Malificent stands out to me as unique among Disney villains. She is portrayed directly as evil, with a strong association to the demonic, invoking the powers of hell before her transformation to a dragon.

Other villains are evil, certainly, but with a flavour of human, rather than ethereal, evil

So evil is she that the prince kills her directly. For the hero to *actually deliver a death blow* is unheard of in Disney’s kingdom (perhaps Eric, who runs a ship through Ursula, has a case), but Malificent lacks any human aspect and is instead a pure symbol.

That clear and undiluted symbolism doesn’t exist so much in more modern Disney stuff.

I remember being most distressed in grade three when my class watched Sleeping Beauty a la Walt Disney and the wicked witch dissolved in a chuckle–what a violation to my sense of natural justice.

Of course my fascination with the folk tale didn’t end when I reached puberty. I didn’t discover Carl Sandburg till I was in high school and was listening to CKUA, which broadcasted tapes of the man himself reading Rootabaga Tales.

Thanks for bringing all that back to mind.