INTERTEXTUAL TRANSFORMATION OF A FAIRY TALE FROM SLEEPING BEAUTY TO MALEFICENT

Türkçe

In 1959 Disney released their movie Sleeping Beauty based on the tale by the same name, arranged by Charles Perrault. It is a classic fairy tale. That is to say it describes a world in which the good are always kind hearted. As expected they never lose the battles against the strongest enemies and they live happily forever. In this world the bad are evil hearted. They are extremely cruel characters. They always appear to be enjoying their wicked doings. However their true story is never told, the audience are not eager to hear it either. They are more concerned about the happiness of the good characters. Fifty-five years later, in 2014 Disney came up with another movie, Maleficent. What is remarkable here is that by employing intertextual relationship, they managed to retell the same story building it on the villain, making the bad character, Maleficent of the old fairy tale the focal point of the movie. The audience are reminded of the worthiness of her story too. They are urged to question their perception of good and bad. Apparently Maleficent does manage to bring a new insight to its audience. This study compares Disney’s 1959 movie, Sleeping Beauty, with the 2014 version namely, Maleficent which has been written in postmodern but highly original style. The long and winding road from classic view to postmodern approach has been explored in relation to the intertextual transformation within the context of a fairy-tale.12