Maleficent is a twist on the classic Sleeping Beauty tale, one told by Disney in the studio’s classic 1959 animated film. Here we get the same story, but told very differently – and not due to the difference in medium.
The film opens with a young fairy living in a land filled with magical beings in a land that need no king and queen. There’s meant to be a serenity in this land in contrast to the land where the humans dwell, underscoring the tension between the two lands. Stefan, a young boy, finds his way into this land and finds a friend in a young Maleficent. This relationship sets up an attitude that Maleficent has later on in her life as she grows up.
Unfortunately there is an awful lot of set-up in the first 16 minutes of the film that winds up delaying the inevitable. We know ultimately what is going to happen, so why spend so much time with this backstory? These opening scenes could have easily been condensed into less than 5 minutes to get the same narrative. Especially because there’s so much the narrator has to explain. Stefan ultimately betrays Maleficent and becomes King Stefan. This is the set-up for the tale as we know it.
One of the things I didn’t understand was why the pixies were renamed here. Instead of Flora, Fauna and Merryweather we get Knotgrass, Thistlewit and Flittle. There was no need for that. Interestingly we get Maleficent looking out for little Aurora covering up for the three caretaker’s ineptitude. This was fun to watch, especially as she torments them.
Angelina Jolie shines in the role. There is a reason for her hatred of humans, a pain she suffers and she conveys that very well. She was attached to the project very early on and it is easy to see why. She sort of “hu“anizes” the character. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the movie, not the plot twists (and there are a couple of good one, especially at the 53 minute mark) or the change in storytelling angle, it is Jolie’s performance.
Special features kick off with about 7 minutes worth of deleted scenes, most of which could have easily fit right back into the film. Since there’s just over an hour and half of running time they would have been fine. Then there are five featurettes with a combined total running time of less than half an hour. It would have been much better to simply keep them strung together, even expand it more and create a decent “making of” piece. There are a number of topics covered, if only briefly, so something more comprehensive would have been nice. No audio commentary, no storyboards – it feels a bit short in this department for a film that garnered as much as it did at the box office.
Desite the shortcomings of the special features Maleificent is a good movie and worth owning if you’re into the Disney fairy tales. This provides a very solid and different take on a classic tale that is already iconic and sheds a new light on one of the greatest screen villains.