Disney Descendants Interview with Director Kenny Ortega

Kenny Ortega is brilliant…not only as a director but also as a choreographer. While I remember him from his work on Highschool Musical, I also remember watching a documentary about Michael Jackson and seeing Kenny talk about their work relationship (since he was the one working on his final tour) and I thought to myself, he must be awesome if he was working with Michael Jackson.

While he has done some amazing things during his career, his latest project is Disney’s Descendants. After screening the movie in LA (which my daughter wasn’t happy about), we got the chance to interview him and then take a picture with him.



You can tell that he is passionate about what he does and is extremely proud of this film…as he should be. I loved it and I can’t wait for my kiddos to watch it as well.

Disney Descendants Interview with Director Kenny Ortega

Why this musical had very special memories for him

I think perhaps it had a lot to do with, in the beginning, Gary Marsh reached out to me and said ‘I’ve been waiting ever since High School Musical and our success together as a team to find something that had your name on it, that would give me purpose to call you and to say ‘Come on back”, and so I’m sending you something tonight. Will you take a moment to look at it? I hope that you feel about it as I do’ and when I ready it I was blown away.

I mean, here I was a kid that grew up watching Disney and loving Disney animation; Cruella Deville, Maleficent, you know, all of these magnificent Walt Disney characters and suddenly they were on the page, and I was like ‘I’m being invited to be able to play with these iconic heritage characters and their offspring, to develop brand new characters for Disney.’

So right there it was like, so thrilling for me and then everything that happened thereafter – my saying yes, the wonderful writing team that I had to work with, the openness of this studio and the support that I felt from them, five months of looking for the cast, looking in Great Britain, all through Canada, all across the United States and even as far as Australia to find our Prince. And then to show up and to realize that everyone was excited in bringing something to the day. That there are selections that landed us with a company of people, whether they be behind the camera or in front of the camera, that really wanted to be there and so it was joyous, every minute of it. Every day I opened my eyes I couldn’t wait to get on the set.

His inspiration for the creation of a particular dance or movement for each scene

Years and years and years ago, I had the opportunity to work with Gene Kelly. Xanadu was what brought us together. Gene Kelly was someone who I grew up so wanting to be like, you know. Singing, dancing, acting, directing, choreographing; I loved all of it. And, we became friends. He became my mentor. He used to say to me “There needs to be a reason at the center of your ideas that motivates all of your work.”

Then, I’m always looking when I’m read a script, or when I’m pitched an idea for those things that live in the center of the big picture, that move me, that motivate me, that excite me and they give me purpose and reason to get up and go to work every day and to have ideas. And so when music and dance become part of the storytelling, it’s fairly simple for me when, you know, when you can turn a page and there’s a reason for it to exist. Part of my work is already accomplished, that the writer has the characters go from here to here and this is what happens in between. Now you wanna develop a musical number that helps you achieve that, and that not only goes for the lyrics but the feel of the music, the style of the music, and how the staging or choreography would be designed.

Favorite Descendants musical number

I think Rotten to the Core and I’ll tell you why. I started as an actor at 13-years-old and I was lucky enough to be in the original London touring production of ‘Oliver’ and when I first read the script and started to imagine the world, I thought of the Island of Loss, a bit of Dickensian and a little kind of old London town under the bridge, that darker underworld, and I loved the idea of being able to take Rotten to the Core, use it as character introduction and also to introduce us a bit to the island, what this place is.

And we found, in a few of our screenings for young people, that when we asked them after ‘If you would prefer to visit the Isle of Lost or if you would prefer to visit Auradon, where would you like to visit?’ and the first kid raised his hand and said ‘Would we be able to leave when we wanted to?’ And I said, ‘Of course,’ and he said ‘The Isle of the Lost.’ So we made it, I think, a kind of fascinating and interesting world and that particular number was just lots and lots of fun to create as a choreographer and to imagine as a designer.

Why this love story doesn’t involve a kiss

There’s too much pressure put on that aspect of relationships. Get to know somebody, you know, really know somebody. yeah, that was a conscience decision and also I just think that, you know, we all have hopes that perhaps this might grow. You don’t know. You can’t predict but, you know, it allows these children to mature into young adults and to blossom in ways that they’re not there yet.”

Who he’d love to work with

Wow, Meryl Streep. Janet Jackson, Bruno Mars, George Clooney and I would love to work with Christian Bale again. There are a lot of people, a lot of people out there. There’s so much talent in the world,

Here’s what Dove Cameron & Cameron Boyce had to say about working on Descendants



“Filming “Descendants” was some of the most fun that I’ve had in my entire life. It was the most incredible and magical cast and crew. Kenny Ortega is a genius. All of my costars are absolutely talented and magnificent, and everybody was handpicked so specifically. They’re all my heroes, and I really hope that we get to work more together.” – Dove Cameron – Mal on Disney’s “Descendants”



“The experience was amazing. We worked with Kenny Ortega, and Vancouver, Canada is beautiful. We had a really great time, the cast was really close. We spent a lot of time together just hanging out, and we were a really tight knit group.” – Cameron Boyce – Carlos on Disney’s “Descendants”

Check out the first 6 Minutes Of Disney’s Descendants and be sure to watch the entire movie on the Disney Channel on Friday, July 31st at 8pm.