Maleficent: Magnificent Cheekbones

by Daniela

Year: 2014
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures

Something that’s become quite popular at Disney is reinventing their classic fairy tales. With Cinderella being released next year and Beauty and the Beast news beginning to circulate it seems like there will be plenty more to come. Maleficent takes a look at the titular character’s backstory and takes the audience into what drove her to her actions in the 1959 classic.

Maleficent gives us an inside look at the history between the two kingdoms: humans and the fairies (who live in the Moors). Despite ongoing conflicts between the two, a young Maleficent and young Stefan become fast friends until they slowly grow apart. Unfortunately for Maleficent, she experiences the ultimate betrayal when she loses her beloved wings and seeks out revenge on the now King Stefan by cursing his new-born daughter at her christening. Princess Aurora is to prick her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday and fall into eternal sleep and can only be awoken by true love’s kiss. The film then follows Maleficent as she watches Aurora growing up from afar until the aforementioned day.

But seriously.. those cheekbones!

For Disney purists, this may be a hard pill to swallow as the creators deviate from the original tale quite a bit. In the original Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent spends all of Aurora’s life looking for her because she isn’t aware that the fairies have taken her into the woods. Yet in this adaptation, Maleficent acts as a watchful eye over Aurora and waits for the day for the curse to be enacted. Since we have this change, Maleficent and Aurora begin to form a relationship and Maleficent and Diaval becomes very present in Aurora’s life. One change that I did particularly like was the addition of Maleficent and Stefan’s relationship. Watching them grow up together and slowly blossom into puppy love made the betrayal much more painful and wow I was sold by Angelina when she reacted to her wings being stolen! I never thought I’d want to give a villain, let alone the mistress of all evil, a hug and tell her everything was going to be okay! Poor baby!

One thing that I was actually quite pleased with is that the sixteen year olds in this film ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE SIXTEEN YEAR OLDS. Elle Fanning may not be everyone’s typical Aurora but her interpretation as a wide-eyed girl was a welcomed contrast to the closed-off Maleficent. The three fairies give off more of Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus kind of vibe. Of course I had to restrain myself from yelling UMBRIDGE when they change into mortal form. The relationship between Diaval and Maleficent allowed us to see a more playful and at times sassy side to her while Stefan who used to bring put the best, now brings out her evil side. The scene where Stefan talks to Maleficent’s wings was daunting as you slowly saw this man slip into insanity. He was terrifying especially when you remember… he’s talking to a pair of wings! 

I wasn’t quite sold on the CG green magic as it just seemed to look very… added on? My problem was that it just looked a bit too over the top and not up to the standard as the rest of the special effects in the film. Also, although the costumes were quite accurate to the time and resembled clothes worn in the animate feature, I doubt Maleficent wore a leather catsuit around the Moors. I’ve also heard other people commenting on this too so I’m not the only one!

Ultimately, if you go in expecting to see Sleeping Beauty as we know it, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. If you’re expecting to see an intensely dark Maleficent then I’m sorry she’s far from it. If anything it shows us that villains are misunderstood characters and we have to feel sorry for them. It’s not necessarily a bad thing but I the great thing about Maleficent as a villain was that she was just evil. She wanted revenge because she wasn’t invited to an even that everyone in the whole kingdom was invited to! Her villain status then suffers if we accept this as Disney canon. But let’s just revel in the fact that this could have gone another way. Malefiftycent anyone?

KEEP

Rating: 6.5/10