Villain is given her head in Maleficent

First time feature director John Stromberg’s muscular production reveals how events conspired to transform the title character from a happy, optimistic young fairy into one of Disney’s most recognisable villains.

We meet Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy) as a girl who befriends a young human named Stefan (Michael Higgins). For many years the two share a close relationship and, as time passes, it blossoms into a romance. Stefan, however, is seduced by ambition and corruption.

He disappears from Maleficent’s forest kingdom, called The Moors, for a long time and when he returns (now played by Sharlto Copley), he pretends to want to reconnect with his lost love. In reality, his goal is to drug her, snip off her wings, and use them to prove he has the mettle to be the next king of men.

King Stefan (Sharlto Copley) uses a former lover to satisfy his greed in ‘Maleficent’.
Picture: Frank onnor/
©Disney Enterprises, Inc.

A broken-hearted and bitter, Maleficent (now Angelina Jolie) plots her revenge – something she enacts once King Stefan has a daughter, Aurora.

The sorceress places a curse on young Aurora: when the girl reaches her 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel, fall into a sleep as deep as death. She would only be awakened by a “true love’s kiss.”

The film highlights the seething conflict between the forest kingdom that Aurora (Elle Fanning) has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. When Maleficent realises that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land, she is forced into pursuing extreme action that will change both worlds forever.

Still of Elle Fanning in Maleficent (2014)

Linda Woolverton ( Beauty And The Beast and The Lion King) has written a screenplay that highlights a villain as the main character, and the story is effectively executed within this new context mainly because of Jolie’s forceful, nuanced performance. It lifts the character from its one-dimensional prison that trapped her in the 1959 Disney classic. The character envisioned in this production can be viewed as a deeply tragic and conflicted figure who seeks solace and finds redemption in the most unlikely of ways.

The visuals created are rich and varied and change dramatically as the dark powers begin to emerge. Though a great deal of the production is crafted on computers, the animation does not suffer and never looks awkward or artificial.

Stromberg’s vast experience in the special effects department makes him an ideal choice to create a magical world inhabited by all manner of woodland folk, including cute little fairies and tree giants. All in all, Maleficent is a largely appealing and visually satisfying fantasy trip, with all the 3D trimmings.