Maleficent is the main antagonist of Disney's 1959animated feature film Sleeping Beauty. She is a powerful dark fairy and the incarnation of pure evil, who is responsible for all the misfortune in King Stefan's kingdom. Taking offense at not being invited to the christening of Stefan's daughter, Princess Aurora, Maleficent casts a curse on her, predicting that the princess will die from pricking her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle before sunset on her sixteenth birthday. Maleficent spends the following years making sure that her evil prophecy is fulfilled so that she can plunge the kingdom into sorrow and despair for good.
Maleficent is based on the wicked fairy from the 1697 fairy tale La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault. She is an official member of the Disney Villains franchise and is considered one of its most recognizable and popular characters due to her memorable design, vivid animation, and unlimited arsenal of magical powers at her disposal.
In honor of the birth of their long-awaited daughter Aurora, King Stefan and Queen Leah throw a grand celebration throughout their kingdom and arrange a christening, to which they invite the Three Good Fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, so that they can bestow the child with magical gifts. Just before Merryweather gets to give the princess a final gift, Maleficent arrives at the castle along with her pet raven Diablo. She claims that she was offended by not receiving an invitation to the christening and casts a powerful curse on Aurora, predicting that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, the princess will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Stefan commands his guards to seize Maleficent, but before they can do so, she leaves the castle by disappearing into the green flames. Although her magic is not strong enough to undo Maleficent's curse, Merryweather uses her gift to soften it so that Aurora will not die, but will instead fall into a deep sleep that can only be broken by true love's kiss. Still fearful of Maleficent's curse, Stefan orders all the spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned. Knowing that Maleficent will still attempt to fulfill the curse at any cost, the good fairies take Aurora away from the castle to a secluded cottage deep in the forest, where they decide to raise the child as their own until her sixteenth birthday, when the curse expires.
Upon discovering that Aurora has disappeared from the castle of her parents, Maleficent sends her goons to search the entire kingdom and find the princess. Years pass, but the search proves unsuccessful, to Maleficent's growing frustration, which gives the kingdom hope that her curse will not be fulfilled. Shortly before Aurora's sixteenth birthday, Maleficent discovers that her goons have stupidly spent almost sixteen years searching for a baby instead of a grown-up maiden. Enraged, she violently lashes out at them, before sending Diablo to search for the princess. On Aurora's sixteenth birthday, Diablo accidentally discovers the cottage due to Flora and Merryweather having a duel with magic wands while preparing presents for the princess. He overhears Aurora telling the fairies about a young man she met in the forest and fell in love with earlier that day, with the fairies telling her the truth about her royal heritage and that they must return her to the castle that same evening. Diablo flies back to Maleficent to inform her of what he heard at the cottage, and with this knowledge, she plans her next move.
As the sun begins to set, Maleficent teleports to Stefan's castle and finds Aurora alone in her chambers. Using a hypnotic apparition, she puts the princess into a trance and lures her to a secret room in the upper part of the castle, where she conjures a spinning wheel. The good fairies discover Maleficent's presence and frantically rush after Aurora, managing to momentarily bring her out of the trance by calling her; however, Maleficent hypnotizes Aurora again and orders her to touch the spindle, fulfilling the curse just before the sun sets. When the fairies enter the room, Maleficent mocks their efforts to stop her and reveals them the now sleeping Aurora, before triumphantly disappearing into the green flames. The fairies take Aurora to her bedroom and cast a sleeping spell on everyone in the kingdom until their princess is awakened, while Maleficent (along with her goons and Diablo) goes to the forest cottage to ambush the man Aurora fell in love with, as he is supposed to come there in the evening. When the man arrives, the goons capture him, and Maleficent recognizes him as Prince Phillip, to whom Aurora was betrothed as a baby. They then take Phillip to Maleficent's domain, the Forbidden Mountain, and lock him in a dungeon.
After discovering that Phillip is the man Aurora had met, the good fairies return to the cottage, where they find his hat and deduce that the prince has been captured by Maleficent. The fairies travel to her castle on the Forbidden Mountain, where they find Maleficent and her goons celebrating their victory. Maleficent decides to "cheer Phillip up" and descends into the dungeon, where she tauntingly shows the prince that the peasant girl he met in the forest and Princess Aurora are one and the same person; she also reveals her plans to keep Phillip imprisoned for the next hundred years until he grows elderly, and then release him to wake up Aurora, who will not age a day in her slumber. After Maleficent leaves for her chambers to get some rest, the fairies infiltrate the dungeon and free Phillip, arming him with the enchanted Shield of Virtue and the Sword of Truth so that he can fight Maleficent and her minions. As Phillip makes his way through the goons and the obstacles they put in his way, Diablo tries to warn Maleficent, but just when he reaches outside of his mistress' tower, Merryweather turns him into a stone statue.
Awakened by the sounds of fighting outside, Maleficent emerges from her tower and discovers Diablo's petrified body just as Phillip breaks out of her castle, guided by the good fairies. Maleficent climbs to the top of the highest tower and tries to strike the prince down with lightning bolts, but he evades them. As Phillip reaches the royal grounds, Maleficent surrounds Stefan's castle with a forest of thorns, but the prince manages to hack it with the sword. Enraged, Maleficent teleports to the royal castle just as Phillip reaches the drawbridge and confronts him personally, transforming herself into a massive fire-breathing dragon. In the ensuing battle, Maleficent corners Phillip on a ledge of a high cliff, but just as she is about to finish him off, the fairies magically empower the sword, and the prince throws it at the dragon. Fatally wounded in the chest, Maleficent falls off the ledge, and when Phillip looks down, he sees her shredded cloak and the sword stuck in it on the ground. With Maleficent gone, her forest of thorns fades away, and Phillip enters Stefan's castle, where he finds Aurora and wakes her up with a kiss, breaking the evil fairy's curse and freeing everyone else in the kingdom from their enchanted slumber.
Maleficent makes frequent cameos as one of the guests on House of Mouse. Her most notable appearance is the episode "Halloween With Hades", which is centered on Hades' attempts to woo her. When Maleficent initially rejects him, Mickey Mouse tries to help Hades by teaching him to be nice, which fails since Maleficent loathes nice. Hades furiously tries to kill Mickey, but Maleficent is impressed by his fiery temper and agrees to go out with him. They are seen having dinner together at the end of the episode, although Maleficent's later appearances suggest that their relationship did not work out. Throughout the show, Maleficent is frequently approached by other male villains who try to win her over, but she always rejects them in return. In the same episode, Captain Hook tries to charm her, only for Maleficent to zap him away with her staff. In "Max's Embarrassing Date", Jafar also attempts to woo her when they are sitting together, but Maleficent literally burns him after he tries to compliment her.
In "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation", Maleficent in her dragon form, alongside Mushu, Madam Mim, Elliott, and the Reluctant Dragon, cause a fire in the club, with Mushu accusing her of this.
In Mickey's House of Villains, Maleficent appears along with other villains during the takeover of the club led by Jafar. During the song "It's Our House Now", she takes on her dragon form, which is praised by Chernabog. This is the only time Maleficent can be heard singing in animation, although she only sings one line here.
A dragon resembling Maleficent's dragon form makes a brief cameo in the Timon & Pumbaa episode "Guatemala Malarkey" as one of the booby traps in the cursed temple.
Maleficent in her dragon form appears as a minor antagonist in LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest. During the climax, she is summoned by Gaston to kill the Disney Princesses to prevent them from thwarting his plot to seize power over all the kingdoms. Snow White manages to tame the dragon, who turns on Gaston and burns him alive.
In Once Upon a Studio, Maleficent is seen in the lobby of the Walt Disney Animation Studios among the characters queuing on the stairs. Maleficent later joins in on singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" with all the other Disney characters as a group photo is successfully taken for the Disney's 100th anniversary.
In Wish, Maleficent is featured among the characters from the Disney animated features canon that appear during the film's end credits.
Billy Kaplan is dressed up as Maleficent for the trial on the Witches' Road in the Agatha All Alongepisode "Death's Hand in Mine".
Maleficent appears in the 1991 Italian comic crossover Paperino in: La storia (in)finita, which is a parody of the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story, and was published in the Italian magazine Topolino. She serves as the leader of the Disney Villains and the equivalent of the wolf Gmork from the original movie and book.
When a mysterious malevolent force known as the Nothing slowly destroys the magical world of Fantasyland, Maleficent arrives on Madame Medusa's steamboat, where the villains are assembled. She warns them that Mickey Mouse has been tasked with fighting the Nothing and saving the life of the Empress (played by Daisy Duck). Maleficent then explains that it is in the villains' best interests to allow the Nothing to destroy the magical world, because once it is destroyed, they will be able to remake it to their liking with their dark magic. She decides to take care of Mickey herself and goes to the forest of Broceliande, where Mickey seeks advice from Merlin. Maleficent casts a curse on the forest to put everyone in it to sleep, and although Mickey manages to get some advice from Archimedes, the spell soon affects him.
Maleficent reappears at the climax of the story, confronting Mickey on the derelict Pleasure Islandthat is slowly being consumed by the Nothing. After Maleficent brags that she is going to kill him so that the Nothing cannot be stopped, Mickey asks about her motivation, and she explains that this way the good will finally be defeated. When Mickey retorts that evil cannot win if she and the other villains are also killed by the Nothing, Maleficent admits that she lied to the other villains, manipulating them into helping her kill Mickey, and that she is willing to sacrifice her life to see the agents of good destroyed. Maleficent transforms into a dragon, but before she can kill Mickey, she is consumed by the Nothing, while Mickey makes a timely escape on Dumbo's back.
Maleficent serves as the eponymous antagonist of Maleficent's Revenge, a short story included in Disney's Scary Storybook Collection.
Two years after the events of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip are preparing to celebrate their second wedding anniversary by hosting a royal ball for the entire kingdom. While the Three Good Fairies are working on the decorations, they notice that their powers have run out due to a solar eclipse; when it occurs, the fairies lose their magic and their spells are undone. Meanwhile, on the Forbidden Mountain, Merryweather's spell over Diablo is broken, and raven is revived from his petrification. He then finds Maleficent's staff and uses it to revive his mistress. Brought back to life, Maleficent makes her way to the kingdom, plotting to break Aurora and Phillip apart and take over the land.
On the day of the royal ball, Maleficent crashes the celebration and casts a spell on the castle, turning everyone into stone, except Aurora, who is protected by a spell cast on her as a baby by the good fairies. Tormented and desperate, the princess goes to the Forbidden Mountain and begs Maleficent to have mercy on Phillip and her people, asking the evil fairy to turn her into stone instead. Maleficent is unable to place a curse on Aurora due to the protection spell, but she is able to grant her wish, and the princess wishes to fall into eternal slumber in exchange for freeing everyone else.
With Aurora once again put into a deep sleep, Maleficent releases the rest of the kingdom from the stone spell, including Phillip, who rushes to the Forbidden Mountain to save his wife. Maleficent takes on her dragon form and tries to sting Phillip with her venomous fangs, but accidentally bites her own tail in the process and dies. With the evil fairy gone for good, Phillip once again awakens Aurora with true love's kiss, and the couple returns to their castle, where they continue celebrating their anniversary with the rest of the kingdom.
In the manga series, Maleficent returns disguised as "Lady Malecent" and attempts to curse Aurora at the princess' seventeenth birthday using magic rose thorns. However, the story's heroine, Kilala Reno, shields Aurora and falls under the curse. When Prince Rei delivers a kiss to a sleeping Kilala, Maleficent's evil plot was once again undone by true love's kiss, this time, ending Maleficent's life.
Maleficent plays a major role in the novel that tells the story of Walt Disney World after dark. Maleficent is one of the Overtakers and believed to be the leader. Still, nearing the end of the first book, when Finn calls her the Overtakers' leader, she denies it and tells there's someone far more powerful than her. In this version, Maleficent will become weakened if in warm places; thus she gives off a cold chill, which cues the Keepers into when she's nearing their location.
Prior to the first story, Maleficent cursed a girl named Jess into becoming her servant, to keep her from giving predictions to the Keepers. She was set free thanks to Finn's DHI powers; Maleficent held a grudge against both of them and tried numerous times to incapacitate them.
Though captured twice, Maleficent manages to escape each and every time; the second time was with her master, Chernabog. She, the Queen, and Cruella look for Disney's notes on Chernabog to find a way to bring him back to full power as the transitions into different forms she's caused him to go through have severely weakened him. Onboard the Dream, Maleficent and the rest of the Overtakers blend in without much of the problem as the crew mistake them for Cast Members in costumes. During the two-week cruise, she plans to toss the Keepers overboard.
During the Sixth book, Dark Passage, Maleficent is killed by Finn (who had become blinded by rage at being tricked into killing his best friend for them), who ripped a hole in her using his DHI powers. In the Seventh book, The Insider, Tia Dalma retrieved some of Maleficent's bones and enacted a ritual to resurrect her. Upon meeting Ursula, Finn wondered if Maleficent was a double-agent secretly working for the sea witch.
In The Return trilogy, Maleficent is brought back as a Frankenstein-like misshapen being with stronger powers by Tia Dalma. She attempts to attack Amanda and Jess.
In the Disney Villains: Top Secret Files, Maleficent is featured in her own section. According to the pieces of information provided, Maleficent's last name is Faery. She attended a magic school in her youth, where she (already) showed remarkable interests in dragons. In her younger years, she tended to accidentally transform into her dragon form (only learning to control it much later); this happened at a birthday party where she was invited. The resulting disaster is why she was traditionally never invited to parties. On the other hand, it turns out she was actually invited to Aurora's birth ceremony and that the invitation simply never got to her castle because she burnt the postman to death (believing him to be a trespasser) before he could deliver it.
In Disney Villains: My Side of the Story, Maleficent claimed her actions in the film were portrayed incorrectly, and that her efforts were merely meant for Aurora and Phillip's best interests.
Maleficent appears as the final boss of the North American version of the Nintendo game Mickey Mousecapade (in the original Japanese version, the final boss is the Queen of Hearts).
Maleficent appears as one of the main antagonists in the Kingdom Hearts series. Unlike the other Disney villains featured in the game (except Pete), who are only antagonists to the world they originate from, she plays a major role throughout the overall storyline of the series. Maleficent's story begins in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, in her homeworld Enchanted Domain, where she meets the dark Keyblade master Xehanort. Their contact leaves Maleficent with the knowledge of the existence of other worlds, the seven princesses of light, thus beginning her journey to gather all the princesses and unleash darkness upon the worlds, claiming them as her own, leading into the events of Kingdom Hearts. In order to do so, Maleficent enlists the assistance of several Disney villains: Pete, Jafar, Ursula, Captain Hook, Oogie Boogie, and Hades. Together, they wreak havoc upon their worlds and collect the princesses through the control over mysterious creatures known as the Heartless, with Maleficent managing to capture Aurora before having Enchanted Domain consumed in darkness. However, one boy stands in their way, that boy being Sora, the Keyblade's chosen one. With the help of Donald Duck and Goofy, Sora manages to travel across the worlds, defeating each villain, and eventually finding himself in Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent has built her home base. A battle follows, and eventually, Maleficent is killed after facing Sora in her dragon form after Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, possessing Riku, awakens her inner darkness in her heart with his own Keyblade. It was later revealed that Maleficent was actually nothing more than a pawn in Xehanort's hands, to collect the seven pure hearts for him and complete the first step of his greater plan.
As revealed in Kingdom Hearts Union χ, Maleficent did not actually die during the events of the first game. As when Ansem opened her heart with his dark Keyblade, he unwillingly allowed the evil fairy to transcend the rules of time travel. In this way, while Maleficent's body perished after her defeat against Sora, her heart travelled back in centuries and finding herself into a data-replica of her past homeworld. Unable to change the past events she is reached by a mysterious entity called "Darkness", who explains she was trapped here as part of the Master of Masters plans, and offers to guide her to the only way to return to her right temporal line. Together they travel to Auropoli, and reach a time travel machine. Maleficent is confronted by Lauriam, who tries to eliminate her, although the witch wins the fight and manages to use the capsule to go back to the future.
This way, in Kingdom Hearts II, she revives from her death. The only villain still in contact with her being Pete, thanks to Diablo taking her cloak to Master Yen Sid's tower, where the memories of her from Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather resurrect her, gaining back her body, and sets up her new base back in Hollow Bastion at Villain's Vale when she discovered she could no longer use the castle as her headquarters like before. Together, they continue their quest for power, by merely invading worlds and attacking with Heartless, along with allying with fellow Disney villains, both new and old, such as Oogie Boogie and Hector Barbossa, but a new threat is known as the Organization XIII gets in the way of Maleficent's quest for power. Maleficent and Pete appear to sacrifice themselves in order to hold off a horde of Heartless so that Sora, Riku, and their allies can defeat Organization XIII's leader, Xemnas at the summit of the Castle That Never Was.
Maleficent also appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts coded, and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, where she appears as a considerably minor character, looking to consolidate power and antagonize both Sora and King Mickey.
Maleficent returns in Kingdom Hearts III. She and Pete searched through the worlds in order to find the Black Box, a mysterious box given by the Master of Masters to his apprentice Luxu. Believing the box might contain the powerful Book of Prophecies, written by the Master himself, Maleficent decides to search for it, in order to use the book as a means to conquer all the worlds.
At the end of the game, after Xehanort's defeat in the Second Keyblade War, Luxu brings the box in the Keyblade Graveyard, followed by the Foretellers, called back from the past. Maleficent and Pete observe them from a distance, apparently deciding that was better to wait for the right moment to take the box for themselves.
Maleficent appears in her dragon form in the Sleeping Beauty transition level in addition to several background cameos. In Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, she serves as the basis of Mizrabel's redesign and final form along with her dragon form in the Final boss level against Mickey Mouse.
Maleficent appears in the game as one of the playable characters that are unlocked for 80 chips. She is Mid-Line Control Role hero. Maleficent's ability to transform into a dragon is the same as in Sleeping Beauty, as is her ability to summon the forest of thorns, although it can only be used to stun enemies. She has a friendship campaigns with Scar and Ursula. Maleficent's name is also used for a level titled "Maleficent Market".
Maleficent appears in the game as one of the featured Outfits of Fortnitemares 2024. She can be purchased in the Item Shop along with her cosmetics with the Disney Villains Bundle (which also include Captain Hook and Cruella De Vil and their respective) for 3800 V-Bucks or separately along with her cosmetics with the Melificent Bundle for 1800 V-Bucks. Unlike her other incarnations, Fortnite's Maleficent appears with an outfit much more suitable for combat.
Maleficent is an upcoming character in "The Storybook Vale" expansion pass. She will arrive in Act 2 as a full character, after appearing briefly in Act 1, involved in some missions with Hades and the player, as a minor character. She held a grudge with Hades for the control of the Vale, but at the end of Act 1 they reconciled to save the Vale from tearing apart.
She lives in the castle located in The Beanstalk Marshes biome, in the Storybook Vale world. Separate rooms of her castle can be explored in Fairy Tale Trials scattered in the Everafter biomes, where the player needs to cross a portal in order to start the trial, which normally involves solving puzzles of all kind.
It is heavily implied that she has something to do with Aurora's disappearance, and she was the one behind Flynn's curse, making him believe he was a wolf and act under her control to find Aurora. Though she fails in this, since Flynn actually helped Aurora to hide from Maleficent. Maleficent also seems to know the true reasons for what is happening to Storybook Vale after being told of the Neverafter by the player since that is what the Lorekeeper said was the cause, but Maleficent is doubtful of such information as she would have known of it as well.
After reconciling with Hades, she mysteriously disappears. Her fate was revealed in Act 2 of the DLC released on July 9th, 2025. Maleficent had been banished to the Unwritten Realms to be slowly erased while being imprisoned there. She reveals that the Lorekeeper was responsible for banishing her there, because Maleficent knew the truth that the Neverafter was the Lorekeeper's handiwork, and when Maleficent was about to expose the truth, the Lorekeeper sent her there to keep the truth buried. This is further proven when the Lorekeeper sends the player an ultimatum regarding their attempts to rescue Maleficent: Erase the Mistress of All Evil, or face the utter destruction of Storybook Vale and Dreamlight Valley. With Maleficent's help, the player locates Princess Aurora and brings her back, and manages to convince the Lorekeeper to apologize for its actions due to its fear and paranoia that was caused by the Forgotten and the Forgetting, and accept Storybook Vale and Dreamlight Valley for what they are.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke,
She is reprised by Susanne Blakeslee in the English dub and Toshiko Sawada in the Japanese dub.