An old fairy tale told anew with a difference

SHEATHED in black, sporting an impressive set of horns and shrouded in the greenish smoke that announces her presence, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) sure knows how to make an entrance. She's one of the classic villains in Disney's pantheon of cruel (not to mention Cruella) women, evil step-moms and scary sorceresses who sow seeds of destruction before coming to grief in the final reel.

At least that's how it goes in Sleeping Beauty, the 1959 animated film based on a French fairy tale and a Brothers Grimm story, featuring a memorable Disney version of the wicked fairy godmother.

Now comes Maleficent, a live-action revisionist retelling of the original tale - one that casts the title character in a slightly different light.