Maleficent has long been a favourite cinematic character of mine, as well as my favourite Disney character, and I was originally dismayed to learn that she was to be given her own film. I was even more dubious after the Wicked Witch of the West was so utterly ruined by Oz the Great and Powerful – I was genuinely worried that Disney might sanitise the Mistress of All Evil, or try to give her a romantic backstory. I’ll be honest, the presence of Angelina Jolie is pretty much the only thing that convinced me to give the film a try. Surely a strong woman and a self-confessed Maleficent fan wouldn’t let them ruin her!
Maleficent tells the Sleeping Beauty story from a different perspective to the original cartoon, granting us an insight into why she would go to such trouble to curse a baby – surely her anger at not being invited couldn’t be the only reason. We see her in her original form, as a beautiful winged fairy, determined to protect the magical moors on which she lives. This Maleficent, all eagle wings and long hair, is essentially a fairy eco-warrior, driving back the greedy humans who want to exploit the riches of the moors. Betrayed by the one human she thought she could trust, a young man named Stefan who promised her true love, and mutilated through the removal of her wings, Maleficent’s (justifiable) anger drives her to bring darkness to the moors. Scenes of walls exploding as she passes brought to mind Carrie from the 1976 film – this is a woman for whom anger needs a very physical outlet. Maleficent recruits a raven servant, Diaval (Sam Riley) and begins to spy on the now-King Stefan (Sharlto Copley), a man very much in the mould of Stardust‘s Septimus. When Stefan and the Queen have a baby, Maleficent decides to bestow her own gift at the christening.
This is where the film begins to unspool as a version of the 1959 Sleeping Beauty, albeit one from a different perspective. We see Maleficent watching over the young princess – but more crucially, we also see her continue to protect the moors and heal damage. This is not the cruel Mistress of All Evil we might have expected. This is more an angry woman, grieving the loss of her wings and projecting her hatred onto a baby. As Aurora (Elle Fanning) grows up and begins to see Maleficent as her Fairy Godmother, Maleficent soon realises that Aurora is not the enemy – indeed, she’s probably the only one who can finally end the human’s lust for the moors. Aurora becomes the pure-hearted human than Maleficent thought no longer existed. That’s when she ventures into more ‘grey’ territory, as the villain begins to adopt heroic qualities ‘for the greater good’.
In essence, the film turns Maleficent into an anti-hero – and an exceptionally stylish one at that. Despite her anger, she retains a wry sense of humour, and a strange sense of responsibility for the child she has cursed. I genuinely could not see anyone but Angelina in the title role – and I like to think that a lot of Maleficent’s strength comes from Jolie herself. At its heart, Maleficent is a story of disempowerment at the hands of a man – and re-empowerment through the intervention of another woman. Indeed, the whole film is really a story about women and their relationships. Stefan’s betrayal of Maleficent might be the catalyst that sparks the conflict but the rest of the narrative is concerned with the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora, where one is malevolent the other is benevolent, and their bond leaves no space for Stefan, or even the rather wet Prince Philip, who only appears near the end of the film. Where Sleeping Beauty removed Aurora’s voice and gave her a handful of lines throughout the entire film, Maleficent gives her back her voice – so I guess you could argue that the film doesn’t just rehabilitate Maleficent, it also does the same for Aurora (who was originally so insipid she was painful to watch).
I still don’t know how much the Mistress of All Evil needed a back story, and I still think that the treatment of Maleficent in this film tries to insist she’s not evil, just misunderstood. That said, one of the original Maleficent’s attractions was her elegance and her ability to act – both of which are preserved in this film. However, where her actions in the 1959 cartoon seem to be inspired by pure but inexplicable evil, her actions in this version are at least given a context and motivation. However, I think the film’s embrace of women, and the positive relationships that can exist between them, is definitely a step in the right direction, particularly for a company like Disney.
4/5
Have your say!