Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be fascinating.

A while back I featured the first trailer for Disney’s Maleficent, a new take on the story of Sleeping Beauty starring Angelina Jolie as the titular villain and Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora.  Now we’ve got a new trailer that gives us a better look at the film.  Take a look, and read on for my comments:

I like that the trailer makes a point of drawing parallels between Maleficent and the 1959 version of Sleeping Beauty.  We get three sets, first showing us the line of villagers heading into the castle for Aurora’s christening, where Maleficent gets to show off some of its pretty scenery.

The next two parallels take some of the more memorable images from the original film.  We get to see Prince Phillip (played in the new version by Brenton Thwaites) leaning in to kiss Aurora and wake her from the sleeping spell.

And then we get a look at the good fairies, known as Flora, Fauna and Merryweather in the original film but here known as Thistlewit, Knotgrass and Flittle.  We also get a closeup look at Knotgrass, played by Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter‘s Dolores Umbridge), bestowing the gift of beauty on Aurora.

Of course, as anyone familiar with the story knows, Maleficent shows up and is angry that she wasn’t invited.  She says that she wants to give a gift as well, but instead curses the baby saying that she will prick her finger on a spindle and die (though one of the fairies uses her gift to change the curse to simply putting Aurora to sleep).  In the trailer we see Maleficent looking sassy before using her powers on Aurora.

The trailer jumps forward to when Aurora has grown into a young lady, and we see her first meeting with Maleficent (that we also saw in the first trailer).  We see that Maleficent has arranged this meeting, using her pet raven/man, Dival (Sam Riley) to help facilitate things.

It’s here where the trailer takes an interesting turn.  It seems like Maleficent and Aurora bond, and we hear Maleficent lamenting to Aurora that she’s not able to protect the girl, saying ““Aurora, there is an evil in this world, and I cannot keep you from it.”  I’m not sure what we should make of this, but we’re given a glimpse of a group of monstrous creatures immediately after the line.  Are these creatures the evil she’s talking about, or is it more of a metaphorical/abstract evil she wants to shield Aurora from?

We get a few glimpses in the trailer of Sharlto Copley as Aurora’s father, King Stefan.

We see the fateful spindle again in this trailer, among a pile of destroyed spinning wheels, with Aurora full of innocent curiosity.

While Maleficent seems to be portraying the villain as a more complex character, she is still shown to be powerful and violent, as we see her tossing a group of soldiers into the air, and she looks to be enjoying it.

However, the real question is how did she come to be this way.  At the very end of the trailer, it looks like we get a bit of a flashback, showing a younger looking Maleficent either gaining or discovering her powers.  She still has the horns, which maybe means they’re a part of her head and not just a fashion accessory, but she’s dressed in light colors and seems almost like an ordinary lady.

Will we get to see what drove Maleficent to want to curse the infant Aurora (surely there’s more to it than just not scoring an invite)?  How did she get her powers, and what led her to evil?  What is her relationship with Aurora and what are her intentions?  And why do I get the feeling that Maleficent is not going to like Phillip at all?  I’m definitely intrigued by this new look at the film, and we only have to wait until May to see it.

What do you think?  Did you like the new glimpse at Maleficent?  What do you think of the new take on the villain?  What’s your guess about her background?  Did you like how the trailer drew parallels between this film and Sleeping Beauty?  Let me know in the comments!