![]() ![]() She also has huge devil horns and draconian wings, which make her look like some fascinating-yet-grand Greek harpy. In this version of the tale, Maleficent is the leader of “the Moors,” a peaceable fairy kingdom that’s always warding off invasion from the “greedy” and evil human kingdom just down the road. ![]() ![]() In order to explain why a grown woman with superpowers would spend her time crashing baby showers and knocking teens into comas, Maleficent gives its title character (played by Angelina Jolie) both a political edge and a traumatic backstory. Just as Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel - and its massively popular musical-theater adaptation, which made a star out of Idina Menzel - attempted to re-make The Wizard of Oz as a vindication of the misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West, Maleficent does the same thing with the villain of Sleeping Beauty: the wicked fairy who curses the princess to prick her finger on a spindle and fall into an eternal sleep. In a sense, the rape allegory in Maleficent is only restoring the subtext that the first Disney version of Sleeping Beauty cut out.įor those who’ve missed Disney’s blitz of promotion: : Maleficent is Disney’s attempt at doing Wicked-lite. ![]()
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