Disney took the name of one of its own characters and turned it into a live-action film starring none other than Angelina Jolie.
The vindictive Maleficent, the iconic witch from Disney's 1956 animated film, "Sleeping Beauty", came to life as a complicated and understandable fairy -- the creature before she became "mistress of all evil." It all started one day when the betrayal of a young man set her on the path to vengeance.
On the helm for the project was Robert Stromberg, who won art direction for his work in "Alice in Wonderland" and "Avatar."
A review from SMH.com says, "Maleficent is much better than 'Oz The Great And Powerful', also made by Disney. And it has a powerful piece of alchemy at its centre: Angelina Jolie as the title character. She's tricked out with prosthetics and makeup (courtesy of makeup wizard RIck Baker) and she's transformed by special effects, but it's still recognisably a Jolie performance -- fierce, glamorous, emotional."
But not everyone thinks that the film is a hit. USA Today wrote, "Maleficent's sympathetic side feels tacked-on. No doubt the filmmakers figured fans of Beauty and the Beast and Wicked would be enthralled by a conflicted character. But Maleficent's back story and psyche are more vague and less developed than those of the Beast or Wicked's Elphaba."
All praises were on Jolie's performance, however, the young princess Aurora, played by Elle Fanning, who happened to be the "good girl" in the film is nothing more than the contrast for Jolie's character.
SMH said, "In 'Wicked', Glinda the Good Witch is a surprising character, seemingly superficial but also funny and poignant. In 'Maleficent', Aurora is a more-or-less token figure of virtue and simplicity...
"Elle Fanning -- a strong, interesting actress -- smiles a good deal and does her best with the meagre amount she is given. But her character is not much more than a ray of sunshine. Imagining a relationship between Maleficent and the unwitting subject of her curse was an excellent idea, but the movie gives us too little of this."
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