Disney's Maleficent Shows How Far The Worm Has Turned

Once upon a time, Disney spun tales of dashing princes and beautiful princesses who, when challenged by the forces of evil, overcame all odds through the power of their mutual love. Indeed, to call something "Disneyfied" once signaled an almost naïve purity and innocence that we yearned to keep alive in a cold and hostile world, encapsulating the Christian character of the people who launched that magnificent company.

No longer. Disney now wields its magic on behalf of the post-modern malcontents for whom no idol is too sacred to smash, re-working the story of a "maleficent" fairy to make her into an embattled heroine. This bears obvious parallels to Wicked, the wildly-popular apologetic for the Wicked Witch of the West, which itself is a rip-off of John Gardner's novel from the 1970s, Grendel. I admit that Grendel is one of my favorite novels. After all, it captures the angst of someone who doesn't quite belong anywhere, either among men or animals, and who thus cannot escape his role of villain no matter what he does. Notwithstanding my affinity for tragic heroes such as Grendel, Darth Vader, Faust, or even Macbeth, I find it sad that Disney of all places has succumbed to this alienation and declared war on its own founding principles.

Maleficent is visually pleasing but clubs us over the head with a narrative worthy of any women's studies course. Hollywood sometimes drops all subtlety or pretense in this manner, such as with Thelma & Louise, The American President, In & Out, and various others that now count Maleficent among their number.

The film presents us with two neighboring but diametrically-opposed societies: one is Christian and ruled by a king; the other is pagan and ruled by a queen. Throughout the proceedings the former is portrayed as evil, corrupt, and belligerent; the latter as good, pure, and put-upon. Without giving spoilers (something I've been guilty of before), I can identify the following points that are hammered into young, impressionable minds with all the force Disney can muster:

• Men use and deceive women in order to obtain status.
• There is no true love to be found between men and women, only among women. 
• Daughters must rebel against their fathers in order to blossom.
• Pagan matriarchies are more just and peaceful than Christian patriarchies.

Anyone with a fleeting acquaintance with history -- or even reality -- recognizes these notions as malicious and false. With regard to the last point in particular, what preceded Christianity was unspeakably brutal. We should thank our lucky stars that 1) Christianity arose at all, and 2) that we benefit from its (dwindling) legacy. Disney and its technology are the direct products of a Christian patriarchal civilization, so we are witnessing yet another act of patricide by those who take their blessings for granted and reject any suggestion that they come at a price. But go ahead and keep attacking us evil Christian males; you will sorely miss us when we're not here to prop up this civilization any longer.