Summary
Scene 5 (The Making of a King)
In a lavish coronation, Stefan is crowned king of the human realm. Diaval, in his raven form, witnesses the coronation and reports to Maleficent. Infuriated that Stefan mutilated her to gain power, Maleficent channels her rage into her magic and shoots a beam of green light into the sky. Stefan sees Maleficent's light all the way from his palace in the human realm. Maleficent then walks through the Moors in a rage, using her magic to unravel barriers and conjure a twisting throne of trees. Upon seeing her massive power, the other creatures kneel before Maleficent, unofficially declaring her Queen of the Moors.
Scene 6 (A Grand Celebration)
Diaval tells Maleficent that King Stefan is hosting a "grand celebration" to christen his newborn daughter, Aurora. The three fairies, Thistletwit, Knotgrass, and Flittle, attend the celebration as a gesture of goodwill. Knotgrass and Flittle give Aurora the gifts of beauty and happiness. Thistletwit attempts to provide Aurora with the gift of finding true love but is interrupted by Maleficent.
Maleficent strides through the gathering as lightning strikes and the lights dim. She approaches the dais and confronts Stefan, who says she is "not welcome" at the christening. Maleficent laughs at Stefan's intensity and sarcastically offers to "bestow a gift" upon Aurora like the other fairies "as a gesture of goodwill." Maleficent conjures green light and enters into a trance-like state, and the crowd realizes with horror that Maleficent's "gift" is actually a curse.
While conjuring her spell, Maleficent catches sight of a spinning wheel. Inspired by this object, she declares that, on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and plunge into a "sleep like death." King Stefan pleads with Maleficent not to curse the child. Maleficent, intent on punishing Stefan, forces him to kneel and beg again, humiliating him in front of all his subjects. Stefan obliges, but instead of retracting the curse, Maleficent promises that the princess can awaken from her "death sleep" with "true love's kiss." Maleficent then declares that "this curse will last till the end of time. No power on earth can change it" before disappearing.
Scene 7 (Into the Woods)
Terrified and believing he can circumvent Maleficent's curse, King Stefan orders the destruction of all spinning wheels in the kingdom. He burns the spinning wheels and stores them in a locked chamber in the castle. He then entrusts Aurora to the three fairies who raise her far from the palace and Maleficent's realm.
The fairies take Aurora to a cottage in the woods, which they greet with disgust and horror. Realizing they are too small to care for Aurora and hoping not to attract attention, the fairies transform into humans, promising not to fly until after Aurora's sixteenth birthday. The fairies struggle to care for Aurora, ignoring the infant's crying and feeding her unsuitable foods. Diaval and Maleficent visit the cottage, where Maleficent speaks with the infant Aurora, who she calls "ugly" and a "beasty." Still, Maleficent sends Daival to feed Aurora, though she lightheartedly torments the fairies with her magic.
Scene 8 (Stefan Has An Idea)
Maleficent resists King Stefan's soldiers by conjuring massive, magical walls of thorns, which prevent Stefan from entering the Moors. Stefan tries to destroy Maleficent's barricade by sending soldiers to burn it. However, Maleficent's wall is a living structure that cannot be destroyed. When the soldiers report their failure to King Stefan, he flies into a rage, slapping one of his generals and stabbing a table with the knife he planned to use to kill Maleficent. This gives him the idea to fight Maleficent using iron.
Maleficent watches as Aurora, now a toddler, is ignored by the fairies and accidentally runs off a cliff. Despite her protestations that she hates Aurora, Maleficent uses her magic to catch the child, saving her life. Later, Aurora finds Maleficent in the woods and approaches her, unafraid, and asks Maleficent to hold her. Though Maleficent attempts to frighten Aurora and insists that she hates children, she obliges Aurora, who even gently touches Maleficent's horns.
Analysis
The film uses lighting to emphasize Maleficent's emotional state. When Maleficent is calm, the sets are lit with clear, bright light. By contrast, when she is enraged, like when she learns Stefan's true motive for mutilating her, the lighting grows dark and eerie. The film adds drama and suspense using dramatic lighting changes, like lightning strikes, within the diegesis of the film. For example, when Maleficent arrives at Aurora's christening, she conjures a powerful wind that snuffs all the candles, creating intense shadows and heightening the visual impact of the green light of Maleficent's spell. This cinematic choice references the original 1959 film, in which Maleficent's presence and mood influence the color schemes of different scenes.
Though Maleficent's color profile directly references the 1959 film, the 2014 adaptation varies the colors of Maleficent's costuming and magic to reflect her emotional state. When Maleficent uses her magic for wickedness or revenge, the magic is represented by an acid green light. When she is nurturing or playful, her magic is a golden color. Similarly, Maleficent's costuming varies in color depending on her mood. Though always dressed in earth tones, Maleficent's wardrobe favors copper and gold when she is vulnerable or happy, and deep black when she is angry or emotionally cold.
When Maleficent gatecrashes Aurora's christening, her attitude is relaxed and sarcastic, a far cry from the righteous fury she experiences when she first discovers Stefan's motives for mutilating her. This performance, along with several lines of dialogue, are lifted directly from the 1959 animated film, Sleeping Beauty. However, Maleficent rearranges the dialogue to be primarily between King Stefan and Maleficent, rather than between Maleficent and the fairies. The 2014 adaptation also lengthens Maleficent's curse to include the stipulation of true love's kiss. Thus, the film recontextualizes Maleficent's behavior at the christening to be an attempt to humiliate and punish Stefan for his betrayal, rather than because Maleficent is offended she was excluded from the celebration and simply enjoys being evil.
In the midst of her curse, Stefan begs Maleficent not to curse Aurora. Maleficent then forces Stefan to kneel, a posture mirroring a proposal, referencing Maleficent and Stefan's ruined romance and humiliating Stefan. The film then flashes to a reaction shot of disapproving nobility, possibly the other men who had been considered possible successors to King Henry. In this brief interaction, Stefan's right to rule and suitability as king are questioned. Stefan only became king because he tricked King Henry into believing Maleficent was dead. Presumably, Aurora's christening was the first time Maleficent's survival became common knowledge.
The 2014 adaptation expands Maleficent's curse from the 1959 Sleeping Beauty. In the adaptation, Maleficent gets revenge for Stefan's betrayal by making the only way to break the curse "true love's kiss," which Stefan claimed to give Maleficent as a gift for her sixteenth birthday. The curse parallels Maleficent's experience further, as Maleficent specifies that Aurora will prick her finger and enter into eternal sleep on her sixteenth birthday.
Unlike the fairies in the 1959 film, Thistletwit, Knotgrass, and Flittle are depicted as selfish and incompetent guardians. They lament caring for Aurora for sixteen years, and complain about living in the cottage and in human form. After they transform into humans, Knotgrass commands there will be "no more flying" until after Aurora's sixteenth birthday, upsetting the other two fairies. This comment parallels Maleficent's inability to fly. Just as Stefan cut off Maleficent's wings, stealing her flight, his betrayal compelled Maleficent to seek her revenge for the curse, thus "grounding" the other fairies. This situation demonstrates the theme of cyclical violence, as Stefan's violent betrayal indirectly oppressed Thistletwit, Flittle, and Knotgrass.
