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Angelina Jolie has long been a vocal activist, with her acting work intertwining with politics occasionally. The Mrs. Smith actress’ biggest solo hit, Maleficent, incentivized her activism to fit Disney’s shift to reimagine fairy tales for a progressive crowd. The studio’s push to deliver some kind of message via recreating its old stories significantly altered the 2014 rendition of Sleeping Beauty.
Starring alongside Elle Fanning as Aurora, Jolie plays the designated titular evil queen, except this time her character’s not purely villainous but victimized by Aurora’s father, a white man. Moreover, unlike the 1959 original, the prince’s kiss doesn’t wake Aurora either, and it’s Maleficent’s bond with her that resuscitates her, twisting the classic rescue. While such swaps set the stage for a different tone, Maleficent also subtly camouflages itself as a disturbing tale of a “rape revenge fantasy.”
The story of Maleficent conspicuously casts Stefan, Aurora’s father, as the true betrayer. In one of the earlier sequences, he slips Maleficent a drug and cuts off her wings while she sleeps, leaving her broken. While kids were the target demographic of the PG-rated flick, critics alluded to this particular scene as an allegory for r**e, citing a man violating a woman after intoxicating her. Apparently, the journalists weren’t wrong in their attribution, and Jolie confirmed it.
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Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Jolie addressed the notion. “‘What could make a woman become so dark and lose all sense of her maternity, her womanhood, and her softness?,’ she posed the question before answering it. “We were very conscious, the writer and I, that [the scene] was a metaphor for r**e.” The Maria star added, “At the core, it is abuse, and how the abused then have a choice of abusing others or overcoming and remaining loving, open people.”
This r**e stand-in — a man’s act against her — drives the film’s revenge thread. Maleficent paints Jolie’s lead as a victim who rises, not a cold queen. While her curse on Aurora is still occasioned out of her animosity toward Stefan, betraying the original tale, Maleficent’s tie to the girl heals her by the end. This spin stands apart from Disney’s old line of helpless princesses saved by love. Jolie’s voice on the pain and choice lifts it beyond a simple tale. It nevertheless remains Disney’s family venture, wrapped in fun, but the core digs into abuse and recovery.
Incidentally, audiences either did not catch on to the social commentary or chose to let it slide, finding Maleficent adequately appropriate, attributed to its miraculous popularity at the box office. It grossed $758 million worldwide, per The Numbers, consolidating Disney’s efforts to focus on a new generation of viewers with altered angles in its movies.
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