Maleficent

"Let us tell you an old tale anew and see how well you know it." This is the opening line of Maleficent and it might as well be the motto of Hollywood in recent years. Fairy tales have gotten quite the live action treatment in recent years... Fairy tales like Alice In Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel (Witch Hunters), Red Riding Hood, Jack The Giant Slayer, and Snow White (And The Huntsmen) Now Disney tries to explain and give a worthy back story to the most villainous of all villains: Maleficent! (sinister laugh here)

Maleficent was the biggest and strongest of all the fairies once upon a time. She had great wings and a charming personality. Then old Mal made the mistake of helping a rock stealing, mischievous human boy named Stefan. Wouldn't you know they hit it off. He even said he loved her. But then in order to become king, Stefan took her most precious possession: Her wings. As you can imagine this ticks Mal off considerably and is driven to a villainy that we can all almost understand. A crow here, a curse there, and presto bango we have the villain that has haunted kids nightmares for years...

Maleficent (the film not the character) tries so hard to be feminist and politically correct: a man literally steals our hero's (at the time) wings, the girl is lied to and used by evil man who wants to destroy the magical forest, even Prince Phillip can't wake the girl with true loves kiss. All this annoys the heck out of me because it robs Maleficent (both the film and the character) of the thing that makes her most memorable: her evilness. My mom never liked Disney's Sleeping Beauty because of how evil Maleficent was. To me her and Jafar from Aladdin made the perfect evil pair. Heck in the the animated movie Prince Phillip had to fight the dragon Maleficent turned into with the Sword of Truth and Shield of Virtue. Her crow was named Diablo. If you aren't getting it yet, Maleficent was a clear parallel of the Devil himself. I never questioned her motives or wondered at her back story: She was evil. Phillip was good. They fought, good won, happily ever after etc... In Kate Taylor's review of Maleficent on theglobeandmail.com she states: "The villains of fairy tales and comic books inhabit a Manichaean world of good and evil. Everyone from Lex Luthor to the original Maleficent (whose very name means doing evil) are wicked just because, teaching our children and the adults they become that bad guys are everywhere and killing them is not merely permissible but natural." 

That is my problem with Maleficent: There is no good, no evil, doesn't matter what you do, you can be redeemed. One of the last lines of Maleficent is that: "Maleficent wasn't a villain or a hero; She was both." Fairy tales were always meant to be lessons, warnings, and tales that taught children valuable lessons. Lessons about the danger and evil that exists in the world we live in. Lessons that should be taught to children. The lesson is this film perhaps is better unheard. Stick to the old tale and leave "anew" alone. 

C-