Maleficent (Disney)

* Fairy
* Dragon

**Maleficent** is the main antagonist of Disney's 16th full-length animated feature film *Sleeping Beauty*. She is an evil fairy that is the archenemies of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, who cursed Aurora to die at the age of sixteen as her personal gift to her when she was an infant. Despite all their efforts to keep her evil at bay, Maleficent works out ways to be a step ahead the heroes to become one of Disney's most successful and popular villains in the company's history.

She was voiced by the late Eleanor Audley.

## What Makes Her Magnificent?

* Through a very minor slip up of words, she was able to deduce the huge extent of her minions' incompetence and upon deciding to do everything herself, tracked down where Aurora is hidden using her pet raven, Diavolo, to reveal Aurora's hideout, which he successfully did.
* Despite various attempts to hinder the curse by the fairies and King Stefan, Maleficent always remained a step ahead of the heroes, shown when she simply used her magic to create a new spinning wheel when Stefan ordered the destruction of all of them previously.
* She set up a trap for Aurora, waiting for long for Aurora to return to the castle and be left alone to easily lure her off into pricking her finger on the spinning wheel and set off the curse.
* Having been aware of the fairies' alterations, Maleficent set up a trap to imprison Aurora's true love, Prince Phillip, and ensure nobody can stop the curse and save the whole kingdom.
* When Phillip escaped thanks to the fairies' unexpected arrival, Maleficent erected barriers to keep him at bay and then transformed into a dragon to nearly kill Phillip, only stopped by the fairies deciding to interfere.
* She is a delightfully bombastic and flamboyant villain, all accentuated by the late Eleanor Audley's menacing voice and model performance, which leads her into becoming not only the most remembered aspect of the film, but also one of Disney's most iconic villains in its villain line-up, as well as being one of its most successful.
* While petty, it is to a degree acceptable for a card-carrying cartoon villain like Maleficent that instead adds to her charm, especially when her act of pettiness, cursing Aurora to die, will be held off until she is essentially an adult and her character in general is adhering to old-school folk morality.

## What Makes Her a Baddie?

* She cursed the infant Princess Aurora to die at the age of sixteen, with it indicated she would've done it even if she'd been invited to the christening and it was just a convenient excuse for her to do it.
* She attacked her minions after they spent 16 years searching babies to find Aurora without realizing Aurora would have grown up by now.
* She captured Prince Phillip, Aurora's true love, to ensure that the fairies' counterspell would fail, which would make sure Aurora, her parents, King Hubert, and the entire kingdom would be trapped in a never ending sleep.
* She attempted to kill Prince Phillip in the final battle by transforming herself into a dragon.

## External Links

* Maleficent at the Disney wiki
* Maleficent at the Villains wiki
* Maleficent at the Villainous Benchmark wiki

## Navigation

Animated Features
Gabby Gabby

Live-Action Features
Maleficent

Animated Television
Warp Darkmatter

Live-Action Television
The Annihilator

Video Games
Evil Dr. Porkchop

Fanon
Clopin

See Also
Toy Story Magnificent Baddies