Thoughts on "Maleficent"

Still frame from Maleficent.

(Spoilers for Maleficent follow.)

(Also seriously, when I say thoughts, I mean disjointed sentence fragments.)

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Those prosthetic cheekbones. The art directors really knew how to live-action!elf.

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Oh my god, Sleeping Beauty's castle was Sleeping Beauty's castle all along.

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I spent most of the movie expecting a downer ending — I mean, everyone knows how the original story ended for Maleficent, right? Ratcheted up the tension considerably, as I was constantly caught between Oh no, how is she going to die? and Disney wouldn't kill a protagonist, right? Even an antihero....

Generally speaking, loved all the little reversals of the original story, the carefully handled subversion of the stock-standard witches, bad; kings, good fairy tale trope, and in general all the depth the characters ended up with.

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Baelfire and Elphaba begin their illicit romance. Still frame from Maleficent.

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OH MY GOD THEY PULLED A FROZEN

I am so happy about Disney's recent track record on subverting the slightly narrow traditional tropes re: the nature of love.

I am particularly loving how the two characters who aren't related by blood.

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Alan Rickman is Hans Gruber.