I Genuinely Can’t Watch “Descendants: The Rise Of Red” The Same Way Again After Reading These Facts
The Disney Descendants universe recently entered a new chapter with the premiere of Descendants: The Rise of Red, starring Kylie Cantrall as Red, the Queen of Hearts' daughter, and Maila Baker as Chloe Charming, Cinderella's daughter.
Here are 17 behind-the-scenes facts about Descendants: The Rise of Red:
1.Brandy and Paolo Montalban played Cinderella and Prince Charming, new versions of the roles they previously played in the 1997 Wonderful World of Disney movie Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Brandy told the Hollywood Reporter, "This is such a magical experience to be able to work with Paolo again, to waltz with him, to sing with him — all of it."
2.China Anne McClain played a key role in deciding how the new film would honor late Descendants star Cameron Boyce.
Executive producer Suzanne Todd told TVLine, "We, the filmmakers, had some ideas about what we wanted to do, but we also had a lot of conversations with China Anne and her family about it. She landed that moment so beautifully. And I have to say that the story point we ended up going with, about inclusion and ending this segregation in Carlos' name, is so on point for our universe and what we're trying to promote. The idea that we were attributing that to Carlos' character felt 100% real and authentic."
She also said that, after filming the scene, China took the framed photos of Cameron's character home with her.
3.Dove Cameron, who starred in the original trilogy as Mal, helped Rita Ora prepare to play the Queen of Hearts.
Rita told RadioTimes.com, "She really helped me on rediscovering all the characters and figuring it out. And I just asked a lot of questions [and] I did a lot of research."
4.Keeping each character within their color palettes and ensuring all the different shades complemented each other was a huge collaboration across departments. The costuming, props, sets, location, and background departments were "all given a bible of color with specific color ranges for each character."
Costume designer Emilio Sosa told Laughing Place, "It's very coordinated, with department meetings to pick a color. It's me finding the right shade of blue, so then the hair department can work off of that. It's a collaboration, so it was a push and pull. You give and take a little, like, 'That color hair is beautiful. Maybe I can change the color of this trim.' We just collaborated so well together."
5.Mattel also contributed to the costume design, helping make decisions based on what would look best on Descendants dolls.
Malia Baker told Teen Vogue, "It's so crazy to see [Chloe as realized] as she fully is at the end because I remember my first meeting with the costume designers and the hair people. We had white costumes and white clothes, and we would color test how the blue [hair] would work with my skin tone. And then you had Mattel on set, and they'd be like, 'This blue wouldn't look too great for the dolls.'"
Malia also told TVLine, "It would always be in mind of, like, 'Okay, we'll put this amount of jewels on this because it'll be this amount for the doll.'"
Kylie Cantrall added, "And, like, the length of our hair was all very, like, calculated, and the shade of red, and the shade of blue, like what was, you know, more fun for kids to play with. It was down to a science for Mattel."
6.Malia Baker declined the opportunity to audition for the role of Chloe twice because she didn't think she was a strong enough musical theater performer.
She told Teen Vogue, "My younger sister got so mad at me for turning the first two down that she was like, 'You need to do this. This is the thing that I'll think you're cool for.'"
7.For Rita Ora, working with Brandy was a full-circle moment because the first concert she attended was a Brandy show.
Kylie Cantrall told the Laughing Place, "It was also Rita meeting Brandy for the first time. She was kind of fangirling a little bit over Brandy, which, I mean, we all were, for sure. I get it. But it was just so cute witnessing their meeting and how well they got along. And there were even moments where Brandy was giving Rita advice."
8.While filming the scenes where the Queen of Hearts is cruel to Cinderella, Rita Ora apologized to Brandy after every take.
Rita told Entertainment Weekly, "Every scene after that, I would be like, 'I'm so sorry, I don't mean it.' And Brandy's like, 'Can you stop? You are in character; do what you need to do.' And I was like, 'But just remember, I love you!' And then we'd get back into it. It was great."
9.Red and Chloe start off as enemies, but Kylie Cantrall and Malia Baker found it "hard" to act like they hated each other.
On Good Morning America, Kylie said, "We couldn't be, like, further from that."
10.Zellie, a young version of Rapunzel played by Sam Morelos, was cut because they "just literally ran out of real estate."
Executive producer Suzanne Todd told TVLine, "We had an incredible actress cast, and we had plans for her, but the movie is packed full. It's stuffed to the gills with so many characters, so much plot, so much singing and dancing. We had originally planned for some characters to have a bigger part and just ran out of room."
11.Ahead of filming, the cast spent about a month in boot camp for dancing, harness work, sword fighting, and any other special training their roles required.
Malia Baker told TVLine, "I remember Dara [Reneé, who plays Uliana] being up in the air for half of the boot camp. She was like, 'Okay, my tentacles would look like this.'"
12.To prepare for the role of Uliana, Ursula's younger sister, Dara Reneé "definitely studied every Ursula that existed" and "studied China Anne McClain as Uma religiously."
She told EurWeb, "Literally watched every single movement and mannerism. So, it’s definitely, I mean, it’s a dream come true, being able to be a part of something that I love so much."
13.Morgan Dudley took home a few butterflies from Ella's shoes as a keepsake.
She told the Laughing Place, "A lot of them fell off constantly, and I was collecting them. Sometimes they would take them back when I wasn't looking."
14.Ruby Rose Turner took Bridget's pearl heart ring home on the last day.
She told the Laughing Place, "I don't wear it because I'm literally too afraid of losing it, but it sits on my nightstand at home."
15.Kylie Cantrall dreamed of being a VK, aka "Villain Kid," since she watched the Descendants premiere in fourth grade.
She told Decider, "Descendants is so major to me, and it all really stems from my nine-year-old self. When it first premiered in 2015, Descendants was all the rage in fourth grade. That's all that we talked about. I vividly remember running across the street to my neighbor's house to watch the premiere. When 'Rotten to the Core' came on, I was like, 'This is fire. I want to be a VK.'"
16.Joshua Colley, who plays young Captain Hook, dressed as Hook for Halloween when he was seven.
He told Sweety High, "My brother went as Peter Pan. I remember us deciding who was going to dress as which character, and I was immediately drawn to Hook because he's such an interesting character so I really feel like I've been manifesting this part since I was a kid, and I think I made baby Josh proud."
17.And finally, Morgan Dudley also felt like she manifested the role of Ella through her childhood dreams.
She told Sweety High, "I was a huge Descendants fan before I was cast. I think I actually manifested being in these movies because when I was around 10 or 11 years old, I saw the initial article talking about how Kenny Ortega was creating a new project at Disney, and it listed all of the characters, and I just remember wanting so badly to be able to audition and be on Disney Channel. Then, once it came out when I was 14, I was like, 'Omg I remember reading about this, this is amazing!' And then I got the audition for this Descendants movie, and something inside of me clicked like, 'Oh, this is meant to be.'"
