Maleficent is an incredible villain. She simply exudes evil. And it’s not the kind of evil that’s difficult to enjoy watching like bullying or the Professor Umbridge template. This is an evil that’s fun to watch, as you never know just what she’s going to do. All you know is it’s going to come at the expense of others with a chance of messing with their heads. I mean, the sole reason she cursed Aurora in the first place was because Aurora’s foolish parents didn’t invite her to the party! She cursed a newborn infant to die because she wasn’t invited to a party. How insane is that? To cause further grief she didn’t even kill Aurora there on the spot. She placed the curse to take effect in 16 years, causing 16 years of worry and grief for Aurora’s parents. Now that’s how a Disney villain should act! She owns every scene she’s in throughout the film. Her power is extraordinary and frankly she should be the one ruling the kingdom. I love how she openly taunts Phillip once he’s her prisoner. She lets him know just how close he is to achieving his fairy tale ending only to then remind him that he’s her prisoner and is helpless to stop her. Freeing Phillip is basically the only thing the fairies do correctly, and it leads to the greatest scene in Sleeping Beauty.
The music during this final battle is such a perfect, intense fit to the animation. Complete with lightning going off in the background, the atmosphere is perfect for an epic battle. It’s such a delight to watch Maleficent demonstrate her power. With the swish of her staff she creates a jungle of thorns blocking Phillip’s access to the castle where Aurora is sleeping. It slows him down, but Phillip is persistent. So what does Maleficent do? She turns herself into an awesome dragon that spits green flames. The animation here is incredible. I love the art style the entire film took, but here especially. The flames are great, the background’s great, and so are the characters of Maleficent the dragon and Prince Phillip. It’s such an epic duel to close out the film, and the death scene is one of the best within the canon. Prince Phillip heroically plunges the enchanted sword into her gut, and we see her plummet to her death amidst the rising flames.
It really is the perfect story tale ending to the perfect story tale. It’s one of Disney’s best films, filled with a great hero and a terrific villain, beautiful animation, and a score that works really well in the context of the film. It has its flaws, namely the three fairies, but Maleficent is such a fantastic villain she makes up for it and more. I will never understand why this film bombed so hard at the box office. It’s beautiful!
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