Maleficent: Reimagining a classic story with a purpose

In a world with so many Disney remakes do any of them have anything different to say? Maleficent does what Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King remakes couldn’t seem to do and that’s tell a different story with the same characters. Maleficent: Mistress of evil continues the story and the lore of the characters and shows a parallel between Maleficent, played by Angelina Jolie and Princess Aurora, played by Elle Fanning.

Both Maleficent and Aurora go through parallel plot points. Both have a voice of reason and a voice of impulse/aggression represented by different characters. In both cases the voice of reason is silenced and the voice of impulse becomes dominant. While there’s nothing wrong with that, the movie does it so much to Maleficent and Aurora that the movie somewhat beats the audience over the head with this notion of parallel journeys.

Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer both command the screen especially in scenes together every time they are in the same scene you can cut the tension with a knife. Their dueling wits and sarcasm are wonderful and setup great conflict. I wish the other Disney remakes would take this approach but I also wish this movie let the audience figure out the parallel character paths a little more for themselves. 🍔🍔🍔