TRAILER: Angelina Jolie tries out her Dracula voice in ‘Maleficent’

Disney has just released the long-awaited trailer for Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning, which had its release date moved up to May 30th 2014. I might as well just post the synopsis, because I wouldn’t know what it was about otherwise.

From Disney comes “Maleficent”—the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic “Sleeping Beauty.” A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal—an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom—and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well.

The film stars Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manvi.

Weird, I can’t believe I didn’t remember that Maleficent was the main villain from a movie that came out in 1959! Doy!

And now they’ve made a stand-alone film about her. So, basically, they’ve stolen the Wicked model and applied it to Sleeping Beauty instead of Wizard of Oz. Though I would’ve understood none of that just from watching the teaser. It was directed by Robert Stromberg, who, and this may shock you, has worked mostly in visual effects and production design.

This looks like they assumed that everyone was going to be awed into stunned silence by the mere appearance of the iconic and world famous Maleficent. They even introduce her through silhouette, like that old Michael Jordan cologne, where we’re supposed to know her so well that her outline alone is iconic. Is it? I had no idea who this character was. The film looks like a real feast of CGI though.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about witches, it’s that they’re all of indeterminate Eastern European origin. I wonder of Angelina learned this accent while she was doing that movie about the Balkans.

 

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