Escape to the Movies: Maleficent - An Unusual Fairy Tale of Revenge

[Diddy_Mao]

Hmm. I've never really understood the appeal of Angelina Jolie as an actor but I'll admit she has a presence in this role that at least intrigues me and I do admit I love the visual style they've gone for.

The review/critique at least gives me hope for an interesting ride if nothing else.

I'm surprised at the whole 'sympathetic villain' backlash movies like Maleficent have been getting.

I thought giving dimension to characters, through backstory and perspective change, was the way to give them depth.

It's a tricky tightrope to walk though. Staging events to make villainous actions relatable or even potentially justified is one thing and when done well they can provide an alternate take on a character that I'm more than prepared to accept.

My primary complaint with the setup to Maleficent was that I don't want to see a complete revisionist story that repaints her as the hero of the story.

What I'm more concerned with is taking an established setting and characters and revising the structure to make the villain into the hero.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Oh, and I don't think Jafar would be the ideal candidate for a revisionist retelling; I think it could work for Scar or the villain from Frozen, though. Maybe Gaston as well.

Actually, I think touching any of the post Little Mermaid works would be a bad idea. In those cases, all the villains were actually developed enough to make such revisionism unlikely. Jafar wanted the power of both magic and politics. Gaston was already an inversion of the traditional hunter hero by turning him into a jock (and likely rapist). And the Lion King is kind of untouchable given that it has had two major incarnations[footnote]the screen version which held a top ten grossing box office for more than a decade (and remains the highest grossing hand-drawn animation) and the iconic Broadway stage production that could be regarded as starting the Broadway Megashow era[/footnote], both of which are divergent enough to make a reboot unjustified.

OT: So, yeah... I think I'll take a look at this one just to see what it looks like.

The thing that gets me about this movie is, Who is it's audience?

It's not for kids or families
It's not for teenagers
It's not for males craving CGI transformers type of action
I doubt it's going to appeal towards women (not being one I couldn't say for sure, but wife has no interest).
It's not an art house type of movie

So I'm really asking, who is this movie made for?

Teenagers would be one audience, particularly the Tolkien-loving crowd, as well as Gen Xers and boomers who grew up with the story as part of their childhood.

 

[bladeofdarkness]

THEY ALREADY DID JAFAR !!!.
__________________________
there is a musical called "Twisted" which wickedfy the story of Aladdin and turns Jafar into the incredibly sympathetic hero, while being a very faithful adaptation of the disney film in terms of events.
you can see the entire on Youtube.

its crazy awesome.

 

[MowDownJoe]

Oh god please tell me your joking and there is not a Jajar revisionist film in the works!

That would be sure to fuckup and be extremely yet unintentionally racist.

Gilbert Gottfried is heading back into the Disney voice-acting studios. That only means one thing.

 

[themilo504]

The movie sounds completely bat shit insane, haven?t decided if I want to watch it.

I have a very good reason why you don?t want maleficent to wipe out the humans, mass murder is bad.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Oh god please tell me your joking and there is not a Jajar revisionist film in the works!

That would be sure to fuckup and be extremely yet unintentionally racist.

Gilbert Gottfried is heading back into the Disney voice-acting studios. That only means one thing.

That Disney bought out another comic studio and is making a Spawn reboot?

 

[lionday]

Huh. I thought you'd hate this because as you said, Maleficent is the first and only Disney villain to be played completely straight without any redeeming factor or quirkiness to her. To try and create a framework capable of painting the 'mistress of all evil' as good sounds awkward as all hell.

As for Jafar, it's already halfway done. The Sultan is an incompetent buffoon without a clue how to run a kingdom who inherited it by birthright. I've already read a fairly good fic where Jafar starts out taken on as a palace guard in his youth and murders and backstabs his way up to the top because he feels he would run the kingdom better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77cUxba-aA

Hey look a musical all about Jafar as a good guy!
It's actually fairly well done and makes jokes about other disney villains being not as bad as their movie counterparts.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

A Jafar story in this vein would probably be set in the fucking Crusades.

 

[Merklyn236]

The more I've heard about this film makes me wonder if they wrote the full story out (mutilation/revenge included) and then someone pointed out what the unintentional subtext was and they collectively tried to undo the damage with the second act. Sometimes we write things and then others have to look at it to make us understand what we accidentally came up with.

Or it could have been 'The maniacal love-child of Mae West and Vegeta on bath salts.' You never know.

 

[jdarksun]

That was an awesome review, Bob. I'll definitely catch this one when it hits video.

 

[LobsterFeng]

So should we just ignore the spoiler warning from now on? I mean if you hadn't included them in the last two reviews I honestly don't think anyone would have noticed or cared.

 

[Jofe]

Sounds interesting. Though from what Bob says it looks like the movie would be better without the whole second act. Like it should have ended with the start of the original (well the Disney version) Sleeping Beauty. You know, she arrives to the castle in the middle of the celebration gets close to baby Aurora and credits roll. You already know what's going to happen and there's nothing more to say.

 

[Xman490]

The second act here might not be as "weird and clunky" as it is just cliched. It's a familiar sequence of events in which a very powerful not-quite-human character learns about how good mankind can be and decides not to destroy at least part of it.

 

[Frozengale]

So, we should never watch your video's again because they're going to contain spoilers every, single time. >_>

Seems like it. I'm getting pretty sick of Bob not being able to actually discuss a movie without spoiling huge plot points. Probably not worth it to watch his stuff anymore.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

Bob's review convinced me to check it out just for the hell of it. This movie sounds like such a crazy idea that I can't help but want to see it with my own eyes.

Oh, and I don't think Jafar would be the ideal candidate for a revisionist retelling; I think it could work for Scar or the villain from Frozen, though. Maybe Gaston as well.

I'm torn regarding the idea of Jafar getting his story rewritten.[footnote] Saw a great idea but I hate the ideas of either Aladdin being the villain or Jasmine falling for Jafar.[/footnote] I do think a Gaston rewrite could be excellent if it turned out that among other things, Beauty gets Stockholm Syndrome during her time with Beast who really is just a dangerous animal, and the 'castle' could either be an abandoned one that the beast moved into or a cave filled with some familiar junk that Beauty decides can talk so that the grim, depressing nature of her situation doesn't drive her insane. Gaston could be someone who has loved her since they were kids, but because of his slight social ineptness he picks on her and comes across as bully because he can't bring himself to admit his feelings.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

So...take my 6 year old, Disney Princess obsessed daughter to see this, or not?

Considering this is either PG-13 or higher (I have no idea what the US rating is, in Europe it's PEGI 12).
I don't think it's a good idea, unless your daughter is mentally quite mature for her age.
This is a scary, ultra-dark version of a Disney fairy tale, if she's like the average 6-year-old she'll have nightmares for weeks if you're lucky.

 

[Sylocat]

THEY ALREADY DID JAFAR !!!.
__________________________
there is a musical called "Twisted" which wickedfy the story of Aladdin and turns Jafar into the incredibly sympathetic hero, while being a very faithful adaptation of the disney film in terms of events.
you can see the entire on Youtube.

its crazy awesome.

"All I wanted was a coat made out of puppies!"
"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!"

 

[PunkRex]

O... kay, well i'm sure as hell giving it a watch.