“School of Good and Evil”: A not-so-original Disney Channel movie about expired steroids

With cinema so saturated with heroes and villains, it’s no wonder some movies wonder what makes them so good and so bad (at least in the past, when those archetypes weren’t as gray as they are today). Everyone grew up with princes and princesses as references, but the American author Soman Chainani wanted to tell how they came to be the protagonists of his stories. He did it between 2013 and 2020 with his literary saga ‘The school of good and evil’, and repeats it now as a screenwriter and producer of the adaptation of the first book with the Netflix premiere on Wednesday 19 October. Paradoxically, and however much the red giant of streaming fills the screen with a cast and tall dresses, the film ends up relying too much on these superficial stereotypes like the heroes and hermetic villains we grew up with; if they are gone, it will be for a reason.

Once upon a time there was the same old man

From the beginning it already seems to want to break stereotypes: the poor dreamer of the country and her marginalized best friend are kidnapped respectively at the School of Evil and of Good. Both run up against the more eccentric portrayal of princesses and villains clichés that just don’t seem to match their character. It therefore seems that the goal of the film is to break those stereotypes. However, instead of analyzing and deconstructing them, he uses his entertaining two and a half hours of footage to reiterate them through laughable characters and scenes. Even when he tries to reverse the two sides, they still represent those same archetypes, now so unlikely. Everything in the film is black and white or black and white.

This plot (and almost all the technical part) seems more typical of Disney + than Netflix. Indeed, this new world of stories is too reminiscent of the recent Disney Channel saga ‘The Descendants’, reusing all the children of villains and heroes divided into two realms. The conflict of the villain as a frustrated princess is also identical to that of “Descendants 3”. It is true that the book was published two years before the premiere of the first installment of Kenny Ortega, but this multiverse of characters beyond their stories has already been explored in much more depth by the series “Once upon a time” from. 2011. account of the hints of the script to talking mice and teapots, it is quite surprising that “The School of Good and Evil” is based so much on the Disney adaptations without having their rights.

The story of two friends, not of a universe

The only visible personal trace of director Paul Feig (“Spies”) is the vibrant dynamics of the main female characters. It is true that this storybook love story has already been revolutionized by “Maleficent” in the same way, changing romantic love for other equally important types of love. But The friendship between Sophie and Agatha feels very real due to the vibrant chemistry of their two young leads. and its progressive descents and climbs that make good use of every minute of footage. Not only do they not shy away from imposing secondary characters, but they demonstrate that they can handle a movie on their own.

These two are the great discovery of the film. The almost newcomer Sophia Anne Caruso plays with everything in the two archetypes that give her, as funny as it is extreme and superficial. For her part, the protagonist of ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ Sofia Wyle maintains that teen drama intensity while being the only character with grays that the whole story is dedicated to shouting at everyone how superficial and how black and white the film is; literally most of his dialogue consists of complaining about what’s wrong with the script. Paradoxically, this is the best metanarrative exercise for such a conscious film. In addition to providing that complexity and a little more seriousness, she also knows how to carry on her chemistry with Jamie Flatters, which we will see soon in “Avatar: The Sense of Water” and its next two sequels, with naturalness and progressive interest. .

Among the rest of Disney Channel’s most typical Manichaean choral cast, VIP professors also don’t take enough seriousness or depth to build an interesting and possibly expanded universe like “Harry Potter”. Despite its long duration, the montage doesn’t give the time to create a narrative of everyday classes that perhaps would need a miniseries format like the one Netflix gave to ‘Destiny: The Winx Saga’. And the few times they are shown, they seem direct like those archetypes that the script sometimes criticizes. So that’s it what the actors do: excessive fantasy, as in the other failed Netflix fiction about stories, “Once upon a time … but not anymore”.

Charlize Theron goes to the extreme as much as her “Fast & Furious 8” villain, but in childish mode. Kerry Washington smiles deadpan and eerie as if she were one of the “Let Me Out” abductees. Laurence Fishburne has two scenes in which he goes completely unnoticed. Michelle Yeoh doesn’t even care what’s going on. The best secondary actress is, in fact, the only one who is not seen: Cate Blanchett recovers her expressive voice from “Cinderella” as the film’s narrator.

Budget-free blockbuster

With so much superficiality, one of the strengths of the film is even more commendable: it is fun. A lot of things happen, of course, and all of them (especially the battles) are shot with great ambition. In those most heartwarming moments, it feels like a real blockbuster, but then the faint visual packaging reminds us it’s closer to traditional TV. The first part of the city disengages from the beginning before the poor staging of a seemingly epic story. Later, in the castles, the well-choreographed physical sword fights shine more than the surprisingly wooden effects and sets.

These great movie claims are evident the larger the viewing screen is, as happened at “Paradise Hills”. However, that was able to compensate with a more powerful message of protest and a constant style of the Spanish Alice Waddington in every shot, be it very expensive or cheap; “The school of good and evil” could be directed by any normal director of any television network. It says a lot about the pace of the film that the dynamism that the director does not give it is provided by a very successful musical selection with Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. But that playlist can include any Disney Channel movie; or better yet, create your own. Indeed, in many moments when the ridiculous was already on the verge of ridicule, the film screamed at being a musical to emphasize a little more the intensity and personality of the battles, as well as the “Knight Falls” of “The Descendants 3 “compensating for this same lack of budget with creativity.

The only technical apparatus in which the film stands out are the costumes and make-up, more typical of the big screen. And one of the few advantages it draws from its fantastic context is that diverse cast of princes and princesses, without controversy by not adapting any historical or previously written characters to it. There it takes quality, in its very identity. But unfortunately, ‘The school of good and evil ‘is content to entertain superficially thanks to the efforts of its two protagonists and despite the heavy narrative and technical sections.

Note: 5.

The best: the fights and the locker room.

Worse: the constant superficiality of the concepts of good and evil in the characters.