The Isle of the Lost

he Isle of the Lost is an Island prison that appears in the Disney Channel television movie, Descendants. It is located off the coast of Auradon and functions as imprisonment of the most infamous villains ever known, such as Cruella De Vil, Jafar, the Evil Queen, and Maleficent.

It is cut off from the rest of the world and is surrounded by an enchanted force field to keep all the island's devious inhabitants from leaving, disabling their magic, and preventing more than one channel on the televisions from showing; Wi-Fi and cell phone signals also don't work here. Due to the barrier, it is always overcast for the residents; they can't see the stars at night. If someone tries to leave, they are basically running into a wall; the barrier is invisible to everyone who lives on the island.

The island interior mainly resembles a slum, with poorly constructed or decaying dwellings. Because they only get the unwanted or used products of Auradon, the Isle is also known as the Island of the Leftovers; the appliances used on the island are a few decades behind what Auradon currently has.

Rusty old coins are used as the currency on the island. In "Descendants 3" Dr. Facilier is paid by a customer for a card reading.

Background
When Beast and Belle married, twenty years before the film takes place, they forwent a honeymoon and instead rounded up all the kingdoms into the United States of Auradon, banishing all the evil villains and minions to the Isle of the Lost protected by a forcefield; this made it impossible to escape. Many villains, such as Maleficent and the Evil Queen, were brought back to life as the heroes thought death was too lenient a punishment for their misdeeds. Stripped of their powers, the villains lived in total isolation and forgotten by the rest of the world. Some villains are shown to have either adapted to this new life, or have mostly lost grip on reality. As Prince Ben would later note, the island is effectively a giant prison, although slightly better as it is a functioning society.

Following the events of King Ben's coronation, the Island devolved further into chaos, as everyone feared that Auradon would retaliate against them all because of Maleficent's actions. They also no longer feared Maleficent as she had been beaten by her daughter; practically everyone ransacked their home, leaving only Mal's room untouched out of fear that she would turn them into lizards as well. An embargo was put in place, limiting the amount of items shipped to the island, and putting many goblins out of work. With a hole broken in the barrier, the villains set up the Dark Net, a crude website for planning schemes together. A progressive thinker, Yen Sid took advantage of this to found the Anti-Heroes Club, recruiting other villains kids who were drawn to goodness rather than evil, having picked the name as it tricked villains into thinking they were against good; he began teaching them proper manners and behavior, in hopes that they would be invited to Auradon just as Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos had been.

However, due to Maleficent releasing so much magic during her escape, this sparked a chain reaction with the magic that the barrier forced underground. This created catacombs, which were creating new talismans of evil for the villains. Four of them were ready - the Fruit of Venom, Golden Cobra, Ring of Envy and Dragon's Egg. With Freddie Facilier's help, Yen Sid was able to inform the quartet and get them back to the island in order to prevent Jafar, Evil Queen and Cruella from getting ahold of the items first. Unfortunately, they left the remote to open the barrier behind by accident; luckily it was broken, buying Auradon time to think of how to counter any attempts to leave once the device was repaired.

Dragon Hall
The primary school on the island, located in a re-purposed tomb. It teaches the children of the island the ways of wickedness, encouraging them to do better than they did and be ready for the day the barrier falls. With the exception of the wizard Yen Sid, the staff is made of famous villains.

Goblin Wharf
The only dock on the island, where ships bring in products and food from Auradon. It is manned by Goblins who can understand human speech. Many of them wish for amnesty, blaming their imprisonment on the island to their previous servitude with Maleficent; their dwarf cousin Doc understands their plight. Jay swipes party goods from the dock for the party at Hell Hall that Mal forced Carlos to have. Following the coronation, many goblins were put out of work as the barges that brought in supplies were limited by King Ben.

This is likely the only spot where there is a hole in the barrier; Jay and Mal had considered stealing a boat and heading to Auradon because of how they never seem to do enough to make their parents proud.

VK's hideout
The VK's hideout is a place Mal, Jay, Evie and Carlos spent their time away from their parents and when planning their mischief, and they mostly use it as a secret lair. The entire inside resembles a messy apartment, with the walls graffiti-ed by Mal and the others, along with a portrait of them she did that is captioned "Rotten to the Core." To keep unwanted people out, the VKs set up the entrance to open when a sign that reads "Beware of flying rocks" is hit by a rock; since the sign is high up, it allows them secrecy in getting in. Upon returning to the Isle, Mal planned to live there as Bargain Castle had been destroyed by the islanders when Maleficent was defeated.

Bargain Castle
Formerly a proper, beautiful castle, which has now fallen into a shabby, broken down form. It now serves as a shop that sells used enchanter robes and pointed hats. The top floor serves as home to Maleficent and Mal. Mal's room is gothic in shades of purple. Maleficent often yells at the crowds from the balcony whenever she gets up; her room has a strong lock as she needs her "evil sleep". Maleficent hasn't quite adapted to life on the island as she doesn't keep her home stocked with food, and thinks her refrigerator is a safe.

After Maleficent's defeat, the place was ransacked by practically everyone on the island, leaving only Mal's room alone as she was the one who defeated her mother. The inhabitants believed Mal was still evil, thinking she was only pretending to be good.

Jafar's Junk Shop
A shop open at irregular hours, selling whatever is pilfered by Jay, ripping off its customers with the lousy merchandise; effectively, making property on the island go in a loop - bought, stolen, bought again, etc. The shop also serves as home to Jafar and Jay, along with Iago. There are many locks, due to thieves believing in keeping their own home safe. There's a small living area in the back with the shop, complete with a kitchen and sitting room, which Jafar has decorated to invoke memories of Agrabah.

Jafar has a considerable amount of coins, which he counts as a way to ease his mind. Following Jay's departure from the island, Jafar had to think of new ways to acquire his merchandise.

Castle Across the Way
The Evil Queen's castle, having been sent to the island; it serves as home to her and Evie. Lacking servants, and because she cared too much about her appearance, the Evil Queen let the castle fall into disrepair. It is implied that the castle is big enough to get lost in as Evie noted she and her mother never strayed too far from the center of the castle; this also implies their rooms were close to the kitchen. For a decade, it served as prison to both Evil Queen and Evie after Maleficent unreasonably said they were banished for simply not inviting Mal to Evie's 6th birthday party. Vultures served as the only means for which items were gotten for the Evil Queen and her daughter during that decade. It is also down the street from Hell Hall.

When the Evil Queen went missing, Yen Sid and the Anti-Heroes club turned one of the castle's basements into their meeting room. The basement has meeting tables and a blackboard.

Hell Hall
Home of Cruella and Carlos De Vil, having been transported to the island by magic. An old Victorian mansion, which has fallen into further disrepair over the years. The home is maintained by Carlos, who is practically his mother's slave. According to the narrative description "it was cover in vines, more twisted than Cruella's mind. And iron gates more wrought than her daily hysterias." Carlos keeps a tree house lab, where he experiments in his free time. Jasper and Horace's sons, Jace and Harry respectively, are forced to spend time here as Carlos's fake friends/minions. The main party hall has black and white wallpaper, and holes in the walls. Noted by Carlos, Hell Hall was not insulated for winter. Cruella still keeps her coats, in a closet protected by numerous bear traps; Carlos is forbidden from touching them, even to use as a blanket for the cold.

Cauldron Repair
A shop owned by the Horned King. He repairs formerly magical cauldrons, which are now used to cook food.

Slop Shop
The Isle of the Lost's version of a coffee shop. It sells a variety of expired and used food from Auradon. Their coffee is always strong and black, never making anything weaker than it. The goblins from Maleficent's army run the shop, often misspelling the customers' names; the joke was on them as no-one can read Goblin. The goblins have the rule of not letting customers linger if they are done with their meals. Yen Sid takes his Chai tea here, much to the annoyance of the Goblins as they're a coffee shop.

Bits and Bobs
Shop that sells cosmetics for one.

Hook's Inlet
A fishing shop owned by Captain Hook. His ship the Jolly Roger, is parked next to it. The crocodiles descended from Tick-Tock the Crocodile are normally in the water around here.

Queen of Hearts' Salon
A salon owned by the Queen of Hearts. Cruella De Vil was known to have frequented it. It's likely here that there is a wigmaker, who provided Cruella with her numerous hairpieces.

Lady Tremaine's Curl Up and Dye
A hair salon owned by the Wicked Stepmother, Lady Tremaine. Uma is known to frequent it. Dizzy is forced into a Cinderella-like role of cleaning the place, but shares fashionable taste with Evie; she gave Mal her makeover when she got back to island. Harry often stops in requiring protection money from the establishment.

Ursula's Fish and Chips
A shop ironically owned by Ursula, which serves fish and fries. Jay and Mal pilfered goods from her. Also home to Ursula and Uma. Uma and Cook are the only employees. Flotsam and Jetsam reside in a fishtank in the back. As Ursula became more interested in watching soap operas, Uma effectively turned the shop into her own lair.

Frollo's Creperie
A shop run by the Isle's former judge Claude Frollo. It serves French food.

The Facilier's Shop
A shop where Freddie Facilier worked before heading to Auradon; she implies it belongs to her father, who is also employed as Dragon Hall's headmaster. It has many items in it, similar to a department store, such as clothing and books.

Dr. Facilier's Voodoo Arcade
A combination of an arcade, state fair, and carnival. Celia Facilier works here with her father.

Troll Town
As the name implies, trolls live here. Cruella visited often as they were great at massaging due to their large hands. It's unknown if other "beautique-like" shops exist here.

Witch School
A secondary school on the island, for the descendants of formerly magical parents, mostly witches. Carlos thought it was dumb for there to be a school for witches as the magic they learn would not be of any use thanks to the barrier. Mad Maddy is known to be a student here.

Isle of the Doomed
Hidden next to the Isle of the Lost is another island, where the Forbidden Fortress crumbles away. The fortress is now surrounded by thorns and poisonous spiders. It was here that Diablo, Maleficent's beloved familiar came back to life after Carlos's invention caused a brief hole in the barrier. Many traps were reactivated and proved a hindrance to Mal's attempt to retrieve her mother's staff; this includes the Cave of Wonders, a magic mirror, and gargoyle sentries. Many of the goblins that served Maleficent still remain on the isle, but have devolved into cannibals after making the poor choice of waiting all these years for Maleficent to return.

Serpent Prep
The Serpent Preparatory School for the Education of Miscreants is the third school on the island. It is located on the opposite side of the island and is the rival school to Dragon Hall. Little is known about this school, although its students seem to be less friendly with each other than those attending Dragon Hall. Uma and Harry Hook are students there.

Hades' Cave
Hades' Cave is a cave deep underground where the god Hades lives in. It is deep enough underground that there are cracks in parts of the cave that allow some, all be it a little bit of magic to pass through. The cave can be reached by going along a series of tunnels buried under the basement of Dragon Hall.

During his time on the island, he tried to blast his way through the barrier, as well as paying a number of pirates to build a ladder so he could reach the top where he believed the barrier would be weak. Finally, Hades had a number of demon, pirates and goblins try to dig a tunnel so that he could go under the dome. Unfortunately, he and the demons got hopelessly lost. Giving up, Hades summoned his biggest and strongest demons and had them clean up the largest part of the tunnel which he would turn into his cave.

Hades is the only confirmed permanent resident of the cave. While Hades, like so many others who live on the Isle of the Lost are bitter and miserable, Hades has attempted to make the best of a horrible situation. He created his cave by breaking down part of the tunnel which he likely did to make his cave resemble his kingdom of the Underworld. While he is in the cave, he enjoys playing rock and roll albums loudly on an old record player while air guitaring, he enjoys playing an actual guitar (loudly). He possesses a broken television implying that at one time he enjoyed watching TV. Hades also has minions that he sends on errands such as getting his coffee.

When Mal and her friends realize that they needed the power of Hades' Ember to combat the power of Maleficent's stolen sceptre, they returned to the Isle of the Lost so Mal and Celia could retrieve it from Hades' cave lair. Since Celia has been there a few times and knows her way around it, in when made her Mal's guide as she takes her to where Hades keeps his ember. When they got to the living area, the dogs barking is heard from the record player, and Hades is fast asleep on his comfy chair, Celia stops the record player causing Hades to wake up. All without knowing that Mal is Hades' estranged daughter, until she called him "Dad" when he caught Mal trying to take his Ember.

Trivia

 * It would seem King Beast planned to keep descendants of the villains imprisoned forever, despite the fact that they wouldn't have committed any crimes in Auradon to warrant imprisonment.
 * Thanks to Ben, the current king, the VKs have a chance to assimilate into Auradon.
 * Many of the villains were brought back from death (Maleficent, Ursula, Evil Queen, Judge Frollo, Scar, Shan Yu, Dr. Facilier, the Horned King, Gaston, Clayton, Mother Gothel, Professor Ratigan, etc.), only to be imprisoned on this island to suffer a far worse punishment for their crimes—to live without magic.
 * It is unknown how the villains who did not die ended up in the Isle.
 * There's tons of graffiti around the island, along with clotheslines. Most of the graffiti either says "Down with Auradon" or "Long Live Evil" in a silhouette of a villain with the word "live" mirrored to spell "evil". Numerous posters of King Beast (which are to encourage good behavior) are defaced.
 * No one on the island seems to be growing their own fruits and vegetables, through there are other kinds of plant life on the island.
 * It seems rather odd no-one suffers food poisoning from eating spoiled food.
 * If all the plants on the island are dead, then the barrier at least lets air in to prevent suffocation.
 * It's likely Mal, Jay and Evie's generation is the oldest of the island's children.
 * Maleficent was the leader of the island, due to having a foreboding presence and army of goblins. Once Mal defeated her, the island lost all respect for Maleficent and ransacked her home.
 * It seems the islanders' fear of Maleficent is what kept the villains' society stable; the VKs noticed that the island devolved into chaos following Maleficent's defeat.
 * Though the island is magically sealed off, magic from the outside proves effective in providing escape:
 * A remote from a limousine driver opens a passageway directly from the island to Auradon.
 * In Descendants: Wicked World, Mal and her friends leave the island by when she wishes to leave (she rubbed Jordan's Lamp before accidentally transporting them back to the island with a wish moments after).
 * In Rise of the Isle of the Lost, Mal is able to open a hole using a spell.
 * In the second film, Mal is able to pass through the barrier, suggesting it only works one-way or the spell she cast on the bike did open a hole temporarily.