila Cabello and Idina Menzel, belted out popular song after popular song.
 
Honestly, the only thing standing between Cinderella being compared to something like Hamilton is a stage, a true story, and some original lyrics.
 
There were no flaws in the setting, the acting, or the choreography. If you read the reviews by critics, you’ll see that a lot of them seem to think this film is the product of a classic story getting a remake it didn’t need. You see gems like “…misguided musical fails to convince us this oft-told tale needed to be spun again” and “…the list of Cinderella adaptations I have seen, none comes close to this level of badness.”
 
(That second quote had little to do with what I’m getting at right now and more to do with how awful the wording is coming from someone looking to judge someone else harshly.)
 

Do I think Cinderella really needed a retelling? YES.
 
Of COURSE it needed updating. The original Disney version of Cinderella, that the majority of Hollywood has been copy-catting off of, was about a girl who could not rescue herself and needed a man to come and fix all her problems. I re-watched it recently, and was shocked to realize that the titular character was almost a side-note in her own film. She was upstaged by mice and men.
 
In this new version of the Cinderella story, Cinderella is an actual person. She’s not just sitting in her room singing to bird about how much she believes love with rescue her. She actually has a dream. Is it the deepest thing in the world? No. It still make her feel more real.
 
The worst part is what the majority of critics missed. They completely ignored the basic entertainment value.
 
The average movie goer does not give a single fuck about the structure of a script or the fact that the lead is more well-known as a singer than as an actor. Far as I’ve seen, most audiences only care if the flick is entertaining.
 
Cinderella was exactly that. It was updated to show a more relatable titular character, it threw in a badass Billy Porter as the fairy godmother, and had a soundtrack with choreography that was unignorable. What the hell else can anyone expect from a remake of anything?
 
The reviews weren’t all bad, though. The audience knew where it was at. Although critics gave Cinderella a lackluster 44%, the audience has it sitting at 77%. I will always remind our readers that when there’s a discrepancy of that much on Rotten Tomatoes, ALWAYS side with the number that comes from people who are not being paid to be mean. Even when I don’t agree with the audience for that specific film, I still stand by my recommendation: always listen to the audience score over the actual tomatometer.
 
Cat’s already reviewed Cinderella. She did it on her own because I was covering a film festival at the time. Still, I had to write something, because I got fired up after reading the ridiculous reviews.
 
Grab some friends, grab some popcorn, turn up the sound, and get ready to sing along. Cinderella is absolutely worth your time.
 

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4.5/5
 
Movie Trailer: