"Maleficent" takes you on a ride into a non-kiddie realm of betrayal, vengeance and mother-daughter brouhaha. Is that a good thing for a Disney audience? On the other hand, look at "Frozen," which dealt with some sibling rivalry and female empowerment issues. That worked, so there's no reason why "Maleficent" (played by Angelina Jolie sporting the sharpest, sleekest cheekbones in the world) shouldn't.
Recreated from the 1959 Walt Disney treatment of "Sleeping Beauty," Maleficent is a beautiful fairy who gets ditched by her first love (Sleeping Beauty's dad). He clips her wings, becomes king and finds another woman to be his queen. Plunged into the depths of despair, Maleficent turns to the dark side, putting a curse on the king's new baby daughter. On the child's 16th birthday, she will prick herself on a spinning wheel's spindle and fall into an eternal sleep.
What Maleficent should have done, of course, is put a hex on King Stefan (Sharlto Copley) himself — perhaps causing him to lose all his hair overnight. The scorn of this woman, though, is much more furious, so he subsequently orders baby Princess Aurora to be raised and protected by three good fairies in the countryside. How's that for fatherly responsibility?