Maleficent~ You’ll Never Look At That Dragon the Same Way Again

The 1959 classic is told “anew” in Maleficent; the Walt Disney Pictures film is released in theaters today, May 30th 2014. My sons and I were oh so lucky to locate a 3D IMAX version in a local venue last evening, and donned the 3D specs for an early glimpse of this, the story that is held between the pages of the Sleeping Beauty tale.

Visually beautiful yet often haunting, the fairy-laden moors are fit for a Disney heroine.  Or two.  Though Sleeping Beauty Castle does not resemble the Disneyland version, you will recognize Aurora’s christening, her fairy protectors, the spinning wheel and Prince Phillip.  Perhaps that is all you will remember from your story books in this emotion-packed one hour and 38 minute film.  We thought Angelina Jolie forever changed the persona of the long-loathed sorceress, and has cast a spell over Sleeping Beauty fans for years to come.  It is difficult not to draw parallels between Maleficent and Angeina Jolie’s personal health issues and physical transformations, which makes the character’s agony seem all the more vivid.

Before you see Maleficent the magnificent, you may want to read on the D23 site about how the original film art influenced filming, production, and the adaptation of the central characters.  You’ll learn that it is not an accident that Maleficent is the most beautiful of Disney villains… (Thank goodness for the decades long of work of the Disney archivists!)

You MUST see this “Once Upon a Dream”; it is true love’s kiss in 2014 style.  The only problem I have with the movie is this: Who will I be rooting for the next time I see Fantasmic!?