Let's forward a new argument: Should actors who really look like a famous animated character be the only actors considered to play animated characters in a live-action movie? Sure, Angelina Jolie looks stunning as Maleficent in new images released in conjunction with the filming of the 2014 self-titled feature. But is the illusion really complete seeing those overly obvious cheekbones and yellow eye contacts?
This forwards the idea that making live-action versions of all the famous Disney villainesses is becoming a big problem, devolving to camp (not in the woods). You can't help but call it anything other than camp in describing Julia Roberts's and Charlize Theron's performances as the Evil Queen in "Mirror Mirror" and "Snow White & the Huntsman." Those Snow White films helped bolster the argument that over-the-top female villains in Disney's roster have become so iconic that they can only exist in animation.
Comic book villainesses, however, seem to have a better flair for transforming into live action characters, perhaps based on action and nothing more. The most significant problem with making Disney villainesses real has been the fact that most of them rely strictly on dialogue and appearance above any actionable motives. Only Glenn Close's take on Cruella de Vil in the live-action "101 Dalmatians" could be said to have any sense of action accompanying the scenery chewing.
Other than a few differing scenes, the Evil Queens from the recently revamped Snow White adaptations had to mainly rely on sitting behind the scenes while cackling away with nefarious one-liners. If "Maleficent" stays true to the original "Sleeping Beauty" from Disney's 1959 vault, then Jolie will have to do the same thing as her animated counterpart. That means a true test of Jolie being able to hold a movie based on what she says, rather than going on an extreme stunt rampage.
Does that make characters like Catwoman or Poison Ivy the only corner actresses can turn to now to make an animated character come to more logical life? It's not that many Disney villainesses are left to tackle after Maleficent, unless the studio goes for famous Disney male villains.
With the Justice League comic book characters rumored to be developing for the big screen, you might be hearing about more superhero movies starting casting calls for A-list actresses. In fact, Angelina Jolie could have waited to play various comic book villains outside of wasting time to play protagonist Lara Croft for two movies.
If she survives "Maleficent," consider Jolie for such Justice League baddies as Killer Frost, Maxima, or Giganta. Based on the comic book characterizations, Jolie looks more like these characters naturally than she can possibly muster with painful makeup as Maleficent.
And that brings the future of all live-action adaptations of animated characters into question. It seems doubtful a huge audience can look past a flesh representation too obviously cartoonish to be a part of the real, logical universe -- unless that actor has a countenance straight from the animated world. The only way out is flat-out, absurd comedy -- and we saw how that can backfire in "Mirror Mirror."
This only gets stranger if we eventually see a coveted documentary on Jolie and Brad Pitt where we see her wearing Maleficent's horns around the house. Of course, Jolie's famous Oscar leg pose would work much better in the Justice League universe than real life.
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