True love’s kiss . . .
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there were two kingdoms. One kingdom was human, and the other was a fairy kingdom. A young winged fairy named Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy) grows up in the moor with the other fairies. She is something of a peacekeeper, and she soon grows up to be their protector. While watching young Maleficent, I had a really hard time reconciling this sweet, pure-hearted fairy with the evil sorceress from the animated “Sleeping Beauty” movie. I kept thinking to myself “what happened to make her so evil?” Then we find out…
While a young fairy, Maleficent meets Stefan (Michael Higgins) a boy from the nearby human kingdom. Maleficent and Stefan begin a sweet, innocent romance that lasts for a few years. Unfortunately, King Henry (Kenneth Cranham) declares war on the mystical fairy kingdom and attacks.
Maleficent is able to protect her people, but the king vows revenge. Soon, Stefan’s need for power takes over, and he abandons Maleficent in favor of pleasing King Henry. Betrayed by her young love, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) is devastated. When she sees a crow being attacked by humans, she casts a spell to turn him into a human man. This man becomes her sidekick, Diaval (Sam Riley). Maleficent uses her powers to turn him into any animal that will suit her needs.
Soon, Stefan (Sharlto Copley) becomes king himself, and he and his bride welcome a daughter to the kingdom, baby Aurora. Seeking revenge, Maleficent drops by the baby’s christening with a gift of her own – a curse. Before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. She then amends the curse so that the princess will not die, but instead fall into a deep sleep, only to be awakened by true love’s kiss. So far, this part of the story is the same as the animated version. However, there were some big changes.
First change – the three fairies were not called Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather. Instead, they are Flittle (Lesley Manville), Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton – yes Harry Potter fans, Dolores Jane Umbridge herself, and she WILL have ORDER), and Thistletwit (Juno Temple). While the fairy trio were mostly good-intentioned, they were rather goofy and even a little dim-witted.
Second change – Aurora was never given the alias of Briar Rose. This is probably because, third and a major change – contrary to the animated version, Maleficent did not send her henchmen to search the kingdom for the princess. She always knew where she was, from the day the fairies brought her to the cottage in the woods to hide from all spindles, until her sixteenth birthday. I would almost say she was stalking her, or maybe she was watching over her.
This is where the fourth major change occurs – while in the animated version of the story, we don’t experience Aurora (Elle Fanning) growing up, here we do. I felt like this filled in the missing part of Aurora’s story, and in Maleficent, the young princess and the fairy have a relationship, you might even call it a friendship. Which was VERY WEIRD to me, because Maleficent cursed baby Aurora!!
Eventually it’s nearly time for Aurora to return to her castle, but first we are introduced to Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaites). I was a little sad that there was no “Once Upon a Dream” sequence like in the animated version. Here, Phillip is almost an afterthought.
The role of Maleficent could not have been more perfectly cast. I actually got chills during the scene when she cast the famous curse on baby Aurora. Jolie really did a fantastic job; it’s almost like she was born to play this part. As a lifelong fan of this story, I was so excited to see the tale from another perspective. Aurora is my favorite Disney princess, and Maleficent has always been my favorite scary, evil villain. I liked seeing the homages to the animated version in this live-action movie, and I enjoyed the addition of Diaval to the rest of the characters.
However, this is not your typical Sleeping Beauty story, and I was fine with that, up to a certain point. To remain spoiler-free, I won’t reveal the biggest change that was made with this story, but I will say that I saw it coming a mile away. While it was a huge deviation from the tale, it did have an enjoyable payoff that, while different from the animated version, was still a good ending.
