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The "Sleeping Beauty" riff "Maleficent" is another overproduced summer spectacular, released into a world that has too many. It has sub-"Phantom Menace" landscapes and creatures, a bombastic and unmemorable score, and the sorts of chaotic images and fast cutting that signify a lack of true filmmaking imagination. It is truly a movie made by a committee: its direction is credited to Robert Stromberg , a longtime production designer, and its script to “Beauty and the Beast” scribe Linda Woolverton , but there have been reports of many studio-imposed rewrites, and reshoots by director John Hancock ("The Rookie"). But it's powerful anyway. As the title character, a misunderstood and wronged woman, Angelina Jolie has make-up enhanced cheekbones that could be registered as lethal weapons. Put them together with her wary cobalt eyes and ruby lips and the wings and horns that the character sports early in the picture, and you've got an image of female otherness as eerie as Scarlett Johansson wading into black goo in " Under the Skin ." 

The film's story is an example of what The Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw calls "that emerging post-'Wicked' genre, the revisionist-backstory fairytale," but it's affecting. It has a primordial edge that the clumsy filmmaking can't blunt. There are moments in "Maleficent" that are profoundly disturbing, in the way that ancient myths and Grimm fairy tales are disturbing. They strike to the heart of human experience and create the kinds of memories that young children—young girls particularly—will obsess over, because on some level they'll know, even without the benefit of adult experience, that the film is telling them a horrible sort of truth.

And at this point I should give you the opportunity to step away from the review, see the film based on the above description, and read the rest later to see if you agree. Fair enough? Good.

The tale begins with a flashback to Maleficent as a young girl fairy, befriending a farm boy who's snuck into her forest on a mission of thievery. They grow close and continue to see each other, even after the king of a human stronghold on the outskirts of the forest tries to invade Maleficent's domain and then watches in shock as the heroine and her tree-warrior pals lay waste to his army. As teenagers, the fairy and the human share a silhouetted lip-lock on a hilltop—"true love's first kiss," in the Disney parlance. He stops coming around, breaking the girl's heart. Years later, the now adult Stefan ( Sharlto Copley ) overhears the now-dying king promising his realm to anyone who can kill Maleficent. And it's here that we head into the first of the film's magnificently disturbing sequences.

I've read reviews complaining that we don't know enough about Maleficent and Stefan's personalities, much less the details of their relationship, which means that Stefan's betrayal "comes out of nowhere," and so does not make dramatic sense. This is a fair description (or complaint); but to me, the lack of development makes the twist feel more like something that might happen in a fairy tale—not a clean-scrubbed Disney fairy tale in which every plot twist is clearly delineated, but an ancient story that kids might listen to, rapt and horrified, then interrupt to ask, "By why would the boy do that to someone he loved?", whereupon the adult storyteller would explain that sometimes people do cruel things to people they love because they want things. 

In any event, we know what's really going on in the scene. After snuggling with Maleficent on a hilltop, Stefan gives her a drink laced with a sleeping potion, prepares to murder her after she's passed out, then has a failure of nerve. He slices off her wings instead, and brings them to the king as "proof" that he did as promised. It's a symbolic assault with sexual overtones, specifically an attack that occurs after a woman has passed out. Maleficent doesn't just lose her wings; they're stripped from her, against her will. The attack is also a maiming or disfigurement that, in this context, feels like a gender specific physical "message," drawn from a continuum that includes everything from the punitive hacking off of a woman's long hair to clitoridectomy. (Jolie underwent a double mastectomy not long before the film was shot; it's hard to imagine her shooting this sequence and not putting it in a personal context.) 

The scene of Maleficent waking up on a hilltop with huge scars in her back, then weeping with rage, is the most traumatizing image I've seen in a Hollywood fairy tale since the Christ-like sacrifice of Aslan in 2005's " The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ." It strikes so deep, and its impact resonates for so long after, that it makes the film's numerous missteps seem less like deal breakers than irritants. The assault transforms Maleficent from an unabashed heroine into an anti-heroine—a straight-up bad guy, as far as the story's terrified humans are concerned—and warps Disney's vanilla 1959 film into a conflicted revenge story with an unmistakable feminist undertone. It's the deepest betrayal imaginable. Every subsequent action Maleficent takes—including casting a spell on Stefan's daughter Aurora (played as a teen by Elle Fanning ) that will send her into a coma at age 16 after a finger-prick by a spinning wheel needle—is driven by the trauma of that betrayal. 

The film has a long way to go after that—plot-wise, I mean; at a sleek 98 minutes, this is a rare summer blockbuster that's as terse as the typical cartoon feature—and while "Maleficent" never rises to the peak of power that it attains when the heroine awakes without her wings, and its action sequences and ostentatious creature displays are murky CGI soup, it keeps the audience unbalanced in a good way. There's wasted motion in the plotting and a fair amount of confusion in how the script spells out what Maleficent can and can't do (if she can turn a raven into a male sidekick played by Sam Riley with a wave of her hand, and create a fire-breathing dragon with similar ease later on, why doesn't she just unleash an army of monsters on the kingdom and save herself a lot of bother?). But we always know what's at stake for her. We know where her head is at.  

Despite winning a slew of deserved awards for early performances, Jolie has never gotten the credit she deserves as both an old-fashioned glamorous movie star and a skilled, thoughtful actress; this part fuses both sides of her talent. Her mesmerizing stillness makes us pay closer attention to Maleficent's every word and gesture than the film's screenplay deserves. We feel close to Maleficent even when she's doing the ice-mask-of-death expression showcased in trailers and in stills. We feel her conflicted feelings as she pretends to be the young Aurora's godmother, playing a role and then slowly becoming that role, just as we felt her rage at being violated and mutilated, and her need to make the human kingdom (whose representatives are all male) pay for what was done in its name.  

I was looking forward to seeing Angelina Jolie play a Disney villain. That's not "Maleficent," obviously, but what she's asked to do is still fascinating. The character starts out good, turns bad for good reason, then tries to right the wrongs she committed in the name of righting wrongs. This is a film of Hollywood storytelling cliches, including the eat-your-cake-and-have-it-too villain death that lets the heroine seem noble while still satisfying the audience's bloodlust. 

But it's also a film of resonant gestures and dream logic, in which ancient and contemporary predicaments jostle against each other: romantic betrayal or sexual assault, and their psychological aftermath; the fundamental differences between male and female minds; the way that patriarchal culture fuses women's sense of self-worth to their bodies; even the tangled maternal impulses that independent single women who never wanted kids might experience when they have to care for a child. The movie is a mess, but it's a rich mess. It has weight. It matters. Years from now you'll hear teenagers or college students bonding over having seen it as child and lost sleep over it, and its title will have acquired three more words, plus punctuation: "Oh My God, Maleficent!"

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.

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Maleficent (2014)

Rated PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent

Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora

Juno Temple as Thistletwit

Sharlto Copley as Stefan

Miranda Richardson as Queen Ulla

Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass

Sam Riley as Diaval

Peter Capaldi as King Kinloch

Jamie Sives as Shepherd

Lesley Manville as Flittle

• Robert Stromberg
• Linda Woolverton

Cinematography

• Dean Semler

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by Robert Stromberg

• Maleficent Summary

The 2014 film Maleficent re-imagines the classic fairytale "Sleeping Beauty" by telling the narrative from the perspective of Maleficent, the antagonist of the 1959 version of the Disney film. Maleficent is a young, orphaned fairy living in a peaceful, natural realm called the Moors. She meets a young human boy named Stefan, and the two form a friendship that eventually blossoms into romance.

However, Stefan's ambition and desire for power cause him to grow apart from Maleficent and, one day, betray her. The king of the human realm declares that whoever can vanquish Maleficent, the Protector of the Moors, will be named successor to the throne. Taking advantage of her trust, Stefan drugs Maleficent and cuts off her wings. He presents the wings to the king and, soon after, ascends to the throne. Enraged that Stefan mutilated her for personal gain, Maleficent places a curse on the king's newborn daughter, Aurora , declaring that she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a permanent sleep, which can only be broken by true love's kiss. Since Stefan's betrayal led both him and Maleficent to the conclusion that true love doesn't exist, both believe the curse is permanent.

As Aurora grows up under the care of three negligent fairies, Maleficent watches over her from afar, gradually developing a maternal bond with the young princess. Meanwhile, Stefan's hatred for Maleficent drives him mad; he destroys all the spinning wheels in his kingdom and orders his soldiers to enter the Moors and kill Maleficent. However, Maleficent conjures a wall of thorns to prevent any human from entering her domain.

On her sixteenth birthday, Aurora discovers the truth about her identity and Maleficent's curse. She flees to the castle, where she accidentally encounters a spindle that pricks her finger, fulfilling the curse. Motivated by her love for Aurora, Maleficent kidnaps Prince Phillip, Aurora's romantic interest, and sets out to break the curse, even if it means risking her own life in the process.

When Prince Phillip fails to break the curse, Maleficent awakens Aurora with a true love's kiss, unaware she has the power to do so. Aurora forgives Maleficent and asks to live in the Moors with her. However, though the curse is broken, King Stefan attempts to kill Maleficent, trapping her in a net made of iron. Amid the battle, Aurora frees Maleficent's wings from the glass case where Stefan kept them, and the wings reattach to Maleficent's body. Empowered by her ability to fly, Maleficent escapes Stefan and declares that their feud is over. Still, Stefan is unwilling to accept defeat and tackles Maleficent over the side of a tower, where he plummets to his death.

Maleficent lifts the curse on the kingdom and removes the wall of thorns, uniting the two realms under Aurora's leadership. Maleficent, Prince Phillip, and the citizens of the Moors gather for Aurora's coronation. Healed from the emotional and physical wounds of Stefan's betrayal, Maleficent flies off into the sunset.

Maleficent Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Maleficent is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Maleficent

Maleficent study guide contains a biography of director Robert Stromberg, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Maleficent
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for Maleficent

Maleficent essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Maleficent, directed by Robert Stromberg.

• The Birth of Evil: Nature vs. Nurture in 'Maleficent'

Wikipedia Entries for Maleficent

• Introduction

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2014, Fantasy/Adventure, 1h 38m

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Critics Consensus

Angelina Jolie's magnetic performance outshines Maleficent 's dazzling special effects; unfortunately, the movie around them fails to justify all that impressive effort. Read critic reviews

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As a beautiful young woman of pure heart, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has an idyllic life in a forest kingdom. When an invading army threatens the land, Maleficent rises up to become its fiercest protector. However, a terrible betrayal hardens her heart and twists her into a creature bent on revenge. She engages in an epic battle with the invading king's successor, then curses his newborn daughter, Aurora -- realizing only later that the child holds the key to peace in the kingdom.

Rating: PG (Sequences of Fantasy Action|Frightening Images|Sequences of Fantasy Violence)

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action

Original Language: English

Director: Robert Stromberg

Producer: Joe Roth

Writer: Linda Woolverton

Release Date (Theaters): May 30, 2014  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 4, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA): $241.4M

Runtime: 1h 38m

Distributor: Walt Disney

Production Co: Roth Films, Walt Disney Pictures

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmos, Datasat

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Angelina Jolie

Elle Fanning

Sharlto Copley

King Stefan

Lesley Manville

Imelda Staunton

Juno Temple

Brenton Thwaites

Prince Phillip

Kenneth Cranham

Sarah Flind

Princess Leila's Handmaiden

Princess Leila

Isobelle Molloy

Young Maleficent

Michael Higgins

Young Stefan

Ella Purnell

Teen Maleficent

Jackson Bews

Teen Stefan

Vivienne Jolie-Pitt

Aurora (5 Years)

Eleanor Worthington-Cox

Aurora (8 Years)

Janet McTeer

Robert Stromberg

Linda Woolverton

Screenwriter

Executive Producer

Palak Patel

Sarah Bradshaw

Dean Semler

Cinematographer

Gary Freeman

Production Design

Chris Lebenzon

Film Editing

Richard Pearson

James Newton Howard

Original Music

Anna B. Sheppard

Costume Design

Frank Walsh

Supervising Art Direction

Lee Sandales

Set Decoration

News & Interviews for Maleficent

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Critic Reviews for Maleficent

Audience reviews for maleficent.

I enjoyed Maleficent. It is easy to see how Maleficent would cast that spell on Aurora, and how she might have second thoughts later. Angelina Jolie did a bang up job playing Maleficent.

While it may have Angelina Jolie in the title role doing a fantastic job, everything is weak - from cookie cutter special effects to a unbelievably weak supporting cast, but the biggest offense of Maleficent is the complete misuse of the title character, missing the mark so completely that it's a mystery as to why the script was made in this format.

A lavishly OTT computer generated universe sacrifices all heart that the story could've had. Jolie can't seem to make up her mind on how to present the character of Maleficent, drifting between a trashy scary drag queen and a brooding mistress of all evil. I think I would've enjoyed it more if they hadn't changed the original story like having Diaval transform into the dragon and her kiss being the one that wakes Aurora - though this is clever, it doesn't make much sense. Also the fairies are too weird and reminiscent of the bobble-headed Red Queen from Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. The film is so thickly drenched in CGI it becomes almost like a video game and that's disappointing.

Disney bastardizes their animated classic Sleeping Beauty with the updated adaptation Maleficent, which follows the recent trend of de-vilifying fairytale villains. Angelina Jolie stars as a guardian fairy named Maleficent who is betrayed by a former childhood friend, causing her to seek revenge by cursing his first born child to a death-like sleep on her sixteenth birthday. Jolie gives an extraordinary and charismatic performance that makes Maleficent a compelling character. However, the film seems to go out of its way to belittle and malign the humans and the three good fairies. Additionally, Disney cheaps out on the special effects; delivering some really shoddy CGI. But, James Newton Howard's score picks up some of the slack by providing powerful and sweeping themes that heighten the fantasy quality. Maleficent has some good action and puts a few interesting twists on the original story, but overall it's an unnecessary and inferior retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

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Maleficent Review

Hell hath no fairy..

The best thing about Maleficent is the actress playing the titular character. Angelina Jolie is captivating, funny, grounded yet appropriately theatrical, and entirely appealing as the dark and misunderstood fairy. Unfortunately, the world she inhabits in this film is inconsistent at best and frustratingly silly and manufactured at its worst. The final lesson's not a bad one. In fact, the film finds a way to give a modern spin to the moral of the story. It's a solid and valuable takeaway. A bit predictable perhaps, but nice, and certainly meatier than it could be. The road to get there is just far too bumpy. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can chat with her on Twitter: @RothCornet , or follow Roth-IGN  on IGN.

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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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Maleficent review – Angelina Jolie adds vinegar to salty Sleeping Beauty spin-off

H er name is a sort of mix of malevolent, magnificent, beneficent and maybe Millicent, the flapper played by Julie Andrews in Thoroughly Modern Millie. This is another in that emerging post-Wicked genre, the revisionist-backstory fairytale. Angelina Jolie is the wicked witch (she turns out to be named Maleficent) in Sleeping Beauty, who puts a terrible spell on the infant princess, the one about pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. But how did that witch get to be so wicked? Did she start out wicked? Was she, in point of fairytale fact, quite as wicked as all that? This new story explains that maybe if she hadn't had her heart broken by a certain royal someone back in the day, she wouldn't be so mean.

Jolie's face has been digitally tweaked to bring out its edges and planes and her cheekbones are razor sharp. Maleficent has horns (not necessarily evil ones), a dark head-dress that may or may not be physically part of her head, and a sharp, bony ring that makes it look, from a distance, as if she is always smoking a fag. Elle Fanning plays the sweet-natured princess, who is entirely upstaged by Jolie.

Her performance has a vinegary touch of panto, something to compare with her role as Alexander the Great's mum in Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004) and Grendel's mum in Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf (2007). I'd forgotten what a fierce screen presence Jolie is: she is becoming the Sophia Loren of our age. Now I want to see her in a grownup film.

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A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land. A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land. A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land.

• Robert Stromberg
• Linda Woolverton
• Charles Perrault
• Angelina Jolie
• Elle Fanning
• Sharlto Copley
• 856 User reviews
• 435 Critic reviews
• 56 Metascore
• 12 wins & 44 nominations total

• Prince Phillip

• Princess Leila's Handmaiden

• Princess Leila
• Young Maleficent
• Young Stefan

• Teen Maleficent

• Teen Stefan

• Advisor to King Henry

• Milt Banta (uncredited)
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• Trivia On the second day of the Disney D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center, Saturday, 10 August 2013, Angelina Jolie admitted that she scared little kids while in costume on the set of Maleficent, with one kid actually saying, "Mommy, please get the mean witch to stop talking to me." She adds that her daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt , who played young Aurora, was the only child who was not scared of her.
• Goofs Spinning wheels don't have sharp spindles, and most drop-spindles are not sharp enough to puncture skin. The distaff on a spinning wheel, however, is often this sharp. The distaff is the pointed bit that holds the wool (or other fiber) waiting to be spun. Disney has perpetuated this falsity to the point where few American children know the difference.

Maleficent : [before kissing Aurora to awaken her from her enchanted sleep] I will not ask your forgiveness because what I have done to you is unforgivable. I was so lost in hatred and revenge. Sweet Aurora, you stole what was left of my heart. And now I have lost you forever. I swear, no harm will come to you as long as I live. And not a day shall pass that I don't miss your smile.

• Crazy credits The usual Disney castle in the opening credits is replaced by the castle used in the movie.
• Alternate versions German theatrical version was cut (ca. 40 seconds) by the distributor to secure a "Not under 6" rating.
• Connections Featured in Showreel: Jasmine Kills Again (2013)
• Soundtracks Once Upon a Dream Melody composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for the ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" (1890) Performed by Lana Del Rey Produced by Daniel Heath (as Dan Heath) Written by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence Arranged by Julian Shah-Tayler (uncredited) and Daisy O'Dell (uncredited) Remixed by Raffertie (uncredited)

User reviews 856

• cosmo_tiger
• Jun 22, 2014
• What is 'Maleficent' about?
• Is 'Maleficent' based on a book?
• What are the Moors?
• May 30, 2014 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official Facebook
• Official site
• Tiên Hắc Ám
• Ashridge Estate, Moneybury Hill, Ringshall, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, UK (enchanted forest)
• Walt Disney Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $180,000,000 (estimated)
• $241,410,378
• $69,431,298
• Jun 1, 2014
• $759,853,685

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 37 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• D-Cinema 96kHz Dolby Surround 7.1

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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. 

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.

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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