Recent fairy-tale film releases by Disney show that the company is attempting to retell the classical fairy-tale films from new perspectives, especially featuring stronger fairy-tale heroines. This...Show moreRecent fairy-tale film releases by Disney show that the company is attempting to retell the classical fairy-tale films from new perspectives, especially featuring stronger fairy-tale heroines. This change is the result of a cry for subversion after feminist writers discovered values of a strictly patriarchal society in fairy tales, and they therefore campaigned for the abolition of female passivity in Disney’s fairy-tale films. This thesis will examine the theme of female agency and villainy in Disney’s fairy-tale films. Comparing and contrasting the original Walt Disney Sleeping Beauty (1959) adaptation with the same studio’s most recent film version Maleficent (2014), this thesis argues that the two movies reveal an apparent shift in the way they explore and present female identity, from valuing passivity to celebrating agency, and closely related to this, a growing sympathy towards the figure of the morally ambiguous villain who appears to seek redemption through motherhood. The notion of moral ambiguity will be discussed in relation to the villainous female character, and the differences in the portrayal of their agency compared to the agency attributed to the heroine.Show less
