Paula Fleri-Soler takes a behind-the-scenes look at Maleficent – Mistress of Evil.
2014’s Maleficent introduced audiences to one of Disney’s most notorious villains – Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent – played with equal menace and poignancy by Angelina Jolie.
The film recounted the journey of the antihero who put a curse on the new-born baby princess Aurora, inducing her to sleep forever. Events took an unorthodox turn from what we knew from the story growing up – resulting in a film that grossed over $750 million worldwide.
The success sparked interest in the filmmakers to continue telling the story. “I always wanted to come back because I loved doing the first one. I loved what it said about people and how they’re not always what you think they are and not always what you assume,” says Jolie.
“We wanted to make sure we had the right story and knew what we wanted to say about this unique relationship.”
Returning screenwriter Linda Woolverton teamed up with co-screenwriters Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue and created a screenplay that picks up several years after the events of the first film. The story continues to explore the complex relationship between Maleficent and the now grown-up Aurora (Elle Fanning). Their starting-off point was the realisation that Aurora would now be a woman taking on adult responsibilities and embarking on a journey to find herself amid two feuding worlds.
“This movie is very much about human emotions,” adds Fanning. “We are in this fantastical universe, but it really boils down to the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora, and that will always be what draws me to a story.”
In the years that have passed since we last met them, Maleficent and Aurora’s relationship has flourished. While the dark fairy’s thirst for vengeance was the reason behind the original curse placed on the infant princess, it was also her love that broke it.
I loved what it said about people and how they’re not always what you think they are and not always what you assume
She has raised Aurora as her own and bestowed her goddaughter with the title Queen of the Moors. Aurora’s love for her godmother, in return, is unconditional.
In this story, Aurora and Maleficent spend a fair amount of time apart, giving them a chance to discover who they are without each other, where they are meant to be and what it’s like to live without each other.
Aurora is about to marry Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson), from the neighbouring kingdom of Ulstead. This is cause for much celebration, as the wedding serves to unite the human and fairy worlds.
While Philip’s parents are thrilled with news of their son’s engagement, Maleficent is hesitant to embrace the union, knowing all too well the pain that love can bring.
Philip’s father King John (Robert Lindsay), is married to Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), a cunning, conniving and selfish woman, and a worthy adversary to Maleficent. Seemingly good on the surface, she has a rotten core underneath her cultivated and poised exterior.
Queen Ingrith invites Maleficent to an intimate dinner at Castle Ulstead – with the explicit aim of casting Maleficent in a negative light and driving Aurora from her godmother and into the arms of her new mother-in-law, firmly testing the bonds between the two. Jolie liked the fact that this new story would address some big and still relevant issues.
“What makes a family, and what is it that brings them together,” she ponders. “Is Aurora better suited to a life spent running around barefoot in the Moors with fairies, where all creatures are treated as equals, or is she meant to be living in a castle in the human world with human problems and concerns?” Maleficent – Mistress of Evil addresses all that, and more.
The not inconsiderable lead female cast is joined by Sam Riley, who returns as Maleficent’s faithful companion, the raven Diaval; Chiwetel Ejiofor as mysterious figure Conall, who comes to Maleficent’s rescue in a particular hour of need; Conall’s comrade Borra played by Ed Skrein; and the threesome of meddlesome but adorable pixies who cared for Aurora as a child – led by Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass, with Juno Temple as Thistlewit and Lesley Manville as Flittle.
The film is directed by Joachim Rønning.