So, yesterday was the day.
Yesterday, Disney released a fairy tale inspired movie that people had
been awaiting for quite a while.
That’s right, I’m talking about Maleficent. That’s right, a
movie starring the greatest villain to ever just sort of disappear from her
original fairy tale. No, seriously. Here are the French version and the German version. After setting things in motion
she just disappears completely from the text.
She doesn’t even make an appearance in the infamous Italian version that
shocks so many people. However, this
version is based on the 1959 animated movie from Disney which was in turn based
on the Tchaikovsky ballet. Both of those
productions gave the “evil fairy” bigger parts.
At least, I think the ballet did.
The version of the ballet that I managed to watch was decidedly
non-standard and involved vampiric fairies (I am totally not making that
up). I may have to seek out a more
traditional version someday.
Anyway, on
to the story of Maleficent. Warning, there may be SPOILERS ahead.
It starts out with the story of two kingdoms. One is the kingdom of men and the other is
the Moors, which is populated by the fairies.
Maleficent is one of the fairies, a girl with horns and great, big bird
wings. One day, word comes that a human
has been spotted on the Moors.
Maleficent goes to meet this intruder and it turns out to be a poor
young boy named Stefan. Stefan and
Maleficent become fast friends and even a little bit more. However, then the two are separated. Maleficent spends the interceding years
defending the Moors and fighting off the forces of the king who wants to take
the Moors as his own. Stefan has
meanwhile become a knight and one of the king’s inner circle. The king swears on his deathbed that whoever
kills Maleficent shall be made his heir.
This causes Stefan to reunite with Maleficent in a ploy to kill
her. However, instead of killing her he
does something else that sets her down a darker path. We’re going to jump ahead here, because some
of the more interesting things happen after Maleficent enacts her famous
curse. The princess Aurora is whisked
off by three fairies that raise her far away in hiding. Seeing that the fairies are probably unsuited
to the task, Maleficent starts looking after Aurora
I know in
the past I’ve made fun of Disney (and shall continue to do so, just for
fun). However, everyone will admit that
when they’re on their game, they make some really good movies. This is a case of Disney being totally on its
game. The writing is good. The acting is spot on. The effects are absolutely beautiful. Of particular note are the many fairy
creatures of the Moors. Whoever designed
those pulled out all the stops. There
are some things that maybe should be noted.
We see a familiar Disney trope turned on its head. However, I imagine we’ll have to expect that
for a while. They’ve been doing that
since The Princess and the Frog. Also,
anyone who’s particularly fond of Prince Phillip ought to be warned that he has
an even smaller part in this version than in the 1959 Disney original (hard to
believe, I know). He doesn’t even get to
slay a dragon. I suppose those are
little things in the grand scheme of things, though. Now, this may not be my favorite retelling of
the “Sleeping Beauty” story (as a storyteller, I’m inclined to believe my own
version is the best). We also might
chafe at some of the iconic parts of the story that we liked being
changed. However, it is ultimately a
good story well told and definitely worth a watch.
If you have any thoughts, feel free to post them in the comments below.
If you have any thoughts, feel free to post them in the comments below.
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