#17: Kenny Ortega - M'Kiyah Baird

Kenny Ortega is an American director. He typically works on musicals for Disney and I have always loved his work. Two of my personal favorites directed by him are Newsies(1992) and the Descendants franchise, more specifically Descendants 3, the third and final movie in the series, so I will compare these two. Both movies are musicals which include teenagers trying to change the world in which they live. The Newsies are a group of boys that work to sell newspapers on the street. The movie includes multiple group dance numbers with the boys running in the street, generally singing about hardships. We can see this in the song "The World Will Know" and its reprise. The boys run around the street yelling out about not getting paid enough or being appreciated enough for their efforts. They also introduce their solution of protesting. In the movie Descendants 3, the main characters (children of Disney Villains - thus the name descendants) also sing about their hardships and engage in group dance numbers to instill action into the film. The song "Night Falls" once again brings in a problem and solution that involves fighting off a particular villain.