Maleficent is the 79th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Ian Weinreich, Matthew Brian Cohen and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies Disney's 2014 fantasy live-action reboot film Maleficent. It was published on November 11, 2014 to coincide with the film's release on home video and Blu-ray. It is 3 minutes 36 seconds long. It has been viewed over 7.7 million times.
Watch Honest Trailers - Maleficent on YouTube
"Another Disney cash grab that will ruin everything you loved about another childhood classic." ~ Honest Trailers - Maleficent
Script[]
From the studio (Disney) behind the animated classics that defined a generation and the bloated, gritty action reboot that defined this generation (Alice in Wonderland) comes another Disney cash grab that will ruin everything you loved about another childhood classic: Male-efficient...Male-fickant...Melee-fyckent...screw it, Sleeping Beauty (Maleficent).
Two giant cheekbones (Angelina Jolie) star in the modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty -- this time from the villain's perspective -- where the character you loved for being pure evil and turning into an awesome dragon is...no longer evil, and doesn't even turn into a dragon...?
Maleficent: Turn into a dragon. (Diaval transforms into a dragon)
Why is he the dragon? You had one job, Disney!
Instead, watch as the sorceress whose name literally means "evil" mildly punks people, feels sorry, and is only mean because she was roofied and mutilated by her childhood love. (shows Maleficent screaming in agony after her wings are cut off) Ughhh, have fun explaining that to your kids.
Watch everything scary and fun about Maleficent get neutered by the same thing that neutered Darth Vader: backstory, where you'll learn the answers to questions you never had like, what if Maleficent grew up in a low-rent Avatar rip-off? What if the original was full of generic CGI battle scenes? Was Maleficent's pet crow actually a human slave? Where did her stick come from? And did Maleficent spend most of her time creepily watching Sleeping Beauty grow up from a few feet away? Yes, she did, apparently.
But it's not just the Angelina Jolie show. Instead, spend time with one-dimensional caricatures, like the mean king (Stefan); the handsome prince (Philip); the cute princess (Aurora); and the three fairies you loved from the original (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather), who are now three hideous idiots whose stupidity borders on child abuse (Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle).
(shows young Aurora running toward a cliff while the three pixies fight)
Maleficent: Oh, look, the little beast is about to fall off the cliff.
Way to f*ck up fairies, Disney.
So experience a more modern take on Sleeping Beauty where we learn the most important lesson of all: if your movie comes out after Frozen (Trolls: ...true love kiss.../Maleficent: True love kiss...), true love only exists between two girls. (shows Maleficent kissing the sleeping Aurora) Aw, yeah.
Starring You Know Nothing, Jon Crow (Sam Riley as Diaval); Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Lesley Manville as Flittle, Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass, and Juno Temple as Thistlewit); Groots (tree warriors); Harry Styles (Brenton Thwaites as Philip); Areola (Elle Fanning as Aurora); Prawn King (Sharlto Copley as Stefan); and How Jennifer Aniston Sees Angelina Jolie (Angelina Jolie as Maleficent).
Sleeping Beauty: The Bad One
We're gonna be honest, this wasn't our best trailer, but this wasn't Disney's best movie either. Next week's will be way better, trust us (shows a clip from The Little Mermaid).
Trivia[]
- Screen Junkies have produced Honest Trailers for several other Disney live-action reboots including Aladdin (2019), Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
- An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.
Reception[]
Honest Trailers - Maleficent has a 97.4% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Geek Tyrant said the Honest Trailer was "pretty hilarious." In contrast, Neatorama thought the Honest Trailer was "almost like shooting fish in a barrel for this film." CinemaBlend remarked "Screen Junkies can be merciless when picking apart a movie like Maleficent, and the best dig in this 3:30 minute lecture has to revolve around the fact that giving a classic villain a backstory tends to eliminate everything we thought was cool about them." In the same article, CinemaBlend wrote "The Honest Trailer has fun at pointing out how uncomfortable parents have to address the fact that Angelina Jolie’s character is raped by the one man she trusts most. It notes that all of the characters not named Maleficent are one-dimensional, easily lampooned caricatures in the live-action retelling. It has a great Jennifer Aniston joke. And it gets some good mileage out of the fact that no one is able to pronounce Jolie’s character’s name."
Production credits[]
Voiceover narration by Jon Bailey
Title design by Robert Holtby
Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner
Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Ian Weinreich, Matthew Brian Cohen and Andy Signore
Edited by Dan Murrell & Jason Inman
External links []
- Maleficent Just Got A Massive Middle Finger In The Form Of This Honest Trailer - CinemaBlend article
- Honest Trailer for Disney's MALEFICENT - Geek Tyrant article
- Watch: Honest Trailer For Disney’s Cash Grab ‘Maleficent’ - IndieWire article
- Maleficent Gets A Honest Trailer - ComicBook.com article
- An Honest Trailer for Maleficent - Neatorama article