Second family-friendly spell cast

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil PG, 129 mins

Love conquers fear and intolerance twice upon a time in director Joachim Ronning’s fantastical sequel based on characters from Disney’s 1959 animation Sleeping Beauty and Charles Perrault’s fairy tale La Belle Au Bois Dormant.

Stuffed to the seams with digitally rendered creatures, Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil is slowcooked to the same family-friendly recipe as the first film and underscores the empowerment of female characters in breathlessly staged action sequences.

The heart-warming redemption of dark fairy Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has been lost to the sands of time. Once again, she is the shadowy villain of nervously whispered legends in the human world.

Magical creatures continue to live in harmony on the Moors, where Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) blossoms in her role as queen of the enchanted realm with guidance from adopted mother Maleficent and shape-shifting henchman Diaval (Sam Riley).

Aurora’s sweetheart Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) goes down on bent knee and the princess accepts his proposal. Their union promises to bridge the divide between the Moors and humankind.

Philip’s parents, King John (Robert Lindsay) and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer, left), invite Aurora, Maleficent and Diaval to their castle to celebrate the engagement.

Maleficent is reluctant to accept and the two tribes declare an uneasy truce over dinner until a member of the royal household falls victim to Maleficent’s sleeping curse. Aurora’s allegiances are tested as Queen Ingrith declares war on the fairy folk and raises an army led by the captain of the royal guards.

Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil is an impressively staged but emotionally lightweight second chapter in Aurora’s coming of age, which introduces us to a hidden kingdom of dark fairies reminiscent of Pandora in Avatar.