Tonight’s movie was Maleficent. The story is somewhat derived from the Sleeping Beauty fables. In this one, a magical fairy land abuts a human settlement, with the usual human tendencies toward, avarice, greed, funk and dirt. Angelina Jolie, a flying fairy queen from the magic land, is deprived of her wings by a scheming man and plans her revenge, which includes taking over the life of the daughter of the scheming man, who has now become king. The daughter, however, is a paragon of innocence, and escapes the scheming and revenge of her father and her jealous would be “mother”, much to the consternation of Maleficent. We also have her sleeping, a cute guy who kisses her and a twisted resolution.
Two observations - it’s a strange, twisted plot that reminds me of the parental drama of Mozart’s Magic Flute as much as any Sleeping Beauty story I have heard. The other is that in the usual summer fare of high production pop-movies with lots of digital animation, this one stands out. It’s obvious that Disney and Pixar realize that their reputations rest on really terrific animation. This movie has live action green-screened actors, who constantly morph into vapors and animals as well as a completely fantasized plant and animal population and a whole menagerie of fairies, nymphs, walking trees and dragons. The look, the detail, the design and aesthetics of this world blow completely past this summer’s other fare of comic superheros and creatures. In this case, Disney and Pixar completely rule. The visuals are stunning.
Acting wise, nothing stands out here all that much except Angelina Jolie’s knife-like cheek bones, enhanced enough to cut diamonds. None of the actors are any better or worse than they need to be, but, after all, acting would distract from the amazing set design and animation. The look is more than enough to be a reason to see the movie. It was fairly dark and tense and Jolie’s character was scary enough to prompt some exits of moms with crying young kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XO4XiRop0
