A Mommy Story

I’m not sure who came up with the idea of releasing new Blu-ray and DVD movies on a Tuesday, but it certainly makes your Tuesday a little brighter when a movie you like is now available to everyone. Today is one of those days: Maleficent is now available on Disney Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere, DVD and On-Demand.

I reviewed this movie when it was released to theaters back in May, and my review of the film itself still stands. (Go read the review if you haven’t already.) The film still works amazingly well on the smaller (48″) screen. I’m always concerned about darker parts of a film being too dark on my TV, but the Blu-ray has fantastic image quality and sharpness, and the sound is equally rich and vibrant.

Maleficent also holds up well for multiple viewings. We saw it twice in the theater: once with Aaron and me, and once with the kids included as well. I wanted to make sure the film wouldn’t be too scary for them, and found it was at just about the right level of entertainment and scare.

There are some scary moments.

Mira was a little too scared during the scene with the dragon when viewed in the theater, but at home and six months later, this scene no longer bothers her. I found myself just as interested watching it again at home as I was in the theater.

The storytelling throughout the film keeps the pace moving, and each stunning scene is filled with so much detail that I continue to find new things I hadn’t noticed before.

There are some fun extras included with the Blu-ray Combo pack, too. As is now almost a routine offering, a selection of deleted scenes are included. I particularly enjoyed the deleted scene between a younger Stefan and the King, where we see Stefan’s hunger for power developing early. The scene of the three fairies asking the newly crowned King Stefan for asylum was also a fun bit of backstory that I wish would have remained in the film.

Beyond the deleted scenes, there are also a few making-of featurettes that I liked, too. In “From Fairy Tale to Feature Film,” the cast and crew discuss how the concept of the film was developed from the Disney classic, Sleeping Beauty, and the challenge of how to make the audience care about Maleficent, who is often described as one of the greatest Disney villains.

And yes, it’s in that featurette you’ll also get to see the Jolie-Pitt family on-set, with Brad convincing his daughter (dressed as toddler Aurora) to walk to the edge of the “cliff” for the scene.

I also really liked the “Maleficent Revealed” featurette, which showed several clips of scenes starting from visual concept and progressing through the development and CGI process to result in the final storybook world.

The only featurette I was a little let down by was “Classic Couture,” which displayed some of the Maleficent head wraps and accessories, but disappointed on the commentary of the development of all of these gorgeous costume pieces.

The Maleficent Disney Blu-ray Combo Pack includes the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film, plus the code for a Digital HD download as well. I entered the code into my Disney Movies Anywhere account, so we can now watch Maleficent on computer, tablet or phone whenever we want.

This is definitely a film I’m happy to include in our collection. It’s a great twist on the classic fairy tale we all know, and the acting and design are outstanding.

Want to extend the fun with your kids? Check out the Maleficent activity pages that Disney put together by clicking on the image below!

Disclosure: I received a copy of Maleficent to facilitate this review.