This movie had potential too give more in depth of Maleficent fall. But they went the good versus evil arc. Steffon is not even a true villain, his just a father wanting too protect his child. An Maleficent pretty much made him crazy for Threatening too do something too his child which any father would go through lengths too protect his children. An when Steffon cut her wings, he in his on light pretty much saved her life then let someone else come in an cut her throat. As well as pretty much stopped a war an saved hundred if not thousands of lives. Then here's another answer Why won't he just tell her whats up. If she's wiling too give up her wings too end a war. Or use some Magic an fabricate her wings too fool the king. Or find some giant bird that has the same size wings, kill it an take it's wings. Or hell if her wings can come back too her, tell her "Look give me like 2 weeks after i become king, an end all attacks on the forest, I'll sneak out give your wings back she can pretty much reattach them like nothing happened". But no thats too smart for this movie, after the turned my Fav characters the 3 good fairies, into the 3 stooges.
Raven The Anarchist I'm not a little girl and I liked it plus you better say goodbye to your little lazy written fanfiction because he's getting a sequel!!!
This movie feels like a fanfic written by some angsty tween who loved Wicked, but totally missed the point of it. Maleficent is elevated to complete Mary Sue status, accomplishing everything of any worth while the other characters are helpless, the movie falls over itself to show how BEAUTIFUL and GOOD and LOVING she really is, and it tries to have its cake and eat it too by subverting the good vs. evil dynamic only to replace it with another good vs. evil dynamic that's even MORE black-and-white than the one in the original movie. You want a good story about a tragic villain? Read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
And ANOTHER thing-WHAT DOES MALEFICENT HAVE TO DO WITH THE FOREST?! The Fairies, the ACTUAL heroes of the story, HID Aurora in the forest! If Maleficent was the queen of the forest, why would they hide the TARGET of the antagonist IN her domain?! And why are her minions these ridiculous troll dolls and mini-ents? What do they have to do with the demonic little beasties in the actual film? God, this is like a bad fanfic.
I'm with you about how they portray women compared to men in this film. As a WOMAN, I get annoyed by how often male characters are shafted these days so that female characters can look "competent" compared to them. It doesn't exactly perpetuate the concept of "equal opportunity" if you have to make one gender consistently appear either stupid or the spawn of the devil compared to another. This film especially annoyed me, because as a kid, Sleeping Beauty was my favorite film, and Prince Philip was my favorite Disney prince. I know he doesn't have a whole lot going for him in either movie, but I always admired how heroic he was. He chopped his way through massive thorn bushes, and fought Maleficent as a DRAGON! This guy went through a lot to rescue Aurora, and they reduced him to be so completely pointless he could have been written out of the film entirely. What also annoyed me was how the fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather were portrayed. Most of the animated film was centered around them, and all we saw were good intentions and brave actions. They were my favorite characters, and they were reduced to incompetent female idiots (yeah, where's the outrage from the feminist demographic over that?) to make Maleficent look better. This film took the best characters and utterly destroyed them, including Maleficent, and I can't enjoy it.
This whole movie spends it's time saying "no one is born evil, events in their life contribute to it and that's why their evil" then turns around and says "except for the human characters, they're just pricks from birth!" Kind of throwing mixed messages movie. Though in almost every fantasy, who's the bad guy? That's right, mankind! Hell even Aurora in this movie wouldn't have had Maleficent love her had she not put a spell on her that says all who meet her will love her! See, this is why you should never have tried to apply logic to a fairy tale, it doesn't work!
+ademetal Yeah, it isn't like some people really DO just come out of the womb all wrong. I mean, guys like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy? They just needed a hug. Well that and, uh, society is the real villain. Why else would they have murdered a whole bunch of people totally unrelated to their personal plights?
+ademetal "MAN! Yes, man. If you should see man anywhere if your neighborhood, please make a pretentious animated feature with confused morals and no sympathetic three dimensional villains." (Old Nostalgia Critic bit in his Fern Gully review, for those who have no idea what I'm referencing.)
I like the scene you had in mind, but I think it would be more powerful if the King was simply faking his psychopathic and hateful nature so that Maleficent would never have to know to pain he went through, and would be more motivated to give him what he thinks he deserves (The sweet release from his guilt, no matter if he did it so save her). "I would rather die with the world seeing me for a monster, then to spend one second allowing the woman I love to feel guilt for my mistakes. For my rashness. For my passion. For my flaws. Just to know that she'll be safe... And that she'll be happy. And I will die in peace, even if it is more then I deserve"
+Kanassa See, now that's an understandable motivation and an interesting character. It also still frames him as a villain and wrong in his actions while still giving him a purpose for doing so. Its not my favorite way of doing it and I'd prefer Bob's version, but both of these versions would make for a much better plot and character. One thing I like better in this proposed version is that it would require us to spend a lot more time with the character and likely at least one person to bounce these ideas off of, which would establish that character more and make the world feel more fleshed out and believable.
Or how if when Aurora seems doomed by the curse and in her anger Maleficent turns into the Dragon and goes on a rampage through the castle/city, blaming the King for setting all of this in motion and killing hundreds of people. And finally during the battle she somehow falls off the cliff and dies. Thus completing her story as a tragic and complicated person. She would be a fallen character, with a sympathetic plight and story, but still becomes the monster we know her for. I love characters who are grand and evil, but not one-sided and are three-dimensional.
You know what really hurts about this film? The fact that they had to screw up one of the original major Disney girl power films in order to produce this mockery of feminism. Who fixed the curse? Merryweather. Who raised Aurora? The fairies. Who saved the Prince? The fairies. Who protected the Prince? The fairies. Who defeated Diablo? Merryweather. Who allowed for the killing blow to Maleficent? Flora. Who made sure Aurora and Philip got together? The fairies. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather were the heroes of Sleeping Beauty, so I have no idea why this rewrite came up. And that's right. This is a re-write, not a different perspective. A different perspective would have had a similar ending, whereas this film had the exact opposite result, with Aurora's parents dying and her now being the heir to Maleficent. I admit that maybe sometimes Disney goes a little heavy on the girl power in its films, but this is the only film where I see that as an actual and the biggest issue.
This isn't to be blamed on feminism, lol. It's to be blamed on Wicked. Dwap. Wicked and self insert- who wouldn't want to be a badass Malificent's god daughter? It's fan service lol. Make the coolest character that everyone actually likes into the good guy and give her a plucky sidekick (Aurora)
Maleficent means "doing evil or harm; harmfully malicious". Instead what do they do? "Baawww I was turned evil by an evil MAN! Pay attention to me!" I hate this movie...plus the true love's first kiss scene? Seriously? Hated it. Way to twist a character in such a way that she's now a Sympathy Mary Sue of sorts. It's the right formula, throwing rape in there for the purpose of "have sympathy for me!!" This movie to me was nothing more then a bad animated fanfic.
+Roukera Sati I bet the fanfiction writers could write a better story of Maleficent becoming the Mistress of all evil, better than George's story of Vader's fall in Revenge of the Sith or this piece of garbage!
What a way to ruin one of my favourite disney villains...she DOESN'T NEED to be good, she HATES all that is good. That's why she's proudly called Maleficent. I swear Wicked had a more plausible and sympathetic what-if story for the Wicked Witch of the West, but here...just no. It feels like nothing more than a major suck-up to feminists (I mean the nasty men-hating kind, not all of them in general).
+TatsuraJ True, fairy tales by their nature are supposed to be simplistic in nature. Good vs Evil basic concepts that rely more on emotion than they do logic or complex character studies.
SpikeMaster B Ironically they made Cinderella again to apologise for the original... Yet they made the character weaker, she had the means to leave the entire time and she still didn't. At least in the first one she was basically a slave and still remained hopeful and optimistic. I also don't know what they're apologising for with a remake of beauty and the beast.
She looks more like a Gargoyle than a Faerie. It was supposed to be a hat, not horns. Disney gave Maleficent & The Wicked Witch from Oz the Great & Powerful the same "evil because dumped/backstabbed by man" backstory. I suppose we'll get a rehash of the same if they make a live adaptation of The Little Mermaid. Gawd save us all....
The old movie was in the eyes of the Kingdom. This movie was in the eyes of Maleficent. In a sense, this could be alternate universe propaganda, with the sides of the Forest and Kingdom still fighting between each other.
I can only imagine if disney made more movies like this, the massive devastation of awesome villains they would create: a) The true story of Jafar: Jafar wanted to have the lamp to free the land from the evil sultan and he truly loved Jasmine while Aladdin was but a heartless thief who only wanted to take advantage of jasmine to obtain riches and power, rather than turning into a snake himself, Jafar turns Iago into it and he becomes the new benevolent rules of Agrabah. NO, NO, NO. b) The Horned King's intentions: Wanted to make humanity like him so they wouldn't suffer by using necromancy and behind his heartless, demonic and undead appearance lies the soul of a good man and is thwarted by Taran and his friends. Because killing one of the most evil villains wasn't enough, let's kill one of the only ones who can rival her. c) Scar as a loving uncle: Mufasa is an evil dictator and Scar kills him to save Simba who he believes should be a better ruler. Hope this doesn't come true. Keep on the good work.
+Lordsheogorath73 productions I've got a couple ones too: Ursula is secretly in love with Ariel, and is devastated when she sees Ariel falls in love with Eric, who's actually a spoiled brat who only cares about her looks. Since she loves her Ursula makes Ariel's wish come true, but then when Eric treats her like crap, Ariel realises that Ursula was her true love all along. Also Ursula's eels are now goldfishes voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Jack Black. Cruella de Ville is an animal lover, and she sees that Roger and Anita treat their dogs like crap and want to rescue them from their abusive owners, but has to pretend she wants to make a fur coat out of them because Roger and Anita are so incredibly evil that this is the only kind of motivation they could possibly understand, and Roger and Anita try to steal the dogs back from Cruella because they're just plain evil and want to abuse them some more.
+Niobesnuppa Let's hope none of them, neither yours not mine become a movie, let's hope disney reflects upon the horror they did with this movie. Hahaha those suggestions were funny.
17:10-18:04 And this is why I love your videos, summed up in less than a minute. You don't just criticize/fling your dung around when you review something. You offer suggestions as to how the product could be improved--and nine times out of ten, your ideas are way better than said product could ever hope to be.
Come over then I have all the originals and we'll watch them together with the hundreds of other peeps wanting to make sure the re-makes are forgotten xDDDDDD
Lord Prince Zuko There's "Charmingly stupid and very likeable" (Sleeping beauty fairies) and then there's "Painfully stupid and hateable" ("Maleficent" fairies)
Warning: Side effects may include (but not limited to); rashes, hives, occasional thoughts of spinach puffs, the inability of speech and, um... being-transformed-into-a-random-creature-against-your-will.
God, you've got ideas for this movie that are so much better--like Maleficent trying to kill Aurora as a baby but the curse prevents her from doing so and that scene you wrote between Stephan and Malficient explaining why he cut off her wings and how it affected him all his life. How the writer of Beauty and the Beast and the Lion King put out such awful material! This is incompetent on a script level.
Well, even good writers have their off-days. (Lest we forget Cars 2, Shark Tale, "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, etc.?)
Except Stefan didn't take her wings to protect her. He took them because he wanted to be king. on his death bed King Henry said who ever could kill her woud be king. we just got through with a battle showing she was an absolute bad ass and no one was going to even got close to her. Except Stefan, who she was in love with and trusted. so he tricked and planed to kill her but in the end he just couldent do it because he loved her but not enough to stop his ambition of becoming king. Insted he cut off her wings. (somthing which honestly is more curl than if he had just killed her. if she does she never know how little their love ment, but since he stole her wings not only does he maime her but she knows that he values becoming king more than their relationship) he doesnt do it to throw people off her trail but as a lie to get the throne. His motives where purely selfish. When the chips where down he betrayed her love all in order to become king. And the guilt and sorrow at having been the very reasion she curses his daughter are what drive him to madness.
@@MrUsoutlaw That's why Bob is proposing a change to Stephan 's motivation to cut her wings from ambition for the throne to a need to protect her. He can still be a villain, it doesn't excuse his horrid actions nor would Maleficent be obligated to forgive him, but exploring that motivation can add a lot of depth to the character and complicate their relationship even more than what we got in the movie. The movie was very black and white in that sense when it could've been many shades of gray (NOT THOSE SHADES OF GRAY😡😡😡😡).
No @@MrUsoutlaw , Maleficent was absolutely not a badass during that battle. Her minions did most of the fighting for her. In trying to "empower" Maleficent, they ended up downgrading her to an insulting degree. Maleficent didn't need wings - she could already teleport and fly a great distance in a matter of seconds, AND turn into something that *could fly (???)!!! Why didn't her powers allow her to just grow those wings back if she wanted them so much?
@@strongrex2615 those where dark powers she only started using them after Stephan betrayed her and cut off her wings. also its transform not transport, and we don't know if that dragon form could fly those wings where tiny. Also also. Its not the same story. so comparing the two is very unfair.
Bobsheaux Weird thing, from the short story of Mulan that I read in school, the family at the very least was okay with the plan of her enlisting. The father was too weak and the father was too old, so she deemed a worthy candidate and proved to be an effective leader.
Tyler Rakstis well, after what they did to maleficent, tell me they are still reliable to redo THEIR OWN movies?....oh wait, Cinderella was awesome, so they earned my trust back.
Tyler Rakstis I don't know, Disney is more hit than miss, and I think Cinderella was so well-done because they saw people's reaction to their changes in maleficent and though "meh, lets stick with the old plots"
This movie shoul simply exsplore Maleficent (with diferente name, for God sake) childhood and and young years with Stephan and then after cutting her wing she should call herself Maleficent, and took her revange on Aurora birth party. Give the curse and end there.
Bobsheaux I thought the movie was "meh". I didn't hate it but I didn't like it either, the same thing with Avatar. After watching your review your version sounds a like a way better movie.
Dude, that scene you made was spot on! I think of filmmaking as anoter form of art, it takes talent and love to make it. We've seen many good directors go bad in the past: George Lucas, M. Night Shymalan, etc. But out of all the people who gain access to this technology, i'll always wonder why good people, with visions and hearts like you don't do it.
+Jean Dutra Thank you. Why am I not doing it? Mostly because the opportunity for me to do so has yet to arrive. That will change, though. Mark my words...
+BASSFZz Hell, i would give Bobsheaux an Academy award for that line alone. His inclusion of that, would have made the king a likable anti-villain. Knowing what he did will haunt him forever, an his past may comeback too haunt him.
How did she not feel him cutting off her wings though?? Did he roophie her? And what the hell kind of Roophie's are THAT powerful you can't feel someone ripping off a limb?
Its scary but there are really drugs that are capable of this and rapists and robbers do use them. People get organs stolen and dont know until they wake up. If they wake up.
I'm glad I never saw this movie. While I do like the idea of exploring characters' backstories, this movie completely misses the point of Maleficent's character in the original movie. She was an awesome character because she was so gleefully and openly evil, unpredictable and menacing. This whole story seemed pretty contrived, even insulting to the original film. I did like Angelina's performance, from what I saw in this review, but ultimately the film was pretty pointless. Not to mention it bastardized the other characters, particularly the three fairies. They were reduced to ciphers here. And that sucks, because Merryweather was pretty badass. Plus the CGI is pretty unsettling.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who hated this movie. I think instead of "Maleficent" they should have just made "The Sleeping Beauty" and focused on Aurora and Phillip to show how they'd get along, their perspectives on honor,family, and duty as well as a number of things that develop them as people who are raised under different circumstances yet have similar virtues and willingness to play the large role of inheriting and ruling a large prosperous kingdom. Although I don't know how entertaining that would be I think it would certainly be better then "Maleficent".
I think you could make a compelling character study between these two if the right person is working on it. It could show Aurora and her mentality on having three godmothers and growing up in the forest. Her interactions with Phillip could be extended to where maybe he comes a few times and the last time is on her birthday and he makes this sweeping speech about how he wants to marry her, until of course, things go awry. It could be really interesting, how finding out about the last 16 years of her life affected her and how it has shaped her. Show how she feels betrayed by the only family she's known, and her fear of Maleficent. Similar with Phillip. I see him as this charismatic, brave and kinda badass hero. Someone who follows his heart with no regrets. Maybe he comes into the forest to think or to get away from the stress of his home life. Maybe show that being betrothed to a princess who is almost immediately cursed and sent away affects him. Maybe he's upset that Maleficent cursed someone from her crib and has a resentment for her. While he may not be interested in marrying this princess (Until he finds out its Aurora) he doesn't want her to die either, especially over something that isn't her fault. And when he gets to the top and finds out that the princess he sought to rescue IS his intended, he could be kinda embarrassed because he was planning on annulling his betrothal to her, to marry her anyway, but ultimately is very overjoyed that he's able to marry the one he loves.
This would all be interesting. It would need to be planned out very carefully and It would also need to be faithful to the original animated movie. Aurora didn't know about Maleficent or the curse and from what the fairies said they still didn't tell her when they went off to the castle, not only that Aurora lived the life of a hermit for 16 years and is suddenly being thrust into a career where she needs to interact with people on a daily basis. As for Phillip he has never seen his betrothed before either which could be a concern for him and the countries as a whole as no one knows who she is and what she's like. I agree with the way you see Phillip though whether he knows about Maleficent Cursing his betrothed to death or not could also be a plot point to explore. Sorry for rambling Disney's animated The Sleeping Beauty was one of(if not) my favorite movie growing up and I'd like to one day see it remade and done well.
I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I was really excited to see how they told her fall to the darkside. But instead we get a contrived happy ending that doesn't make sense and Maleficent kissing Aurora. :(
Yeah; I mean, how the heck could the kingdoms be reunited if Maleficent KILLED THE HUMAN KING? Wouldn't that logically mean that the humans hate her even more?
YOu'd think so right? It doesn't make sense.I get so angry because I really wanted to like this movie!Disney rarely disappoints me but when this one really bombed. well for me at least.
I'm relieved someone feels the same way. I saw it beofre the review and wasn't sure if i was justified but I'm glad others have validated my feelings. I'm not crazy whoohoo!
JBlask More like you're not alone. Yeah, I was expecting a movie like Oz the Great and Powerful. Oz the Great and Powerful I found to be a good movie because it's a well-written prequel to The Wizard of Oz, and the characters went through pretty good development that showed us how they came to be who they are now. But you don't get that with this movie. All you get is garbage! (No offense, Disney.)
Ah, Ron the Death Eater and Draco in Leather Pants the movie. Wicked showed the story from the villain's perspective that didn't completely screw over the original plot and characters of the original movie adaptation. Maleficent turns a harmless character, who was hardly in the movie, into a douchebag and the three competent fairies into idiots. That scene you added could have made this movie a lot more nuanced. With a bit of tweaking, and a name change, this could have been a decent movie.
This movie had a lot of potential, but it was all wasted. I don't really understand why the main character always has to be sympathetic. You can have Maleficent be the main character and still be the villain. The backstory with her and Stefan was nice, in my opinion, and if they had kept that backstory in and then made her be the evil fairy she's supposed to be afterwards, it would've given her a little extra depth while still staying true to her character. Going around and turning her into a goodguy just makes no sense to me. She can be a cruel woman and still interesting. If someone made a movie about Elizabeth Bathory, would it be completely uninteresting just because she was a crazy serial killer? No, it wouldn't. Cruel doesn't mean uninteresting. You don't always have to sympathise with the main character, you just have to sort of understand them a little bit, even if you don't condone their actions.
Actually, this was pointed out to me on another review, but I'd forgotten about this point until now. Maleficent became the victim of her own curse. 1. She couldn't kill Aurora earlier in the film, because Aurora was supposed to die at 16, by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and whatnot. 2. She couldn't keep from befriending Aurora because Aurora "will indeed grow in grace and beauty, *beloved by all who meet her,"* including Maleficent, apparently. 3. She can't revoke the curse because "This curse will last until the end of time; no power on earth can change it." Including Maleficent, apparently. Man, Bobsheaux, you were right. She really should get a lawyer to look over her curses prior to casting them, so she's not suckered into every loophole or unintended consequence.
How they could have done it correctly is to have made it a prequel told from Maleficent's point of view, beginning at the day she met Stephan and ending at her entrance at the party...
Carzeyday Except, that in Wicked, it actually focused more on just the build-up and development of the characters of Elphaba and Glinda, while respecting the original source material it is based on. But in this movie....it clearly had absolute no respect for the original material it was supposedly "based on." I mean, it actually felt more like false advertisement when you start to think about it.
Tareltonlives Don't you dare compare this god-awful movie to Wicked!!!! At least that story treated it original source material with respect and it didn't differentiate itself away from what the actual plot of the Wizard of Oz will be.
Tareltonlives Well...at least it's better than Disney's "Frozen", in my opinion. Sorry, but I have to say it....I'm one of those people who getting tired of hearing about Frozen. But at least Wicked does have an original story for the characters of Oz, unlike this god-awful movie or Frozen for that matter.
+PokeDude011 Well, a guy she randomly met as opposed to her kind and caring mother figure.. not so much the 'true love' for a lover as in 'true love' one would have for your parent.
19:33 - Good point. It's like there's no middle ground. Stories need diverse and real characters to be good. A female character's a damsel in distress? Fine with me--as long as it makes sense and isn't just because they're a woman or some other bad reason. Male characters filling the damsel role just to make female characters look stronger isn't good either. If it makes sense that someone's a damsel, even a strong person, it doesn't necessarily mean they're weak or incompetent (their character traits and other actions determine that). Even heroes have damsel moments.
When i first saw this movie a million years ago i thought the twist was going to be Maleficent was secretly turning Aurora into her apprentice and was going to use her to destroy Stefan as the ultimate revenge. But nope, just turn Maleficent into a goody-two-shoes, that works too... :-/
It is not bad enough that Disney is making live action remakes of their animated classics, spitting on the faces and graves of the animators who worked on them, but now they make movies that turn their villains into pure good guys, shying away from what makes them evil in the first place and worst of all give them happy endings. Modern Disney has been dead to me since 2013, now unless this changes, every movie they make is on my blacklist. When I have a child, I will never subject him or her to this stuff. Only the original, unabridged, dark Grimm's Fairytales just like when I was a kid.
I never watched this movie and never will, simply because I don't WANT to see Maleficent be "the good guy". She's evil and revels in it - is it so wrong to simply have a character be evil because... well, because? What an utter defilement of an iconic Disney villain T__T
Because that would have made things too easy. Yeah, it's a textbook example of bad writing. Certain things need to happen for the story to work, so easy solutions are just shoved aside like they're nothing.
The name Diaval is the English spelling of the Celtic Irish Diabhal which means devil, One redeeming quality about the maleficent franchise are the visual effects, The green fairy should’ve altered the black fairy’s curse and actually do a better job at character development.
I can understand Disney wanting to redefine their heroines as strong and capable instead of bland damsels in distress (something I thought Frozen did very well), but why the heck did they need to do that to MALEFICENT? Why not Aurora? I admittedly haven't seen Disney's animated Sleeping Beauty in a while, but from what I remember, Aurora is the blandest Disney Princess. Here's her entire story arc: she wants her prince, pricks her finger on the spinning wheel, sleeps through the rest of the movie, and gets her prince in the end. I know that the first three princesses all needed men to save them in the end, but it was interesting to see Snow White and Cinderella struggle and get rewarded in the end. We don't really get that with Aurora. If anyone in the Sleeping Beauty story should have gotten more development, it should have been her.
Isabella Cataldo Actually, I think Aurora sleeps for all of 5-10 minutes. But yeah, build HER up as a character. Maleficent? SHE'S supposed to be the mustache-twirler! lol
+Pooky1991 Exactly! So why give an already defined character "more development" that only results in her personality being completely wrong, while the characters who actually DO need development get to remain as bland as dry toast? What is this, Teen Titans Go?
6:02 When I saw the movie, I thought it was symbolic of crippling someone for life. Seriously, does a woman's mere existence have to revolve around her gender and sexuality?
***** There actually is a backstory to Scar... if you look it up, that's not even his real name. I can't remember what it is. But thereis a LOT of story to him and mufasa.
I was really angry when I was watching this movie. I'm not sure how much of it was from the way the story was told, the fact that the fairies were gnawing at my patience, or the fact that I was badly PMS-ing. So, notes: Stephan going mad was actually kind of interesting The visuals were amazing The acting was spot on (especially Angelina Jolie) However...The fairies were infuriatingly stupid and annoying (it doesn't help that one of them is played by the woman that played Professor Umbridge :P) I cringe every time I hear "Fairy Godmother" now And quite frankly I'm not okay with bringing Maleficent's character up if it means *dragging everyone else down* That last one is the *biggest* problem with this movie. I'm okay with villains being put in a sympathetic light, but not when it means bastardizing everyone else! Stephen's portrayal as a dick for the sake of being a dick? Awful! Rendering Prince Phillip absolutely useless? Awful! Those...fucking...fairies...AWFUL!
+metademetra This movie is trying to be Disney's equivalent to Wicked, but what Wicked does right is keeping the integrity of the original Oz characters like Glinda and the Wizard even as the Witch is drawn in a more sympathetic light. If you have to make the other characters look bad in order to make your villain protagonist look better in comparison, that is crappy writing in my opinion.
+metademetra Not to mention that by bringing Maleficent up, it doesn't just bastardise everyone else, but also bastardises Maleficent herself. She can be a villain and still be the main character. There have been many stories that have presented the villain as the main character, and while giving them some extra depth, still doesn't try to portray them as goodguys. The whole backstory with Stefan was a nice addition, but turning her into the true love of Aurora, making her into a goodguy, it just goes against her entire character.
Niobesnuppa I'll disagree there. In Wicked, the Witch was totally turned into a good guy. BUT, everyone around her still stayed the same in the level of quality, or even got better. (Glenda being the most notable example). If Maleficent just took notes on what Wicked did, it would have been in the clear.
In the original, I find myself seriously pissed at Meriweather. If she'd kept her mouth shut at the christening, Aurora would have been unharmed. That means I'm a bit less irritated when they gave the line to Stephen, since he already proved that he's a dummy.
I agree with everything you said, but I never took Stephan cutting off Maleficent's wings as an act to save her. He says in the beginning he wants to be king, and once he hears that whoever kills Maleficent gets to be king, he actually goes for it. When he drugs her with the potion, you see him attempt to kill her, but he can't bring himself to do it. So, he takes her wings and makes it look he did so he can gain the throne. I guess in a way he saved her, but he seemed to be only looking out for himself in the end. I may be looking at it completely wrong though, that's just how I saw it.
That and I feel Leah is the real victim in this film. He doesn't listen to her at the christening, she dies without seeing her daughter one last time...she deserved better.
You saw it correct. The point though is that the movie could have made that entire situation be about Stefan trying to save Maleficent instead of purely hurting her out of greed.
This whole movie plays like some terrible fan-fiction written by a narrow-minded feminist (or somebody wanting to appeal to that demographic) without any real understanding of social psychology, moral ambiguity, or character development. All they did was take a character who's supposed to be evil and tried to set them up as a tragic villain/anti-hero, but in the end the only thing they succeeded in doing is creating a pity story where the titular "villian" is less of a villain and more of victim that everybody loves to pick on. I feel like the "writer" was subconsciously screaming "LEAVE MALEFICENT ALONE!!" the whole time they were writing this damn garbage!
Seeing how evil PETA can be, another live action remake of 101 Dalmatians where Cruella De Vil turns out to be the founder of it would be pretty funny.
I'd be upset to once having wings and being able to Soar as high as I want, and then some Jerk Chops them off, so Now I have to Walk to my Destinations, it's understandable.
Thank you. I'm tired of all movies with strong females requiring the men to be evil or idiots. Filmmakers in Hollywood DO know that men and women can act and fight together, right? Or is that considered a bad thing, now? Ugh. Also, and this is a minor nitpick admittedly, but cold iron burns fey, not all iron. What is cold iron? Its iron forged without using heat or flame. The flame changes the properties of the Iron and makes the fey warding properties of the metal inert. So, that ring could have possibly been hammered into shape without heat, sure, but that net would not have worked. It is something that bothers me a lot in modern fiction.
I understood that she wanted to wait until the 16 birthday because that way the king would suffer more (because of the waiting). Also, having the princess sleep instead of die makes it worse, because her parents couldn´t mourn for her and heal the wound, but had to be remained of how easily the curse could be broken. Also, the scene in which Stephan cuts her wings make sense. After all, it demonstrates that his need of power is more powerful than his love for her (and remember that she is the most protected being of the frigging forest. No one else would be able to reach her. Stephan was the only one because she loved him)
Honestly, Maleficent's story could've been such an AMAZING tale of how good can become evil easily. They could've made the reason she went evil her own fault and something that happened because of her ego. That'll teach others to be careful of what they think and try to not make any unreasonable actions out of anger. We all talk about the Hero's Journey trope, but why not the Villain's Journey? Shouldn't we learn about the good AND bad sides of something?
@@Bobsheauxaww girl I say… fuck that empowerment bullcrap. If woman wanted to be treated equal, then equal consequences. Maleficent’s downfall should have been something of her furition … have it build and build … maybe one or two things beyond her control where you could sympathize with her just only a little, but it’s clear she’s the victim not of man or of god but from her own ego and vileness. Showing what damage empowerment can be. Empowerment can be a good thing, but a bad thing two. Any virtues can also just as equally be a Vice. Determination; the power to keep going and not giving up… that is a heroic trait, but can easily be use for evil… constantly trying the same thing or pressing on despite the odds can lead to ignorance, insainty, stubbornness… same with fantasy ideas like magic. Magic is a tool, a power, beyond imagination… but depending on WHO uses it, it’ll be good or evil. Showing Maleficent’s ego and cold bitter heart getting eclipsed through her own bad choices, but convinces herself that sees herself as a “victim” or “in the right” … like Frollo, making her layered, effective, and simple all the same time. Simple to see how she’s bad, make layered to see how, why, and understand how she became this way… effective enough to still scare a new generation of kids. Hell I wouldn’t mind her wings being cut, if it was the catylst or the breaking point… all her bad choices, lead up to someone taking her down a peg by cutting her wings. An overkill but it’s mean to show the consequences of her actions… and yet Maleficent can’t cope… and it completely makes her to monster we love to hate. Sorry for the ramble but got this movie had potential and didn’t do much or anything with it
+Bobsheaux may you review parallels the movie on netflix you can probley find the movie on the web two thanks i love your work keep it up sorry for posting this on many of your videos
On another note, I don't think it's really fair to point at Frozen as a movie that changes the story to make the women more capable. Frozen did indeed change from the original fairytale quite drastically, but the hero in the original fairytale was a woman too. That's not a change that Disney made.
@@keegster7167 I really don't have a problem with that. It was pretty much one of the only things I still like about Frozen even to this day. But that's not enough to save it from being a poorly-written excuse for a movie.
@@artbytesia I *kind* of agree with you on the face of it, but I don't like how Frozen seemed to make fun of fairytales (and not even as fairytales are really: "true love" per se doesn't seem particularly common). In any case, I love fairytales much more than all Disney has made recently.
Yeah, like I said on FaceBook, this review is the first review of yours I ever watched, and it's what got me into your show. Sometimes I have people ask me if I'm going to review this movie for MY review show, and when they do I just point them to this video and go "No, this guy pretty much covered everything."
I feel like I am the only one who loves this movie. I just don't compare it to the original, why would I ? It isn't even like te original story so....plus I was soooo bored by the Cinderella movie since t was almost exactly like the animated one, I liked the different take in Maleficent. And Maleficent didn't really hate Aurora, she hated Stefan and that was why she cursed his only child, it just backfired.
+Chumash 16 I think as an original fairytale, you can do a lot worse than this, and if Disney tried to make an original movie out of this concept, maybe it wouldn't have been so shit.
Maybe is because the cindirella movie is a remake, so they can change it as much as they want ,even when they didnt do much (I'm not defending this movie, is boring to me too), but Maleficent was supposed to be an origing story not a remake ,so, a lot of people expected it to be more acurate with the original Disney version
Also, it drove me crazy how Aurora was named Queen of the Forest Kingdom without earning it or proving to have the appropriate character to handle the responsibility.
They wanted to tell the story of Sleeping Beauty but they wanted Maleficent to be the good guy. The problem is that if you turn her into a hero then you need to either introduce a brand new character to be the replacement villain or you are going to have to corrupt a former good character; and in either case you are not going to tell the same story. What would have been better would have been to make it a tragedy where she remains the threat but you empathize with her evil actions. They could have started with the same opening story beats, accept once it gets to the point where the King states whoever kills Maleficent will be the next King, have her human boyfriend Stefan write her a letter that says he figured out a way to keep the humans out. He will become the new King and once he is King, he will ensure that the humans leave the fairy kingdom alone forever. However to do this he must convince the current King that he killed her. So he stole her wings as proof. Have him apologize for this theft and betrayal and then have him write that they can never see each other again. Maleficent would then grow up to be angry and bitter and that's when you go back to the normal Sleeping Beauty storyline. The difference being that you can have King Stefan constantly attempt to apologize for his past actions through out the story, as well as Maleficent starting to see her past relationship with the King being mirrored in the relationship of Aurora and Prince Phillip; as they too are a couple who came together in secret in the magic forest. Maleficent should start to waver on her decision to keep her curse in tact, but ultimately the same results play out from the original Sleeping Beauty storyline. In the end you can have the King and the Prince fight her together, and if you insist on the King dying in battle fine, but then you have to have the Prince finish Maleficent off. The lesson of the story could have and should have been, Learn to Apologize and more importantly, Learn to Forgive. She couldn't forgive and that is what causes her downfall in this version here. She may have been justified in her vengeance but mercy is better than revenge if it is an option. But nope,... you can't have sequels if you do any of that, so we instead get what we got, which is just really really bad. It's the worst example of "sympathy for the devil" villain redemption storytelling.
I know this video is older, but I just realized something: The curse states: “She will indeed grow in grace and beauty, Beloved By All who meet her.” Did you catch the last bit there? “BELOVED BE ALL WHO MEET HER.” ITS SO STUPID!!! But, MALEFICENT THE MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL, WAS CAUGHT BY HER OWN SPELL!!! OH MY GOSH!!! 😂😂😂 The really did Maleficent dirty here!!
I'll never not love Maleficent making Umbridge's life a living heck(she wears pink, it's Umbridge!). And this movie jumps to a 9 out of 10 for that reason for me ^_^ But aside from that I actually like this movie ^_^ But Maleficent torturing Umbridge is a lovely bonus ^_^
Your suggestion made me realize how this movie could have been so much better Personally I love a pure evil Maleficent… but if you must give her some smpathy her beef with Stefan was a step in the right direction… but to insure she dosent become whatever this is and STAYS evil, have her a be a bit mishchiveos in her childhood, devious even…, and Stefan was the one who was potentially leading her to a better and good life until what happened happened Have her stay evil Auora could interact with her and maybe try to make her happy only for Maleficent to make things worse for her, not comprehending how auora could possibly find hope in one who has lost it… Lastly your interaction with her and Stefan… After that… you could have her live or die, but she remains the monster she became
12:19 "this is like Cruella de Vil becoming the founder of PETA!" Hate to break it to you dude, but...that would actually TOTALLY make sense, because although PETA sets themselves up to be a valid organization for animal rights and we can certainly agree with SOME points they make, and yes, have done SOME good for animals, these guys are in fact known for: - a very large kill rate in their shelters each year with very few pets being rehabilitated and adopted out, even putting down entire litters of healthy puppies and kittens according to a former employee (especially since it's been established that Cruella has an insatiable thirst for puppy blood) - shitting on Steve Irwin after he died - making overly sensitive and fear mongering ads, as well as very disturbing video games on their website designated to CHILDREN - backing up a few eco terrorist organizations In other words, yeah, Cruella would fit in here almost perfectly.
Part of the curse is that all who meet her will love her And honestly the backstory makes the curse perfect It’s not about the girl it’s about torturing the king
I think the version with Maleficent being good might work (In a more anti hero and tragic manner). The idea of Maleficent bonding with Aurora could have worked if they made the ending so tragic. Make the ending similar to the original Disney version and have Maleficent turn into a dragon, let her be stabbed by the prince but she did not die yet. Her last actions before she died is that she goes to the room where Aurora is sleeping. Maleficent kisses her after The Prince left and admits that she loves her and wished she was a better person. She fades to dust and Aurora wakes up, never knowing the truth. The G rating ruined any potential for any for this kind of ending ( yet it's ironic that they made a rape metaphor)
When I first saw the trailer to this movie I thought the older king was Stefan having aged significantly because of the situation, and that the story would go somewhere along the lines of the animated movie with a few twists and turns: like Aurora gets cursed and Stefan lets the three fairies hide her away, etc, etc - same old. However, Stefan worries and fears for his daughter's 'death' affect him to the point of it altering his appearance, making it seem like he has aged rapidly. Still a good guy, he rallies his army to fight Maleficent and have her answer for her crimes - and something-something happens, end of movie. But nope, we're still exploiting the Frozen formula. Gotta give the trailer credit, though. Really didn't see Maleficent being the (good) hero coming.
OK. I was browsing RU-vid when I came across your review, and I wanted to let you know... you have won a fan-girl!Thank you, for calling this atrocious movie out.First of all I am a huge fan of classic Disney movies. I love them. Partly because I was raised on them and partly because I love how they age with you. As you grow up you realize the subtle characterizations and plot points that you missed as a child. Sleeping Beauty's Aurora, I think, is mostly lost on audiences today. They think she just sleeps as everyone else does all the work, saving, and decision making. This isn't so. The scene when she comes back to the castle after finding out she's a princess is heart wrenching. Here's a young girl, whose carefree and secure life is suddenly flipped upside down. She will never see the man she loves again, never wander through the woods again, and never know complete freedom again. In a day she becomes the heir to a throne, hope of a nation, betrothed to a stranger, and leader of a people. As the fairies put it, "as is your right and royal duty" right before she breaks down again. Even though she's heartbroken she still accepts these responsibilities; and it is in this vulnerable emotional state that Maleficent cold bloodily hypnotizes her and leads her up the tower to the spinning wheel. That scene is subtly telling you so much about the characters of Maleficent and Aurora.None of this was overtly stated in the original and I was looking forward to it being flushed out. Making people realize Aurora is more powerful then they thought. Does she do action scenes? No. But every character and event pivot around her. She is the inspiration of both good and evil. She is the hub and character motivation of Phillip, Stefan, Maleficent, the Fairies, and everyone else in two kingdoms. She is also the exact opposite of Maleficent. One is always in the limelight, the other the hidden away. One is evil, the other innocent. One controls, the other inspires. To show this parallel from Maleficent's point of view would be fascinating. And yet... we got this. This glorifies the most evil of all the Disney villains (her only motive is spite), and demonizes Stefan; if an ex of mine cursed my innocent baby, whom I had to exile for her own safety, and then ingratiated herself to that child, I would be out to kill, too. And why did she need her wings again? Nothing in the movie EVER indicated she needed them for anything, and flying doesn't count, she made other people float and fly throughout so why not herself?Sorry about the long post, but it was so nice to find someone else who not only hated this as much as I did, but understand that Stefan was the true anti-hero. Maleficent cursed a baby... a baby! Whose equally innocent mother dies never knowing if her only child would be safe. Thankfully that poor mother never saw her daughter betray her own kingdom and people, and become the heir to the very witch her caused so much pain. I won't even mention the de-masculinization of Phillip.
I tended to enjoy this movie for the bats*hit crazy fanfiction that it is, by seeing it as its own thing. That's how I was able to like this film: I emotionally and mentally disconnected it from both the original story, and the Disney brand in its entirety. Kinda like an AU fanfic story. I wasn't mad about the bowdlerized OG characters, because I saw Flora, Fauna and Meriwether, for example, as completely separate from their live-action counterparts. Which is good, because those three live action dingbats might as well have been named Larry, Curly, and Moe for all the effectiveness and competence they show throughout the film. No wonder Maleficent had to step up as Aurora's surrogate mother! The pixies would have let her starve to death or die of exposure before she was even old enough to nearly fall off the cliff, let alone prick her finger at age 16!
+Mini Manta She didn't even really need a backstory. A character being evil just for the sake of it isn't always a bad thing it just has to be done properly.
+Mini Manta I'll NEVER understand how people can dislike this movie, srsly. Try watching Sleeping Beauty now and tell me that Malificent's character isn''t uncreative and simply boring. Cuz if you do, then we simply got 2 different tastes in movies, which I respect, but I still wouldn't call this movie bad.
This is a decent review, but I don’t agree with the idea you had about Stefan’s motivations for being a villain. That kind of angst would annoy me almost as much as the “good Maleficent” thing. Also, I don’t think it’s okay to portray yourself as a victim after wronging someone because you “felt bad.” Plus I don’t buy that the humans could have hurt Maleficent, anyway; Stefan did what he did in this film because tricking her was the only way he could ever touch her, and he wanted to be king.
given the information that Maleficent's wings were ripped off by a man who would become king because of it, I would have loved for him to retort to her surprise at no invitation by saying they all thought she was dead, which would immediately responded by her retorting angrily, "'WE' thought I was dead?" I wonder what direction that would've taken the story in.
All of the Disney Princess before the CGI were so much stronger than people give them credit for and they taught important life lessons (kindness, compassion, love is more than money, there will be light at the end of the tunnel and many more)
I hated the end of the movie, because you would think the horned fairy with DRAGON horns, and WINGS(that she would get back earlier in the movie if done right) WOULD TURN INTO THE MOST FAMOUS MONSTROUS FEMALE DRAGON FORM THAT HAS INSPIRED ALOT OF EVIL FEMALE DRAGONESSES, BUT NO, SHE TURNS THE BIRD INTO A FIRE BREATHING WYVERN CALLED DRAGON!!! I WANTED DRAGON FORM MALEFICENT, NOT THE DUMB BIRD, (I LIKE THE ACTOR, BUT NOT THIS VERSION OF THE BIRD!!!)
The dragon scene was the only thing I liked from the original, and they didn’t even keep it in this movie. I only watched this movie to see her turn into a dragon, and it didn’t happen! Disney blew it big time. 🍸🤬🍸
Disney's version is the beloved one, but the original story is to be MUCH darker. Aurora is in the sleep for years, and a neighboring king takes advantage of her deep slumber, she bears children while in her sleep. When she wakes up, she decides to be with the king who took advantage of her
That is Basile's "Sun, Moon, and Talia", and it's not technically Sleeping Beauty, the only thing they have in common is a girl sleeping. It's still F#$ked up though. No, Disney based it's film off the Grimm/Perrault versions much lighter...the first part anyway, second part involves an ogress seemly tricking Blair Rose into eating her own children and Rose almost silting her throat.
I’m still pissed that Maleficent didn’t turn into a dragon at the end. It was the only scene I liked from the original, and they couldn’t even keep it in this movie. I was looking forward to that scene, and Disney blew it big time. 🍸🤬🍸
When I saw this movie in the theater, I was shaking with rage at the part where Maleficent woke up Aurora. How could they make her into a motherly figure?
Technically, Walt Disney *did* change some aspects of the original fairy tales for movie format. Have you read the original Grimm fairy tales? They're called "Grimm" for a reason. What Disney did right was that he kept the characters' and their morality, whether good or evil, pretty much the same. This movie is just a bad ripoff of Wicked.
I have to ask, why did the raven have to be completely CGI? I know Jimmy the Raven is probably dead by now, and it might be hard to find one that talented and well trained, but it can't be that hard to find a bird trained to fly from one point to another and perch.
Re: The Curse I don't know, maybe it's just my Judeo-Christian upbringing, but now that I think of it, it may have been more evil to make Aurora sleep forever, essentially comatose for all eternity, than to let her literally die at 16. Hear me out, but if she's essentially asleep for ever, Aurora's very soul is then trapped in her body, unable to wake up, but also unable to move on and go to heaven. At least dying at 16 leaves her having been given some small measure of mercy. Her soul would go to be with God, instead of being forced to linger, trapped forever between life and death. Wow, I'm actually surprised at how cruel Jolie's version turned out to be! Many might say that in softening her own curse to not let Aurora straight up *die,* it made her less openly evil. But seeing just what that means makes me think she is actually *more* pure evil in that moment than at the same scene in the original Sleeping Beauty!
3:39 I still would have cast someone completely different from Angelina Jolie, because Jolie had some creative control over this project too and it was not for the better. She too was completely okay with defeating the point of Maleficent's character.
Holy crap! Now I know why people don't like this movie! They fucked up Maleficent's character! Maleficent is the definition of evil! Why would you fuck up her character like that! Thank god I didn't see this movie cause I would've thrown a fit in the theater.
I just wish I hadn't seen it. At least, as Bob mentioned, it reminds us that the original Sleeping Beauty film is still around for us to enjoy. (I'm sorry, Angelina Jolie. But you can't beat Eleanor Audley...You just can't.)
13:58 I don't think Maleficent would do that anyway, because the whole point of her curse is to let Aurora live, grow up and be adored by everyone who knows her. She wouldn't end the curse prematurely because the suffering of everyone else wouldn't be as devastating.
It's not fucking hard! IT'S NOT FUCKING HARD TO MAKE US SYMPATHIES WITH A BAD GUY! Davy Jones! Lord Shen! Loki! WE CAN FEEL BAD FOR THE BAD GUY AND EVEN LIKE THEM WITHOUT... DOING THIS TO THE CHARACTER!
If the speech with Philip that you had would have been in the movie i would have changed it to where maleficant responded back to Philip saying she didn't have it easy and that see thought the one person who understood her backstabbed her for no reason or saying something like he backstabbed her for riches
Now, that I think about it I wouldn't mind if that Stephan monologue at 17:15 was in that movie. I have to wonder if there is a fanfic about Stephan that was similar to it .
