Maleficent is the main antagonist of Disney's 1959 animated feature film Sleeping Beauty. A malevolent fairy, she is an incarnation of pure evil and is responsible for all the misfortune in King Stefan's kingdom.
Is Maleficent in the original Sleeping Beauty fairy tale?
Maleficent is based on the evil fairy godmother character in Charles Perrault's fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, as well as the villainess who appears in the Brothers Grimm's retelling of the story, Little Briar Rose.
Maleficent is a fantasy adventure movie that re-imagines the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty and tells the story of bad fairy Maleficent (Angelina Jolie). At the beginning of the story, she is a young fairy who believes in love, peace and compassion.
The story of Maleficent starts years before the events of Sleeping Beauty, where Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy) is a young and powerful fairy living in a magical forest. There, she meets Stefan (Michael Higgins), a young human boy with whom she develops a strong bond.
Maleficent is a powerful dark fairy and the eponymous protagonist of the 2014 film Maleficent and its 2019 sequel, titled Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and the upcoming Maleficent 3. Growing up as an orphan in the Moors, Maleficent believed herself to be the last of her kind.
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Why is Maleficent so different from Sleeping Beauty?
Maleficent is a fairy living in the Moors, and has a massive pair of wings that she uses to fly. Fans of the classic Disney princess movie Sleeping Beauty will know that Maleficent never had wings in the original animated film, and Maleficent explains how the dark fairy lost her wings.
Maleficent and Aurora have a close relationship, like a mother-daughter relationship. Even after learning Maleficent's identity and going away from her, after realizing that her father, Stefan, does not show any love or genuine care for her, Aurora sees Maleficent as her fairy godmother.
Shortly after Stefan is done with his chat with Maleficent's wings, Queen Leila dies of an illness, and she never gets the chance to meet her daughter, who on the other hand is unaware of her identity and was not given the chance to learn about her mother due to Stefan's obsession causing him to neglect her as well.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a 2019 American epic and dark fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Joachim Rønning from a screenplay written by Linda Woolverton, Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, it is a sequel to Maleficent (2014), with Angelina Jolie returning to portray the title role.
In the original Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent hated Aurora's parents and had nothing to do with her upbringing. The only thing Maleficent did to or for Aurora while she was a child was the curse placement. In Maleficent, Maleficent becomes Aurora's Fairy Godmother. She watches over her and helps her grow up.
Later, Stefan betrays Maleficent and steals her wings so he could claim that he killed her and become king. After the painful loss of her wings, Maleficent becomes enraged over his treachery, and as her heart of gold turns to stone, she becomes the evilest magical being in the land.
In the original Sleeping Beauty (1959), Maleficent is a horned witch-monster who can fly, apparate out of nowhere, shape-shift into a dragon, command the thunderous sky to do her bidding, and, of course, issue death curses at an infant christening she wasn't invited to.
Maleficent confirms that Aurora will grow in grace and beauty, "beloved by all who know her", but as revenge for not being invited by the kingdom, she curses Aurora so that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle and die.
The irony is that Aurora was taken from her mother to protect her from Maleficent, but, to Aurora, Leila is simply the woman who gave birth to her while she refers to Maleficent as her Fairy Godmother.
She hated infant Aurora, and she called her "Beastie," and tried to scare her, but Aurora just smiled at her in response. Since watching Aurora over her childhood years, Maleficent soon grew a maternal love for her.
But once she is betrayed, “her heart begins to turn to stone and she becomes a more malevolent Maleficent, she hides her hair and horns under wraps,” designed and made by members of Team Maleficent from leather and other materials meant to look like snake and animal skins.
Angry over not having been invited, Maleficent casts a spell, promising that before sunset on Aurora's 16th birthday, she'll prick her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle and die.
Disney has not confirmed the rumors of a Maleficent 3, but they have not shut them down either, giving hope for a continued story. If Maleficent 3 were to happen, it would likely take several years to be released due to the ambitious production scope of the franchise.
Even though Maleficent is a heroine, she is still presented as a satanic figure. Her iconic horns (which Disney artist Marc Davis, who designed Maleficent, says were inspired by the traditional look of the devil, to “frighten everybody half to death”) are present even before Stefan's betrayal.
Vivienne Jolie-Pitt (born July 12, 2008) is an American actress who portrays Young Aurora in Maleficent. She is the daughter of Angelina Jolie who portrays Maleficent.
Meet Mal and Evie: Mal (left) is played by Dove Cameron (Disney Channel's Liv and Maddie) and is the daughter of Maleficent, played by Kristin Chenoweth (Glee, Broadway's Wicked).
