Maleficent (2014)

It took me a while to get around to watching this one. (We have a pre-owned DVD of it.) As with all things from one’s childhood, it is difficult to replace one memory for another.

Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was seminal to my burgeoning interest in the opposite sex. Like Prince Phillip, I was willing to slay a dragon in order to rescue the girl I loved.

But I wasn’t willing to tackle the evil creature who had placed said girl in a coma-like state. Maleficent in that early animated movie was frightening; Angelina Jolie, not so much.

I hadn’t realized that the story of Aurora was actually an allegory for man and nature.

I Missed the Point, Again

Mother Nature has a difficult job to do. She must protect the flora and fauna of her world from the encroachment of man. Man’s job, it seems, is to conquer and subdue nature to his will. So he invades sacred spaces and stomps on creatures with his hobnail boots.

Conclusion

Instead of vengeance and cruelty, only true love can fix what’s wrong in this world. Here ends this magnificent movie’s lesson.