Review of Sleeping Beauty (1959) by Veronique K — 21 Oct 2010

I always have an appreciation for the against-type roles, in other words, villains, especially when they're women, do you know that within 50 best villains in cinematic history, there're only 10 ones that are women? barbara stanwyck in double indemnity is surely gloriously included, and the other one which stays in my mind is maleficent in sleeping beauty which arouses my attention due to the well-publicized advertisements of M.A.C. cosmetics, which recently applies disney's "venomous villians" as their make-up muses. of course, I saw sleeping beauty long long long time ago when I was in elementary school and teacher played it in class and I never noticed how spitefully elegant that character is and enigmatic color-set of purple and green-blue in maleficient''s design...also, do you grasp the possibility that maleficient was inspired by greta garbo in queen christina? it often amazes me that lots of disney villains are inspired by 1930s feminist icons, the eyebrows, the facial features and the affected accents? once the glamour icons adored by all turn into some figures of twisted nightmares by the walter disney crew.

Sleeping beauty is a story commonly known by all, the new-born princess is cursed by a witch of evil force that she will pick on her own finger and die on her sexiteenth birthday, then the good fairies come to rescue and redeem the curse of death into eternal slumber until the kiss of true love. what makes this version lasting even till today is the sophistication of its villain. first of all, the reason why maleficient veils the princess with her malicious damnation is because she gets rejected and marginalized by the royal court who even denies her the entrance into their baby-shower banquet. one of the good fairies, merryweather, even insults maleficient and ridicules her as "un-wanted"...second of all, in the final confrontation between maleficient and the good fairies, merryweather even uses her magic to transform maleficient's beloved pet (a raven) into stone, how cruel it is to deprive a friendless person of her only one friend in this world. and the dialogues do mention for several times that maleficient is unhappy and nobody cares at all. third of all, the supposed hero, in this story, is not so heroic. the prince, who saves the princess by his kiss of love, could only rescue his precious lover under the guidance and the aid of the good fairies. he cannot handle maleficient alone, and his sword-shot at her heart is only an accient catalyzed by the good fairies. in other words, it's like he's only there to take credits of others' works. so what's so heroic about him?

The princess' getting picked by the sharp wooden needle of a sewing machine has the metaphor of virginal deflowerment: she must really get "curious" enough to let her get hurt by exploring "this sharp penetrating gadget." (catch it now? ha) death by the pick refers to the loss of virginal blood. basically the story of sleeping beauty is a fight between chaperonage of feminine chastity and the dark force which intends to baffle the growth of feminine virtues. but in either way, the conclusion is simple: the girl has to remain virgin in pre-nuptial term or she dies! (what a costly hymen!) and maleficient has to be uglified for being a liberated woman without getting bound by those notions of womanhood, marginalized as the everlasting loner/rebel who poses a threat to the world of mainstream....to me, the most annoying character here is the good fairy merryweather, for being so self-righteously moralistic! just like a straight-laced puritan from bible belt, so eager to criticize and condemn, so haste on her judgement toward the outsider without a bit of emphatic sympathy!

(ps) do you recall the last scene where prince dancing with princess, the two good fairies are quarrealing whether the princess' gown should be pink or blue? the meaning of that quarreal is: pink stands for timid innocence of maidenhood; blue means the self-discipline of a fresh debuntante. therefore two fairies' quarreal is simple: a halting point between maidenhood and womanhood before her "consummation" with the prince, thus the result would be: sometimes she's a girl but sometimes she's also a young woman just as the gown keeps changing between pink and blue on the dance ball. but she's only 16 (before 18, it's minor), so you figure...