One Who Was Both Hero and Villain: Maleficent (2014)

So every year I do a Disney film. So here we go!

…One who was both hero and villain. And her name was Maleficent.

So I never was ever interested in seeing this film. I am the biggest Sleeping Beauty fan and I just felt that this story did not need to be made. After all this film is amazing:

And one of the best parts was the terrifying Maleficent:

And then when she turns into a dragon!!!

AMAZING!!!!!

When I saw the remake, you know me:

I mean why did they have to give her a whole betrayed back story. Why couldn’t she just have been pissed and wanted revenge-fairies aren’t like humans they feel one emotion exponentially.

Or why couldn’t she have just been evil? Wanted to have world domination? Wanted to take down people? If men can be, why not a woman? Like Chernabog.

Anyways, my friend loved the movie. She felt it was the perfect post-betrayed in love film you could watch.

So the film is that Maleficent is this wonderful fairy who protects the forest and one day befriends a human boy, Stephen. They fall in love but are torn apart as he wants money and power and Maleficent wants her home.

The King tries to destroy the creatures on the moors, but are stopped as they are much more powerful. He promises to give anyone ultimate power-daughter’s hand in marriage and be future King if one can destroy them. Stephen sees it as his chance, finds Maleficent and the two reconcile.

Not really as he just did it to get her drunk and kill her.

But he doesn’t kill her, there is a shred of humanity in him, and he instead cuts off her wings.

Nooo

Fastfoward King Stephen and the Queen have a daughter-Aurora. Maleficent does the curse-not nearly as epic as the cartoon and everything progresses as in the film. Except the fairies suck at everything as only focus on themselves-and Maleficent watches over her-becoming a mother to her.

King Stephen has gone crazy and when his daughter and Maleficent come and the curse is played out there is this big fight, blah, blah, blah.

Meh.

I found it so boooooooring.

I actually fell asleep as I just could not stand this character of the film. They acted like it was “new” “never done before” “told in a brand new light”. But it wasn’t. You knew what was going to happen, you knew the ending.

Rather not watch

The only part that was funny was my friend and I were kind of bashing on the betrayal of men, and how Aurora and Maleficent are happy-until a man comes along, Prince Phillip.

Then I saw him, and said “he’s a cute man-but still stay away”-my friend just looked at me and we both started laughing.

I couldn’t help it-he reminds me of a guy I had a crush on ten years ago when I was a teenager.

Very cute

But even without that, I love Prince Phillip-he was always my favorite prince.

Prince Philip

So yeah, I did not care for it-espechially Angelina Jolie. I don’t like her at all as an actress, I don’t think she is good and especially dull in this. Maleficent was powerful, evil, terrifying, the stuff of nightmares. And in this, she was none of that, nowhere near that. Eleanor Audley is the true queen of darkness.

To start Horrorfest VII from the beginning, go to It’s the End of the World: The Birds (1963)

For the previous post, go to Will We Survive the Night?: Rawhide (1951)

For more Sleeping Beauty, go toI Would Go Through Anything for You: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

For more Disney, go toI Can Show You the World: Aladdin (1992)

Night on Bald Mountain: Fantasia (1940)

Musically and dramatically, we have here a picture of the struggle between the profane and the sacred.

I know I have already reviewed an animated film with The Corpse Bride, but did you really think I was going to let Horrorfest go by without reviewing a Disney film or TV episode?

I can’t remember when I first watched Fantasia, but I know I was young because I became very antsy during the watching. In fact I remember trying to leave part way through…

And my mom stopped me and made me finish watching it.

Out of all the scenes, there are three that have remained firmly stuck in my memory. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, of course, as it starred Mickey Mouse. Who doesn’t love Mickey?

Then the ballerina part with the Hippopotamuses, the Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli.

Reminds me of Degas

And the part with the Devil.

I saw that and had only one reaction:

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was an amazing short, but so terrifying. He was just so EVIL.

And apparently I wasn’t the only one horrified. To this day Disney receives letters complaining about how terrifying this part is for kids. Because of such massive complaints, Disney actually removed this part from the initial video release, but later restored it.

He is probably the scariest of all Disney villains and animated creations.

I’m getting shivers

So the piece is actually a combination of two musical pieces: Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert.

The Night on Bald Mountain is about witches and demons worshipping their master, the Devil, also known as Chernabog. He comes out of the mountain

And awaken all his supporters. From witches:

To zombies in their graves:

To skeletons and ghosts:

And they all praise and dance around him. His pure evil is terrifying and frightening.

Nothing can stop him except for one thing. The church bells ring and a choir sings Ave Maria by Franz Schubert. It’s message of hope, Mary, and Christ destroys the power of the devil and sends him back into the Earth.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5

The music is fantastic, the animation exquisite, and an all around great experience; check it out.

To start Horrorfest V, from the beginning, go to Who You Gonna Call?: Ghostbusters (1984)

For the previous post, go to Have You Checked the Children: When a Stranger Calls (1979)

For more Disney, go to Fan-do or Fan-don’t. There is No Fan-try

For more animated films, go to He’s Married to a Corpse. He Has A Corpse Bride!: Corpse Bride (2005)

For more Classic Disney, go to For She Filled Their Lives With Sunshine

For more Disney villains, go to There’s No One Like Gaston