Major Story Arcs
Sleeping Beauty (Disney)
In the Disney interpretation of the tale of Sleeping Beauty from 1959, Maleficent makes her first appearance. The evil fairy shows up uninvited during the infant Princess Aurora‘s christening, then punishes the court for excluding her by placing a curse on the infant, declaring that on her sixteenth birthday Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. After she leaves, her curse is modified by the youngest of the Three Good Fairies so that Princess Aurora will fall instead into a deep sleep rather than die, a sleep that can be broken only by true love’s kiss. The Three Good Fairies take Aurora into hiding to protect her from further harm by Maleficent; for the next 15 years, Maleficent searches for Princess Aurora but is unable to find her. Finally, Maleficent’s raven happens upon Aurora, and Maleficent learns that the Princess has already met the true love whose kiss will instantly neutralize Maleficient’s curse.
Maleficent comes up with one of the nastier schemes: she kidnaps the Prince, intending to keep him captive and alive until he is withered with age and then, only then, allowing him to kiss the sleeping Princess Aurora. This way, Princess Aurora will awaken to the sight of her true love as a decrepit, ancient old man with little life left to him, and Maleficent will still have her revenge.
The Three Good Fairies help the prince escape Maleficent. Maleficent puts many obstacles in the way of the prince, but thanks to the Three Good Fairies and his own courage, the prince prevails. Infuriated, Maleficent turns into her dragon form, but with the power of the Three Good Fairies, the prince wins the battle and pierces Maleficent in the heart with his sword.
Maleficent is arguably the most popular Disney villain, and is often included in kid golden books, comics and appeared in the crossover shorts and movies from Mickey’s House of Mouse.
Disney Villains: Maleficent
In 2023, Disney released mini series based off their iconic Disney villains, one of which was Maleficent. The series follows Maleficent faces a two prince brothers, with Diablo by her side. We see the early years of Maleficent learning how to use her dark power, and practice what would eventually become the Sleeping Curse.
Personality
Maleficent is in every sense of the word evil. Her hunger for death and destruction are staggering throughout all of her appearances: she is cruel and petty and shrewd and shows no real affection to anyone other than her pet.
Powers
- Lightning – Maleficent has shown that she can shoot lightning out of her staff as well as control it from the sky.
- Teleportation – She has also shown that she can teleport, turning herself into a green ball of magic and it eventually fades.
- Curses – Maleficent also has the ability to cast curses, such as the death curse put on Aurora.
- Creation of Thorns – Maleficent surrounds the entire castle with huge briars of thorns.
- Dragon Form – Maleficent is able to transform into a terrifying black dragon.
Differences from the Original Fairy Tale
There are a number of versions of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, but one thing they all have in common is that the fairy who curses the princess is always a sentient Force of Nature rather than a Villain. Once the fairy places her curse upon the princess, she always disappears from the tale, never to be seen again.
However, Disney’s version has become so influential that almost every version of the tale since then has followed the Disney film interpretation rather than any of the older sources.
Other Media
Once Upon A Time
Maleficent was a minor character in the first season, they shared the same magic with The Evil Queen they used to put Aurora and Snow White to sleep. The two nearly kill each other at one point, however Regina spared her, claiming she’s the only real friend she has. Maleficent returned in season one finale as a dragon guarding the undergrounds of Storybrooke, where Emma kills her in battle.
Maleficent was brought back in season four due to showrunners regretting having killed her off so early. She now wore a costume similar to the one in the Maleficent 2015 movie. Rumpelstiltskin used dark magic to resurrect her, after which she worked with a team of villains to try to get the villains their happy endings.
It’s revealed in a flashback, she had a daughter named Lily who was stranded in the real world, who she eventually reunited with. They ended up trying to locate Lily’s dad, as Maleficent was not sure who it was, although this plot point would be dropped due to the actresses being too busy to return for the fifth season.
In the series finale, it was mentioned briefly by Regina to Zelena that Maleficent’s former lover was Zorro, and she appears as a CGI dragon flying above.
Maleficent Franchise
In the 2015 reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent’s side of the story is told, starting off a human sized fairy with big wings who helped the magical beings of the forest, her wings made most fairies jealous since she was unique being.
She fell for a boy named Stefan when she was a young fairy, and while it didn’t last, they would be reunited as adults. At this point Maleficent was an important figure in the magic side of the forest, and because of this Stefan was tasked with getting rid of her, so the humans had a better chance to win the war. However instead he seduced her, before removing her wings in her sleep, making her no longer able the fly. With Stefan’s victory, he was made king.
This would spark the villainy in Maleficent, years later she got her revenge by interrupting Stefan’s daughter, Aurora’s birthday. Where she cursed the infant to one day prick her finger on her sixteenth birthday on a spinning needle.
Aurora afterwards was sent away from the kingdom to hide, but Maleficent sought her out, and watched over the baby, only to find herself slowly starting to grow attached to the young girl. Maleficent later met Diablo, the crow, saving him from a group of farmers.
Maleficent started to pretend to be Aurora’s fairy godmother, as she started to see the girl as a daughter she never had. Maleficent tried to reverse the curse she put on her, now seeing it was Stefan who deserved punishment not his innocent daughter.
She was not able to reverse the curse in time, and Aurora pricked her finger, falling under the curse. However when Maleficent kissed her forehead it was true love, the purest of love. Aurora defended Maleficent from her father, who wouldn’t listen, trying kill Maleficent. Maleficent killed Stefan in self defense, and Aurora forgives her, knowing she had no other choice. Aurora chose to live in the woods with her mother figure.
In the film’s sequel, Maleficent struggled to keep Aurora by her side, while also learning of more fairies like herself. She took on the name, Mistress of Evil as the kingdom relies stories of her wicked ways, with the queen trying to avenge the death of her husband. Maleficent’s story ends with her proving who she really is, a hero. Aurora picked her to be her mother over her birth mother.