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Maleficent: What do fairy tales really mean?

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Maleficent is the latest in a long line of fantasy adaptations. Hephzibah Anderson looks at their dark, sexual messages – and why we’re fascinated by them. Once upon a time, an animation studio known as the Walt Disney Company cast a magical spell, allowing it to seize control of the fairy tale kingdom and grow into a multinational mass media corporation to dwarf Jack’s beanstalk. Ever since, generations of kids the world over have been raised on animated versions of stories that for centuries weren’t even written down, let alone accoutred with costly merchandise. Maleficent, Disney’s latest bid for box office gold, seeks to restore some of the darkness to Sleeping Beauty’s story. With a budget in excess of $175m, the live-action makeover features Angelina Jolie as the badass fairy whose nefariousness is hammered home via horns, vampiric robes and prosthetically enhanced cheekbones that could cut glass. It’s from the viewpoint of this alluringly villainous anti-heroine that the narrati

Maleficent: What do fairy tales really mean? 21 October 2014 Share Save Add as preferred on Google Hephzibah Anderson Features correspondent (Disney Enterprises, Inc) Maleficent is the latest in a long line of fantasy adaptations. Hephzibah Anderson looks at their dark, sexual messages – and why we’re fascinated by them. Once upon a time, an animation studio known as the Walt Disney Company cast a magical spell, allowing it to seize control of the fairy tale kingdom and grow into a multinational mass media corporation to dwarf Jack’s beanstalk. Ever since, generations of kids the world over ha

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