Many people know the story of Sleeping Beauty and most of those people know it from the Disney animated movie SLEEPING BEAUTY, but the revisionist take from the point-of-view of the villain Maleficent is a great take on the title character where she is both hero and villain.   MALEFICENT is a well rounded fairy tale where the movie stand on the shoulder of Angelina Jolie’s performance (as Maleficent) where every other character I could care less about and Jolie sells the movie with one of her best emotionally layered performances.  It is also a visually fantastic movie where the story also makes you root for Maleficent whether she is good or evil.   It is a fallen angel tale of sorts.   I know Disney is seeing dollar signs and they hope to make a sequel, but I hope they don’t make a sequel and leave well enough alone because not every movie needs a sequel and hopefully Angelina Jolie says no.

 

The tale starts with Maleficent as a young fairy child who falls for a human boy named Stefan, but there paths diverge as they grow and Maleficent is betrayed by Stefan’s ambitions.   She curses his daughter to fall into a death like sleep before she turns 16 if she pricks her finger on a spinning needle.   The movie shows her struggle to defend her land and get her revenge while Stefan (Sharlto Copley) looks to destroy her.   It is one of the best Disney movies I have seen in a while.  Elle Fanning is OK as Aurora, but I wonder how her older sister Dakota would do in the same role.   MALEFICENT is a fuller version of the SLEEPING BEAUTY story than the animated film (which is pretty to look at from an animation POV).

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

AURORA: BECOMING A BEAUTY- Elle Fanning talks about playing Aurora and the producer was responsible for casting her

FROM FAIRY TALE TO FEATURE FILM- it is interesting to learn how the animated classic was reimagined with drawing some inspiration from the original fairy tale and input from Angelina Jolie working with screenwriter Linda Wolverton

BUILDING AN EPIC BATTLE- a behind-the-scenes look at the location filming and studio elements against a blue screen that were filmed to create the battle between Maleficent and the king

CLASSIC COUTURE- a quick look at Maleficent’s head wraps and jewelry

MALEFICENT REVEALED- a look at the layers of practical and digital effects that went into creating the movie’s special effect scenes and landscapes

Five deleted scenes that expand some character points which I see were cut for time, but one could also say a couple of scenes could have been left in without a problem.

 

Also included in this combo pack is the movie in standard definition on DVD, and a code to stream and download a digital HD copy of the movie via TV, Tablet, computers, and smart phones.

 

FINAL ANLYSIS: MALEFICENT works due to the character development of Maleficent and Jolie’s grand performance as the iconic villain.  The extras scratch the surface of making the movie (which make me want to see more extensive behind-the-scenes content).

 

This review is ©11-2-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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