If you don’t mind spoilers, read my review of the recently released movie Maleficent here in The Federalist, “Maleficent: Once Upon a Screed.”
The movie is supposed to be a reinvention of the 1959 Disney classic Sleeping Beauty — from the witch Maleficent’s point of view. But something essential to the original allegory is completely missing from this hash-up. That would be the determination of Prince Phillip to unite with Princess Aurora despite the forces of evil — personified by the fearsome witch Maleficent — that tried so hard to separate them. That struggle is what made the original story so enchanting and captivating. The new spin portrays Maleficent as a sympathetic and good-hearted fairy gone bad and preaches the tagline: “Evil is Complicated.” (See the trailer above.) But, in the end, this “new” propagandized Maleficent ultimately has the same old agenda: the separation of men and women. Only this time, you’re not supposed to notice.
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