Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Imelda Staunton, Sharlto Copley, Juno Temple, Lesley Manville, Sam Riley.
Director: Robert Stromberg
Fantasy / Adventure
Did you know that this year is the 55th anniversary of Sleeping Beauty? One of Disney’s best loved full length animated movies, which was originally released in 1959.
This new of the tale is a mix of live action and CGI animation and stars Angelina Jolie as Maleficent who was voted as one of Disney’s most popular villains. However, this version follows the perspective of Maleficent where the audience get to see the untold story that shows that the character did not always have a bad heart and we see the circumstances of a betrayal that led to her being feared by the humans.
I think that most of us are familiar with the old fairy tale which is the main foundation of this retelling. An evil witch Maleficent is snubbed by the royal family and curses their daughter the Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning Super 8) and declares that when the Princess reaches her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep never to awaken unless the spell is broken by ‘loves true kiss’. To protect the Princess, the King (Sharlto Copley from District 9) seeks help from three good fairies Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Flittle (Lesley Manville) and Thistlewit (Juno Temple). I’m not sure why they changed the fairies names from the original film. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather seemed quite adequate. The three good fairies take the infant Aurora to a cottage far off into the woods where they try their best to bring her up out of harm’s way.
In this new adaptation we get a chance to see Maleficent grow from a sweet young fairy (albeit with some scary gargoyle wings) as she frolics with the forest creatures in a snow white sort of way and is the most popular kid on the block or in this case the Moors. This is before she becomes Angelina Jolie dressed in black with black twisted horns and bright red lips. Jolie is perfect casting once again and shows her precision at the English accent as in her Lara Croft days. (For some reason the bad King and his subjects are all Scottish.) Some movie trivia, the facial make-up was designed and created by Oscar winning special effects master Rick Baker, who won an Oscar for best make up for An American Werewolf in London (1981).
Elle Fanning does an excellent job with Princess Aurora and also has a very passable English accent and she portrays the character with an innocence and likeability that even Maleficent finds difficult to resist.
The film has some quite graphic fight scenes and could be scary for some younger children but then again kids have always loved being scared. But the film has been certified PG. The younger audience will also enjoy the creatures that live in the Moors but I did think they were somewhat reminiscent of the Jim Henson workshop characters in Terry Jones 1986 fantasy movie Labyrinth. Also the three fairies with their human heads on tiny little CGI flying bodies was kind of freaky.
Three and a half out of five Foker On Film stars.
In cinemas from today.
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