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Urban Chat: Maleficent, the multitudes of human psyche
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Angelina Jolie plays as the titular queen in ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.’ (Disney/-)
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nyone who grew up reading the original Sleeping Beauty story might remember Maleficent as the evil sorcerer who cast a woeful spell on King Stefan's newborn daughter because she wasn't invited to the christening. Her character was so one-dimensional many didn’t remember her name beyond “the angry witch in a black cloak.”
Disney, in tune with the rising gender equality wave of recent decades, has sought to rewrite many fairytales that stereotyped female characters into sinless beauty vs sinful ugly, or damsel in distress in need of a male rescuer vs powerful evil witch.
Animated musical film Mulan in 1998 was a start. Daughters can be just as strong and valuable as sons to a family. The Alice in Wonderland franchise, the latest Beauty and the Beast, Frozen and Moana, all showed strong, smart and independent lead female characters. In fact, Moana was so resourceful that a university professor of Polynesian history in Hawaii complained that Maui, a benevolent god in the official legend, was misleadingly depicted as a colossal jackass.
In 2014, Disney gave a background story on who Maleficent really was, a once good fairy whose hellish fury was the result of her having been scorned by her human boyfriend prince who later became King Stefan. Disney got us warmed up to Maleficent by showing how she practically raised Aurora for those sixteen exile years, since the fairy trio the King sent out as nannies were hopeless.
Fast forward to 2019, peace prevails between Maleficent's domain, the Moors and Aurora's kingdom. Now a young queen, Aurora is engaged to Prince Phillips of the neighboring kingdom. New troubles brews as the prince's mother, the pearl-bedecked Queen Ingrith, deceptively keeps her own designs and scores to settle with the Moors. Maleficent is goaded into returning to her dark side, discovering her true origin and kin on her journey. It is a Disney family production after all, eventually evil doesn't get to win.
Yet for adults, the story is as deep and unsettling as the wretched world we live in now.
The root of Queen Ingrith's wrath is the disproportionate distribution of wealth she saw as a young princess, when her father's kingdom fell into poverty while the wealthy Moors nearby refused to lend a hand. Cast out as a refugee, Ingrith lucked out when she found another king to marry – after which she vowed vengeance. What tool does she use? Fake news.
