Villainess Review: Princess Audrey (Descendants 3)

I was enamored by the Descendants films before the first one even aired. I saw the preview for this in 2015 and I was all in on the concept: a quartet of offspring from Disney's noted villains. The group was led by Mal (Maleficent's daughter), and consisted of Carlos (Cruella de Vil's son), Jay (Jafar's son), and Evie (the Evil Queen's daughter). So I watched this on Disney Channel on the premiere date in 2015, and I absolutely loved this! The quartet's infiltration into Auradon and their slow and successful attempt at fitting in shined as the focus, and because these villainous offspring were the central protagonists, I figured that, in true Disney fashion, one of the heroic descendants would become villainous.

The main one I had my eye on was Audrey, and I had my reasons. Audrey was the daughter of Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty, so that enough was a reason. Secondly, Mal was a threat to Audrey's relationship with boyfriend Ben, the son of Belle and the Beast, and Mal's love spell working its mojo on Ben increased that threat. Finally, Audrey was too, for lack of better terms, tightly wound (from what I recall). Everything had to be set the way she wanted, plus, she was very mocking towards the quartet, especially Mal. The quartet was sent to Auradon by Maleficent to steal the Fairy Godmother's wand, but the climax saw Mal divert from her mother's plan. She and the others ended up welcomed into Auradon, and regarding Audrey, she and Mal buried the proverbial hatchet.

While I enjoyed the first film, I was left disappointed that Audrey wasn't evil; however, the film series would make up for it. Big time.

Audrey was not in the 2nd film in 2017, but I would find out about a 3rd film...and that Audrey would be in it. I would find myself in the summer of 2019 counting down the days until the film's premiere for a glaringly obvious reason, and when August 2 of that year hit, I turned my TV to the Disney Channel for Descendants 3, which kicked off with Ben proposing to Mal, much to the chagrin and shock of Audrey. Though the spell wore off, Ben's feelings for Mal remained intact, leading to the proposal, and afterwards Leah scolded Audrey for failing to marry Ben, and Audrey herself confronted Mal for her use of a love spell, even though it wore off. Needless to say, Audrey was fuming. All of her plans, her goals, her dreams, were gone. She was heartbroken over losing Ben, and that heartbreak became anger due to the fact that he was with Mal. That anger led to this:

I'm going to be completely honest: every word that Audrey performed in this song was absolutely golden. To say I was enraptured by this would be an understatement! It started out as rap (which was epic enough) but Audrey goes in to full melody as she undergoes her all too inevitable heel turn, becoming the titular "Queen of Mean." Audrey stole Maleficent's crown and scepter and transformed herself into an elegant but powerful villainess hellbent on getting revenge on all of Auradon. Her first victim was none other than Mal, who was turned into a hag by the cackling Audrey, after which Audrey crashed a birthday party for Jane (the Fairy Godmother's daughter) and lashed out at the others for allowing Mal into Auradon.

The scene would see Chad (Cinderella and Prince Charming's dipstick son) beg Audrey to be her henchman, with the sinister queen accepting before placing a sleeping spell on the others. If you couldn't tell by my use of the word "dipstick," I hated Chad. It brought me a lot of happiness to see Chad be Audrey's whipping boy.

Audrey's main focus, of course, was Ben, and we see her show off her new look to her former beau, who is stunned by Audrey's transformation. The scene also includes Audrey mocking Ben's engagement to Mal with what I consider her best line:

"Most people get dumped because they weren't good enough. I wasn't bad enough."

Ben states that he liked Audrey as she was before, and in response to Audrey's ultimatum that he should marry her in exchange for freeing all of the guests, Ben asked Audrey to return the scepter and she would be forgiven. Insulted by Ben's statement, Audrey turned everyone into stone, turned Ben into a beast, and sent living knights after the group of protagonist, which (in this film) also included Uma (Ursula's daughter and the 2nd film's Big Bad), Gil (Gaston's son), and Harry (Captain Hook's son). Audrey would also hold Celia (Dr. Facilier's daughter) captive in an attempt to lure Mal to her, leading to a climactic showdown that saw Mal, with the use of ember from her father, Hades, morph into a dragon and fight against Audrey. Uma ended up getting involved, combining her powers with Mal's to successfully defeat Audrey and save Celia.

Audrey ended up in a deep sleep, and as a result, her spells were undone; however, the only one who could wake up Audrey was Hades himself, and even though Hades entering Auradon would open a huge can of worms, they did just that to save Audrey. Afterwards, Audrey expressed her immense remorse over everything she had done and she gave a heartfelt apology to Mal, who responded with one of her own for her mother's actions towards Aurora.

Where do I start? I mentioned my anticipation for Descendants 3, that was because I knew Audrey was turning heel. Even before I saw the sneak peek photos, even before I saw the promo, I just knew. It was the logical route. It was the main reason why I was so excited for this third installment, and to no surprise, Sarah Jeffery absolutely shined. She played Audrey well in the first film in 2015, but regarding the third film, Jeffery really sank her teeth into this villainess role. I loved her villain song, Queen of Mean; she truly acted out all of Audrey's anger, bitterness, and vengeful demeanor in that musical performance. I loved Audrey's evil queen look, her swagger, her demeanor, and her evil laugh. My goodness! Overall, Audrey turned out to become one of the best villainesses I've ever seen (definitely the best one in Disney Channel's films), and among many other reasons, it's due to the stellar performance of Sarah Jeffery.

Descendants made me a fan of Sarah Jeffery, and it escalated when she played on the short-lived NBC series, Shades of Blue, alongside Jennifer Lopez. She also reprised her role of Audrey in the animated series, Descendants: Wicked World, and again in the 2021 animated feature, Descendants: The Royal Wedding. Since 2018, Jeffery has played Maggie Vera on The CW's Charmed reboot, and she also played Daphne Blake in the live-action film, Daphne and Velma.

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Check out Audrey's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!