Response to Maleficent

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This is my first time watching Maleficent!

Only a great hero or a terrible villain could reconcile the two kingdoms. I wonder which Maleficent will be.

I can’t believe Stephen cut off her wings so that he could be king! He was such a nice kid and I thought he loved her. This seems to show that children are innocent and pure while adults can betray and be vile.

This movie seems to be focusing on the back story of the villain Maleficent. It makes sense as to why she is so mean and villainous to Stephen, his kingdom, and Aurora. She curses Aurora to fall into a deep sleep on her sixteenth birthday when she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel. Aurora is then sent to grow up with three fairies in the woods.

Maleficent watches her grow up in the woods and often makes the fairies fight with each other. Maleficent continues to be characterized as both evil and good. She makes life difficult for the fairies, hurts the soldiers working by the wall, and calls Aurora “Beasty”. However, she also saves Aurora from falling off a cliff and provides food for her. In this way, King Stephen is portrayed more like a villain while Maleficent is depicted as someone good who had been very wronged.

I think Maleficent is having a hard time deciding whether she likes Aurora or not. At the beginning, I think she was jealous and hated Aurora because she represented what Stephan had done to her. Later, however, she starts to love Aurora for who she is. Maleficent tries to revoke the curse she set on Aurora for this reason. I think she feels guilty because Aurora should not have to pay for Stephens wrongdoings.

From Aurora’s perspective, Maleficent is the “evil that is in the world.” However, according to Maleficent it is the greed and power hungriness of men that are the evil in the world.

Aurora pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and falls asleep.

Both Maleficent and King Stephen do not believe in true loves kiss. Maybe it is because they kissed when they thought they were in love, and then they fell out of love. They both betrayed each other. Stephen cut off Maleficent’s wings, and then Maleficent cursed his daughter. Their belief is reinforced when the princess’s kiss doesn’t work. However, when Maleficent kisses her, she wakes up! In this way, Maleficent is similar to Frozen. Both redefine Disney’s definition of true love. True love is does not only include romantic love but also includes love between family, friends, and god parents and god children.

Maleficent gets her wings back thanks to Aurora.

Maleficent is also similar to Beauty and the Beast in the end. Both protagonists have the opportunity to kill the villain but choose not to. Then both villains try to kill the protagonists and fall to their deaths.

“Not by a hero or a villain as legend had predicted, but by one who was both hero and villain.” In the end, Maleficent is characterized as both a hero and a villain. This sends the message that no one is all good or all bad. Everyone is a mix of the two.