Review for Maleficient

Maleficent tells the unread story of how the evil witch from Sleeping Beauty came to be how she was. Instead of being pure evil she was betrayed by Stefan, who later became King and father of Aurora and this was what lead to Maleficient cursing her with the 'sleep of death' .

At times I do wish this had been a bit like Stoppard's Rosencratz and Guildernstern are Dead, with them telling us the little things we didn't see in the original Disney animation. Instead, this film just diverts off into its own world and though I appreciate the imagination that it took to do that, it's not really what I wanted. In some ways, the story makes no sense. Maleficent curses Aurora and then a few minutes later is playing with the child and regretting what she's done. It makes little sense and because of that the film at time feels a little aimless.

Maybe if they had simply told the backstory of Maleficent and then ended with the curse and allowed the original animation to pick up where this film ended it would have made more sense. As it is, despite many claims that this is supposed to work alongside the other film, it quite clearly doesn't and neither film benefits from it.

That being said, this is a wonderfully made film. The costumes, particularly Maleficient's is fantastic and the set pieces look amazing. Score provided by James Newton Howard is atmospheric and though I would have preferred use of the Tchiakovsky ballet suite from the original, I understand them wanting to create a whole new musical theme for this film. However, it is the overuse of CGI that hurts the film to some degree. The epic battle looks more like the cut scene from the game to accompany the film and when you view the extras you will see just how little was actually on the screen and not created on a computer.

The three fairies who injected so much fun and humour in the original are reduced to creepy looking CGI people played by Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville. And I have to admit, despite how cute and innocent she looks throughout the film, Elle Fanning as Aurora is as boring as her animated counterpart.

Only Angelina Jolie shines in this role that was obviously tailored for her. The performance is a suitable mix of scary, sad and also beautiful. Her laugh is almost as great as Eleanor Audley's original performance and her presence is so commanding that you pay attention when she is on the screen. She is a fantastic character and it is just a shame that rather than concentrate on the character alone, they tried to do too much by including the Sleeping Beauty story too. The filmmakers could have easily split this into two films as 97 minutes is simply not long enough to tell Maleficent's backstory, plus the whole Sleeping Beauty tale too.

The disk is packed with bonus features that cover most aspects of the film.

Aurora: Becoming a Beauty is a short look at Elle Fanning's transformation into Sleeping Beauty and is a nice look at the actress and how she prepared for the role and she obviously had so much fun making the film.

From Fairy Tale to Feature Film is a nice look at the inspiration for the story and how it connects with the original Disney film. The choosing of Jolie as Maleficent is truly inspired and it shows that as almost every child actor was afraid of her that they eventually had to use her own daughter for some of the scenes because of this.

Building an Epic Battle is an indepth look at the battle scene from the film and how it was filmed. Classic Couture looks is a less than two minute look at Maleficent's costume and though nice is just too short to mean anything.
Maleficent Revealed is a look at some scenes with and without the CGI. This would have been much better as a splitscreen feature to show the difference between the two. Though it really does show how much the film relied on CGI to do most of what was on the screen and although there are some practical effects it does spoil some of the magic.

There are five Deleted Scenes and it seems every time I watch a film now it is the same. There is no context for any of the scenes and so you have no idea where it went (although you can guess) and why it was cut out. I do feel that if Deleted Scenes are going to be included they need either an explanation of it or a commentary to explain what the scene was supposed to do. These are all fine and do not add or take anything away from their absence.

Maleficent could have been an excellent film. Instead it's almost a failed experiment and with the 2015 remake of Cinderella coming I do worry that all of our beloved Disney tales will be remade with a backstory to them. We will find out what happened to Dumbo's dad, how Scar got his scar and find out why Geppetto couldn't have a child and built himself a puppet instead... and whatever happened to Mrs Geppetto? These are stories that some may want to hear, but not everyone and maybe if Disney focused on creating original works we would all benefit from it. The film is not awful and certainly worth a watch, but it is the not the acclaimed masterpiece that the original Disney film has been over the years.