‘Maleficent 2’ captures strong female characters
The film “Maleficent” is based on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty,” a favorite children’s story.
Those who enjoyed the fairy tale may also be interested in the original film, as well as its sequel “Maleficent 2.”
Five years after the first film was released in 2014, the sequel will hit local theaters soon.
“Maleficent 2” is an original story created by Walt Disney Pictures which depicts what happened after the “happily ever after” ending of the first film.
At the beginning, Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) proposes to Aurora (Elle Fanning). To prepare for the wedding, the two try to seek peace between their two worlds — the fairy world under the rule of Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) and the human world ruled by King Stefan and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer). Meanwhile, Maleficent also finds Dark Faye, a tribe of her kind, gathered on a small island.
“In the last film Elle was 14 and now she is 21, so it was a very different relationship. I also always wondered what Maleficent was, what was her kind, where does she come from.
“The idea that she was this part of a tribe that was out of the world, and that we could introduce them to the audience, was very exciting,” Jolie said in a video conference for Korean reporters at CGV Wangsimni, Friday.
Jolie was in Tokyo. Sam Riley, who participated in the conference, said it was fun working with a different director, Joahkim Ronning, who also directed “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
He especially emphasized the set was actually a real one rather than using a green screen and special effects, which was better for the actors and actresses.
“Maleficent 2” shows three strong women and how their femininity is reflected in a conflict. Unlike other fairy tales where the prince saves the princess, this tale shows three axis of conflict between Maleficent, Queen Ingrith and Aurora who struggles to harmonize the two worlds. Rather than directly showing women’s strength, the topic is subtly reflected in the story.
“Michelle’s character is surround by fear, and the journey of self is dominant for Maleficent. She finds her wilder part of her and tries to cover her horns because she thinks it would make a difference if she’s smaller, and calmer.
“It’s just that it is not who she is. And so she has to find herself, to be another person as mother and woman in her own way,” Jolie said.
“I think that is a nice message too. We are all women and different. Michelle’s a strong woman, Elle and my character are different representation of women,” she added.
Jolie said Fanning was just like “Aurora.”
“Her strength is her softness. It is her kindness and sweetness, love or desire to have a husband, children and she loves to hug.
“And all of these things in these days are associated with weaker women, because in America or the western world, they think of strength as being tough. But really the strongest person in the film is Aurora. It’s her femininity, and that’s Elle,” she noted.
Another topic to note was diversity.
In the part where Maleficent finds Dark Faye, the screen shows a variety of races and environments as a representation of the diversity that the Dark Faye embrace.
“One of the decisions was how to make this film a representation of the whole world. And the first discussion started how it would be divided in different groups. So in the discussion was whether they should be divided by race, divided by continents… and in the end they were divided by biomes.
“When we stood together and it felt like dream of how the world could be, there was quality and celebration of diversity in each other and every one of us,” Jolie said.
Although the children may not understand the message, Jolie said being exposed to the story could be the first step forward to embracing diversity.
Film “Maleficent 2” will be released Oct. 17.