Film Animation Task 4:
Analysis of two films
Introduction
Figure 1: Sleeping Beauty poster.
Taken from wikipedia.com (2014)
Sleeping Beauty is an animated musical fantasy film by Walt Disney
Productions, based on Charles Perrault's "The Sleeping Beauty" and
"Little Briar Rose" by The Brothers Grimm (Wikipedia.com, 2014). The narrative revolves around Princess
Aurora, who is cursed by the wicked fairy Maleficent to sleep forever by the
end of her 16th birthday if she pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning
wheel. During the duration of those 16 years, she was taken care of by three
good fairies Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, who acted as her caretakers and
guardians. During the beginning of her 16th birthday, she meets a handsome
stranger in the woods, who is later revealed to be Prince Philip, the son of
the neighbouring king who was betrothed to her during the day of her birth,
although she does not know it. When she returns home, she was told by the three
fairies of her origins and she is heartbroken to know that she must return to
her original home.
As
the day of Aurora's birthday draws to a close, however, Maleficent managed to
trick her into pricking the spindle of an enchanted spinning wheel, causing her
to fall into slumber. The fairies, heartbroken by their failure to protect
Aurora, placed a spell on the entire kingdom so that they will only wake up
when Aurora is waken up by true love's kiss. The fairies managed to find out
that the "stranger" that Aurora met is indeed Prince Philip, and upon
finding out that he is taken hostage by Maleficent, went to rescue and help him
to defeat Maleficent. With their help, in the end, Prince Philip manages to
defeat Maleficent, and goes on to kiss Aurora, causing the spell to be broken
and the kingdom to awaken from their slumber. In the end, they lived happily
ever after.
Figure 2: Maleficent poster
Maleficent is a dark fantasy live-action
film directed by Robert Stromberg and produced by Walt Disney Pictures
(Wikipedia.com, 2014). It is a retelling of the original 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty, and as with the
original, it also uses Charles Perrault's The Sleeping Beauty as its source.
The narrative focuses on the eponymous character Maleficent, and tells the
narrative almost entirely from her perspective.
Maleficent
begins her life as one of the strongest fairy in the Moors, a realm that all
magical beings live. When she was a little child, she meets a human boy at the
edge of the Moors, a simple peasant boy by the name of Stefan. The two of them
became good friends, and later on they fell in love.
After
that, however, Stefan left to pursue his ambition as King, while Maleficent
grew to become the Moor's protector. At one point, the king of the nearby
kingdom tried to defeat her and claim the Moors for himself and the human
kingdom, but Maleficent's power proved too great for him. On his deathbed, the
King declared that whoever defeats "the winged creature" will take
his place as King. Realizing that this is his chance, Stefan tricked Maleficent
and took her wings from her to be presented to the King. Angry and devastated
to find out that she is tricked, Maleficent swore that no human would ever step
foot on the Moors again and swore that Stefan will pay for what he has done.
On
the day of Aurora's birth, Maleficent cursed her that she will fall asleep
forever if she pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel by the end of her 16th birthday, and can only
awaken by true love's first kiss. Devastated, Stefan orders all spinning wheels
to be burned down while the three "good fairies", Knotgrass,
Thistlewit and Flittle takes on the responsibility of taking care of Aurora --
but they proved to be incompetent on the job, and only thought of themselves.
During those years, Maleficent takes care of her from the shadows. At first her
intentions is only to see that her curse is fulfilled, but over time she starts
getting attached to her.
As
Aurora grows up, she starts meeting Maleficent more often, and Maleficent
starts getting more attached to her, and tries to break the curse -- but she
fails to do so. Meanwhile, Stefan is growing more and more paranoid, convinced
that Maleficent will return to take her revenge on him. As a result, he ordered
his ironworkers to cover the entire castle and create weapons from iron, which
is Maleficent's weakness .
On
the evening of her 16th birthday, Aurora learns that Maleficent is the one who
cursed her, and she runs back to the castle, only to be imprisoned by her
father in order to prevent the curse from happening. However, before the day
ended, Maleficent's curse has been done, and she falls into a deep slumber.
Even though Maleficent brought Prince Philip to break the spell, it is proved
that it does not work -- and she believes that her curse will never be broken. Heartbroken,
she tells Aurora that she cares for her a lot, and kisses her on the cheek.
Miraculously, Aurora wakes up, proving that "true love" does not
always mean romantic love.
Upon
escaping, however, Stefan and his soldiers attacked Maleficent, but with the
help of Aurora who freed her wings, Maleficent managed to subdue the soldiers,
but Stefan is killed in the end. In the end, Aurora takes her father's place as
queen, and becomes central in uniting both the kingdom and the Moors.
Narrative
The
narrative for both stories are similar yet different from each other -- the
narrative of Sleeping Beauty focuses
on Aurora and how the story revolves around her, while the narrative of Maleficent focuses on the character
Maleficent. Much of the narrative in Maleficent
is changed from the original Sleeping
Beauty, to make it so that Maleficent is the central character and not the
antagonist of the story.
The
main difference between the narratives of Sleeping
Beauty and Maleficent however is
that Sleeping Beauty is plot-driven,
while Maleficent is more
character-driven. The narrative of Sleeping
Beauty focuses on how Aurora's curse is broken over the span of 16 years,
leaving little room for character development. In Maleficent, however, the narrative focuses more on character
development and the relationship between the characters, giving it a more solid
plot and narrative to the film. That the film focuses mainly on how Maleficent
interacts with the other characters in the film helps shape the plot of the
film, as much of the plot is driven by the actions she takes in the scenes and
how she relates to other characters.
Mise-en-scene
Lighting
Figure
3 : Scene in Sleeping Beauty. Personal collection
Sleeping Beauty has an overall relatively low
lighting -- while in some scenes the lighting is brighter than others, it
mostly uses relatively low lighting to establish the setting of the story,
marked by how the colors of the overall film are mostly muted. Only a few
scenes of the story are marked with bright lighting marked by the bright colors
that are seen in the film. The lighting in the foreground is also markedly
brighter than the lighting in the background -- actors in the foreground are
often marked with brighter, more vibrant colors as opposed to the colors of the
background.
Figure 4: Scene in Maleficent.
Personal collection (2014)
In
Maleficent, however, the lighting
serves mostly to convey a sense of time and also marking the difference between
the two main settings where the plot takes place. For instance, the Moors are
characterized by brighter lighting as opposed to the human kingdom, which is
mostly set in low lighting mostly throughout the film. Even in low lighting,
the film also tries to mark the vibrance of the Moors using some high-key
lighting.
Figure 5: Scene in Maleficent.
Personal collection (2014)
This
is also how Sleeping Beauty is
similar to Maleficent in some ways --
the lighting is also used in the animated film to mark a difference in setting.
For example, in Maleficent's lair, low lighting is used characterized by darker
colors, while the forest, while still utilizing a relatively low light, is marked
with brighter colors and lighting.
Setting
Figure 6: Scene in Maleficent,
showing the social setting. Personal collection (2014)
The
setting is mostly used to establish the differences between class and race. In Maleficent, there are two main settings
of the film: the Moors and the human kingdom. In the Moors, the society that
lives there consist of magical folk such as pixies and fairies, while the human
kingdom consists of a normal human society. The social setting is also
different -- while the human kingdom has a formal administrative system ( the
monarchy), the Moors have little to no social hierarchy at all, although many
of the residents regard the main character as the keeper and leader of the
beings of the Moors.
Figure 7: Scene in Sleeping Beauty,
showing social setting. Personal collection (2014)
In
Sleeping Beauty, it is the same, but
what would have been the Moors in Maleficent
only consists of the Forbidden Mountain, where the antagonist lives with her
goons. It shares the same social setting as the live-action film, however, in a
sense that there is a difference between the human and non-human societies.
Actors
What
is most important in these two films, thus what marks them so different from
each other, are perhaps the roles of the actors that play their part in the
film. Maleficent, in the original Sleeping
Beauty, is the main antagonist of the film. In the eponymous film, however,
she is the protagonist. Her role is significantly reversed in Maleficent, even when the film makes a
nod to her antagonistic role that she originally plays in Sleeping Beauty during the scene where she curses Aurora.
Figures 8 and 9: Maleficent in
Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. Personal collection (2014)
Another
actor whose role is significantly changed between the two films is King Stefan.
In Sleeping Beauty, he is a minor
character, and only plays his role as a comic relief in the film alongside King
Hubert, another minor character. He plays a more significant role in Maleficent, however, and switches to
being the antagonist of the film -- starting from the point where he steals
Maleficent's wings to his paranoia that Maleficent will return to act her
revenge on him. In that sense, King Stefan's role is significantly changed.
Figures 10 and 11: King Stefan
(pictured right) in Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. Personal collection (2014)
Aurora
also plays a very significant role as opposed to the original film. Even though
she is considered the protagonist of Sleeping
Beauty, she hardly plays a very significant role -- and her story and curse
is only there to drive the plot forward. In Maleficent,
she has more of a connection to the eponymous character and protagonist, and
plays a very significant role in developing both the plot and character
development, and her character is much more fleshed out in the film. In a
sense, she becomes the focal character, where the audience does not entirely
focus on her in the film, but her role is important enough that it also becomes
part of the attention that the audience gives within the film.
Figures 12 and 13: Aurora in
Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. Personal collection (2014)
Prince
Philip in Sleeping Beauty also has is
role drastically changed within the film. In Sleeping Beauty, he is the focal character that drives most of the
plot forward -- it is through his actions in saving Aurora and the kingdom that
the film's plot moves forward to its end, playing a huge role in killing
Maleficent and breaking the curse with true love's first kiss. However, in Maleficent, he is relegated to the role
of the supporting character, where he only makes brief appearances in the film,
especially during the significant kissing scene: when Prince Philip manages to
break the curse by kissing Aurora in Sleeping
Beauty, his kiss fails to do so in Maleficent.
Figures 14 and 15: Prince Philip
in Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. Personal collection (2014)
There
are also other notable actors that have their roles changed; the three fairies,
for example. In Sleeping Beauty, the
three fairies are named Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, and they are
characterized to be warm and caring, and selfless. In Maleficent, their names are changed to Flittle, Thistlewit and
Knotgrass, and their characterization are significantly different than those of
Flora, Fauna and Merryweather in the sense that they are marked as childish,
immature and selfish. Even the pet crow that Maleficent owns in Sleeping Beauty has its role changed; in
Maleficent, he now plays a more
significant role, and even has a name: Diaval.
Figure 16: The fairies in
Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. Personal collection (2014)
Figure 17: The character Diaval.
Personal collection (2014)
Camera
shots and angles
The
camera shots in Sleeping Beauty
mostly consist of long shots where they show the full body of the characters,
emphasizing on the overall action that takes place within the frame. This is
important considering that Sleeping Beauty is more plot-driven; most of the
action encompasses the entire shot, thus giving more room for the audience to
see what is happening in the film. Usage of close-ups and medium shots are
often use to convey the emotions of the actors and to provide an emotional
impact.
Figure 18: Scene from Sleeping
Beauty, an example of a full shot. Personal collection (2014)
It
is the reverse with Maleficent --
long shots are often used to establish setting, but much of the film employs
medium shots, over the shoulder shots and close ups to better focus on the
actors and their interactions, as it is more of a character-driven film.
Figure 19: Scene from Maleficent,
an example of an over-the-shoulder shot. Personal collection (2014)
Conclusion
Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's very iconic
animated films -- Maleficent is regarded as Disney's iconic villain, being
noted by review website Rotten Tomatoes as "Disney's most sinister
villain" (wikipedia.com, 2014), and she has appeared in various other
media such as the television series Once
Upon a Time, the Kingdom Hearts
video game series and also in the Kingdom
Keepers book series. Aurora, on the other hand, is also considered an
iconic Disney princess and has also appeared in various other media, such as
Disney's House of Mouse series and
also in the Kingdom Hearts video game
series, not to mention also appearing in various other video games under
Disney. The film Maleficent gives
such a deep, different take on the animated film that the characters and the
story has a new meaning, changing what the audience has perceived of these
films and characters after all these years.
Reference:
Wikipedia.
2014. Sleeping Beauty (1959 film). [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_%281959_film%29.
[Accessed 13 December 14].
Wikipedia.
2014. Maleficent (1959 film). [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maleficent_(film).
[Accessed 13 December 14].
Wikipedia.
2014. Maleficent. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maleficent.
[Accessed 13 December 14].
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