Title: Maleficent

Available November 4th

Warning: Thar be spoilers.
The live-action story of Sleeping Beauty with a twist. The evil fairy Maleficent was not always evil. Young fairy Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy)  is the designated law keeper in the woods. All of the woodland folk go to her for dangers and curiosities that must be confronted. One day a human boy breaches the secret interior of the forest to steal a jewel from the waters. Maleficent confronts the farm boy named Stefan (Michael Higgins) and they become good friends. Stefan tells her he has big dreams of some day inhabiting the castle near by. Maleficent doesn’t understand the greed and envy of men.  When they are both adults, Stefan (Sharlto Copley) becomes a servant to the king, and Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) is the Protector of the Moors. The king believes there to be secrets and treasures in the moors that he must acquire, and takes his army to the borders. Maleficent and her own army defeat the king and army. The king who has only a daughter says to his knights and Stefan who happens to be in the room that the one to defeat Maleficent will have his daughter’s hand and be his successor. Ambitious Stefan goes to Maleficent, slips her a roofie and tries to kill her, but only takes her wings instead, crippling her.

When she rescues a crow from an animal abuser, she turns him into a man named Diaval (Sam Riley), and as thanks he vows to be her servant. She changes him back into a crow to be her winged spy. She learns that Stefan is now king and her mutilation was done for his own greed. She gets pissed and more or less proclaims herself ruler of the moors.  Diaval learns of the birth of the princess Aurora, and tells Maleficent. Double pissed she didn’t receive an invite, she crashes the Christening and offers a gift of eternal sleep upon Aurora’s sixteenth birthday by pricking her finger on the spindle on a spinning wheel. Stefan begs her to take back the curse and she makes him kneel. He looks toward the audience of the court and meets the disapproving gaze from the evil Jews from The Passion of the Christ. Maleficent says only “true love’s kiss” can break the curse as a personal “F— You” to Stefan who once gave one to her when they were young.

Sorry to digress, but wouldn’t it be awesome if Bill Hader played Stefan as Stefon?

After the ceremony, King Stefan orders all the spinning wheels destroyed and the 3 wood fairies to take the baby into hiding until after her sixteenth birthday.  The 3 inept fairies (Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville) have no idea how to care for an infant, so Maleficent is forced to act as a fairy godmother and care for the child from a short distance. She tries to convince herself that the child is a nuisance and ugly by nicknaming Aurora “Beasty,” but soon grows to truly care for the girl.

In the meantime Stefan becomes mad with paranoia that Maleficent will eventually come after him. He carries on conversations with her severed wings behind glass while his wife is dying.

After getting to know Aurora, Maleficent tries to revoke the curse but unfortunately she made it unbreakable. She realizes the curse is inevitable, but she plans to tell Aurora anyway. Aurora interrupts her and tells her that she plans to move out of the cottage and stay in the moors with Maleficent. Before going home, she practices what she’s going to say to her 3 guardians when Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaites) runs into her, lost in the forest. There is an instant attraction, but unlike the animated film, they don’t fall in love. They flirt and say they will hopefully meet again someday. Aurora then goes home to the three fairies and tells them her plans to leave soon after her sixteenth birthday. Angrily, one of the fairies lets slip that they are to take her to the castle, back home to her father. Aurora runs out and back to Maleficent to confront her, now aware that the evil she was hidden from was her. She takes a horse and rides to the castle. She is brought to her father and is shocked at how distant and upset he is, especially when he has her locked in her room and resumes his battle plans for when Maleficent comes back.

After Diaval manages to find Philip, Maleficent puts him to sleep and takes him with her to the castle. They reach it too late, but continue on to still try to awaken Aurora. After Philip’s kiss doesn’t work, Maleficent tearfully apologizes to the sleeping girl, professing a motherly love and places a kiss on Aurora’s forehead which awakens her.

Stefan is a nut-bar and Aurora realizes that she should be thankful she had Maleficent to care for her rather than her insane dad.  She plans to leave with her, but are confronted by Stefan and his knights. They trap Maleficent under an iron net that burns her, but she manages to turn Diaval into a fire-breathing dragon. Aurora runs and finds the room where Maleficent’s wings are locked away and manages to break them out.  They fly down to Maleficent whom is about to meed the end of Stefan’s sword when they re-attach themselves, rendering her to her former powerful self. She manages to defeat the knights and Stefan. With a renewed heart, Maleficent returns the moors to its original beauty and crowns Aurora queen amongst the fair folk.  Phillip shows up to the ceremony, giving hint that there could be love in the future.

The Good: Disney is trying to right some wrongs by giving young girls and boys a touch of realism to an old classic. Much like Frozen, it teaches an important lesson that there is no such thing as love at first sight, only attraction. Aurora True love’s kiss can come from anyone, and in this case it’s a pseudo-mother and child. They slip in little callbacks to the original cartoon which are fun to catch.  The CGI is quite amazing. The face capture for the three fairies looks almost real, and Diaval as the dragon is brilliant. Even if you don’t care for the story, the visuals make it all worthwhile.

The best bonus features have to be Classic Couture where we get to see the Maleficent headdress and jewelry work from millinery designer Justin Smith, and Building an Epic Battle where we see the wire stunts and blue screen effects.  Although all of the featurettes are short, informative and fun.

The disc has the descriptive audio track for the sight impaired. I love this option. Not for myself, but it shows those who require it that they are included and invited to enjoy the film. The British woman narrating is quite funny and sometimes a little snarky in her descriptions. Nice one Disney.

The Bad: It’s a little obvious in some scenes where there was probably a lot of content that had to get cut – choppy storytelling. Be it an editing issue or just over-excitement to not pay so close attention to detail. The story isn’t very consistent since Flittle gives Aurora the gift that she’ll “never be blue,” and there’s several scenes where Aurora cries from sadness. I would’ve liked a better introduction to the woodland creatures. We’re just shown a lot of weird fairy folk, tree people and goblins and just expected to accept them as run of the mill residents of the moors.

There are several good messages in this film which need to be told to younger audiences. One is to watch out for people with lofty dreams or opportunists who claim to be your friends, they’ll only stab you in the back or steal your wings in this case. It also teaches you is that your parents don’t need to be blood in order to show you love and a better life. It may seem a bit deep for young kids, but they’ll get it.

Acting: A

Reviewed by: JM Willis