maleficent movie review

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Common Sense Media Review

Visually beautiful but dark retelling of classic fairytale.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Maleficent is Disney's retelling of its iconic animated princess movie Sleeping Beauty from the villain's point of view. Audiences will learn the reasons why the "evil fairy" (played by Angelina Jolie) is so bitter and resentful at not being invited to baby Aurora's…

Why Age 8+?

The movie's tone becomes quite dark, and there are some genuinely jump-worthy/sc

While there are no product placements in the movie, there are promotional tie-in

A couple of kisses, including a romantic kiss between Aurora and a prince.

Rare uses of insult language like "imbecile" and "idiot."

Any Positive Content?

The movie's over-arching message is to not allow greed and hatred to blind you f

Aurora is a sweet, kind girl who's curious and loves the creatures of the moors,

Kids will learn the value of looking at a situation from more than one perspecti

Violence & Scariness

The movie's tone becomes quite dark, and there are some genuinely jump-worthy/scary scenes -- like when Maleficent realizes that her wings have been cut off (a brutal scene that's reminiscent of sexual assault in some ways), as well as the various battles between the kingdom and the creatures of the moors, including the climactic fight between Maleficent, the king's guards, and the king himself. The three fairies can be physical with each other -- pulling one another's hair, hitting, and slapping -- but it's usually portrayed in a humorous manner. People die on and off camera, including one key character who plunges to his death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

While there are no product placements in the movie, there are promotional tie-ins to merchandise including apparel, toys, accessories, and games.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie's over-arching message is to not allow greed and hatred to blind you from love and generosity. If Maleficent had let go of her anger at being jilted, she wouldn't have cursed Aurora, and if Stefan hadn't been so greedy and hurtful, the kingdom and the moors could have lived in peace. Aurora's journey is about staying in the light, even when surrounded by darkness.

Positive Role Models

Aurora is a sweet, kind girl who's curious and loves the creatures of the moors, just like young Maleficent, who was brave and protective of her fellow fairies and creatures. Maleficent is both a villain and a hero, because she had reasons to be bitter and unkind and is eventually remorseful for the hateful way she cursed baby Aurora. Against all odds, Maleficent is able to love again when she sees what a smart and generous young woman Aurora has become. Diaval is a loyal and truth-telling servant/helper to Maleficent.

Educational Value

Kids will learn the value of looking at a situation from more than one perspective, as well as the important lesson that people are often more than what they seem.

Parents need to know that Maleficent is Disney's retelling of its iconic animated princess movie Sleeping Beauty from the villain's point of view. Audiences will learn the reasons why the "evil fairy" (played by Angelina Jolie ) is so bitter and resentful at not being invited to baby Aurora's welcoming party that she curses the infant princess. Far more so than the animated original (which itself is often too scary for younger kids in the preschool age bracket), this live-action version can get quite dark and may frighten younger kids, particularly during violent action sequences between the kingdom and the magical creatures of the moors. Characters die (or look dead) or are injured, and Maleficient is an intimidating figure. It's also very upsetting when her wings are cut off. But the movie's overall message -- about redemption and love -- is positive, and giving Maleficient more depth and context will help kids sympathize with her. As long as your kids can handle the battles, they'll probably enjoy this new take on a classic Disney villain. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (70)
• Kids say (125)

Based on 70 parent reviews

Normalizes criminal behavior

What's the story.

MALEFICENT is a retelling of Disney's classic take on Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the villain, the supposedly evil fairy who eventually curses baby Princess Aurora with eternal sleep. But Maleficent, like all villains, is a complicated character: She grew up a powerful, winged fairy who lived peacefully in the magical moors adjacent to the human kingdom. When, as a child, a young peasant boy Stefan wondered into the moors, young Maleficent grew attached to him, despite her distrust of humans. Their friendship leads to romance over the years, but after Stefan ( Sharlto Copley ) does something unthinkable to Maleficent (now Angelina Jolie ) to gain the king's favor, she grows bitter and dark from his betrayal. Once Stefan is crowned king and his queen has a baby girl, Maleficent decides to get her revenge by cursing little Aurora. Little does Maleficent know that the girl will grow up into a sweet and curious girl ( Elle Fanning ) whom even a dark and angry fairy could appreciate.

Is It Any Good?

Plenty of this retelling is visually spectacular, with amazing special effects and lush scenery: The moors at their brightest are sweet and enchanting, while the kingdom is a drab and imposing place. Between the art design, the costumes, and the immaculate CGI-aided make-up (has an actress ever had such razor-sharp cheekbones as Jolie in this film?), Maleficent is a true feast for the eyes, which is no surprise, given director Robert Stromberg's history as a visual effects specialist.

Plot wise, however, the movie is a bit of a letdown. Jolie is wonderful at being (justifiably) mean -- with her sharp face, scary green eyes, and clipped speaking tones -- and she's good at delivering the dry one liners. But to reduce her story to the cliche of a jilted and jealous ex-girlfriend is slightly disappointing and undercuts the movie's other message: that you should strive to stay in the light, even when surrounded by darkness. While younger kids might be alternately scared or bored, older kids and adults might wish for a little more enchantment to go along with the effects. Still, Fanning, so lovely and bright-eyed, is well cast as teen Aurora, and worth seeing opposite Jolie.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why villains/antiheroes are often just as compelling as heroes. Were you surprised at Maleficent's back story? Did it make her more sympathetic?

How does the movie make you rethink the story of Sleeping Beauty ? What is the film trying to say about villains? Are people all good or all evil?

How is the idea of love explored in the movie? Is love only the romantic kind, or are there are other kinds of "true love"?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 30, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : November 4, 2014
• Cast : Angelina Jolie , Elle Fanning , Sharlto Copley
• Director : Robert Stromberg
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More
• Run time : 97 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images
• Last updated : November 4, 2023

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‘maleficent’: film review.

Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning topline Disney's reimagining of "Sleeping Beauty."

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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No stranger to larger-than-life characters, Angelina Jolie doesn’t chew the estimable scenery in Maleficent — she infuses it, wielding a magnetic and effortless power as the magnificently malevolent fairy who places a curse on a newborn princess. Her iconic face subtly altered with prosthetics, she’s the heart and soul (Maleficent has both, it turns out) of Disney’s revisionist, live-action look at its most popular cartoon villain, the self-described Mistress of All Evil from 1959’s Sleeping Beauty . A few bumpy patches notwithstanding, the new feature is an exquisitely designed, emotionally absorbing work of dark enchantment. With the production’s star wattage, well-known source material and multipronged branding push, the studio should see its $175 million gamble on a first-time director stir up box-office magic both domestically and in international markets.

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As the Broadway musical Wicked did for the Wicked Witch of the West, the movie humanizes Maleficent by creating an origin story, revealing a shocking betrayal that turned the kind fairy vengeful. Reworking an age-old tale that has undergone countless variations over the centuries, the screenplay by Linda Woolverton ( Beauty and the Beast ) draws from Charles Perrault ’s 1697 “La Belle au bois dormant” and the animated Disney feature that gave the spiteful character a name and a deliciously sinister personality — which Jolie deepens while still finding the kick in it. There’s no hundred-year sleep in the new film’s timeline, and the handsome prince is a bit player in a story whose true center is a love that has nothing to do with happily-ever-after romance.

The Bottom Line With a dynamic blend of live action and effects, this is a dark, dazzling and psychologically nuanced fairy-tale reinvention.

PHOTOS: 35 of 2014’s Most Anticipated Movies: ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ ‘Maleficent’

But magical fairy-tale elements still abound in the debut helming effort of Robert Stromberg , production designer on Avatar and a longtime visual effects artist whose credits include Pan’s Labyrinth , The Hunger Games and Life of Pi . “Let us tell an old story anew,” the film’s voiceover narration begins, setting a tone of once-upon-a-time with a twist. (The opening scenes were written by an uncredited John Lee Hancock for late-in-production reshoots.) Though the narration sometimes states what’s already obvious, Janet McTeer delivers it with mellifluous and warm authority.

Those early scenes show the blossoming love between two orphans: a compassionate fairy girl named Maleficent and a human boy, Stefan. Played as kids by Isobelle Molloy and Michael Higgins , and as teens by Ella Purnell and Jackson Bews , they grow apart as adults. Jolie’s Maleficent is busy as protector of the moors, and Stefan is driven by ruthless ambition to attain his kingdom’s crown. He’s played by Sharlto Copley as the epitome of cravenness — a far cry from the just, noble and dreamy kings of many a childhood story, including the source for this one.

To secure that crown, Stefan commits an act of unspeakable cruelty against Maleficent. The mutilation takes place offscreen, but its effects are fully felt; Maleficent’s heartrending reaction recalls Jolie’s cry of anguish as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart . To call Maleficent a woman scorned would be the mildest of understatements. And so her cruelty is understandable, if not justifiable, when, in a scene of beautifully orchestrated suspense and terror, she attends the christening of King Stefan’s child, Aurora, and casts her under a spell, dooming her to begin a very long nap at age 16, after the famously foreordained incident with a spinning-wheel needle.

The teenage Aurora, appearing three-quarters of an hour into the movie, is played by Elle Fanning with a preternatural brightness. (Jolie’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt takes her screen bow as the 5-year-old princess.) The opposition between the innocent, openhearted girl and the hate-filled fairy queen has the necessary archetypal pull, and their initial meeting, in the night forest, is one of the most striking sequences in the Disney canon.

STORY: From ‘Maleficent’ to ‘Hercules’: Summer’s 5 Biggest Box-Office Risks

There’s a diamond-in-the-rough aspect to Aurora’s loveliness; she’s no conventional Disney Princess but a child of nature with a strong sense of justice and an innate toughness — qualities that link her to the young Maleficent. Assuming that Maleficent is her fairy godmother and not her nemesis, she befriends her, and gradually Maleficent grows protective of her unwitting victim and conflicted beneath her poise. As in  Brave , there’s a deeply felt maternal bond informing the action, but in this case it’s one defined not by blood but by affinity and respect. A prince ( Brenton Thwaites ) shows up — on a white horse, no less — but he’s hardly a key element of the drama.

The separate worlds of lovers-turned-enemies Maleficent and Stefan are divided by a wall of thorns and vividly imagined, defined in ways that bridge the stylized (inspired by the animated feature and vintage illustrations) and the richly textured organic. Stromberg and producer Joe Roth have enlisted a team of ace collaborators, and for the most part the film seamlessly combines the work of the actors with the costume design by Anna B. Sheppard , the production design of Gary Freeman and  Dylan Cole , and the Carey Villegas -supervised visual effects.

The enchanted moors combine a misty, painterly quality with a make-believe sparkle, although the resident mud creatures, with their Darth Vader voices, are as distracting as the rock monsters in Noah . On the human side, there are quintessential storybook settings, august castles and expansive fields of war. The 3D, though unnecessary, lends a subtle depth to the visuals.

The most extraordinary visual effect, though, is Jolie’s transformation into the title character. With the help of prosthetic appliances, contact lenses and a team led by creature-design whiz Rick Baker , Maleficent has iridescent eyes and cheekbones like knives. Jolie gives her a regal bearing and an ultra-composed way of speaking. In battle scenes that are integral to the story but whose scale and clamor feel like concessions to contemporary action-movie norms, Maleficent is right in the fray, a Valkyrie facing down invaders.

Tempering her rage and intensity is the raven Diaval ( Sam Riley , equipped with beaklike schnoz), Maleficent’s shape-shifting sidekick of sorts. Their back-and-forth has a comedic edge. Providing broader comic relief and whimsy are three tiny pixies played by Imelda Staunton , Juno Temple and Lesley Manville through a combo of performance capture and CGI. Entrusted by the king with caring for Aurora before her fateful 16th birthday, they snap out of their pixel-based bodies into human size but remain hopelessly  pixilated — clownishly inept at childcare.

The comedy is never overstated, whereas the swell and bombast of James Newton Howard ’s score comes on strong in the early sequences before finding a groove. For most of the movie, Stromberg strikes the right balance between intimacy and spectacle, and Dean Semler ’s fluent camerawork reveals the invented world with a sophisticated take on the primal play of darkness and light.  

Production companies: Roth Films Cast: Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manning, Brenton Thwaites, Kenneth Cranham, Ella Purnell, Jackson Bews, Isobelle Molloy, Michael Higgins, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Janet McTeer Director: Robert Stromberg Screenwriter: Linda Woolverton  Producer: Joe Roth Executive producers: Angelina Jolie, Michael Vieira, Don Hahn, Palak Patel, Matt Smith, Sarah Bradshaw Director of photography: Dean Semler Production designers: Gary Freeman, Dylan Cole Costume designer: Anna B. Sheppard  Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson Composer: James Newton Howard Senior visual effects supervisor: Carey Villegas Special makeup effects artist: Rick Baker

Rated PG, 97 minutes

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Review: Angelina Jolie is wickedly good in the not-quite-classic ‘Maleficent’

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In re-imagining the infamous evil queen who curses an innocent girl, “Maleficent” is very much a cautionary tale for modern times. It essentially begs the question — are you sure it was the shrew that needed taming?

It stars a wickedly good Angelina Jolie as the legendary Maleficent. In her hands, the queen is endlessly fascinating and worlds away from the fairy tale staple that so many generations have been introduced to via Disney’s animated “Sleeping Beauty” (1959). The new film’s position is clear and uncompromising on the question of who was in the wrong.

Unlike “Sleeping Beauty,” “Maleficent” explains all: motivation, regrets — from the queen’s point of view. This multifaceted Maleficent has wit and empathy as well as rage. Jolie hasn’t looked like she’s had such fun with a role since 2005’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” though her “Kung Fu Panda” Tigress does have a bit of an ironic growl.

The other players in Maleficent’s sphere and the bones of the ancient story will feel familiar, based as it is on the animated movie and one of 17th century French writer Charles Perrault’s folk tales. But the spine of it has been changed by screenwriter Linda Woolverton. She joined the Disney fairy tale business with 1991’s animated hit “Beauty and the Beast” after a lot of work in episodic TV. Veteran art director Robert Stromberg directs.

Like most fairy tales, there are good and evil metaphors for little ones and grown-ups alike. In that regard, “Maleficent” is Disney’s most adventurous female empowerment parable yet as it explores how the age-old power struggle between men and women shapes the identity of both parties. Though it never plays like a polemic, the film has so much it wants to say the emotional power that might have made it a classic is undercut — that is the other power struggle going on in the film.

Despite the bumps, “Maleficent” is visually striking from its watercolor palette to its ethereal woodland creatures, the ones that rise from the earth have the kind of fearsome look and power that might frighten little ones. Stromberg’s mastery of the craft earned him art direction Oscars for his work on “Avatar” (2009) and “Alice in Wonderland” (2010), and you can feel the imprint of that artistry in every frame.

Along with a crack creative team that includes cinematographer Dean Semler, production designers Gary Freeman and Dylan Cole, costume designer Anna B. Sheppard and senior effects supervisor Carey Villegas, the filmmaker creates a world that sits on the edge of fantasy and reality. James Newton Howard’s score is a lovely accompaniment.

Though the film starts earlier, Maleficent’s primary beef is with Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who grows from a charming ordinary boy (Michael Higgins as the youngest, Jackson Bews as the teen) into a weak man desirous of being king.

Aurora is the infant Maleficent curses for her father’s crimes, and as a youngster she’s played by one of Jolie’s little ones, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, followed by Eleanor Worthington-Cox. The luminous Elle Fanning steps in as Aurora at 16, pricking her finger on a spindle and falling in a death-like sleep while she awaits true love’s kiss. Oh, but so much happens before we get there.

We first meet Maleficent in simpler times. She is a fairy too, but one who looks like an ordinary girl (Ella Purnell) — with wings. No one rules her side of the world. It isn’t necessary. Her days are filled with magical creatures whose mischief is entertainment enough.

The bad times begin with King Henry (Kenneth Cranham), a power-hungry, land-grabbing monarch who first tries to conquer Maleficent and when that doesn’t work demands her head. Stefan uses his boyhood friendship to get to her. Though he doesn’t have the stomach for murder, what he does provides the film’s most chilling scene.

That Maleficent’s wings are clipped when she gets too powerful serves as a potent allegory for glass ceilings. The arc of Maleficent from innocent herself to evil queen is as much about survival as revenge. And the price exacted for getting to the top is a high one. It plays even more ironically in the wake of the recent firing of the New York Times’ first female editor, Jill Abramson, and the descriptions of her management style as, well, shrewish.

Much of the film revolves around the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora as the girl grows up. A trio of tiny fairies — Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Flittle (Lesley Manville) and Thistlewit (Juno Temple) — who buzz around offering opinions and stirring up nonsense with their magic are somehow charged with raising the girl. They do a job of delivering many of the film’s lighter notes.

This is Jolie’s film because of the Maleficent she makes. Everyone else, even Aurora, fades in her presence. When she is on the screen, she is all you really see. In addition to an uncanny resemblance to the animated queen — those legendary cheekbones enhanced to an even sharper edge, those horns — the actress creates a queen who may not be easy to love, but she is hard to hate. The black-and-white stereotypes are replaced by far more subtle shadings, the sneer that so characterized the original Disney queen is softened.

And we haven’t even gotten to the curse-breaking power of true love’s kiss. You will likely see this twist coming, but it’s a nice one anyway.

[email protected]

------------

‘Maleficent’

MPAA rating: PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images

Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Playing: In general release

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Maleficent Reviews

Even if Maleficent has its faults, you can experience this one and get some separation from the film from which it takes its inspiration.

Full Review | May 27, 2023

It is a righteous revenge film, but with a feminist twist and a redemptive journey.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2022

By the end, one cannot help but wish that Disney had left Maleficent a fascinating villain instead of a dull protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Aug 15, 2022

This isn't Sleeping Beauty as seen through the eyes of the wickedest of Disney villains. Instead, it's a Mouse House live-action revisionist fairy tale that inexplicably transforms the malevolent Maleficent into a misunderstood anti-hero.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2022

Angelina Jolie brings humanity to the character... Our villain is brilliantly supported throughout the film by the likes of Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple.

Full Review | Oct 29, 2021

Despite the romantic short comings, Jolie is perfect as this Maleficent. But did this blow me out of the water? No, sadly it didn't.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 9, 2021

Takes some liberties with a time-honored story, but doesn't stray too far from the necessary fairy tale elements.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2021

As the sum of all its parts, Maleficent is a downright fun film.

Full Review | Jan 21, 2021

Though the changes to the plot become more drastic as the film progresses, the tone remains serious, hinting at how superior a straightforward retelling might have been.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Dec 4, 2020

Even as all sharp angles and dark clothing, Angelina Jolie embodies grace and dangerous beauty, while still possessing a vulnerable side brought on by years of betrayal and mistrust.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 16, 2020

Jolie is mesmerizing whether she's being strong and vengeful or vulnerable and deeply feeling.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 15, 2020

Nearly every character is either dim-witted or just plain nasty.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 21, 2020

No doubt the concept is fascinating, but too bad the movie itself fails to capitalise the potential.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 14, 2020

[T]his extension of the Sleeping Beauty story was breathtaking.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2020

Magical. Mesmerizing. Masterful.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2019

Its glaring fault is its indecisiveness toward its eponymous malefactor, whose very name means to do evil or harm. The attempt to have it both ways simply does not work.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2019

The characters surrounding Maleficent became caricatures as if they were pulled directly from a cartoon.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Aug 8, 2019

It's a beautifully designed film, and James Newton Howard's fantastical score is one of his best in years. But what Maleficent most lacks isn't something you can see or hear, it's something you can feel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 5, 2019

A fundamentally misguided interpretation of the title character, one that seems to misunderstand what drew people to her in the first place.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Mar 14, 2019

While it may in moments be a bit dark for very young ones, it is a great family film, worthy of the Disney canon.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2019

Film Review: ‘Maleficent’

This visually arresting fairy tale fails to offer a satisfying alternate history on 'Sleeping Beauty.'

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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Now almost midway through the year, 2014 seems unlikely to produce many more visually arresting, brilliantly designed, stoned-college-kid-friendly pieces of eye candy than Disney ’s “ Maleficent .” As for its revisionist take on the travails of the iconic “Sleeping Beauty” villainess, however, it falls far short of something an imaginative fan-fiction scribe, let alone obvious role models John Gardner or Gregory Maguire, might have crafted from the material. Uncertain of tone, and bearing visible scarring from what one imagines were multiple rewrites, the film fails to probe the psychology of its subject or set up a satisfying alternate history, but it sure is nice to look at for 97 minutes. Boasting an impressive and impeccably costumed Angelina Jolie in the title role, it ought to prove a solid global moneymaker and merchandise-minter for the Mouse House. 

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Of the four fractured fairy tales produced by Joe Roth (“Oz the Great and Powerful,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”), “Maleficent” is the one that hews closest to its source material, and it’s not always clear whether this helps or hinders. Directed by first-time helmer Robert Stromberg from a script credited to “Beauty and the Beast” scribe Linda Woolverton, the film has a clever enough big-picture take on the “Sleeping Beauty” tale, yet it sputters and snags as it tries construct a coherent emotional arc, and its reference points from the 1959 animated original feel more dutiful than inspired.

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Opening with storybook-themed voiceover narration, “Maleficent” sketches a realm of two rival kingdoms – not Stefan’s and Hubert’s, but rather the world of humans and the outlying moors, which are home to fairies, trolls and imposing wickermen. Darting around the moors like a sort of saucer-eyed Tinkerbell is the winged young fairy Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy), who strikes up an unlikely friendship, and later romance, with a trespassing human farmhand named Stefan (Michael Higgins).

Alas, their love is not to be, as a poorly explained war breaks out between the two kingdoms years later, and the adult Stefan (Sharlto Copley) betrays Maleficent (Jolie) by drugging her and cutting off her wings, all in the name of a job promotion. (To be fair, going from farmboy to king is one hell of a jump up the employment ladder.) Now a woman scorned and shorn, Maleficent fashions a magical staff from a twig, dons a black helmet, and takes memorable revenge on Stefan’s infant daughter, Aurora.

Granted the proper grace notes and breathing room, this sequence of events could have provided more than enough material for a dark stand-alone prequel – indeed, it took George Lucas three full features to complete a very similar character arc for Anakin Skywalker. However, “Maleficent” is only just now getting started, and the next two-thirds of the film see our erstwhile antihero hiding in the bushes outside Aurora’s cabin in the woods, serving as an unlikely “fairy godmother” and rethinking her curse, while Aurora’s bumbling guardians (Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple) prove entirely incompetent babysitters.

Already a double Oscar winner for his work as an art director, Stromberg knows how to visualize a scene and exactly where to place the camera, but storytelling requires different muscles, and the film often lurches where it ought to flow, rarely latching onto the proper rhythm. It isn’t until roughly halfway through the film, for example, that Maleficent cracks her first joke, which is so out of character that it initially sounds like a blooper.

While the film avoids the two-hour-plus bloat of “Oz” and “The Huntsman,” this is a story that would actually benefit from some slow-paced indulgence. Or at least, better instincts for where to make cuts. For example, an expensive-looking yet utterly inconsequential battle sequence plopped into the middle of the pic sees Maleficent neutralize a squadron of nameless soldiers with neither motivation nor consequences, but the scenes in which she bonds with the 16-year-old Aurora (Elle Fanning) – ostensibly the most important, emotionally weighty relationship in the film – feel rough and rushed.

While Fanning’s Aurora is relegated to a supporting role (and Brenton Thwaites’ Prince Phillip a glorified cameo) Jolie is perfectly cast in the lead, and does excellent work despite substantial physical constraints. She spends the entire film wearing a prosthetic nose, cheeks, teeth and ears, with moon-sized contact lenses and a bulky set of horns atop her head. (Master makeup magician Rick Baker is in stellar form here.) Her movements are often strictly dictated by how best to frame her silhouette. She has few lines that aren’t delivered as monologue, and her most frequent co-stars are digitally rendered creatures. That she manages to command the screen as well as she does in spite of all this is rather remarkable.

It’s also a performance that begs for flourishes of high camp that the film rarely allows. When Jolie is let loose to really bare her fangs, such as her nearly word-for-word re-creation of Maleficent’s first scene from the Disney original, she strips the paint from the walls. (Her primary deviation from the script here offers a peek at the kind of unhinged delight this story could have been in braver hands, as she forces Stefan to his knees and hisses, “I like you begging; do it again!” like a proper Reeperbahn dominatrix.) Yet one is much more likely to see her wordlessly glowering from behind trees and palace walls, as though just another finely crafted visual effect.

As for the actual effects themselves, the level of craft on display here is exquisite. From the swooping shots around Stefan’s castle to the lava-lamp-like floral arrangements that dot Maleficent’s lair, the film’s armies of art directors, costumers and effects technicians aim for the spectacular with every shot, and nail it with impressive consistency. Musically, James Newton Howard’s sweeping score locates a nice sweet spot somewhere between Erich Korngold and Danny Elfman, and Lana Del Rey’s gothy take on the “Sleeping Beauty” showstopper “Once Upon a Dream” makes for a fitting closer.

Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Sherman Oaks, May 22, 2014. MPAA rating: PG. Running time: 97 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Motion Pictures release and presentation of a Roth Films production. Produced by Joe Roth. Executive producers, Angelina Jolie, Michael Vieira, Don Hahn, Palak Patel, Matt Smith, Sarah Bradshaw.
• Crew: Directed by Robert Stromberg. Screenplay, Linda Woolverton, based on Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” and “La Belle au bois dormant” by Charles Perrault. Camera (color, 3D), Dean Semler; editors, Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson; music, James Newton Howard; production designers, Gary Freeman, Dylan Cole; costume designer, Anna B. Sheppard; supervising art director, Frank Walsh; sound, Chris Munro; supervising sound editors, Frank Eulner, Tim Nielsen; re-recording mixers, Gary A. Rizzo, David Parker; stereographer, Layne Friedman; senior visual effects supervisor, Carey Villegas; visual effects producer, Barrie Hemsley; assistant director, Richard Whelan; second unit camera, Fraser Taggart; casting, Lucy Bevan.
• With: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley, Brenton Thwaites, Isobelle Molloy, Michael Higgins, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Eleanor Worthington-Cox. Narrated by Janet McTeer

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Ebiri on Maleficent : Don’t Let Her Be Misunderstood

The first thing we have to acknowledge is that Angelina Jolie is an excellent choice to play Maleficent, the evil sorceress from Sleeping Beauty who casts the spell of eternal slumber on Princess Aurora. And in Robert Stromberg’s part prequel, part revision, she gets a chance to expand the dynamic range of this haunting villain: She doesn’t just cackle and snarl, but she also cries, gets hurt, and has changes of heart. And she’s not really the bad guy anymore. When we first meet Maleficent, she’s a cherubic young girl with wings (and those telltale horns), happily relaxing in a tree in the Moors, the kingdom of free and magical spirits who live right next to the royalty-bound kingdom of humans. One day, a young human thief named Stefan steals into the Moors, and he and Maleficent strike up a friendship. His iron ring burns her skin, and he removes it so he can touch her – a gesture that strikes her as exceedingly romantic. It’s an elegant and proper irony: The fairy tale character most committed to the destruction of true love turns out to have been one of its early victims.

Stefan and Maleficent’s friendship eventually meets with betrayal. They’ve become adults, on opposing sides of a war. The dying king of the humans wants to conquer the Moors, and he promises his throne to whoever can kill Maleficent and bring her wings back as a trophy. So Stefan drugs his beloved, cuts her wings, and seizes the throne. That’s right, it turns out the real bad guy was King Stefan — Sleeping Beauty’s father. Maleficent, rocked by his cruelty, retreats back into her world and turns the Moors into a dark, blasted, hellish landscape — sheltered by a forest of thorns, guarded by tree-root warriors and dragons made of dirt. The effects are gorgeous, even if they signal something tragic — the transformation of one of the great fairy tales into another zillion-dollar world-building exercise. At least they could have kept the Tchaikovsky. (Lana Del Rey’s rendition of the classic song “Once Upon a Dream,” based on Tchaikovsky’s ballet, does play over the end credits. But by that point, the damage is done.)

After that, the film briefly settles into a re-creation of that original, primal moment from the fairy tale and the Disney classic. The uninvited Maleficent crashes the party of the baby’s christening and puts a curse on the child: The girl will prick her finger on a spinning needle on her 16th birthday, and die — a curse soon revised to merely an eternal sleep, until true love’s kiss awakens her. But the story takes a wildly different route from there. As before, three kindly fairies take Princess Aurora under their wing and hide her in the woods for the next 16 years. But Maleficent isn’t easily fooled; she finds them instantly. Indeed, it’s our beloved villain — starting to look more and more like a heroine — who winds up secretly feeding the child and rocking her to sleep while the three incompetent fairies bicker and goof around. “I hate you,” Maleficent says to the baby early on, in perfect deadpan; as the tot smiles back at her; we know right then that there’s no way she will not grow to love this child. Sure enough, as Aurora grows up (and is played as a teen by Elle Fanning), the sorceress who had foresworn off love and children and all those beautiful things now realizes she has a soft spot for them. She begins to regret her curse. Of course, those of us who’ve seen Frozen (which I guess is all of us, at this point) know that true love need no longer mean what we used to think it means.

I’ve probably already said too much, but it’s kind of hard not to when discussing what kind of film Maleficent is. In undercutting and reversing her villainy, Stromberg and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (who wrote both the wonderful Lion King and the ghastly Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland , by the way) do find an intriguing new way into the story. But they’re a bit too enamored of their revisionism, and they don’t quite know what to do with the rest of the tale. Elsewhere, I’ve argued that we’ve lost something with Disney’s move away from traditional villains in their more recent movies. Maleficent provides a good example: In robbing Maleficent of her cruelty, the film doesn’t really reject the notion of evil — it merely transfers it to King Stefan (played as an adult by District 9 ’s Sharlto Copley). And he, alas, is a peculiarly uncharismatic fellow, more a delusional and feckless tyrant than somebody whose actions can fuel the elemental terrors and emotions of a fairy tale. Singularly unthreatening, he doesn’t seem worthy of the betrayal Maleficent feels, nor does he seem worthy of the battle she later wages.

Princess Aurora is served even worse. Fanning is one of our great young actresses, but there’s little here for her to do except smile and look on naïvely. Maybe that’s part of the joke — Sleeping Beauty herself relegated to a glorified bit-part in her own story — but it’s hard to buy Maleficent’s transformation and redemption if Aurora doesn’t come alive for us in some way. Jolie’s commitment to the part is admirable: She gives this Maleficent a real emotional urgency. But the rest of the movie lets her down.

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Maleficent (2014)

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , Kids , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 30, 2014
• Angelina Jolie as Maleficent; Elle Fanning as Aurora; Sharlto Copley as Stefan; Lesley Manville as Flittle; Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass; Juno Temple as Thistletwit; Sam Riley as Diaval; Brenton Thwaites as Prince Phillip

Home Release Date

• November 4, 2014
• Robert Stromberg

Distributor

• Walt Disney

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Maleficent wasn’t always all horns and vitriol. She didn’t spring from the womb flinging curses and bashing the nurses with her magic staff.

In fact, she was pretty nice.

As a girl, she fed the animals and played with her forest friends and soared over her magical moors with those nifty wings of hers. She was patient and kind and maybe even a little wise. When a young human boy from a neighboring (and often hostile) kingdom snuck into the moors, Maleficent didn’t turn him into a beetle—not even when she learned that he’d pilfered a gem-like rock. She just made Stefan give it back. And then she, in turn, gave it back to the lake from whence it came.

“If I’d known you were going to throw it away, I would’ve kept it,” Stefan said.

“I didn’t throw it away,” Maleficent corrected. “I took it home. As I’m going to do for you.”

See? Nary a curse thrown. And Stefan and Maleficent took that awkward beginning and turned it into an unlikely friendship. As they grew older, it became something more. They shared a kiss—a kiss, Stefan told her, of true love.

But life has a way of bending us, fraying us, twisting us out of shape. Our disappointments mount, our hurts gather. Sometimes, something in us breaks.

Tensions between Maleficent’s strange little land and its neighboring kingdom continued to mount. Wars were started. Stefan stopped coming around. Then one day, there he was again—bringing a word of warning and a hand of friendship. And Maleficent was grateful. For an afternoon, it felt like she had her friend back. So secure she felt with her old pal that when he offered her a drink from his flask, she took it.

And she fell asleep in his arms.

When she awoke, her wings were gone, taken by the man she loved. Her body was broken. Her heart was crushed. And in the shards and fissures of her fractured soul, something else began to fill the spaces—a venomous mortar, cementing together a new, dark Maleficent. And by the time she casts a spell on Stefan’s newborn daughter, Aurora—sentencing her to a deathlike sleep from the prick of a needle—those horns on her head had come to look oh so fitting.

[ Spoilers are contained in the following sections. ]

Positive Elements

You might’ve guessed by now that Maleficent is quite different from the tale we’re familiar with in Disney’s 1959 film Sleeping Beauty . One of Disney’s most memorable villains becomes a much more complex, more human figure here.

Despite appearances, this fearsome fairy is far from being bad to the bone. Sure, she curses Aurora and calls the little girl a beastie . But when the infant squalls in hunger, it’s Maleficent’s raven that feeds her (while Aurora’s clueless caretakers plop raw veggies in her crib). Maleficent saves an older Aurora, too, from tumbling off a cliff. She watches the girl throughout her childhood, in fact, always professing the greatest disdain but betraying a strangely maternal instinct. Her influence is so great that when a much older Aurora sees Maleficent for the first time, the young woman calls the older woman her fairy godmother—recognizing her instantly by her shadow.

A strange relationship forms, and Maleficent becomes the closest thing Aurora has to a mother—which, naturally, makes Maleficent feel awful about the whole curse thing. She tries to remove it, but the strength of her own magic makes that impossible. So she sets about doing what she can to mitigate it—shepherding a prince into the castle to provide “true love’s kiss” or, if that doesn’t work, striving to keep the sleeping princess safe. She sacrifices a great deal for the girl. And in the end, Maleficent—this grandest of Disney villains—proves to be the movie’s most heroic character.

Aurora is blessed with a generous and gregarious spirit, and she loves and appreciates everyone she runs into. Prince Phillip, for his part, seems quite the chivalrous chap, even wondering if it’s appropriate to kiss a girl (especially a sleeping girl) whom he’s just met. And Aurora’s fairy guardians … well, at least they mean well.

Spiritual Elements

Maleficent is saturated in magic—a wizardry familiar to almost all fairy tales. Unlike the 1959 movie, where Maleficent seems explicitly linked to the forces of evil, the titular character in this movie wields a more Narnian sort of magic, twisted into its evil shape by her own twisted heart. She can make things levitate, turn beasts into people (or other beasts) and has control over the woods themselves (crafting a thorny barrier between her kingdom and the human realm). Someone sees Maleficent and says, “It’s a demon!”

Aurora’s three fairy protectors (Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistletwit) are also magical; we see them bestow blessings on the baby Aurora and then disguise themselves as human peasants. It’s worth noting that Aurora is cursed at her christening, a ceremony with explicitly Christian connotations (which includes infant baptism).

Sexual & Romantic Content

As mentioned, Maleficent and Stefan share a kiss. Prince Phillip plants that now famous true love’s kiss on the sleeping Aurora.

Violent Content

This flick is, in a way, a war movie—and darker than you might expect. In one battle, men are routed by monsters made of wood and root, who smash and throw their adversaries around. (Some unfortunates seem to be taken down into the earth by gigantic root serpents.) In another, men set fire to Maleficent’s fearsome wall of thorns. But the thorns themselves come alive to attack and force the guys to flee. A dragon blasts fire at soldiers and is himself brutally subdued with swords, spears and chains. Encountering a handful of soldiers in the forest, Maleficent turns her faithful raven into a really scary wolf (slavering and growling), then levitates the soldiers—sending them flying into trees and one another. Folks are choked.

One would assume that fatalities would arise from these sorts of encounters, but it’s hard to be sure. There’s little blood to speak of, and only one person is definitively killed in battle—plunging from a huge tower to fall onto the cobblestones below. (We see a crumpled body.) Two others die offscreen.

Maleficent is extraordinarily sensitive to iron. It burns her badly, and we see the marks (which quickly fade) appear on her skin at times. Stefan makes the most of this weakness, forcing her to walk through a barrier of sharp iron spikes, struggle with an iron net (which is dropped on her) and, of course, fight iron-bedecked people carrying iron shields and weapons. He nearly used an iron knife to kill her while she sleeps, but decides he can’t do it and cuts off her wings instead. (We don’t see the mutilation, only the stumps. The wings are then displayed as a trophy of war.)

Aurora pricks her finger, of course, and we see a bit of blood. Fairies get into comical slapping, pushing, hair-pulling fights. A bird, trapped in a net, is nearly killed by soldiers.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug & alcohol content.

Stefan tricks Maleficent into drinking a powerful sedative.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Maleficent is a tricky little movie for Plugged In to review. The violence is dark and jarring—a bit extreme for a modern PG-rated film. And it’s saturated with all sorts of magic, which’ll make it a complete nonstarter for some Christian families. For those who can’t push away the Maleficent we meet in Disney’s 1959 film—one who named herself “the mistress of all evil” and who explicitly called on the “powers of hell” to aid her—the transition to this version can feel dissonant. Viscerally, we don’t always want to see our “favorite” villains redeemed.

But redeemed she is. And it’s a pretty stylish redemption.

When we first meet Maleficent, as mentioned, she’s just a nice little girl who happens to have horns and wings. And it’s telling that when she loses her wings—symbols, perhaps, of the better angels of her own nature—she turns bad. She grieves their loss, as would we. Most of us know what it feels like to have something taken from us unfairly. It’s terrible, and how much more so if it’s a physical part of us. We all know the temptation to let that hurt fester until it becomes something else: bitterness, anger, an obsession with vengeance.

Augustine of Hippo tells us that evil is not a thing in itself: It is a hole, a corruption of something God originally wanted to be good—a twist or a tear or a blot on its original design. Darkness is the absence of light. Cold is the absence of heat. Maleficent suffers greatly in the absence of her wings—a painful mangling of her true self. The loss of those wings physically corrupts her, and the loss corrupts her soul too.

But here’s the beautiful thing: As evil as Maleficent becomes, there is still part of her original nature—her original design—wedged deep inside. And the only thing that can find it is love. Someone loving her, yes, but more importantly, the process of loving that someone—Aurora—back.

Maleficent isn’t the easiest person to love. But, then again, neither are we. And in our real world, Jesus loves us dearly no matter what. His love for us helps make us more lovable—and love others better in return. Love Him in return.

Maleficent shows us, in her world, that love is far more powerful than any sort of magic she wields or iron that Stefan swings. The love of a mother is particularly strong—and that is what Maleficent becomes. Not Aurora’s biological mother, of course, but her adoptive mother, who loves her with a ferocious gentleness that is touching to behold.

Maleficent, when she allowed for an antidote to Aurora’s curse—true love’s kiss—was being her evil self. She believed then that “there is no such thing.” Stefan taught her so. And yet she learns that love is real and beautiful and powerful, just like we read in the Bible. With love, true love, no one is beyond saving. Not Aurora. Not Maleficent. Not even us.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Angelina Jolie is one of the last movie stars, although in recent years, Hollywood has seemed mostly unable to fashion projects that would demonstrate why. Her work as Maleficent, the bad queen from Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty,” is a reminder of how electrifying and fun she can be. 

Jolie first played the part in 2014’s “ Maleficent ,” a live-action (but thoroughly CGI’d) fantasy drama that reimagined the story from the character’s point-of-view, ultimately treating her as more of a volatile antihero enacting grievances upon the land than a straight-up villain who existed to do mean things and be vanquished. Her razor-sharp prosthetic cheekbones, elegant horns, and velvety wings seem to spring organically from the sorts of roles Jolie played before she took a sharp left turn into more neutered or saintly roles in the mid-aughts—particularly the title character in HBO’s “Gia,” and the Jack Nicholson-like rebel she played in the mental hospital drama “ Girl, Interrupted ” (winning an Oscar in the process). Her Maleficent voice channels old movie stars (Joan Crawford especially), and she’s never more delightful than when the character is trying to keep her witchiness under wraps and failing.

The sequel “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” would seem like a perfect complement to the first film, because it’s built around a clash between Jolie and another great ’80s and ’90s star, Michelle Pfeiffer . But having set up this potentially juicy conflict, and having detailed a scenario that would put it front-and-center while deepening Maleficent’s relationship with her human goddaughter Aurora ( Elle Fanning ), the movie repeatedly fails to get out of its own way. The result is a disappointment that’s more crushing than an outright bad movie would be. The original, despite its flaws, had moments of primal power and deep understanding of what drives people, qualities that are mostly lacking here.

Pfeiffer plays Queen Ingrith, the mother of Prince Phillip ( Harris Dickinson ), a human royal from a nearby kingdom who wants to marry Aurora. Aurora and Phillip see their impending union as a “bridge” joining the human kingdom and the magical creatures who live on the moors under the protection of Aurora and Maleficent (a bit of a “ Shrek “-y touch here). 

Unfortunately for both of them, and for everybody else, Ingrith is a genocidal hatemonger. The animosity between the two sides is larded with vague references to racist and genocidal regimes throughout history, as well as the current border crisis in the United States. Ingrith is furious when her husband, King John ( Robert Lindsay ), asks her to cease her nonstop invective and be on her best behavior during an engagement dinner at their castle. 

The long scene that follows is a high point for all of the actors, with resentments bubbling up even when everyone involved is trying to make peace. All of Ingrith’s choices are calculated to inflame Maleficent, from serving squab (which requires one winged creature to eat another) to furnishing the table with utensils made of iron (according to the mythology established here, faeries are allergic to iron).

But the script doesn’t seem willing or able to escalate tension gradually, so that we can savor the characters’ psychology and the actors’ mostly sharp performances and feel as if this Disney sequel is trying to get at something deep and true rather than just take money from people who liked the first movie. The dinner becomes an instant disaster that leads to a state of open warfare. Maleficent gets back in touch with the faeries who used to live openly all over the world until human hatred and violence drove them literally underground, where they live in a series of caverns and tunnels.

The scenes between Maleficent and her lost fellow winged creatures are sincerely staged by filmmaker Joachim Rønning ,  who co-directed “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” particularly Maleficent’s prolonged entrance to the kingdom though a series of spiraling tunnels; but once they’re all gathered together, discussing grievances and plans, the film starts to feel like one of those big-budget cable or streaming fantasies that has more money than imagination. At least  Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ed Skrein make a strong impression as, respectively, a sensible and cautious character and a rebel hothead.

The stage is set for a clash of armies, with the winged creatures trying to figure out how to penetrate a perimeter guarded by huge crossbows loaded with iron bolts. The final war feels more like a Marvel CGI mayhem-fest or a battle episode of “Game of Thrones” than anything in the traditional Disney animated canon, and the lead-up expends prodigious amounts of time on court intrigue (including the question of whether a major character was poisoned, and by whom) that could have been more usefully spent on continuing to develop the major characters. 

Worse, the story seems incapable of dealing with the issues that it makes a point of raising. Ingrith’s racism (species-ism?) marks her as a villain, one seemingly driven mad with rage, but we know from real life that even if we hate people who hold these views, they’re still members of a family, and that makes the dynamics in the household complicated and painful for everybody else. The movie gives little thought to what the war does to Phillip, whose own mother is the architect of the clash, and only slightly more thought to Aurora, who seems a bit quick to accept that the surrogate mother who raised and protected her must be taken out of the picture for the greater good, or so that the wedding can go forward. (It’s clear that Ingrith only wants the wedding to proceed so that she can have an excuse to, in the words of Kurtz in “Heart of Darkness,” “Exterminate all the brutes.”) The climactic settling of scores is particularly cowardly in this respect: Ingrith all but vanishes from the movie, saving the filmmakers the trouble of dealing with anything more complex than “bad lady who did bad things is not a threat to the nice people anymore.” 

What went wrong? At some point maybe we’ll get the full story, but this certainly looks like a case where a hit property was retooled in hopes that it could appeal to a wider demographic (i.e. boys who sometimes get antsy when a story concentrates too much on marriage, love, family and all that icky stuff). The screenplay is credited to “Beauty and the Beast” writer Linda Woolverton and the team of Micha Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster , and the placement implies that the latter rewrote the former. 

But whatever the ratio of good ideas to bad, and regardless of where each bit came from, the result is a cascade of mostly unremarkable live-action fantasy imagery, a jumble of textures and colors and cliched camera movements (like the opening “helicopter shot” flying over the realm, which is exactly how every other movie like this begins). The character designs are lackluster, too: the humanoid animals, the big-eyed “cute” characters seemingly modeled on Hayao Miyazki’s woodland creatures, and the borderline-creepy uncanny valley residents who are kinda-human-ish, all lack the spark of personality that Disney’s old-school animators could have produced with pen and ink. ( Imelda Staunton ,  Lesley Manville and Juno Temple , who play three good faeries who function a bit like the mice in “Cinderella,” somehow seem even more rubbery and toylike than in the first film.)

Worst of all, the movie fails to give Jolie the star vehicle she richly deserves, limiting her screen time in favor of new characters that aren’t as interesting, and increasingly conveying her most important relationship, with Aurora, in throwaway dialogue and bits of visual shorthand. The relationship between a fearsome and misunderstood mother with her daughter during the run-up to her wedding should’ve been the heart of the picture, not all this sub-Tolkien scheming and military strategizing. There are a few striking moments, such as Phillip’s first appearance, which is framed through the makeshift iris of Aurora holding up her crown, and a climactic exchange of looks between Aurora and her mother. But it all feels rushed-through and improperly considered, like a fairy tale told to a child by a grownup who’s tired and bored and just wants to go to bed.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Angelina Jolie as Maleficent
• Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith
• Harris Dickinson as Prince Phillip
• Juno Temple as Thistlewit
• Teresa Mahoney as Dinner Servant
• Sam Riley as Diaval
• Laura Jennings

Original Music Composer

• Geoff Zanelli

Director of Photography

• Henry Braham
• Joachim Rønning
• Linda Woolverton
• Micah Fitzerman-Blue
• Noah Harpster

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Movie Review: Maleficent (2014)

• Mariusz Zubrowski
• Movie Reviews
• 5 responses
• --> May 31, 2014

Vengeful Maleficent.

Everyone’s invited to Disney’s PG pity-party Maleficent . Directed in the cadence of a Lana Del Rey song (who, coincidentally, shows up during the credits with a closing track), this live-action re-imagining of the 1959 animated classic “Sleeping Beauty” has enough gothic romance, leather gowns, and teen gloominess to attract a substantial summer audience. Surprisingly, however, Robert Stromberg makes good of his first time at helm (having previously worked on the art direction in both “ Alice in Wonderland ” and “ Oz: The Great and Powerful “) and fashions a blockbuster that’s enchanting enough to recommend despite its faults.

Once the young and innocent protector of the Moors, a magical realm at the edge of a human kingdom, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has since been burdened by a broken heart. Betrayed by her ambitious boy-toy Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who clipped her wings in order to become king, Maleficant now sulks in the shadows. She finds companionship in a shape-shifting crow, Diaval (Sam Riley), who lets her in on a secret: Stefan has a newborn daughter, Aurora. As revenge, she storms the christening, cursing the baby to an eternal slumber that’ll befall her on her 16th birthday; however, Maleficent mercifully allows the spell to be broken by true love’s kiss.

Rather than finding her a bachelor, Stefan banishes his daughter to a cottage in the woods to be raised by three pixies (played by Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville). The crux of Maleficent unveils as the fallen fairy, who never loses sight of the child, starts regretting her curse. Minutes translate into years (literally, thanks to the film’s shoddy pacing) and Aurora (acted finally by Elle Fanning) draws closer-and-closer to her everlasting sleep, while simultaneously becoming enamored by the person who doomed her to it. While the from-good-to-bad-to-good plot device isn’t anything groundbreaking, the chemistry between these two foils is enough to keep the story interesting.

Maleficent isn’t the first fairy-tale that’s been retold through a darker perspective (though, beneath the commercial streamlining, nothing’s as morose as the original fables), but it’s definitely the most character-driven. Unlike “ Snow White and the Huntsman ,” which conjured the visual magic but suffered a storytelling dry-spell, a good chunk of Linda Woolverton’s script is devoted to making its focal character a bewitching lead. The writing makes Maleficant embarrassingly easy to empathize with for anyone who’s ever been betrayed — especially in the game of love. And, despite her four-year hiatus from live-action films (her last performance being in 2010’s “ The Tourist “), Jolie’s as brooding, malicious, and — at times — sensual as her role demands.

Hidden in the shadows.

Trouble brews in the film’s final act, which is rushed and unconvincing. The final showdown between Maleficant and King Stefan, who’s become progressively more insane, is predictable and boring; the only sense in it is watching Diaval morph from bird-to-dragon. Furthermore, the true love’s kiss portion of the plot is hardly fleshed out, with Prince Phillip’s character (a wooden Brenton Thwaites) being rushed along just to move the story into an inevitable CGI conquest. While this is obviously the villain’s film — not Sleeping Beauty’s — it would’ve been nice to see Aurora’s fate explored a little more closely.

Ultimately though, Maleficent won’t ever knock you into a deep sleep. Running at just 97 minutes, it’s not hard to break the curse of derivate, probably studio-inspired, storytelling. For all the grievances in its cauldron of tricks, there’s enough of Jolie’s spellbinding performance to still make the film wickedly entertaining.

Tagged: curse , fairy tale , princess , queen

Eventually I'll put something nifty here. Until then, know that I'm watching you. Closely.

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'Movie Review: Maleficent (2014)' have 5 comments

May 31, 2014 @ 7:53 pm Fierce FX

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

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May 31, 2014 @ 8:16 pm Quore

i have no intent to see this but jolie does look excellent in the part

May 31, 2014 @ 9:48 pm SR-71

Just another fairy take rewrite that ruins a beloved fairy tale.

June 1, 2014 @ 11:26 am Coby Brent

The movie also suffered from a lack of explanation of why the kingdom wanted to kill all the fairies in the Moor. Was is simple misplaced xenophobia? Were there previous hostilities between them?

And knowing how powerful Maleficent was it made even less sense that a power hungry Stefan would do what does to her.

June 12, 2014 @ 8:22 am zansi

nicey revew

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Directed by Robert Stromberg

Don't believe the fairy tale.

A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. She rises to be the land's fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal – an act that begins to turn her heart into stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading King's successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom – and to Maleficent's true happiness as well.

Angelina Jolie Elle Fanning Imelda Staunton Sharlto Copley Lesley Manville Juno Temple Sam Riley Brenton Thwaites Kenneth Cranham Sarah Flind Michael Higgins Isobelle Molloy Jackson Bews Ella Purnell Jamie Sives Angus Wright Hannah New Oliver Maltman Gary Cargill John O'Toole Janet McTeer Harry Attwell Mark Caven James Hicks Anthony May Stephan Chase Chris Leaney Jamie Maclachlan Vivienne Jolie-Pitt Show All… Eleanor Worthington-Cox John Macmillan Tim Treloar Peter G. Reed Marama Corlett Liam McKenna Steven Cree Sandy Fox James Ayling Raf Cross Alfred Camp Terri Douglas Damon Driver Josh Dyer Stephanie Elstob Ellis Fuller Craig Garner Alexander Gillison Victoria Gugenheim Daniel Harland Kara Lily Hayworth John Heartstone Matt Hookings Craig Izzard Ceri Jerome Zahara Jolie-Pitt Lee Edward Jones Hrvoje Klecz Karen Mkrtchyan João Costa Menezes Matthew John Morley Steven John Nice Jo Osmond Andrew James Porter Guy Potter Marc Rolfe JD Roth-Round Julian Seager Daniel Stisen Leo Suter Tom Swacha Richard Summers-Calvert

Director Director

Robert Stromberg

Producers Producers

Joe Roth Zack Roth Lori Korngiebel

Writer Writer

Linda Woolverton

Original Writer Original Writer

Charles Perrault

Casting Casting

Editors editors.

Richard Pearson Chris Lebenzon

Cinematography Cinematography

Dean Semler

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan Samar Pollitt Richard Whelan

Additional Directing Add. Directing

Simon Crane

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Sarah Bradshaw Don Hahn Palak Patel Michael Vieira Angelina Jolie Matt Smith

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Fraser Taggart

Production Design Production Design

Gary Freeman Dylan Cole

Art Direction Art Direction

Frank Walsh

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Lee Sandales

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Hiroshi Mori Matthew Maners Barrie Hemsley

Stunts Stunts

Lucy Allen Marc Mailley Tolga Kenan Simon Crane Sarah Lochlan Nicholas Daines Nellie Burroughes

Composer Composer

James Newton Howard

Songs Songs

Jack Lawrence Tom Adair Sammy Fain Lana Del Rey

Sound Sound

Tim Nielsen David Parker Gary Rizzo Frank E. Eulner

Costume Design Costume Design

Anna B. Sheppard

Makeup Makeup

Walt Disney Pictures Roth Films

Netherlands

New zealand.

• Theatrical M/12
• Theatrical 12+

South Korea

• Theatrical 7

Switzerland

• Theatrical 7+

97 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by 👽hayley👽 ★★★ 5

ok but why do i have a crush on the fucking raven

Review by Sara Clements ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Maleficent being “true love’s kiss” instead of some boy Aurora met 5 minutes ago fucks me up every time. I owe writer Linda Woolverton my life.

Review by minick ★★★★ 5

angelina!! PLEASE slit my throat with ur prosthetic cheekbones

Review by chanel ★★★½

no cgi was used angelina jolie can just do that

Review by sam ★★★½ 1

the metaphor when maleficent got her wings ripped off from her is so important and i wanted to bring it up again.

Review by emma ★★★★ 2

maleficent being aurora’s true love kiss and in return aurora returning maleficent’s wings to her, giving them both freedom and an understanding as to what love is… crying my eyes out

Review by eely 🪷 ★★★ 2

hands on your knees i’m angelina jolie

Review by Matt Singer ★★ 3

The concept here is strong, and I completely understand what Jolie saw in the material: The chance to tell a love story about the power of adoptive motherhood. The brief hints at that theme, along with Jolie herself in all her glowering, pointy-cheekboned glory, provide a few glimmers of life. But most of the execution is very poor, from its underdeveloped fairy-tale world (where two warring kingdoms are populated about about five people in total, plus a handful of CGI critters) to its ham-fisted dialogue to the supporting performances. (Sharlto Copley's Scottish accent is so bad, his dialect coach should asked to have his name taken off the film and been credited as "Alan Smithee.") I'm not really sure who…

Review by ty ★★★★½

Maleficent said yeah I support men’s rights... men’s rights to shut the fuck up!

Can’t wait for the sequel whenever I get around to seeing it! I’m bound to love it! Also stream Lana’s Once Upon a Dream ✨✨✨

Review by gabriela ★★★★

best part is when the man dies and suddenly everything is beautiful and happy again

Review by Aaron ★★½ 40

“I will not ask your forgiveness, for what I have done to you is unforgivable.”

“May I have a glass of water?” she asked the waiter.

“Of course, ma’am,” he replied.

He’d better bring it right away, she thought. She needed something to wash down this mediocre food. It wasn’t awful, exactly—it was a perfectly edible meal from a perfectly decent new French-American fusion restaurant. But the béchamel sauce lacked salt and seemed warmed over, and the mixed berry cobbler was flat, the topping dry and the filling missing the brightness of lemon. As she waited for the waiter to return, her friend texted her, inquiring as to the bistro’s quality. “Eh,” she responded. “It’s not terrible.”

Review by DirkH ★½ 4

What the fuck is a male Ficent?

*I honestly can't be arsed to write about this uninspired mess*

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Tiffanyyong.com

Maleficent Movie Review

Maleficent Movie Review | by tiffanyyong.com

Recommended audience: fans of angelina jolie, elle page, disney princess, sleeping beauty movie fans.

Maleficent Movie Synopsis

Maleficent Viewer Rating: 3.5/5 ***

Maleficent movie review:.

The Erm…

The Awesome

If you love to revisit the memories of our childhood fairy tale, Maleficent is definitely worth a watch!

Do You Know?

By coincidence, Maleficent (2014) will be released on May 30, 2014; precisely the same year as the 55th anniversary of Walt Disney’s classic Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Behind The Scenes and Interviews

Check out Maleficent Official Website and Facebook Page ! Maleficent is out in cinemas on 29 May 2014.

If you’ve seen the movie, do let me know what you think of the film in the comment section below. If you agree/disagree with my review,  feel free to comment and let me know! Follow me on Twitter/Instagram @tiffanyyongwt for future movie reviews, as well as other lifestyle reviews. 🙂

1/2 of #TheEpiphanyDuplet, Tiffany Yong juggles her ABCs – Acting, Blogging and Coaching/Consulting as she is fuelled by passion and drive to succeed.

It is not easy to make a living in Singapore just purely based on Acting, so with Blogging to help her with her online presence, and Coaching kids drama, private tutoring and freelance social media consulting to finance her life, she is currently leading the life most people hope to have: Living the Dream!

9 thoughts on “Maleficent Movie Review”

Pingback: Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok Movie Review | The Epiphany Duplet

I have watched Maleficent too and I must agree with you.

The story has a good twist. Maleficent becomes bad because of hatred for someone who betrayed him. In the end of the story she shows the true love when she kissed sleeping beauty to stop the curse.

spoiler, sorry 😀

It’s nice to see the point of view of Malificent and her role in the fairy tales. I’ve heard so much positive reviews on this.

she did the stunts?? thats really cool,.!! i love jolie.,. <3 i would give 5 stars for this movie,., she is a great great and very versatile actress.

Very thorough review Tiffany! I haven’t watched it yet but will watch it once it comes to pay per view on tv. I’m glad this focuses on the main character maybe because I’m older and no longer interested in the children’s fairytale. I’d rather watch the witch’es story than Sleeping err Napping Beauty instead.

– Karen

Angelina Jolie has always been my fav. Will definitely watch it this weekend.

You have done great job. I am loving Anjelina make over. I am gonna watch it on weekend.

Interesting facts !!

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Movie review: ‘Maleficent’

(Rated PG; directed by Robert Stromberg; stars Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning; run time: 97 minutes.)

‘Sleeping Beauty’ remake casts witch as villain-hero

By Ted Giese

In “Maleficent,” the “imagineers” at Disney have worked to re-imagine “Sleeping Beauty” (1959), the cartoon based in part on two folktales: the older “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” by Charles Perrault and the newer, simpler “Brier Rose”by the Brothers Grimm.

The familiar fairy tale has become a family favorite for many. The likewise-loved Disney cartoon “Sleeping Beauty”gave the villain a name: Maleficent — a mash-up of Latin words meaning “harmful, with evil intent.” Think of the English words malefactor, maladjusted, malfeasance. Maleficent in Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” is clearly intended to be evil, with animators giving her “devil horns.” Is this still the case in Disney’s new movie?

With this modern “live action” adaption of the folktale, the film begins by saying it will tell the viewer a story, and the viewer is to see how well he knows it. From the outset, it is plain that director Robert Stromberg is employed to retell the story in a way that recasts the characters, shifting the focus from the folktale’s general narrative onto the villain, thereby providing an origin story for the character Maleficent.

As in the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , where the wicked witch is made into a misunderstood hero, here Stromberg takes Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) away from pure villainy to godmotherhood.

Retaining the Perrault language of “christenings” and “godmothers” missing from the Brothers Grimm’s Brier Rose , the film “Maleficent” mixes in Christian terminology and ideas. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton, through the cinematic rehabilitation of the title character, brings in another Christian theme absent from the original fairy tales: forgiveness. Woolverton banks on the hope that, somewhere in the North American psyche, people still understand that evil needs to be overthrown by love and forgiveness, and that repentance plays a key part in this.

Overall, while the film provides moments of forgiveness between characters, it only flirts with repentance in the end. Maleficent is praised for both her villainous and heroic sides. The movie begins by saying the only thing that could bring two neighboring countries together would either be a great hero or a great villain. The movie ends saying that it wasn’t having one or the other that brought the two countries together; rather, it was having one person who embodied both these things that brought them together.

Lutheran viewers of “Maleficent” may begin to see something that starts to look like simul justus et peccator — a Latin phrase used by Luther meaning “at once a saint and a sinner.”On the one hand, Maleficent plots and carries out revenge on Aurora’s father, King Stefan (Sharlto Copley), by cursing Aurora (Elle Fanning). On the other hand, Maleficent shows love and acts as a godmother to the same girl she cursed.

There is a point in the film where Aurora stops calling Maleficent her fairy godmother and simply starts calling her godmother. This is one of the reasons that Maleficent is portrayed as both villain and hero, one who is simultaneously an evil sinner and justified. The question might then be asked, “How is she justified within the story? Is this classic justification from a biblical perspective or is it pop-American justification?”

Maleficent’s justification is not purely external in nature. It is not applied to her as the waters of baptism are applied in the Christian sacrament. Screenwriter Woolverton provides reasons and justification for Maleficent’s vengeance, but what’s missing for Christian viewers is sorrow over the character’s evil actions. Yes, there are moments of regret, and even one scene where Maleficent tries to take back her curse, but by the end of the film viewers are left with a sort of “all’s well that ends well” or an “ends justify the means” conclusion.

Maleficent is, therefore, in the narrative of the film, justified in her actions because of what was done to her — standard revenge-film stuff. Christian viewers may want to ask, “Are personal evil deeds permissible providing something evil is being avenged?” St. Paul writes, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

Where Disney’s cartoon “Sleeping Beauty” had its central focus on the unfolding drama of Princess Aurora’s misfortune and its reversal, the curse and the breaking of it take a back seat in “Maleficent.” The foreground drama owes a greater debt to English playwright William Congreve’s line, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,” which is regularly paraphrased as “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

In Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty,” Maleficent is scorned because she isn’t invited to the christening. This awkward situation is compounded in the new film because, as a young fairy, Maleficent had fallen in love with the future king Stefan, a young orphaned thief, who stole her heart with “true love’s kiss.” Stefan betrays this love when he drugs her and steals something else from her, cutting off her fairy wings in exchange for his personal self-advancement — the chance to become king.

Viewers quickly see that Maleficent is not the only character being reinvented in the movie. King Stefan also has undergone a dramatic change. He, like Maleficent, is dragged from the background of the folktale into the foreground. But Woolverton’s spotlight on King Stefan is not as kind as her spotlight on Maleficent. Along with almost all the other male characters, he is shown to be untrustworthy and treacherous. The male characters in this movie are either greedy or cowardly and provide no strong male role models for children.

Which leads to the last and maybe the first question concerning this film: For whom is it made? Is it a children’s movie? Woolverton wrote the screenplays for Disney’s “The Lion King” (1994) and the more recent “Alice in Wonderland” (2010). “Maleficent” is more like the latter and is a little too dark for sensitive children, with its images of cruelty that aren’t addressed well. Fairy tales as a genre do regularly deal with cruel content, yet they also balance it by providing a strong moral compass.

Relativism and revisionism don’t often provide the same sort of strong moral compass generally expected from the classical fairy tale. Does this mean folktales are off limits for creative re-imaginings? No, but it’s more challenging to be creative with a story people already know and even love than it is to be creative with new material.

In the hands of a more accomplished director, “Maleficent” could have been a very interesting film, but the whole thing gets away on Stromberg. The film’s conclusion is not as satisfying as its opening; it starts out wide awake but slowly falls asleep, and no amount of passion or love from the creative team behind “Maleficent” can provide a kiss capable of waking it back up again.

Even with some very enchanting moments, this sleeping beauty has missed the mark and likewise missed its wake-up call.

The Rev. Ted Giese is associate pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; a contributor to  The Canadian Lutheran  and  Reporter; and movie reviewer for the “Issues, Etc.” radio program.

Posted June 6, 2014

Contributing Writer

Great expectations newsletter - may 2014, 'reformation 500 club' supports wittenberg project.

I agree with the derisive treatment of any male in the film, it did smack of feminism to the extreme. It did however show another kind of love. Most fairy tales offer only romantic love as true love. This shows motherly love. They did play up the evil side of Maleficent, but she did have a good side as well. We humans, especially Christians, try to be good but sometimes our evil side makes an appearance. Thank you for your analogy, lots to think about, and debate.

Thanks for the review. It was insightful and helped me put a finger on that which alluded me. It is easier to see what is visible and not see what is just out of sight. Even though I didn’t like the way King Stephen acted I know power can corrupt. Yet I knew there was something but I couldn’t put my finger on it. That’s because it wasn’t there, that balance of character. King Stephen was stereotype, like the prince in Cinderella. Like so many films today they start out good but finish poorly. They start telling a wonderful story then forget the ending. They start to fly but don’t know how to land which can be injurious at best. So let me end on a happy note… ‘God’s not Dead.’

“Godly sorrow [heart-felt penitence] leads to life.” (epistle to the Romans) “Turn from your wickedness and live.” (book of Ezekiel) I don’t think I’ve seen a movie yet that deals with this essential experience of the human condition, that is the ability to respond to God’s love and goodness with a truly penitent heart. The audience is still too immature for that since penitence involves a certain depth of self-knowledge and an ability to admit one’s own failings and need to turn one’s life around. Human frailty is universal, yet all these movies today avoid that completely, turning to super heroes or characters with outrageous powers, like Maleficent to distract us from our troubled souls. The phrase that has been haunting me today is from an old hymn “…whose souls condemned and dying were precious in his sight.” I’m really off topic, but without a good father-figure, this movie will not portray true redemption, since the Gospel is essentially about what a Father will do to save his lost children. “I’m not evil, just misunderstood.” makes Maleficent sound like she is trying to rationalize or justify her evil behavior, instead of admitting that how she reacted to the person who wronged her was wrong.

I believe you’re attacking this movie due to the fact that the main character is wearing horns and that you believe she’s doing evil I can understand that. However, today way to many of the children’s games that go along with the high-tech game sets that make everything look like it’s a real person. The new games appear that you’re really shooting humans. it’s no wonder we have school shootings, shootings anywhere. It’s evil. To teach our children evil, I doubt will come from this one movie. Parents in their homes are where children learn right from wrong…good from bad. Please don’t stand on your soap boxes or pulpits and think one time in less than a two-hour movie is going to turn children evil! No. If that’s the case there hasn’t been any type of home training. Evil comes from children who are subjected to horrible things in their everyday. Gangs, child molesting, child pornography abuse of any kind that is evil. That’s where children learn, not in watching a movie. Of course, films are rated. A family that cares and loves their children will adhere to that. Thank you.

First of all, thank you for your review and insights. I did not know what to expect being dragged by my daughter and wife to see this movie. I came away very impressed with the movie. I do not expect any movie to give a perfect Lutheran theological perspective. So instead of being overly critical I applaud many of the concepts of love, forgiveness, etc. that were presented. And while many would like to SEE more regret from Maleficent I think many of her actions may be construed as “fruits of repentance”.

Frankly there seems to be for many in the evangelical camp a desire to probe and discern if “the sinner is really sorry” as if a sinner needs to pass OUR judgment in order to be saved. As a Lutheran I thank God that His forgiveness won for me at the cross also forgives my IMPERFECT repentance and empowers fruits of repentance also tend to fall short.

As with any movie talk it over with the children and youth and together glean that which is good in the movie.

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Maleficent Parent Guide

While i appreciate there are at least two sides to every story, this movie wanders down an entirely different track than the original disney animation..

Do you remember Maleficent? She was the horrible witch that put a curse on Sleeping Beauty. Now the much-maligned sorceress gets to tell her side of the fairytale. In this live-action film Angelina Jolie plays the evil enchantress and Elle Fanning the narcoleptic princess.

Release date May 30, 2014

Run Time: 98 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

Parents be warned: Maleficent doesn’t resemble anything you remember from the childhood fairytale of Sleeping Beauty . This is all about villain vindication. While I appreciate there are at least two sides to every story, this movie wanders down an entirely different track than the original Disney animation.

As a child, Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy) lives in a magical world full of fairies, flowers and strange little creatures that all exist in peaceful harmony. Across the river is the human kingdom, ruled over by a greedy and prideful king who has vowed to conquer his neighbors and steal their riches. One day the fairies discover a human boy who has crept into their land and taken a jewel. As a protector of her people, Maleficent insists Stefan (Michael Higgins) return the stone. The interaction leads to the beginning of an unlikely friendship.

Like the original Disney movie, all the spinning wheels are burned and Aurora is placed in the care of three friendly fairies that take her deep into the woods. However, Flittle (Lesley Manville), Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton) and Thistletwit (Juno Temple) act more like the Three Stooges than the animation’s characters Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. In fact the three caregivers are so inept that Maleficent has to intervene (from a distance) and raise the little girl herself.

Meanwhile Stefan becomes increasingly obsessed with killing Maleficent. He repeatedly sends his soldiers to attack her kingdom with swords, chains and flaming fireballs. As his mental acuity wanes, he spends more time alone in his room carrying on one-sided conversations with his imagined nemesis and neglects his dying wife. It’s a dark and depressing version of the fairytale that is far too mature for what is likely the intended audience. Even the obligatory appearance of Prince Phillip (Brenton Thwaits) doesn’t pan out as expected.

In fact nothing about this film is what I anticipated. The storyline is a complicated tale of escalating revenge, parental abandonment and distrust, with plenty of violent encounters involving brutal hand combat and weapon use. The movie is also offers a strong allegory of sexual assault and trauma, which could be disturbing to some viewers - although most children will be completely oblivious to the subtext. While Maleficent gets to justify her actions in this version, Aurora (Elle Fanning) is the one who is left to choose between what appears to be two evils. And where is the happily-ever-after in that?

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Maleficent Rating & Content Info

Why is Maleficent rated PG? Maleficent is rated PG by the MPAA for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images.

A fantastical female character unwittingly drinks a potion that a male character has placed in a beverage and while she is unconscious he mutilates her body (by cutting off her wings)—the act is non-sexual with no explicit detail seen. A female character is subjected to being touched by material that causes her skin to burn. A female character is confined against her will. Various characters hit and slap other characters. Evil spells are cast on characters. A character pricks her finger—blood is briefly seen. Characters attack one another with swords, fireballs and chains. A character is choked. A man dies after falling from a rooftop.

Sexual Content:

Male and female characters kiss.

Characters refer to each other in derogatory terms using words like “stupid.”

Drugs/Alcohol:

A potion is hidden in a drink by a male character and given to a female character.

Page last updated June 30, 2022

Maleficent Parents' Guide

Was Maleficent’s vengeance toward the king justified? Was his response? How does pride play into this plot?

What qualities does Aurora show toward Maleficent? How does her attitude affect the vengeful fairy? What can we learn from her example?

Prior to kissing Aurora the Prince remarks, “I hardly know her.” How is “true love” often portrayed in movies? Do you think it’s possible to experience true love? Does it always have to be within a romantic context?

Who is the protagonist in this movie? Do you think an “anti-hero” is a concept young children can understand?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

If you enjoy hearing the villain’s take on the story, you’ll want to read the one that started it all. Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, launched the hit Broadway musical and kicked off a trend for telling “the other side”.

Even Maleficent doesn’t go as dark as Liz Braswell in Once Upon a Dream: A Twisted Tale. In this fun YA novel, the princess doesn’t awaken with true love’s kiss: the prince falls asleep too. Can the sleeping princess save them all?

Is the princess asleep or dead? Or both? When a blacksmith’s apprentice wakes up in a thorn-shrouded, ruined castle, he doesn’t know how he got there, or what to make of the young girl he finds. Get the rest of the story in Merrie Haskell’s The Castle Behind Thorns.

Princess Ben is a clever reworking of the traditional Sleeping Beauty tale by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. This princess isn’t asleep: she has created a simulacrum that appears to be asleep while she travels abroad to avenge her father and save her kingdom.

In The Princess Game, Melanie Cellier reimagines the Sleeping Beauty story with a princess whose mind is alert but who is cursed to behave as a vapid young woman.

Another novel with a light twist on the traditional tale is Finding Sleeping Beauty. Written by Tarrah Montgomery, the king in this tale tries to protect his cursed daughter by sending her through a magic door to…Idaho. Can the princess adjust to high school? And can she protect herself and her friends when the curse comes calling?

What if the princess wasn’t cursed to die or to sleep? What if she was cursed to transform into a dragon when she comes of age? Lichelle Slater tells this action packed story in The Dragon Princess: Sleeping Beauty Reimagined.

This movie is a dark tale, with betrayal and violation as key elements. Older teens who are interested in these themes will want to read Robin McKinley’s Deerskin. Parents should note that sexual assault is part of the story but there is no graphic detail.

The most recent home video release of Maleficent movie is November 4, 2014. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

Disney’s animated Sleeping Beauty is the classic retelling of the fairy tale for viewers of all ages.

If you like re-worked fairy tales geared to older audiences, you will want to watch Snow White and the Huntsman and The Huntsman: Winter’s War . The first film features a murderous wicked queen who uses dark arts to suck life and youth from beautiful subjects. Snow White’s triumph in this story isn’t complete: the sequel introduces the Ice Queen, sister of the vanquished usurper, who also needs to be defeated.

Mirror, Mirror is another re-telling of the Snow White story aimed at older kids and teens; this one is less violent than the Huntsman movies.

Disney has also remade the Alice stories in ways that are somewhat darker than the animated version. Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass follow an older Alice’s adventures and battles in the strange world she found down the rabbit hole.

If you’re looking for an old tale vibe mixed with action, adventure, romance, magic, and lots of swordplay, turn to Ladyhawke . (Coincidentally, Michelle Pfeiffer stars in this film, but as the cursed maiden, not a villainous queen.)

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If looks could kill, Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent could lay waste to armies. Jolie, with cool wings, a red scar for lips and cheekbones that could cut concrete, sure as hell has the bearing to play a classic evil bitch in Disney’s rethinking of Sleeping Beauty . If only looks were everything. But this soulless summer timekiller is empty inside. Debuting director Robert Stromberg has two Oscars for art direction ( Avatar, Alice in Wonderland ) and it shows. The downside is that Maleficent is nothing more than a diorama disguised as a movie, a flimsy cardboard thingie that feels untouched by human hands. The idea behind the script by Linda Woolverton ( Beauty and the Beast ) is that Maleficent is really a secret softie. She’s been done wrong by a dude named Stefan (Sharlto Copley at his creepiest), who takes advantage of her innocence and later cuts off her wings so he can steal her magic land, marry the daughter of the King and wear the crown himself. Men—those rat bastards! No wonder Maleficent puts a curse on Stefan’s baby girl, Aurora. At 16, Aurora (Elle Fanning, smiling prettily and for no reason) will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a coma. Many audience members around me looked similarly afflicted. I can relate. By the time Maleficent, aided by her shape-shifting bff Diaval (Sam Riley), is through playing fairy godmother with the help of three incompetent pixies (Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple need to fire their agents), Aurora is ready to join her spirit mom Maleficent in revenge against Big Daddy. The twink of a prince (Brenton Thwaites) is little more than an afterthought. Even the true love’s kiss that can awaken Aurora takes a feminist slant. Jolie comes to this party ready to bite, but the movie muzzles her. Even at 97 minutes, Maleficent is still one long, laborious slog.

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• REVIEW: <i>Maleficent</i>: Sympathy for the Rebel

REVIEW: Maleficent : Sympathy for the Rebel

T his one had all the makings: a famed Disney villainess played by Hollywood’s’ most infernally glamorous star; a script by the screenwriter of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast , The Lion King and the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland ; direction by the Oscar-winning production designer of Avatar — all in the service of reimagining a beloved fairy tale with a true-love twist. What could possibly go wrong?

Nearly everything, in Maleficent , a revisionist “origins story” of the sorceress in Disney’s 1959 animated feature Sleeping Beauty . Except for Angelina Jolie, exemplary as the fairy badmother who laid a narcotic curse on an infant princess, this pricey live-action drama is a dismaying botch. Robert Stromberg, the expert draftsman in his debut as director, has no mastery of casting and guiding actors, little sense of narrative pace or build and — the big, sad surprise — a leaden sense of visualizing Maleficent’s fairyland. Full of spells and transformations, the movie couldn’t be less magical.

Borrowing from the novel and Broadway musical Wicked , which gave a redemptive backstory to The Wizard of Oz’ s Witch of the West, scriptwriter Linda Woolverton argues that the young Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy as a child, Ella Purnell as a teen) was a sweet, grave girl — an elfin aristocrat who, in other circumstances, might have grown up to be a wise queen like Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings . But instead of Aragorn she met the human Stefan (Michael Higgins as a boy, Jackson Bews as a teen and Sharlto Copley as an adult). This dashing lad won Maleficent’s love and, ambition overwhelming ardor, clipped and stole her wings to become the king of a neighboring realm. Bastard!

To revenge herself on the man who unleashed her Wicked side, Maleficent barges into the christening of King Stefan’s daughter Aurora and proclaims her famous curse: that on the girl’s 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a sewing-wheel needle and fall into a coma, breakable only by “true love’s kiss.” The King sends the infant into the Witness Protection program of three nattering fairies (Isabelle Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple) whose cottage is monitored by Maleficent’s shape-shifting servant Diaval (Sam Riley).

(SEE: 13 Disney Princesses and the Actresses Who Voiced Them )

At first Maleficent thinks the baby is “so ugly you could almost feel sorry for it.” But over the years in the forest, Aurora grows into a lovely teen (Elle Fanning) who calls Maleficent her fairy godmother. She just might steal — as the woman who cursed her says — “what was left of my heart.” Cared for by three fairies who are, at best, dotty aunts, a girl alone needs a mother figure, and finds it in Maleficent. (Aurora at five is played by the star’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt.) The warmth she can provide is chilled by the knowledge that she is the one who, long ago, doomed her one loving alliance.

Producer Joe Roth — who also shepherded the live-action versions of Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful through Disney, and Snow White and the Huntsman at Universal — rightly recognized Jolie’s kinship to Maleficent, declaring that “There was no point in making the movie if it wasn’t her.” He was alluding to the star’s dominant, regal otherness.

(READ: Corliss on Angelina Jolie in Wanted )

She almost might have been designed in some special-effects shop to play Maleficent. And Rick Baker’s makeup artistry does her and the character proud, with curling, leathery horns and dark diagonal slashes on her cheekbones that sculpt her face into diamond-shaped severity. To the wolf eyes and Morticia Addams pallor, Jolie brings an imperious vocal styling with echoes of Bette Davis. (Eleanor Audley voiced Maleficent in the animated feature.) She is the visual, aural and behavioral embodiment of an otherworldly goddess capable of anything, from poisonous curses to surrogate-mother love.

(READ: The sorry state of mothers in Disney animated features )

Other than Jolie’s grandeur, and a bit of Fanning’s freshness, the movie’s got nothing. It takes its design cue from sword-and-sorcery films in their sepulchral early-’80s phase ( The Dark Crystal , Legend ) but fails at its evocation of enveloping murk. When it tries for lightness of image, with the appearances of fairyland sprites, the creatures are wan, unbeguiling and poorly integrated into the surrounding flora. Lightness of touch is also missing; Maleficent didn’t have to go the parody route of The Princess Bride (which also had a full measure of enchantment), but a little knowing levity would have given the characters life outside of their stereotypes.

Roth and Disney knew their project had problems; they enlisted John Lee Hancock, director of The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks , to rework the early scenes and add a ton of narration (voiced by Janet McTeer). Apparently no one could fix the clumsy comedy of the fairy trio, or the minimal impact on Aurora of two royal deaths, and least of all the unfortunate casting of Copley. The South African actor, so comically poignant as the lead in Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 (his first feature role), lacks the traditional skills needed for a fairy-tale hero turned villain. Nor did anyone attend to anomalies in Maleficent’s powers. She can change Diaval into any creature, from crow to dragon, except when, toward the end, she can’t. Her imposing wings get sawed off, until they get magically and capriciously reattached.

(READ: Corliss’s review of Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 )

The Disney people ought to know how to tell this story — of a female with frightening powers, finally battling to save the princess who suffers from her curse — because they just did it. Anyone remember Frozen ? That animated wonder had the forces of good and evil at war in the same character, plus a love story, smart laughs and a hit song that ran through everyone’s internal iPod for months.

(READ: Why Frozen Was Totally Thaw-some )

Maleficent ends with Lana Del Ray singing the original film’s “Once Upon a Dream” (based on Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty waltz) in a droning tone that suits this production. It’s a requiem, a dirge, for a lifeless movie.

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Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore make magic in May December

Todd Haynes' latest film is a creepy, campy masterpiece.

Christian Holub is a writer covering comics and other geeky pop culture. He's still mad about 'Firefly' getting canceled.

As with all euphemisms, the title of Todd Haynes ’ new film sounds cute, almost quaint…while hiding a strange darkness underneath. “May-December” is the gentle sobriquet often applied to romances where one partner is much older than the other—think Sofia Vergara and Ed O’Neill in Modern Family . The bleak irony of applying it to a relationship that involved statutory rape and no small amount of psychological damage is the first stroke of brilliance in Haynes’ latest masterpiece, but far from the last. Creepy and campy in equal measure, May December will certainly leave your head spinning. 

Hollywood movies are so full of childhood fantasies (even this year, with superheroes on the downswing, the box office has been dominated by Mario and Barbie ) that it’s a welcome relief when a film comes along with something meaningful to say about contemporary adult concerns. Even better when such a film actually depicts a violent collision between adult life and the sensibilities of childhood. But that’s not all. May December ’s fictionalization of the real-life Mary Kay Letourneau story also riffs on true-crime obsessions, age-gap romances, and the blurred lines between journalism and performance in the age of social media…all things that feel very relevant to life on the internet in 2023. 

Julianne Moore stars as Gracie Atherton-Yoo, a woman who — like the real-life Letourneau — spent years in jail after having sex with an underage boy. Also like Letourneau, Gracie resumed the relationship after being released from prison and has had several children with her now-husband Joe Yoo ( Charles Melton ). The viewer arrives in their world alongside Elizabeth Berry ( Natalie Portman ), an actress who is set to play Gracie in an upcoming movie and wants to access the “truth” of what really happened, beyond the headlines. As such, Elizabeth often presents herself as a kind of journalist, seeking out interviews with other figures relevant to the story (such as Gracie’s first husband, her criminal defense lawyer, and so on) while also spending lots of time with Gracie and Joe. 

The involvement of Portman’s protagonist transforms May December from being the kind of rote true-crime story that fills streaming service queues to a meta-fiction meditation about how media can warp people’s perceptions of themselves (and, therefore, their realities). It quickly becomes apparent that, despite the hate mail sometimes left on their doorstep, Gracie and Joe live in a secure bubble without ever thinking too much about how their relationship began and what that might mean for the nature of their lives. But the more questions Elizabeth asks, the closer their bubble comes to popping. 

When age-gap relationships come under public scrutiny, it’s often one where the older partner is male and the younger female. Gracie and Joe’s relationship upends that dynamic, and it’s not the film’s only role reversal. Elizabeth, after all, isn’t a reporter seeking to interview Gracie; she’s an actress who is trying to embody her. The more time the two spend together, the more Elizabeth comes to dress and even act like Gracie, making the viewer wonder who’s really the driving force in their interactions. While Gracie speaks with a lisp, Joe talks with a stutter — both indicators of stunted childhoods, or pieces of performative victimhood? Your perception may change as the movie goes on. Initial impressions of Gracie’s relationships with her neighbors and her eldest son (Cory Michael Smith) also mutate over the course of the movie — not unlike the monarch butterflies that Joe keeps in special habitats throughout their home. 

Portman gives a hypnotic performance at the center of May December . She’s the audience surrogate, learning facts of the case alongside the viewer — but she is not an objective observer. She seeks to take the material of these people’s lives so as to absorb them into herself, and the film doesn’t shy away from the unsettling aspects of that process. 

It’s also to Portman’s credit that she didn’t direct May December herself, after screenwriter Samy Burch brought her the script with that in mind. Instead, she sought out Haynes, whose past work on movies about women struggling to survive in a patriarchal society and the mysterious dark sides of public icons made him uniquely capable of walking this story’s many tonal tightropes. Directors get a lot of credit for successful films, and rightly so — but not everyone has to seek out that role. Sometimes it’s just as valuable to use star power as a producer to secure the right creative talent for the job and then protect them from pressure. 

Moore has worked with Haynes several times before, and May December carries some knowing echoes of their past movies. When Gracie insists that her college-bound son drink milk to overcome his supposed “severe calcium deficiency,” she sounds just like Moore’s self-described “milkaholic” in Safe . The “forbidden romance” aspect of Gracie’s marriage to Joe may also remind some viewers of Far From Heaven . But be careful: Every time you think you have a grasp on what Gracie wants or why she does what she does, Moore pulls the rug out from under you. 

As he did in Safe , Haynes carefully constructs a cinematic world in May December where the environment reflects (and perhaps inspires) the characters' feelings. When Joe is explaining to Elizabeth how he fell for Gracie as a young boy working with her at a pet supply store, he says, “She saw me” — just as golden-hour sunlight peeks from behind the Georgia swamp they’re walking through. At a later point in the film, two characters’ unsettling argument is echoed by rumbling thunderclouds. Haynes’ camera often perceives these characters from around a corner, or from the other side of a mirror, or inside what they think is a safe space — always giving the viewer the simultaneously icky and exhilarating feeling of being a trespasser on private secrets. 

Like so many movies that first premiered at this year's film festivals, May December was bought by Netflix after Cannes and will have a limited theatrical release before hitting the streaming platform at the top of December. Either experience should have its benefits: In a theater, you can share the discomfort with others, while watching at home (where it will exist side-by-side with so many straight-faced true-crime programs) should make the viewing experience even more alarming, in the best possible way.  Grade: A-

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Anya Taylor Joy wants to play Elsa in a live-action Frozen for the sweetest reason

Is this our new Elsa?

Furiosa star Anya Taylor-Joy may be ditching fire and action for the Disney fairytale as she reveals she wants to play Ice Queen Elsa in a possible live-action Frozen movie for the sweetest reason.

"I think Frozen would be pretty great," said Taylor Joy in an interview with Vogue Hong Kong , when asked about her dream Disney role. "It would be very fun to shoot ice out of your hand. Also, you’d just be the favorite at every kid’s birthday party."

But, aside from the cool icy powers, the star had the most wholesome reason for choosing that role. "All of my siblings have children now, so I would love for them to be able to say ‘my auntie is Elsa,'" added The Queen’s Gambit actor. "That would be pretty sick."

However, the star actually already threw her hat in the Disney ring back in 2014 for the Sleeping Beauty spin-off Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie as the sorceress. Taylor-Joy auditioned for the role of young Maleficent, but the part went to Fallout’s Ella Purnell instead. 

It looks like this hasn't deterred her from another Disney movie, or even a musical for that matter, as she added, "I would love to do a musical because I’m a bit addicted to hard work. The idea of having to be able to sing, dance, and act at the same time would just really thrill me."

Although a Frozen live-action remake is yet to be announced, there is a chance it could happen as the studio has brought many of its original Disney princess tales to love such as Cinderella , Beauty and the Beast, and last year’s The Little Mermaid . The next live-action flick to hit screens is Snow White starring The Hunger Games’ Rachel Zegler as the fairest of them all, which releases in March 2025.

Next up for Taylor-Joy, the star is heading back to Netflix four years after the success of The Queens Gambit to lead the dark comedy series How to Kill Your Family. Based on the best-selling novel saga by Bella Mackie, the eight-part series will follow Taylor-Joy as disgruntled lovechild Grace as she plots revenge against her runaway rich dad and his family. 

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For more, check out our list of the best Disney movies , or keep up to date with upcoming movies heading your way in 2024 and beyond.  

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for SFX and Total Film online. I have a Bachelors Degree in Media Production and Journalism and a Masters in Fashion Journalism from UAL. In the past I have written for local UK and US newspaper outlets such as the Portland Tribune and York Mix and worked in communications, before focusing on film and entertainment writing. I am a HUGE horror fan and in 2022 I created my very own single issue feminist horror magazine.  

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• 5 Sing Sing review: "Colman Domingo’s soulful performance keeps this prison story gripping and gritty"
• 2 The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 review: "A bleak, oppressive ode to Middle-earth anchored by one of the year's best performances"
• 3 Slow Horses season 4 review: "Apple TV's masterful spy drama remains one of the best shows on right now"
• 4 The Umbrella Academy season 4 review: "Like any good family reunion, most frustrations can be waved away, at least in the moment"
• 5 House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 review: "Excellent sequences can’t save a finale that’s all set-up and no conclusion"