49 Fun Facts About Maleficent

When Aurora finally meets Maleficent face to face, who does she happily decide the stranger must be?

Her fairy godmother. Aurora has sensed someone watching over her all her life, and never guesses that her protector is the one who cursed her.

Maleficent's director won design Oscars for Alice in Wonderland and which James Cameron film?

Avatar. After a director hunt, Disney bet that Robert Stromberg, the designer who had built Pandora and Wonderland, could build Maleficent's world from the director's chair too.

Maleficent's screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, also wrote which Disney animated classic?

Beauty and the Beast. Linda Woolverton said the hard part of Maleficent was turning a villain into a hero while keeping her a villain, a line Angelina Jolie kept reminding her of.

Which director was attached to Maleficent for years before scheduling clashes pulled him off the project?

Tim Burton. Producer Don Hahn pitched it to him with a Marc Davis drawing of the villain, which Burton took and pinned to his wall, but his other films kept getting in the way.

Maleficent was shot at which British film studio?

Pinewood Studios. The home base of the James Bond films gave its backlot to a five-month shoot in 2012, and the crew built a fairy kingdom there with a river valley and a waterfall.

Where did the film premiere on May 28, 2014?

The Hollywood cinema is Disney-owned and two days later the film opened wide.

Maleficent earned its only Oscar nomination in which category?

Best Costume Design. Anna B. Sheppard was hired late and had about eight weeks to dress pixies, royal courts and two armies; the Oscar went to The Grand Budapest Hotel.

What is the name of the magical forest realm Maleficent protects?

The Moors. The realm has no ruler until the betrayed Maleficent declares herself its queen, and she ends the film by naming Aurora queen in her place.

In Maleficent, which metal burns fairies at a touch, giving King Stefan a weapon against her?

Iron. Stefan sets his blacksmiths forging it into weapons and armour for years, turning his castle into a fortress built to kill one fairy.

Diaval, Maleficent's shape-shifting servant, is what kind of bird?

A raven. Maleficent saves him from a farmer by turning him into a man, and in return he becomes her loyal spy, sent ahead to watch the castle.

Who plays Diaval in Maleficent?

Sam Riley. He prepared with movement coaches, and called it some of the most embarrassing hours he ever spent on a film: flapping his arms around a big room making cawing noises.

Who plays King Stefan in Maleficent?

Sharlto Copley. The District 9 star called Stefan a cautionary tale for men: a man so set on being king of his castle that he gives up his true love to get there.

Who plays Princess Aurora in Maleficent?

Elle Fanning. Producer Don Hahn remembered watching Super 8 and asking who she was; she was 14 when she filmed her scenes opposite Angelina Jolie.

What scornful pet name does Maleficent give Aurora, starting when the princess is a baby?

Beastie. Maleficent first says it to the smiling baby while insisting she hates her, and over the years the insult turns into a term of affection.

In Maleficent, the fairies Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are renamed as which trio of bumbling pixies?

Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit. The wise guardians of 1959 become comic relief: the producer said they have as much talent for raising a child as he has for piloting a rocket ship.

Which actress plays the eldest and bossiest of the three pixies in Maleficent?

Imelda Staunton called her character the most important pixie, in her own mind; co-star Lesley Manville likened her to a schoolmistress whose job one of the others is after.

Maleficent's curse has Aurora prick her finger on what?

A spindle. Stefan has every spinning wheel in the kingdom burned and the wreckage locked in his dungeon, which is exactly where the curse leads Aurora sixteen years later.

How does Maleficent finally wake Aurora?

A kiss. After Prince Philip's fails, her regretful goodbye kiss on Aurora's forehead turns out to be the true love's kiss she had sworn did not exist.

In the first Maleficent film, what does Maleficent turn Diaval into for the final battle in Stefan's castle?

A dragon. In the 1959 animated film it was Maleficent herself who turned into one, to stop the prince from reaching the castle.

How does King Stefan die in Maleficent?

A fall from the tower. Maleficent decides to spare him, but he attacks her from behind and takes them both over the edge, and only one of them survives the drop.

The idea for Maleficent's prosthetic cheekbones came from which pop star's music video?

Lady Gaga. Angelina Jolie pointed to the bony ridges the singer wore on her forehead in the Born This Way video, and the makeup designer moved them down to her cheeks for a more elegant line.

Who plays Prince Philip in the 2014 film Maleficent?

Brenton Thwaites. His later series Titans is why he missed the sequel: its schedule clashed with the shoot, so Harris Dickinson took over as the prince.

What does Maleficent raise around her realm to keep King Stefan's army out?

A wall of thorns. In the 1959 film she conjures thorns to keep the prince from the castle; here the same magic shields her own home from an army.

Which Broadway musical inspired Disney's first pitch for a Maleficent origin story?

Wicked. Producer Don Hahn says villains with backstories were in fashion on stage and screen, so the pitch was to do 'a Wicked thing' with Disney's most glamorous one.

What does Stefan cut from the drugged Maleficent and carry home as proof that he has killed her?

Her wings. Unable to kill her, he presents them to the old king as proof she is dead, and years later it is his own daughter who sets them free.

Who plays Queen Ingrith, Prince Philip's scheming mother, in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil?

Michelle Pfeiffer. Her queen secretly plots to wipe out the fairy folk, and pays for it after the battle, when Maleficent turns her into a goat.

Maleficent's director, Robert Stromberg, had just finished designing which fantasy film for the same producer?

Oz the Great and Powerful. Producer Joe Roth said the designer was itching to direct, so Disney had him build Oz first on the promise of a film of his own.

Mistress of Evil reveals that Maleficent is the last descendant of which mythical bird?

The Phoenix. The sequel makes good on it: struck down in battle, Maleficent crumbles to ash, then rises again when Aurora's tears fall on what is left.

Which Doctor Who star shot scenes as Maleficent's royal uncle, only to be cut from the finished film?

Peter Capaldi. He and Miranda Richardson played her uncle and aunt in a longer opening, which the director trimmed by about 15 minutes to reach the human story sooner.

In Maleficent, the future King Stefan first turns up in her forest as what?

A peasant boy. The film swaps the born king of the 1959 story for an orphan who sleeps in a barn and is caught trying to steal a jewel.

Which of Angelina Jolie's children plays the five-year-old Aurora in Maleficent?

Vivienne. The other small children would not go near Jolie in her horns, and big sister Shiloh, who was asked first, laughed and turned the part down.

Eleanor Audley, the voice of the animated Maleficent in 1959, had earlier voiced which Disney villain?

Cinderella's stepmother. Audley did more than speak the lines: she acted out both villains on camera so the animators had a live performance to draw from.

Ella Purnell, the teenage Maleficent, later starred in which live-action series based on a video game?

Fallout. A decade before leading that series, Ella Purnell joined Maleficent late, replacing another actress when its opening was reshot, and says she never met Angelina Jolie.

What held Maleficent's foot-long horns onto Angelina Jolie's head?

Magnets. The makeup team built the horns to pop off between shots, reasoning that anyone with a foot of horn on her head is bound to walk into things.

One of Maleficent's three pixies is fiercely proud of her power to turn everything which colour?

Blue. She even puns on it at the christening, where her magic gift for baby Aurora is the wish that she will never be blue, only happy.

Which makeup artist designed Maleficent's horns and sharpened cheekbones?

Rick Baker. The seven-time Oscar winner meant to leave Angelina Jolie's own face alone and add only horns and pointed ears; it was Jolie who pushed for the prosthetic cheeks and nose.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil opened in October 2019 by knocking which film off the top of the US box office?

Joker. One screen villain ended another's two-week run at No. 1, and a week later the sequel held it off again by about $120,000, $19.37 million to $19.25 million.

Who recorded the brooding cover of 'Once Upon a Dream' heard over Maleficent's end credits?

Lana Del Rey. Disney unveiled her version in a 90-second trailer during the 2014 Grammys, then gave the single away free on Google Play for its first week.

Maleficent's theme song 'Once Upon a Dream' borrows its melody from a ballet waltz by which composer?

Tchaikovsky. Walt Disney had the 1959 film's score built from his ballet on the same fairy tale, and its songwriters simply put words to one of the waltzes.

Maleficent took over a May 2014 release date vacated by which delayed Pixar film?

The Good Dinosaur. Pixar had just parted with the film's director and pushed it back a year and a half, which left 2014 with no Pixar release at all.

What does the dying King Henry promise to whoever kills Maleficent?

His throne. Stefan, by then a servant at the king's court, hears the offer and goes straight back to the childhood friend he had stopped visiting.

Maleficent is a real English adjective, built from Latin words that mean what?

Doing harm. The word has been in English since the 1670s, from the Latin for 'ill' and 'to do', so the 1959 villain's name is simply a description of her.

After Stefan's betrayal, Maleficent turns a simple twig into what?

A walking staff. It begins as something to lean on in her grief, and becomes the magic staff she carries for the rest of the film.

Maleficent's $69.4 million debut beat which film's record as Angelina Jolie's biggest live-action opening weekend?

Wanted. Its $50.9 million start in 2008 had been her best in live action, and Disney itself had expected Maleficent to open nearer $60 million.

Maleficent's costume designer, Anna B. Sheppard, made her name dressing which Steven Spielberg film?

Schindler's List. That film and The Pianist had typed her as a designer of 1940s wartime stories, so she called her work on a fairy tale breaking the barrier.

Maleficent's writing credits cite a 1697 fairy tale by which French author?

Charles Perrault. His Mother Goose version gave the story its vengeful fairy, and the Brothers Grimm later borrowed from it for their own Little Briar Rose.

Joachim Rønning, director of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, had just co-directed a film in which Disney franchise?

Pirates of the Caribbean. Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg had won Dead Men Tell No Tales on the strength of their Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki, and Disney then hired him alone for this sequel.

Which 12 Years a Slave star plays Conall, the peace-seeking leader who rescues Maleficent in Mistress of Evil?

Chiwetel Ejiofor. His Conall argues for peace with the humans, his rival Borra, played by Ed Skrein, for war, and both think Maleficent's power will decide it.

After its final battle, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil ends with which royal occasion?

A wedding. Aurora marries Prince Philip, and the fairy who once turned up uninvited to curse a baby promises to come back for the couple's own christening.