Maleficent

This film is a live-action re-imagining of Walt Disney's 1959 animated film, Sleeping Beauty, portraying the story from the perspective of the antagonist, Maleficent.

The story begins with the innocent and kind fairy named Maleficent lives in the Moors, a magical forest realm bordering a corrupt human kingdom. As a young girl, she befriends and falls in love with a human boy named Stefan, whose affection for Maleficent is overshadowed by his ambition to become king.

young Maleficent

young Stefan

young Maleficent and Stefan in Moors

As the two grow older, they become estranged, and Maleficent becomes protector of the Moors. When King Henry tries to conquer the Moors, Maleficent commands primeval forces and make him retreat. Mortally wounded in battle, he declares that whoever kills Maleficent will be named his successor and will marry Princess Leila, his only daughter.

Princess Leila

King Henry

Stefan cuts off Maleficent's wings as proof of her death because he cannot bring himself to kill her. Now a wingless and hate-filled Maleficent declares herself as Queen of the Moors, turning it into a dark and oppressive realm. Diaval, a raven she has saved acts as her confidant.

On the christening for the newborn daughter of King Stefan and Queen Leila, Princess Aurora, Maleficent crashes the party and curses the infant princess: on her 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep from which she will never awaken, and the only antidote is a true love's kiss.

Stefan sends Aurora to live with the three pixies - Knotgrass, Thistlewit and Flittle until the day after her 16th birthday, while he destroys all the spinning wheels in the kingdom and hides them in the castle dungeon. Maleficent begins to care for Aurora when the neglectful pixies fail to do so and Aurora calls her as "fairy godmother". Aurora was always aware someone watched over her. Maleficent attempts to revoke the curse but unsuccessful since she stated "No power on earth can change it"  when she first cast the curse.

Aurora later meets a young prince named Phillip, and the two are instantly enamored with each other. Diaval thinks this must be the key to lift the curse, but Maleficent reveals that this supposed antidote was a mere trick on her part as true love doesn't exist.

On the day of Aurora's 16th birthday, Maleficent hopes to avoid curse so invites her to live in the Moors. When the pixies inadvertently tell Aurora of her parentage and of Maleficent's true identity, a horrified Aurora runs away to her father's castle.After a short-lived reunion with Aurora, Stefan locks her away in her room for safety. However, she is drawn by the curse to the dungeon and pricks her finger on the spindle of the spinning wheel and she falls into a deep sleep, completing the curse......

Is Phillip's kiss the true love's kiss which could break the spell? Or Aurora will deep sleep forever and never awaken? To find out the ending,you should really watch this film after reading this post, this film successfully changes to a meaningful fairy tale.