The heavy baggage of Maleficent

Warning: Spoilers

Bo and I recently saw Maleficent at our local cineplex. This new live action version switches the focus of the tale away from the plight of princess Auruora and points it at the title character played by Angelina Jolie. It was fun and I do think it is worthwhile to see it.

Prior to seeing Maleficent the film I was a little ambivalent about the original Sleeping Beauty, and the character of Maleficent. I hadn’t seen Sleeping Beauty (or much of the Disney catalogue for that matter) up until a few years ago and subsequently didn’t grow up with the evil specter of Maleficent. I instead grew up on a steady diet of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Transformers. This also means that I didn’t have the same emotional connection to the evil queen that others have. In fact I had to re-watch the original Disney film to reacquaint myself with the basic premise, which is part of the reason this review is coming nearly two weeks after the release date. Ultimately, I think this emotional baggage from Sleeping Beauty is the films major downfall.

Maleficent is a reboot of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty told from the point of view of the title character creating a rich origin story for the infamous sorcerer queen. In this version the child fairy Maleficent is the most powerful fairy of a magic kingdom, called the Moors, that boarders an industrious human one. The two kingdoms have been at war in the past but currently are in a period of uneasy peace. The story starts with Maleficent as young child doing what children do; flinging mud, playing practical jokes, and having fun until a young human boy, Stephan, breaches the boarder. Despite the past tensions the human and the fairy become fast friends.

As the two grow up and eventually grow apart Stephan goes to the city and becomes a powerful member of the king’s court while Maleficent just grows more powerful. In a large set piece of the story the humans attack the Moors and are roundly defeated by the fairies who deploy large evil looking tree people riding elephant sized boars, a rock dragon, and Maleficent herself. It’s during this attack that the king is fatally injured. The king decrees that whoever brings him the head of Maleficent can marry his daughter. Stephan takes advantage of the situation and goes to Maleficent.

Stephan, played in this version by Sharlto Copley, uses the love that the two share as a way to get close to Maleficent. Stephan drugs Maleficent then attempts to kill her on the border between the two kingdoms. Stephan is unable to commit murder and instead cuts off Maleficent’s wings which he then presents to the king.

It’s at this point that the narratives of Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent briefly come together. The baby is born, the curse is cast, Aurora is sent into exile and the kingdom falls into turmoil. Aurora’s coming of age is also told from Maleficent’s point of view. We watch Maleficent observe the young Arora as she grows up. As Aurora grows Maleficent falls in love with the child from afar and begins to regret her rash actions. In the end Maleficent spends the rest of the film trying to undo the curse any way that she can.

In reading some of the criticism that has come out about this movie I think most of the audience was expecting to see a movie that would depict a Maleficent as she was the original movie, a one sided avatar of evil. Think House of Cards’ Frank Underwood or the Dark Knights’ Joker but with magic and the ability to shape change, but instead they ended up with a character that is as human and flawed as The West Wings’ Jed Bartlet.

As I have said, I didn’t have any expectations one way or the other. So I didn’t approach this movie with the hopes that I think many of this films audiences have seen it with; an origin story for evil rooted in their childhood imaginations. Instead I saw it for what it was; the retelling of a fairy tale. One in a long tradition of retellings designed to ease the fears of a particular transition or outline the warnings of a particular social issues of the day.

This isn’t unheard of. Disney’s Sleeping Beauty heavily borrows elements from the German Dornröschen and the French La Belle au bois Dormant to tell its tale. Additionally both the French and German stories are based on an even older Italian story called Sole, Luna, e Talia.  

Where I think this new tale is held back is by the original Disney movie. Maleficent is at its best when it is telling its own story and at it’s weakest when retelling the exposition from the orginal tale. Yet the plot is forced to haul the baggage of the animated film (and its audience) around much like Prince Phillip is magically hauled around by Maleficent in the third act; as an expected part of the story. I wonder what this film would have been like had it dumped the animated baggage, Phillip included, and forged its own path.

I think Maleficent is still worth seeing for the moments when it’s not carrying that baggage.  The back strory on Stephan, the new ending, as well as the details on how the curse is broken are all worthy and interesting takes on an old story that needed updating.

I did enjoy the film and I encourage others to see it too, but don’t go to see the Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty, after all she is a much different character.  Go to see it for a growing myth of a new and different Maleficent. 

Let me know what you think.