Maleficent (film)

Maleficent's young fairy lives in the Marshy Swamps, surrounded by various magical creatures. Once she meets a boy Stefan, and between them immediately a mutual friendship arises, which develops into love. However, over the years, Stefan is increasingly moving away from Maleficent.

When Maleficente turns twenty years old, the army of King Henry is attacking the Swamps, who always wanted to take possession of their wealth. Maleficent and other magical creatures defend their home and win, and the fairy herself is able to seriously injure the king. King Henry, while dying, announces that anyone who kills Maleficent inherits the throne and marries his daughter, Princess Leila. Some time later, Stefan comes to Maleficent in the Swamps and warns her of the danger. Maleficent believes him, and they spend the whole next evening together until the fairy suddenly falls asleep under the influence of the drug that Stephen gave her. Stefan wants to kill the fairy, but cannot force himself to do this. He cuts off the wings of Maleficent and takes them with him to present to King Henry as evidence of the death of the protector of the Swamps.

In the morning, Maleficent discovers that Stefan cut off her wings, but cannot understand the reason for this act. Some time later, the fairy rescues a raven named Diaval from death, and he gratefully agrees to serve her. With his help, Maleficent learns that Stefan betrayed her and cut off her wings in order to become king. Having become furious, the embittered fairy returns to the Swamps and proclaims herself their queen.

After some time, Diaval informs Maleficent that Stephen had a daughter, and on this occasion christenings were appointed. Wanting to take revenge on Stephen, Maleficent on the day of christening appears in the castle and casts an unbreakable spell on Stephen’s daughter Aurora: on the day of her sixteen years, the princess will prick her finger on the spindle and fall asleep without a sound sleep. King Stephen begs the fairy for leniency, and then Maleficent adds that Aurora will be able to wake up from a dream with a kiss of love. Frightened for herself and for her daughter, Stefan gives the girl to the three fairies Notgrass, Fleetl and Fisvlit, who take the girl deep into the forest, and he hides in his own castle.

Maleficent surrounds the Swamps with an impenetrable Thorn Wall to protect them from the attacks of Stephen's soldiers. Stefan himself gradually falls into madness, and even refuses to see his dying wife. The king is only obsessed with revenge, he is preparing a trap for Maleficent, because he is sure that on the day of the 16th anniversary of Aurora a fairy will certainly appear in the castle.

Maleficent learns that the fairies, along with Aurora, live in a forest house, and despite her initial dislike of the baby, she begins to quietly look after her. Over time, Maleficent becomes more and more attached to a curious and friendly girl.

When Aurora turns fifteen, the girl first gets acquainted with Maleficent. Fairy shows Aurora Swamps and their inhabitants, which the girl really likes. Maleficent over the past years has fallen in love with the girl and decides to remove the spell from Aurora, but she does not succeed in doing this, since the spell is indestructible and eternal, and no one is allowed to remove it. Time passes and one day remains before Aurora’s birthday. Wanting to save the girl from her own spell, Maleficent invites her to settle in the Swamps, away from all spindles. Aurora agrees, and reports this to his "aunts." But fairies in return tell the girl about her background, curse and Maleficent. Angry at Maleficent, Aurora returns to his father the same day.

Maleficent understands that Aurora is in danger, and decides to save her. She finds Philip (the prince whom Aurora met shortly before her birthday) and, together with him and Diaval, goes to Stephen's castle. The fairy tries to have time to save the girl, but does not have time: Aurora points a finger at the magic spindle, and the curse comes true. Sneaking into the palace, Maleficent takes Philip to the chambers of Aurora, and he kisses her, but the princess does not wake up. Having decided that everything is lost, Maleficent repents of his long-standing deed in front of the sleeping Aurora, and then kisses her forehead. From a kiss of motherly love, a girl suddenly wakes up.

Maleficent, Aurora and Diaval try to quietly leave the castle, but the fairy falls into the trap prepared by Stephen and his soldiers. Maleficent tries to save himself by turning Diaval into a dragon, but he himself falls into the trap. Stefan tries to kill the weakened Maleficent, but Aurora manages to save her by returning the fairy to her stolen wings. Having returned his wings, Maleficent carries Stefan to a high tower, but at the last moment decides to spare him and leaves. Stefan rushes to the departing fairy and dies, falling from a high tower.

Having defeated Stefan, Maleficent, together with Diaval and Aurora, returns to the Swamps, destroys the Thorns Wall and then proclaims Aurora the new queen of the magic and human kingdoms, knowing that the girl will be able to adequately rule them ^[10] .

• Angelina Jolie - Maleficent ^{[11] [12]}
  • Ella Pernell - Young Maleficent ^{[13] [14]}
  • Isobel Molloy - Maleficent in childhood ^{[15] [16]}
• El Fanning - Aurora ^{[11] [17]}
  • Vivienne Jolie-Pitt - Five - year - old Aurora ^{[18] [19]}
  • Peter Capaldi - King Kinloch
  • Eleanor Worthington-Cox - Eight-year-old Aurora ^{[16] [20]}
  • Janet Maktir - Aurora in old age (narrator, voice-overs) ^[16]
• Charlto Copley - Stefan ^{[21] [22]}
  • Jackson Buze - Young Stephen ^{[16] [23]}
  • Michael Higgins - Stefan as a Child ^{[16] [24]}
• Imelda Staunton - Notgrass ^{[11] [25]}
• Leslie Manville - Fleet ^{[11] [25]}
• Juneau Temple - Fislewith ^{[26] [27]}
• Sam Riley - Diaval ^{[11] [28]}
• Brenton Thwaites - Philip ^{[29] [30]}
• Kenneth Cranham - King Henry ^{[25] [31]}
• Hannah New - Princess Leila ^{[32] [33]}
• Sarah Flind is a servant of Princess Leila ^{[16] [23]}
• Angus Wright - Advisor to King Henry ^{[16] [23]}
• Oliver Maltman - Advisor to King Henry ^{[16] [23]}
• Gary Cargill - The Court ^{[16] [23]}
• John O'Toole - The Court ^{[16] [23]}
• Harry Attwell - The Court ^{[16] [23]}
• Anthony May - The Court ^{[16] [23]}
• James Hicks - Military Court ^{[16] [23]}
• Stefan Chase - General ^{[16] [23]}
• Mark Caven - General ^{[16] [23]}
• Chris Linay - Servant ^{[16] [23]}
• Jamie McLachlan - soldier in the forest ^{[16] [23]}
• Sean Smith - Soldier in the Forest ^{[16] [23]}
• John McMillan - Captain ^{[16] [23]}
• Tim Treloa - Farmer ^{[16] [23]}
• Peter J. Reed - Guard ^{[16] [23]}
• Marama Corlett is a maid ^{[16] [23]}
• Liam McKenna - Captain of King Henry ^{[16] [23]}
• Stephen Cree - Caretaker ^{[16] [23]}

Russian dubbing

• Dubbing Director - Inna Soboleva
• Translators and authors of synchronous text - Elena Verzhbitskaya, Lev Verzhbitsky
• Sound producer - Daria Vasilyeva
• Intelligence studio - Shepperton International
• Project Manager - Ekaterina Sinenko
• Creative Consultant - Julia Baranchuk

The film was dubbed by the Nevafilm studio by order of Disney Character Voices International in 2014 ^[34] .

Roles duplicated

• Svetlana Kuznetsova - Maleficent
  • Aglaya Osminina - Maleficent in childhood
• Maria Yakimenko - Aurora
  • Olga Gordiychuk - Aurora in old age (narrator)
• Vadim Romanov - Stefan
  • Zakhar Ryadnykh - Stefan in childhood
• Elena Dryatskaya - Notgrass
• Olga Belyavskaya - Fleet
• Ekaterina Tikhomirova - Fisvlit
• Alexander Koygerov - Diaval
• Igor Khonin - Philip
• Vladimir Artyomov - King Henry

Pre-production and post distribution

In May 2009, it was reported that the American film director Brad Bird was planning to make an adventure feature film about Maleficent, the villain from the Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty ( 1959 ), starring Angelina Jolie ^[35] . In January 2010, it was announced that the film would be directed by Tim Burton ^[36] , but in May 2011 Burton announced that he was leaving the project because of his desire to focus on creating a new adaptation of the 1984 film Frankenvini ^{[37] [38]} . Then the Disney studio decided to take on the position of director David Yates , who directed the four final films about Harry Potter ^{[39] [40]} , however, on January 6, 2012 it became known that the film will be directed by debutant Robert Stromberg, the director of films Avatar and Alice in Wonderland ”, winner of two Academy Award ^{[41] [42] [43]} . The script for the film was Linda Wolverton ^[44] , who had previously worked on scripts for the films Avatar , Alice in Wonderland , Beauty and the Beast , and The Lion King ^[45] . The producer for the film was supposed to be Richard Darryl Zanuck , until his death in July 2012. ^[46] Filming Maleficent began June 18, 2012 in Buckinghamshire ^[47] . Post-production was scheduled for October 5, 2012. ^[11]

Original Release Dates

The film was originally supposed to be released March 14, 2014, but it was soon postponed to July 2, 2014 in connection with the release of another Disney studio film, The Muppets 2 ^{[48] [49] [50]} , but in September 2013 it became it is known that the release date of the film was postponed to May 30, 2014 ^{[6] [51]} .

Music

The musical score for the film Maleficent was written by American composer James Newton Howard ^[52] . The official soundtrack was released on May 27, 2014 ^[53] . On January 23, 2014, it was announced that singer Lana Del Rey would record a cover version of the song “Once Upon a Dream” (from the English - “Once Upon a Time”) from the original 1959 cartoon as the main soundtrack ^[54] . Lana Del Rey was chosen as the performer of the song by Angelina Jolie herself. The single was released on January 26th.

List of Songs

Box office fees

Maleficent earned $ 241.4 million in North American box office ^[3] . In other countries, the film earned a total of 517 million dollars ^[3] . The world fees of the film amounted to 758.4 million dollars ^[3] .

The film received mixed reviews from film critics, who praised the cast of Angelina Jolie and the visual effects of the film, but criticized its plot ^[9] . The idea was also expressed that from the film “over a mile away it blows with radical feminism on the verge of man-hating. The presence of men in the lives of the main characters is either destructive or neutral-useless in nature ” ^[59] .

The play of Angelina Jolie in the film has been repeatedly praised by critics. Robbie Collin from The Telegraph wrote in his review that “the new interpretation of the Sleeping Beauty lacks true charm, but Angelina Jolie saves the situation” ^[60] .

Russian reviews

Correspondent Denis Korsakov from the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote in his review that “Maleficent is a magnificent fairy tale, perhaps the best Hollywood fairy tale that has been released for many years” ^[61] . Browser of Vesti FM radio station Anton Dolin wrote that “the film contains heretical dualism, which conceals all obvious disadvantages and makes the film, if not completely successful, but, no doubt, very interesting and not like anything” ^[62] . The reviewer Sergei Obolonkov from The Hollywood Reporter magazine in his review described “Maleficent” as “a fairy tale, which, despite the twisted plot, is quite capable not only of interest to young viewers, but also arouse a certain curiosity of their parents” ^[63] . The magazine “25th frame” put a neutral mark, calling the film “a strong tragedy - for those over six” ^[64] .

There were critical reviews of the film. Browser of the Internet portal Film.ru Boris Ivanov gave a rather negative review, calling Maleficent “outwardly beautiful, but scenically helpless and unreasoned reinterpreting of“ Sleeping Beauty “” ^[65] . The site Post Criticism gave a rather negative review of the film, writing that “Maleficent” turned out to be amazingly vulgar and standardly empty, there is definitely nothing for adults or children to watch there ” ^[66] .

In general, in Russia the film received mostly positive reviews, and the Russian edition of “ELLE girl” in its December 2014 issue called the film “Maleficent” a fairy tale of the year.

On June 3, 2014, Angelina Jolie hinted at the possibility of continuing ^[67] . On June 15, 2015, Disney announced a follow-up with Linda Wolverton, who would return to write the script, and Joe Roth would produce the film. ^[68] On April 26, 2016, it was confirmed that Jolie would once again fulfill her role as Maleficent ^[69] . On August 30, 2017, Disney hired screenwriter Jes Butterworth to rewrite Wolverton's original screenplay. ^[70] On October 3, 2017, it was reported that Joaquim Ronning ( Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales ) is negotiating a sequel ^[71] . In January 2018, it was reported that the sequel would begin filming in the spring of 2018 ^[72] and that Patrick Tatopoulos joined the crew as a designer ^[73] . In April 2018, it was announced that Ed Skrein would play the new main villain in the film, and that El Fanning had to play her role of Aurora again ^[74] . The premiere of the continuation of “Maleficent” is scheduled for October 18, 2019 ^[75] .

Shortly before the premiere, Eksmo Publishing House released an art book on the film: Maleficent. The story of true love . "