First shot of animation: the procession to celebrate Aurora’s birth, flat geometry layered to make intricate dimension, a shot that inspired the entire creative output of Cartoon Saloon

It should be illegal for movies to look this good. I just wanna watch the tree bark go by. The life and volume in a sleeve of a magically assembled dress, the light projection effects and lyrical imagery of the fairies’ gifts. Even the storybook’s cover is coated in 12 pounds of gems. It’s unfair to other movies.

When your title character is defined to her very name by being inert, it’s a good thing the side characters step up. We’ve got our fantasy horse with personality. The increasingly drunk lute player. The affable and incompetent fairies. And of course Maleficent. The outright villains so far have been greedy or cruel, but she’s the first to enjoy herself. Why not cast a kingdom into darkness because they didn’t invite you to a party for fear you’d cast the kingdom into darkness. Treat yourself.

There’s a strong sense of humor here. Flora insisting her disaster cake will be stiffer when it’s baked, Philip chiding his old fashioned father because “it’s the 14th century”, but the same ear is out to cruel irony when the kingdom celebrates Aurora’s arrival at the moment she’s “dead”.

Maleficent brings “all the powers of hell” against Philip, so these films continue to be explicitly Christian. Or maybe she meant Hel?