One highlight of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration this year was not only posing with Maleficent (while protecting my son!) and seeing the first 9 minutes of the film Maleficent which is classified as PG and opens on May 30, 2014, but hearing Elle Fanning speak about her first starring role opposite Angelina Jolie. To Fanning, “Aurora exudes lightness and it’s so great in our movie that we have the dark and the light, total opposites, because they work so well together, like opposites attract in a way.”

“Elle is Aurora,” comments Jolie. “From the moment I met her, she is just sunshine. She’s a wonderful, sweet, intelligent young woman. Elle’s such a capable actress and a very strong person, which is nice because this Aurora is not just in love with the flowers; she is elegant and beautiful and delicate and loving, but she’s centered and she’s quite
an impressive young woman. Elle is bringing all of that and a great deal of emotional depth and her talent, as an actress, has really surprised me.”

Fanning described the experience as surreal and rich, and it was clear from the trailer that the pair has the true chemistry that makes Disney films addictive. With her favourite colour being pink and longing for long hair as a girl, her favourite Disney princess was always Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.

Tom Staggs, Chairman of Disney Parks talked of the legendary Sleeping Beauty story.  Walt himself made Sleeping Beauty’s castle the centerpoint of the world’s first theme park. The film of Sleeping Beauty was released as an animated film in 1959 and Maleficent has been a villain in our minds ever since. It is not until now that we will perhaps realize the full complexity of the story. Some of the finest actors on the planet will show us the history of the sleeping beauty story and I strongly suspect that not all is as it first appears.

I will be first in line. And I won’t be waiting with a spinning wheel.

Here’s a featurette entitled ‘Light and Dark’. Enjoy!