The Secret History of Maleficent

Carl Jung famously said that to study fairy tales is to study the anatomy of human beings. Fairy tales deserve our attention. They are our first, most powerful socializing narratives. They provide guideposts for appropriate behavior and success in life. Blockbusters reinventing or riffing off the fairy tale genre send pervasive messages to youth. Creators and reviewers of the most recent attempt to mine source material -- Disney's Maleficent -- have overlooked the most surprising and encouraging lessons that the prototypical fairy tale possesses. Dwelling in the darkness of the original "Sleeping Beauty," are more humanistic, constructive and complex messages than Maleficent's producers or commentators would lead us to believe.

Critics of the shadowy Sleeping Beauty adaptation eschew its modernization as tepid. Vixenish Maleficent gets a "justifiable" reason for her scorn. Aurora's imbued with pluck enough to make her palatable to today's audiences. Pundits argue the script circumscribes itself into the same old trope. As Rolling Stone's Peter Travers glibly put it: "Men--those rat bastards!" Critics summarily dismissed Maleficent's "eye-roll worthy" attempt at adapting fairy tale source material. This is ironic, since being dismissed was precisely what pissed Maleficent off so much.

This compels our attention.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dale-elizabeth-meikle/the-secret-history-of-mal_b_5537522.html