{"id":464,"date":"2014-05-30T04:13:04","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T04:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/?p=464"},"modified":"2014-05-30T04:13:04","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T04:13:04","slug":"maleficent-is-magnificent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Maleficent’ is Magnificent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Angelina<\/a>
Angelina is Maleficent. (Disney)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I couldn\u2019t wait to see Angelina Jolie\u2019s performance as Maleficent in Disney\u2019s upside down production of the Sleeping Beauty<\/i> story, but I half expected to walk away being disappointed. Instead, I was thrilled.<\/p>\n

This movie is not for those who have never seen Walt Disney\u2019s original animated \u201959 film or are not familiar with the basic story. No, this is a movie for those who have and if you think you\u2019ll just see a rehashing of the same old story, think again. Linda Woolverton, who has written many screenplays for Disney including 2010\u2019s Alice in Wonderland<\/i>, has written another fantastic example of storytelling. It takes a special knack in telling a story that follows the basic premise of the original tale that you and then showing you a different side to it. Honestly, I didn\u2019t know how the movie was going to end, which made the movie very fun to watch. It is full of action and adventure. Even the theme song, \u201cOnce Upon a Dream,\u201d sung by Lana Del Rey during the end credits is creepy-sounding.<\/p>\n

\"Diaval<\/a>
Diaval (Sam Riley) and Maleficent (Angelina Jolie).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is by no surprise how good Jolie is in role of the villain. The scenes during baby Princess Aurora\u2019s coronation are especially impressive and match the iconic role of the original. She is deliciously evil, but as this version will tell you, she wasn\u2019t always.<\/p>\n

Maleficent was a good and powerfully strong fairy that protected the woodland creatures. However, as you have undoubtedly seen in the previews, her giant wings were stolen from her. This knocked her powers down a bit but only fueled her hatred for all of mankind. She saves a crow from some hunters by turning him into a man named Diaval (Sam Riley) who then acts as her servant and her \u201cwings.\u201d Diaval spies on King Stephen (Sharlto Copley) and reports back to her that the king and queen have just had a baby girl and\u2026well, you know how that goes.<\/p>\n

\"Elle<\/a>
Elle Fanning plays Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The three fairies that help raise Aurora in a cabin in the woods; Flittle (Leslie Manville), Thistletwit (Juno Temple) and Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton) have their hands full with just one baby to take care of. As Aurora grows older, she ventures further and further away from her home and mistakes Maleficent as her fairy godmother. Meanwhile King Stephen grows angrier and angrier seeking revenge against the dark one. Elle Fanning makes a fine Aurora, but this really isn\u2019t her movie. It belongs to Jolie.<\/p>\n

In the end, Maleficent<\/i> is a story of good, evil, love and redemption. It also shares a very real truth that one\u2019s actions cannot be erased by magic and that there are consequences for our bad behavior. It is rated PG and will probably be too intense for little ones. Rule of thumb \u2013 if your kids can\u2019t handle the animated Maleficent, they won\u2019t very much warm up to this one either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I couldn\u2019t wait to see Angelina Jolie\u2019s performance as Maleficent in Disney\u2019s upside down production of the Sleeping Beauty story, but I half expected to walk away being disappointed. Instead, I was thrilled. This movie is not for those who have never seen Walt Disney\u2019s original animated \u201959 film or are not familiar with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":558,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[433,11,434,435,431,105,436,437,432],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-angelina-jolie","tag-disney","tag-elle-fanning","tag-linda-woolverton","tag-maleficent","tag-movie-review","tag-sam-riley","tag-sharlto-copley","tag-sleeping-beauty"],"yoast_head":"\n'Maleficent' is Magnificent - Peanuts and Popcorn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Maleficent' is Magnificent - Peanuts and Popcorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I couldn\u2019t wait to see Angelina Jolie\u2019s performance as Maleficent in Disney\u2019s upside down production of the Sleeping Beauty story, but I half expected to walk away being disappointed. 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Instead, I was thrilled. This movie is not for those who have never seen Walt Disney\u2019s original animated \u201959 film or are not familiar with the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html","og_site_name":"Peanuts and Popcorn","article_published_time":"2014-05-30T04:13:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/files\/2014\/05\/Male1.jpg"}],"author":"jtotey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html","name":"'Maleficent' is Magnificent - Peanuts and Popcorn","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/files\/2014\/05\/Male1.jpg","datePublished":"2014-05-30T04:13:04+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-30T04:13:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/2fcd2b7feca86d23643f1975b9fbc15d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/files\/2014\/05\/Male1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/files\/2014\/05\/Male1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/2014\/05\/maleficent-is-magnificent.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"‘Maleficent’ is Magnificent"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/","name":"Peanuts and Popcorn","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jeffrey Totey","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/#\/schema\/person\/2fcd2b7feca86d23643f1975b9fbc15d","name":"jtotey","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/author\/jtotey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/558"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/peanutsandpopcorn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}