I know you,
I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you,
That look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
And I know its true
That visions are seldom all they seem
But if i know you
I know what you’ll do
You’ll love me at once,like what you did once upon a dream.
Once upon a night,
I dreamed we’d be together
In love forever.
Once upon a night,
I was wishing for a never,
A never ending.
Once upon a night
Once upon a time
Once upon a wish
Once upon a dream.

 

I decided to watch the movie because my sister told me to go watch it because Maleficient is magnificent. I tagged along my 9-year old nephew to watch the movie with me though he is basically just accompanying me to watch the movie just for the popcorn, hehe…

Maleficent is a real story about the wicked “godmother” in the Sleeping Beauty” fairytale. I believe there is two sides of a story and this is Maleficent’s story. Who you believe is completely up to you.

Beware: this contains spoilers

Maleficent is a unique-looking fairy, born with a dark horns and a beautiful big wings. She is not really evil. She even had a friendship and fell in love once … to Aurora, Sleeping Beauty’s father, Stefan. However, Stefan was an ambitious and deceiving man who shared a “true love’s kiss” with Maleficent in her 16th birthday and never saw her again. But she did see Stefan again after Maleficent had an angry exchange with the King. The King wanted Maleficent killed and Stefan saw this as a ticket to the throne since the King was getting old and sickly. Stefan met with his outcasted childhood friend. He didn’t kill her and while she was sleeping, he chopped off her magnificent wings. Maleficent woke up, wingless and gave out a heartbreaking cry. Stefan later on became the successor to the throne and became known as King Stefan. While Maleficent got darker and became bitter with hate and revenge for Stefan. So that is the backstory of why Maleficent casted that deadly sleep spell to Princess Aurora. Now, do you blame her?

Robert Stromberg, the director of Maleficent is a newbie director who is know more as a production designer and a whiz on visual effects. He has worked his magic on Life of Pi, Hunger Games,  Oz the Great & Powerful and Alice in the Wonderland. So it is no surprise that Maleficent is visual treat. Even with the darkness of the story, he colored the screen with marvellous visual effects.

In the 1959 “Sleeping Beauty” cartoon, my favorites were the three adorable god fairies. But in the movie, they were turned into dimwit fairies which is not to my liking. Maybe it is how they were portrayed. In the 1993 movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ , the three witches played  by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker were also very silly witches but they still came out adorable and funny unlike the god fairies in Maleficent.

I like the raven in the movie who was turned into a man by Maleficent. He became Maleficent right hand in her evil plans. He was played by Sam Riley, a British actor. He was very likeable and played his role well beside Angelina Jolie.

Princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty was played by Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning’s little sister. I always imagine Aurora to be this generic perfect-cheekboned blond perfection. But Elle Fanning came off more a pretty charming young lady. It seems her beauty is more because of her happy disposition, her smile and nice personality.

All the characters seem to fit the role perfectly except the prince. I don’t know he was chosen for the role. But he come off weak and ‘un-rememberable’. He reminds me of that least popular member of a boy band, totally forgetful and lacks character.

No one can play the role of Maleficent other than the amazing Angelina Jolie. She has played the role impeccably. She was dark and sweet at the same time. She balanced strong and soft perfectly. She has given Maleficent a big heart and she manages to capture people’s empathy and compassion for this troubled character. Another star of the movie is her overly-contured cheekbones, haha. How she manages to look gorgeous with those weird pointy cheekbones is beyond me hehe.. That’s the Angelina Jolie power, hehe. I would commend her make-up artist. Maleficient was beautiful. I love how flawless her skin is, so fair and poreless. She was glowing. I like the colour of her eyes (or contact lenses). And of course, what is Maleficent trade-mark? Not her horns, not her lost wings but her blood-red lipstick. Ahhhh, love love her red lips. Is that MAC Ruby Woo? Now, I feel like sporting red lips everyday, hehe.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s cute daughter  also made a cameo on the movie as the young Aurora.

Maleficent is not a romantic love story unlike Sleeping Beauty. It is a story that everyone has a good heart and an evil heart. All  it takes a trigger for which kind of heart will be revealed. It is a story of a motherly love for a child. It came off as Maleficent was sort-of a surrogate mother to Princess Aurora as she grows up into a beautiful lady. My witty nephew even said that Maleficent is like Frozen because Frozen didn’t focus on romantic love but more on sisterly love.

Maleficent was a beautiful and heart-warming movie with lovely picturesque scenes. It would touch a child and adult’s hearts alike.  Angelina Jolie carried the whole movie wonderfully. We have learned a lesson from this movie that there is always two-sides of a story. Hear both side first before judging.

I’ll leave you with this Lana Del Rey’s version of the song “Once Upon A Dream”. It does sound more like a theme-song for a horror movie than a fairytale but it is very befitting. My nephew used to hate this song but now, he would request for me to sing it. If I sing it with a high-pitch voice, he would say: No, sing it with a creepy voice like in Maleficent. Hahaha! yes, I have a weirdly-cute nephew. Hahaha!