Summary

Robert Stromberg's Maleficent stars Angelina Jolie stars as the title character, who, as a teenager, is a powerful and respected winged fairy helping to rule a magical land full of strange creatures. Her homeland borders a country that is populated by humans and run by the cruel King Henry (Kenneth Cranham). One day, a farm boy named Stefan (Jackson Bews) traipses into the fairy's land and meets Maleficent, causing the two crazy teens to fall into forbidden love. Year later, Henry seeks to take over the magical land next to his kingdom, but is thwarted in battle by Maleficent. Eager for revenge, he offers his daughter's hand in marriage to whoever can stop the fairy, and the now-grown Stefan (played as an adult by Sharlto Copley) succeeds by betraying her and clipping her wings. In response, an infuriated Maleficent swears revenge on Stefan; she gets her chance when he becomes king himself and has his first child, a daughter named Aurora (Elle Fanning) -- as Sleeping Beauty fans will remember, Maleficent curses her to fall into a death-like sleep after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel on her 16th birthday. Stefan demands that all of the spinning wheels be collected, and orders his daughter to be secretly raised in the woods by three good-hearted but dim-witted fairies, who will return her to him the day after her 16th birthday. However, Maleficent refuses to stay away from Aurora and ends up developing maternal feelings for the girl, eventually inspiring her to try to undo the curse she placed upon the princess. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi