Scary Disney: Sleeping Beauty: Maleficent, The Spindle Wheel and the Dragon

Sleeping Beauty as we know it is truly a beautiful film. Princess Aurora is stunning, even Prince Philip is quite a catch. What is not so beautiful though is Maleficent. Like the Evil Queen in Snow White Maleficent makes an outstanding entrance leaving audiences terrified the moment we set eyes on our villains. What gets me about Maleficent is that she was upset about not being invited to a party so sets an evil curse on a baby. No wonder she was green in the face with all that envy.

Scary points in the film

1) Maleficent’s entrance. Quite dramatic and shows how evil Maleficent really is.

2) The way Maleficent spoke. She has a patronising yet calm tone to her voice.

3) The scene where Aurora touched the spindle wheel. The music keeps you on edge.

4) Maleficent transforming into a fire breathing dragon to stop Philip from waking Aurora and the rest of the people.

All of this because she wasn’t invited to a party. Clearly Maleficent has a people problem.

1. Maleficent’s Entrance

With a gust of wind, a bolt of lightning and cracking thunder Maleficent appears from green fire. Though she doesn’t seem annoyed at first, she claims to be quite ‘distressed’ of not being invited to the party. She says she is not offended, and then curses Aurora, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday and die. A flash of light, and she disappears into a cloud of smoke laughing in quite an evil manner. It’s her appearance that makes her quite stunning. Horns, a black and purple cape, a staff, yellow eyes and a pet raven on her shoulder for an extra dramatic effect. It’s her green pale skin that stands out, Maleficent really is green with envy.

If Queen Leah and King Stefan invited her to the party in the first place there would never have been a problem and everyone would have lived happily ever after. Though if they did that, there wouldn’t have been a story. Clearly Leah should have thought twice about inviting Maleficent to the party. Maleficent maybe shouldn’t have been OTT and cursed Aurora, again, if she didn’t do that, there wouldn’t have been a story.

2. Maleficent’s Voice

Eleanor Audley did a fantastic job of portraying Maleficent as well as the evil step-mother in Cinderella. Whenever she spoke, she always sounded so patronising yet so gentle at times, then when she was mad her yellow eyes would stick in the back of your mind. Then her laugh. Her evil laugh. The laugh that would echo in your nightmares for years.

3. Spinning Wheel Scene

The second most intense scene of the movie is Aurora approaching the spinning wheel. It’s the music in this scene that makes the scene scarier than it should be. The way it stops and starts suddenly, it builds up slowly, then at the end Aurora passes out and the camera shoots to Maleficent who says that all famous quote, “You poor, simple fools. Thinking you could defeat me. Me! The mistress of all evil!” An evil laugh, and she disappears into a cloud of green smoke. Enough to scar your children forever.

4. Maleficent the Dragon

The finale of the film. The scene that leaves people of all ages with nightmares of Maleficent as a dragon. After thunder and lightning she transforms into an enormous ugly looking dragon. Enough to scar young children for life. She has an epic battle with the Prince spurting out fire trying to kill him but was obvious she was going to fail. I thought fire was meant to be an orangey red not a lime green, clearly Walt wanted to stick with the ‘green with envy’ theme. Yet those dragony yellow eyes still manage to stick into the back of your mind years later. Even her screech at the end before she falls off the cliff to her death is harrowing. Then down goes the dragon with a sword in her chest leaving nothing but her cloak and Philip looks over the edge happy with his defeat. This woman managed to give me nightmares for years, maybe this scene is a little bit too dramatic and intense for its younger viewers, but it certainly shows her true colours and gives her that evil touch of who she really is.