Is it cheating when Disney redefines its own history? Decades ago Sleeping Beauty made it very clear: Aurora good, sorceress bad. Now there’s a caveat? There’s more to the tale …? What’s up with that? This is like a police chief asking us to reexamine potentially mitigating evidence long after the suspect has been executed.
Maleficent is the biopic of the (evil?) witch/queen/fairy/monster/diva who gave Sleeping Beauty her moniker. (You’d think she’d be all: “Without me, she’s just run-of-the-mill ‘Aurora,’ knowhatImsayin’?”) In this version, she’s a sweet fairy from the land of magical pals. She seems pretty darn happy for an orphan girl whose name is so close to “Malice.” And she has great big functional gargoyle wings. They’re kinda cool. One day, she meets an ordinary [read: human] boy and they become fast friends.
Yada yada yada, FF to the time when the kids are now Angelina Jolie and Sharlto Copley. Human king arbitrarily up and decides he needs to make war on the fairy folk. It didn’t even take a 9/11 situation for him to justify war on a random opponent. I wonder if there were some sort of medieval Dick Cheney in the wings constantly badgering about fairy WMDs. Anyway, the human army lines up and is defeated by an unprepared enemy in about three seconds. It’s embarrassing when you think about it. King is pissed and declares a fatwa on Maleficent (Jolie), promising the keys to the kingdom to the chump, er, man, who takes her down. Stefan (Copley) proves just that chump, using his previous relationship to snip Malificent’s wings.
Naturally, Maleficent turns malevolent and crashes the royal baby blessing ceremony hosted by (now) King Stefan, Queen Latifah and the Backstreet Boys. At this point, Mal is dressing only in black with a catwoman-like cowl to accentuate her diabolic head horns. Also at this point, the movie gets going, b
ecause Jolie is allowed to act. I swear she has the sharpest cheekbones in creation. Seriously, you could cut diamonds with those things. In turn, this totally sharpens, as it were, our perception of Mal as scored villainess.
The heart of Maleficent is the relationship between title character and baby/child/young woman Aurora. Although Maleficent has cursed the girl, she feels responsible for her well-being. I’m not quite sure what that’s about other than perhaps the dark fairy deciding “nobody gets to mess with her but me.” And she makes good on her invisi-vow, constantly spying on the girl like a horny apartment dweller with a telescope. Just never got a life, huh? I kinda question anybody so into Sharlto Copley that she’d throw her life away over his child, but, hey, whatchagonnado?
Now, seriously, why did King Stefan banish his own offspring upon hearing of the curse? Mal shows up, lays down the eventual evil and Steffie Wonder here decides to sequester baby Aurora (away from he and the missus) for life. What sense does that make?
Weird that this film plays a bit like a biopic – it’s kinda like following the life story of the reindeer in Frozen. Weirder still that Disney uses this platform to rewrite its own history. There is no doubt that if you ever find yourself watching Sleeping Beauty again after this film, you’ll reconsider the villainy. Personally, I always like different takes on classics. One day, I’d love to see Harry Potter told from the viewpoint of Malfoy or Voldemort. That is, of course, if you’re into fan fiction.
A noted villainess in magic dwelling
Subjected in full to a brand new retelling
Was she not good
Or misunderstood?
Are we buying what Disney is selling?
Rated PG, 97 Minutes
D: Robert Stromberg
W: Linda Woolverton
Genre: Changing perception
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Misunderstood serial killers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Abductees
