Many months previously, knowing that I've always been a massive Disney fan, a friend lent me her DVD of the movie Maleficent, which on 7 April 2017 I finally got around to watching. It's the Disney live-action reworking of their sumptuous animated feature film Sleeping Beauty, released in 1959 and based upon the classic Charles Perrault fairy tale 'La Belle au Bois Dormant'.
A dark fantasy film directed by Robert Stromberg, and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in 2014, Maleficent provides a back story for the eponymous wicked fairy that is wholly original in every sense! For according to this retelling, Maleficent is evil only because she had previously been grievously betrayed by her human lover – none other than the youth who would in time become King Stefan (father of the future Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora), who cuts off her wings while she is asleep (a controversial scene that has been interpreted in a number of different ways…).
Consequently, Maleficent is actually misused and misunderstood rather than malevolent. Yeah, right! Also, if she really did begin as a sweet, pure-hearted child and maiden, I cannot help but wonder why she had been given the name Maleficent, bearing in mind that it is derived from the Latin for 'evil-doer'…
The special effects in Maleficent are breathtakingly spectacular, as you would both imagine and expect from Disney's CGI department. However, there is only so much reworking possible with anything, and I'm sorry but in the original Perrault fairytale (in which she is called Carabosse), and especially in Disney's original animated film, which I have viewed many times down through the years from childhood onwards, Maleficent is the absolute embodiment of evil. There is not a glimmer, not the slightest scintilla, of goodness in her. Consequently, for me it was impossible to suspend disbelief and pretend that she's really not that bad after all.
Equally, as Stefan, albeit little more than a cipher in the original movie, was a good, noble character there, his wholesale conversion here into an actively malicious, black-hearted, deceitful betrayer of a young, innocent Maleficent is just too implausible, too unrealistic a transformation for me to countenance. Bending the rules is one thing, but snapping them in two and then shattering them into a myriad of shards is something else entirely, yet the latter action is, I feel, the more accurate description of this extensively-manipulated storyline's modus operandi. A sequel movie, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released in 2019, but I haven't watched it so far, partly because I dread to think what further liberties with the original fairytale may have been taken in it.
Having said all of that, Maleficent is an enjoyable romp (which is why I later purchased it myself in DVD format), with a perfectly-cast Angelina Jolie portraying the title character superbly, especially in her more sinister scenes, and showcased throughout by wonderfully rich, lavish visuals. It also includes a most unexpected (albeit imho entirely nonsensical) twist upon who actually wakes Sleeping Beauty (played by Elle Fanning) with true love's kiss. The phrase "Yeah, right!" readily comes to mind yet again.
Interestingly, Princess Aurora as a child is played by none other than Jolie's own daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, having been chosen to ensure that she would not be frightened by Jolie in her role as Maleficent. And Kristen 'Twilight' Stewart had been considered for the role of the adult Aurora. Indeed, during casting for this movie, a fair few famous names came and went. For instance, the adult King Stefan is played by Sharlto Copley, but Jude Law had earlier been considered for this role, just as Judi Dench and Emma Thompson had been considered to play two of the three good fairies.
In addition, former Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi had actually been cast and filmed in the role of Maleficent's uncle, King Kinloch, the fairy monarch of the Moors, but his scenes were cut from the movie's final version, as were those of Miranda Richardson, playing Queen Ulla, Maleficent's aunt and Kinloch's consort.
Oh yes, almost forgot: a beautiful Tchaikovsky-based song ('Once Upon A Dream', created from the Grand Waltz in the Russian composer's immortal ballet Sleeping Beauty) and the vocals of Lana Del Rey really don't go together, honestly – just sayin'...
Anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, click here to view an eye-popping trailer for Maleficent.
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Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly
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