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MALEFICENT (Sleeping Beauty)

Most of us probably saw this movie when were fairly young (or might have seen it recently, considering Disney just rolled out the red carpet for its DVD release), so it’s probably fairly faint in most of our memories. But there’s no denying the one thing that we do remember for those of us who have seen it: Maleficent (voiced by Eleanor Audley), the scheming witch who also turns into a dragon. While Disney villain props tend to go to the Wicked Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Scar from The Lion King, there’s really no denying that Maleficent is probably the single most evil character in cartoon history.

Why does she deserve to be on this list? The presence. Ursula from The Little Mermaid might have been a little more flamboyant, but Maleficent was simply too cool to be bothered with those kinds of theatrics (save for when she turns into a dragon, of course). She walks around with her cane, has a crow on her shoulder, and hangs out with all sorts ghouls and goblins that actually make the orcs seem kind of tame. There’s something about people (or witches) that seem to hang out exclsuively with people that much younger or smaller than them that’s kind of creepy (sort of like with Townies), but you get the impression that Maleficent could roll with whatever crowd she damn well pleased.

But she picked goblins. That, my friends, is depth.

Why isn’t she more popular? The world of Disney villains and princesses is a crowded one, and Sleeping Beauty just doesn’t get the attention that the rest of them do, probably because the older Disney films don’t resonate with today’s young’uns as they did with even most people in our generation. I’m hopeful, though, that someday after the dust has settled on this argument (the argument has yet to begin, I might add), Maleficent will be given be rightful title as Coldest Witch in Film History.

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Comments (9)

October 21, 2008, Lex Walker said:

	I think the people at Squaresoft agree with you as they made Maleficent the head honcho of the villains. She's much more bada*s than most.
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October 22, 2008, Saul Berenbaum said:

	The Three Mothers could kick her a*s... Then again, two of them get taken down pretty gosh-darned easy.
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October 25, 2008, Vi said:

I think the Step-Mother from Cinderella was a much more under-rated villain simply because she managed to be as intimidating as the rest of the Disney villains inspite of not having any magical powers and inspite of just being an ordinary old lady. A mean, mean old lady who seemed able enough to murder you and get away with it, but nothing really fantastic. As a child, just watching her cruel eyes, listening to her cold voice and watching her glide ominously across the corridors of her mansion was pretty scary for me. I don't remember her raising her voice even once but she still made a pretty big impression on me, atleast.

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October 26, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

	She does lend herself to video games rather well.
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October 26, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

	It's obviously a subjective thing. I picked Maleficent because I think her design is just fantastic. But clearly, the evil stepmother made a big impression on you, and there's a lot to be said for that. If you have your own list that you'd like to post here, I'd like to invite you to do so.
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October 26, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

	Have you seen the deleted dragon battle where the three mothers merge into one three-headed creature (a la Ghidra) and take down Maleficent's dragon? It's pretty cool.
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November 07, 2008, Jay said:

Underrated? How? I have seen her top practically every Disney Villain countdowns. On those she didn't win she was still near the top. Everyone I know when asked about their favorite Disney villain has picked Maleficent. In fact, a lot of don't even know who the Wicked Queen is and some mistake her for Maleficent. And as mentioned before, Maleficent is the leader of the villains in the first Kingdom Hearts game and even though she gets defeated, she was voted to come back for Kingdom Hearts II. Of course I agree with everyone why she's a huge favorite. She's evil, cold, cunning, scary, and completely bada*s. But underrated is not one of them.

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November 07, 2008, Anders Nelson said:

	Most of my friends said Scar or Ursula, so maybe it's just a matter of geography. Plus, I've never seen a "list" of top Disney villains. I've seen those random collections that Disney tosses together from time to time, but I've never seen an unbiased list. Can you link to one of them?
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December 17, 2008, Rachel said:

	I have always said Maleficent was my favorite villain, she's just an uber badass (and was def. a good Kingdom Hearts choice). Though Cruella DeVil is veeeery close in my book as well. I mean...the woman wants to skin innocent puppies for crying out loud, haha...maybe the fact that my family has basically always owned a dalmatian or two also has to do with it...
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