Maleficent is an evil witch and fairy, she is the main antagonist of Disney's animated classic, Sleeping Beauty. Inspired by the character of the evil fairy from Charles Perrault's original story, Maleficent is by far the most significant, widely recognized interpretation of said character, fulfilling a much larger role in Disney's film than her progenitor had in the original fairy-tale. As well as being the central villain in Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent has appeared in many other Disney productions and is regarded as one of the most iconic villains not only in Disney media but in all of modern pop culture.
Physical appearance[]
Maleficent is commonly depicted as a slender, tall, beautiful woman with pale green skin (or sometimes grey in certain productions), yellow eyes, ruby lips and a prominent chin. Her face and hands are the only parts of her body that are ever visible, the rest of her is covered by her appropriately dark attire. She wears long black and purple robes with bat wing-like edges and a black dress underneath it. Her most iconic feature is the black headdress she wears that sports a pair of devilish horns. She also wears a gold ring adorned with a circular black stone and carries a scepter with a yellowish-green crystal sphere atop it.
Maleficent's robe and headdress are also indicative of her other form, that of a giant black dragon. In Sleeping Beauty and other Disney media, she transforms into this beastly form when forced to do battle. In her dragon form, Maleficent's body is covered head-to-toe in obsidian scales with light purple scales running down her neck and belly to the underside of her tail. She sports a pair of wings upon her back with a grey or cool-blue membrane and her head sports a pair of horns and ear-fins resembling her humanoid form's headdress.
Personality[]
"You poor, simple fools! Thinking you could defeat me. ME!? The mistress of all evil?"
Maleficent refers to herself as the Mistress of All Evil, a title that few, if any, could dispute. She is cold, calculating, ruthless and spiteful; often she has performed despicable acts of cruelty simply because she can rather than for any real purpose. That is not to say that there is no purpose behind her actions, though her goals have varied depending on her appearance. In Sleeping Beauty, she placed a curse upon Princess Aurora because King Stefan and Queen Leah did not invite her to their baby's christening, demonstrating how spiteful she can be. In the Kingdom Hearts video game series, she wishes to use the Heartless in order to conquer all worlds, indicating a desire for power and domination.
In all of her appearances, Maleficent speaks in a soft tone that belies her malicious nature. She can appear to be stoic, elegant, even graceful one moment then become hysterical the next, lashing out at her enemies or allies in a fit of rage, or laughing maniacally at the pain and misery of others. She can also be quite manipulative, a trait she particularly displays in Kingdom Hearts when she gets Riku to help her find the Princesses of Heart after convincing him that Sora has abandoned him for his new friends Donald and Goofy.
Though obviously selfish and cruel, Maleficent does display some genuine care to her pet raven Diablo. This is especially evident in Sleeping Beauty when she is shocked and horrified to find Diablo turned to stone by Merryweather.
Appearances in film and television[]
Sleeping Beauty[]
At the christening celebration by King Stefan and Queen Leah, the Three Good Fairies have come to bestow their gifts on the infant Princess Aurora as they’re announced by the castle majordomo, Lord Duke. After Mistress Flora and Mistress Fauna giving their gifts of beauty and song, Mistress Merryweather was about to grant her gift for the infant when Maleficent appears at the christening without invitation. Angry that she had not been invited to the celebration, she places a curse upon the child, stating that on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather attempts to undo Maleficent's enchantment, but at best is only able to alter it. She makes it so that Aurora will not die upon pricking her finger, but fall into an eternal sleep that can only be broken by her true love's first kiss. Aurora is then taken by her godmothers into the woods where she is to live secretly as a peasant under the name "Briar Rose" until the threat of Maleficent's curse has passed.
As the years pass, Maleficent sends her Goons out across the kingdom to find the missing Aurora. As Aurora's sixteenth birthday draws near, the incompetent henchmen report that they have not been able to find the "baby", at which point Maleficent realises they have been looking for a baby for the last sixteen years and angrily berates them for their stupidity. She then sends her pet raven Diablo out to find Aurora, who succeeds where the Goons failed, and discovers Aurora living in the woods with Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. Diablo also witnesses the first meeting between Aurora and Prince Phillip whom Aurora had been betrothed to, though neither knew of this betrothal and Phillip had no idea that the peasant girl he had become smitten with was actually the princess he was destined to marry. After being informed of this, Maleficent plots her next move.
That afternoon, the good fairies have taken Aurora to the castle where she was born to show her her true heritage. When the trio leave Aurora alone briefly, Maleficent takes the opportunity to strike. She appears before Aurora as a ghostly apparition resembling a will-o-the-wisp, hypnotizing the princess and luring her to an empty room at the top of a secret stairway, forcing Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna to chase after her. Inside the room atop the tower, Aurora sees a spinning wheel that Maleficent has conjured. With Aurora under her hypnotic spell, Maleficent tells her to step forth and touch the spindle. As predicted, Aurora pricks her finger upon the spindle, causing the curse of sleep to take effect. As a result, Flora, Merryweather and Fauna are too late to stop Aurora and gasped in horror when they find Maleficent standing over the sleeping Aurora, mocking the good fairies' inability to stop her before suddenly vanishing from the castle, cackling over the fairies’ unsuccessful attempt to protect Aurora.
After Aurora has been dealt with, Maleficent sends her minions to capture Prince Phillip who had arranged to meet Aurora at her cottage. The Goons find him there and abduct him, taking him back to Maleficent's castle atop the Forbidden Mountain. Maleficent has Phillip locked away in her dungeon where she reveals to him the truth about the girl he has fallen for and how she is doomed to sleep agelessly for 100 years, stating that she will set Phillip free at that time. Phillip does not remain a prisoner for long as Flora, Fauna and Merryweather find him and free him by melting the lock on his cell door.
The good fairies arm Phillip with the Sword of Truth and Shield of Virtue before attempting to escape from Maleficent's castle. However, they are spotted by Diablo who alerts the Goons which then intervene, although Phillip and the fairies manage to overcome them. Diablo's cawing also stirs Maleficent from her sleep, but is forever silenced when Merryweather uses her magic to turn the bird into a statue. Enraged by what has been done to her pet, Maleficent ascends to the castle battlement where she spies Phillip and the fairies escaping and attempts to stop them by conjuring bolts of lightning to strike them down. The prince and the fairies evade the lightning, but Maleficent then conjures a forest of thick brambles and thorns around Stefan's kingdom to impede them. With the enchanted Sword of Truth and the fairies assistance, Phillip cuts a path through the thorns on his way to Stefan's castle.
In a last-ditch effort to stop Phillip from reaching Aurora, Maleficent confronts the prince herself, appearing in front of him and transforming herself into a terrifying dragon. Phillip charges at the dragon, who drives him backward with her blasts of flame. As Phillip retreats, Maleficent chases him up onto a high cliff and corners him at the ledge. With another powerful flame blast, she blows his shield off. As she is about to burst out laughing and to finish the now defenseless Phillip off, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather magically empower the Sword of Truth, and Phillip immediately throws the sword at the dragon's heart. Maleficent screams in pain and collapses onto the ledge, attempting to devour Phillip for the last time, but he dodges. Her enormous weight, upon impact, causes the ledge to crumble, sending Maleficent tumbling down from to her demise below. Phillip looks down to see what remains of Maleficent to see nothing more than her shredded cloak on the ground, plus the Sword of Truth, still embedded in the cloak, turning black.
Kingdom Hearts[]
Maleficent is one of many Disney villains to appear in the Kingdom Hearts video games by Square-Enix. While the majority of the Disney characters in the series only fulfill roles within their own respective worlds, Maleficent is a major threat to all worlds. Throughout the series, she has sought dominion over all worlds and wields the power of darkness to accomplish this goal, taking control of the creatures known as the Heartless to serve as her army.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep[]
Maleficent's story begins in the prequel to Kingdom Hearts, in which she serves only a minor role restricted to her own world of Enchanted Dominion. At some point in time, Xehanort enlisted her help in luring Terra to darkness and told her about Kingdom Hearts and the seven Princesses of Heart. From this point on, Maleficent lusted to gain complete control over all worlds. However, little did Maleficent know, Master Xehanort was only using her as part of his backup plan to create of the X-Blade should he become unable to move for some time. She was also told to not harm Ventus should he come to her world as he is needed for the X-blade.
By the time Terra arrives in the Enchanted Dominion, Maleficent had already succeeded in making sure Aurora had fallen under her curse. She had also seen Master Xehanort come out of King Stefan's castle after imprisoning Aurora to keep her "light" safe. When Terra questions her about this, she lies about not knowing Master Xehanort and directs him to Aurora's room. Once he's inside, Maleficent lets him know she learned about the Keyblade and the seven pure hearts of light; she wants Aurora's heart in her possession in order to further her own quest for Kingdom Hearts. Though she asks Terra nicely to extract Aurora's heart, Maleficent uses her power over sleep to awaken the darkness within Terra's heart when he refuses. This allowed her to use him like a puppet and accomplish her goal. When Terra regains his senses, Maleficent offers him the chance to join her in her quest to rule the worlds, but he flatly refuses. She then leaves when the Wheel Master begins tearing up the throne room.
Later, Ventus visits the world and frees Aurora's heart from within her fortress. This angers Maleficent, who tells Ventus of Terra assisting her in taking Aurora's heart. When Ventus refuses to believe, and is prepared to attack, Maleficent sees that she will have no choice but to fight him despite Xehanort's orders. In the ensuing fight, Ventus defeats Maleficent. Ven once again protest that Terra would be unable to something so terrible, but Maleficent tells him that even through he doesn't believe her, Terra DID steal Aurora's heart. Aqua arrives and staunchly denies it, as does Ventus, although he seems unsure as what to believe and runs off.
After Aqua refuses Maleficent's offer to join her in Terra's place, Maleficent mentions Xehanort was right about Aqua being a stuborn girl and throws her into the castle dungeon with Phillip, whom she captured earlier to stop him from awakening Aurora. Aqua and Phillip break out of the dungeon with help from Flora, Fauna and Merryweather and make their way towards King Stefan's castle to wake Aurora. Maleficent gives chase and confronts them on the bridge. Aqua demands to know what Master Xehanort told her. Maleficent instead says it's a pity she isn't obedient like Terra, once again saying he embraced the darkness within himself. However, when it seems Aqua will not listen, Maleficent decides to give a demonstration of what darkness can do and transforms into a dragon. However, she is defeated by Phillip, who tossed his sword it her chest.
Reverting to her normal form, Maleficent tells Aqua that soon long as there is light, there will be darkness and the many who are drawn to it will serve her. She then leaves Enchanted Dominion to seek allies. Later on in the game, she crosses paths with the imprisoned Pete, and frees him, setting the scene for their alliance.
Between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts[]
A year after the events of Birth by Sleep and nine years prior to Kingdom Hearts, as Maleficent and Pete made their plans, Enchanted Dominion was attacked by a new species of darkness known as the Heartless. Rather than fight them, Maleficent saw them as a great opportunity to gain new followers and decided to use her immense power of darkness to control the creatures and use them as her greatest asset for her schemes. Using this new-found force, Maleficent led a brutal assault on her own world, causing many lives to be claimed by the darkness. Maleficent was able to successfully abduct Princess Aurora once again and proceeded to completely destroy her entire world along with all its inhabitants; only Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, who fled to Yen Sid's Tower, were able to escape.
After the destruction of Enchanted Dominion, Maleficent and Pete used the corridors of darkness to travel to other worlds, eventually ending up at Hollow Bastion, the former home of Ansem the Wise and the last remnants of Radiant Garden after a brutal Heartless attack, which would be the perfect fortress to serve as a new base of operations. There, Maleficent would find everything she needed for her conquest of the worlds, including a report about the Heartless by Xehanort under Ansem's name and the very Keyhole that would lead one to Kingdom Hearts once all the princesses of heart were gathered.
Once situated in her new stronghold, Maleficent sent Pete to many worlds in order recruit other villains for their cause and invite them to come to Hollow Bastion to hear her proposition; if they help her find the rest of the princesses of heart, she will give them the powers to control the Heartless to conquer their own worlds and eliminate their greatest enemies. Accepting her offer, the recruited villains Hades, Jafar, Ursula, Oogie Boogie, and Captain Hook each received a page from Ansem's report to better understand and control the Heartless as they carry out Maleficent's scheme. Meanwhile, Pete was sent on another mission to build more armies of Heartless for Maleficent to increase their forces. Over the years, Maleficent and her allies would destroy hundreds of worlds in their mad search for the princesses of heart and would turn millions more into heartless.
Kingdom Hearts[]
Nearly a decade had passed since Maleficent had begun her quest to dominate the worlds and her plans were nearing fruition. Four Princesses of Heart had been captured, leaving three more yet to be found. By the actions of Xehanort's Heartless - under the name of Ansem - Riku was plunged into darkness as the Heartless overran and destroyed his world. He found himself in Hollow Bastion where he met Maleficent, who sensed the same potential for darkness in him as she had sensed in Terra years before. Taking him under her wing, Maleficent began to corrupt and manipulate Riku, nurturing the darkness within his heart. Over time, Maleficent would scry on Sora, Donald and Goofy, showing Riku the trio's activities and convincing him that Sora had abandoned him and Kairi.
While Sora, Donald and Goofy traveled across the worlds defeating Maleficent's allies, Riku and Captain Hook would find Kairi. Maleficent used her magic to unlock Riku's full potential and sent him to eliminate the Beast who had survived his world's destruction and had come to Hollow Bastion to rescue Belle. When Sora, Donald and Goofy arrived at Hollow Bastion, Riku would confront them and would briefly take the Keyblade as his own.
With Sora and his friends so close, Maleficent accelerated her plans and attempted to reveal Hollow Bastion's Keyhole using the Princesses she currently had. However, the Keyhole was incomplete and could not be unlocked. Riku, having been possessed by Ansem at this point, revealed to Maleficent that Kairi was a Princess of Heart, but her heart had been lost. With Sora, Donald and Goofy approaching, Maleficent decides to confront them herself. Despite her formidable powers, Sora and his friends endure and defeat Maleficent who then falls back to another chamber within the castle. Sora, Donald and Goofy follow her where they find Riku, now wielding a dark imitation of the Keyblade that is capable of unlocking people's hearts. Riku stabs Maleficent with his artificial Keyblade, releasing the darkness within her. The maniacal sorceress transforms into her dragon form and attacks the heroes, wielding even greater power than she had done before. Even in her enhanced dragon form, Maleficent was still unable to defeat Sora and was destroyed herself, with only her dark robes being left behind.
Kingdom Hearts II[]
Maleficent would return to life a year following her defeat. Her resurrection was actually made possible by Organization XIII after Xemnas sent Axel and Roxas on a mission to destroy a gathering of Heartless in Hollow Bastion. During the course of their mission, Axel and Roxas encountered a caged bird within the abandoned castle and set it free. The bird in question was, in fact, Maleficent's pet raven Diablo who would later find his mistress' robe and take it to Yen Sid's tower where Flora, Fauna and Merryweather were staying at the time. Diablo dropped the robe before the three fairies and their memory of Maleficent triggered the wicked sorceress' resurrection.
Restored to life, Maleficent went about seeking out her old allies, but found only Pete remaining. Though infuriated with Pete's incompetence over the failure of his mission, she nevertheless takes him with her as she travels the worlds, reviving a number of her fallen allies and building up a new army of Heartless with which to take revenge on Sora and continue her conquest of the worlds. However, this time Sora is not the only threat to her plans as Organization XIII and its army of Nobodies also stand in her way.
Maleficent begins her plans of conquest anew, starting with attempting to take Disney Castle as her new base of operations. She attempts to fill the castle with darkness and sends Pete back in time to before the castle was built in order to destroy the Cornerstone of Light, but this plan fails due to Sora's interference as well as Pete's own bungling. Later, Maleficent travels to Halloween Town where she resurrects Oogie Boogie and instructs him to destroy Christmas Town. This plan also falls through since Oogie suffers from memory loss and refuses to take orders from Maleficent, instead pursuing his own revenge against Jack Skellington.
Later on, Maleficent tricks the treasure hunters known as the Gullwings into spying on the members of Hollow Bastion's Restoration Committee. She plots to reclaim her former castle and unlock the Keyhole leading to Kingdom Hearts, dispatching a massive army of Heartless to take back the castle. Her plan is interrupted by Saïx and an army of Nobodies that begin killing off her Heartless minions. When Saïx confronts Sora, he reveals the Organization's plan to build its own Kingdom Hearts using the hearts that Sora has been releasing by using the Keyblade to slay the Heartless. Sora finds himself surrounded by Nobodies, but Maleficent appears and steps in to protect him. As a swarm of Dusks envelop her, Maleficent turns to Sora and assures him that nothing has changed between them and that she will yet have her revenge on him. Maleficent appears to be destroyed by the Nobodies, but after she has disappeared Sora hears her voice again before he, Donald and Goofy are pulled into the Realm of Darkness.
Towards the end of the game, Maleficent and Pete reappear within the Castle That Never Was as Sora and his friends rush to confront Xemnas. While Maleficent is intent on claiming the castle as her own after Sora has dealt with Xemnas, Pete mentions that the castle is too close to the centre of darkness, making it near impossible to control the Heartless there. Maleficent isn't worried by this and stands her ground, ready to combat the swarms of Heartless and Nobodies pursuing Sora and the gang.
Powers and abilities[]
"Now shall you deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of Hell!"
Maleficent is one of the most powerful of all Disney villains, wielding tremendous magical power. The exact limits of her power are unknown, though her magical arsenal is extensive. She has been shown to possess the following abilities:-
- Teleportation - Maleficent is capable of travelling long distances instantaneously. When she teleports, she wraps herself in an aura of green flames before disappearing. In Kingdom Hearts, she uses corridors of darkness to travel between worlds.
- Curse of Death - Maleficent is capable of placing curses on people that causes her victims to die. Such curses take effect after certain requirements are fulfilled.
- Curse of Sleep - Similar to her Curse of Death, Maleficent can cause others to enter a period of eternal slumber, during which time the victim does not age. This curse is brought into effect after fulfilling a particular requirement.
- Conjuration - Maleficent can produce objects out of thin air and enchant them with dark magic, such as her aforementioned curses.
- Hypnosis - Maleficent is capable of placing others in a trance-like state and forcing them to carry out her sinister will.
- Elemental Control - Maleficent wields a great deal of control over the elements of nature, such as conjuring fire or lightning bolts.
- Scrying - Using enchanted objects such as a crystal ball, Maleficent can spy on others from great distances.
- Transformation - One of Maleficent's most remarkable abilities is transforming into an enormous black dragon. In this form, she possesses great strength and durability as well as the power to breathe fire.
- Resurrection - Maleficent can return from death, effectively making her immortal. It seems that she can be brought back to life merely by others' memories of her, as demonstrated in Kingdom Hearts II when Diablo brought her robes before Flora, Fauna and Merryweather and they recalled her name, triggering her reincarnation.