As Angelina Jolie takes centre stage as villain in new Disney film Maleficent, we discover just why we love to hate fairy tale baddies.
The magic of Disney is not complete without the mix of the right ingredients and according to Lydie Richard, artistic manager for the Disney Characters, who tells us: “You need a beautiful girl, a beautiful boy, an adventure, something to find or go for, you need a villain and you need a happy end with a kiss – a magical kiss."
But romance aside, and it's the battle of good vs evil that makes a film as enchanting as Sleeping Beauty and Maleficient. Lydie explains: “All the villains are interesting to work with because they are not black or white so they paint a very interesting picture. The story is very different, in Malifecent you will discover with Angelina Jolie that Disney wanted to highlight that in every bad person there is something good.
"Maleficent is the most interesting one because if you are looking at the other stories, a villain is always someone who is jealous or someone who wants something that someone else has but that’s not the same for Maleficent. She was a good person. She was a fairy at the beginning of the story but because she’s been pulled apart, she became an evil person. "She’s the queen of the evil family. Maleficent is gorgeous, she is the mistress of all evil, she can do what she wants, is a real magical person, and we are all jealous because she is doing what she wants. I think sometimes we’d like to be a villain but we don’t have the courage to be a villain because they are against everyone. At Disney you’re not a bad person, you’re a villain. We don’t like a story without a villain, we lose interest. I love the villains.”
We’ve all got a favourite villain that we love to hate, and Lydia tells us what she thinks of some of the other Disney baddies.
“Cruella has the power, she wants power and everything, she’s more of a bad person than evil, she just wants a coat and that’s ridiculous. She’s very cruel person. In Sleeping Beauty, the villain is more a fairy turned bad or if you’ve seen Captain Hook, he’s not a pirate and that’s his problem. Women are the stronger villains than the guys."
But in recent years there has been a shift towards a new independent princess. Lydie says "We love Cindrella and she is the favourite of all Disneyland Paris guests and she always will be because we love the story with the prince and the magical kiss but on top of that, the new generation of girls want a job and if you see Tiana from Princess and the Frog, she said 'yes I want to fall in love, but first I want to have my own restaurant. I want to run my business and after that I can have a prince' so that’s different.
"The little girls today are more modern, we love the classic Disney tales - we want a princess dress, we want the story, the music, the ballroom and the couples, but we also need to find who we are. And that’s very new with the Disney stories, even with Rapunzel – the prince is not a prince, it is a man.
"The male villains are pathetic, women are the stronger evil. With Captain Hook we are not afraid. We know that Peter Pan has to watch his back. Villains today are not the one with the magical power, so it’s more difficult to find them being vicious. With Sleeping Beauty or Maleficient it’s not only for girls, boys are very interested in the dragon, the prince, and the fighting.”
And the importance of villains at Disney has grown recently, so much so that they’re planning to introduce more of them into the Disneyland Park. Lydie says: “We do have plans to have villains walking around the park, Maleficent is going to be there on Halloween. And sometimes we are doing some prince and princess shows and she will arrive saying ‘what’s this, I’m not invited?' But our guests do love her. The children love it and with Disney you know that it will be okay in the end. It is frightening with the music but at the end you know it will be fine and we love being scared."
And if you visit Disneyland, you will see the characters looking exactly like they do in the film. Lydie explains: “We are supposed to give to the guest the reality from the film so when you see our Disney characters you will see them in the same costumes and for the parade events they can have specific dresses linked to the theme of the parade or the film.
"Disneyland Paris has been open for more than 20 years and we are trying to keep all the dresses from specific years. Each time we create a tour or a parade we have to make changes each year, but each time we make changes we put the characters in the film scene and we have new costumes made, so it’s almost 5,000 costumes we own. We want the dress to be perfect every day so there are a lot of repairs and a lot of the time we are doing costume fittings to make sure our princesses are always feeling comfortable. It’s a huge amount of work to be sure of the quality. It rains a lot in Paris so it doesn’t help with fur and feathers. The costume teams are working with all the creative team to work on new parades and shows.”
But with so many characters, we wondered how they choose who to bring out in to the park. Lydie says: “All guests want to meet EVERY Disney characters but they can’t because they have a lot of things to do all day long. But all the characters want to do the parade because they love that, so that’s difficult, but we are trained to give the magic to the guests. That’s why Mickey is there, to give a privileged moment to your family. We have to find a good balance, obviously during Halloween the villains are the focus. If it’s Christmas guests want to see the toys, so we are stuck to the season but we try to listen to our guests. You will always have someone who is disappointed because everybody has a different idol. But I hope we do our best.”
And the team is constantly making it a fresh experience for repeat visitors, Lydie says: “This year it’s Mary Poppins and Saving Mr Banks for Spring, which is very good timing. Next year we are going to do something else around Spring. Now we are trying to work on Summer, of course because we have a lot of returning guests, maybe one day Halloween won’t be enough so maybe we are thinking of having a villain week. But during Chirstmas guests will have a surprise in the park and Maleficient won’t be that far form that.”
And a brand new concept coming soon to Disneyland Paris is a line of Villain costumes to purchase. Lydie says: “The villain costumes are a new line for the boys and girls. There was a lack of villains before, and if you have a family with two or three children they can each play a different character, it’s more natural to have bad against good.”
And with so many characters to see in such little time, we caught a glimpse of them all at the Disney Magic on Parade.
And one show not to be missed is the Disney Dreams spectacular night time show, featuring music, visuals, and fireworks being projected onto the Disneyland castle and these can be viewed from the Main Street USA Central Plaza.
And if you think you haven't spotted all the characters, over in the Walt Disney Studios park, you can watch the Disney's Stars 'n' Cars parade.
Travel information:
We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel for one night bed and breakfast. We travelled by Eurostar from London's St. Pancras. We had a table at a special character restaurant Auberge de Cendrillon. And ate at Restaurant des Stars - inspired by Ratatouille. There is plenty of fun in Disneyland Paris for kids and big kids alike - explore Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios to the wonders of the Disney Village.
Sleeping Beauty is out on Disney Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download on 2nd June. Maleficent is in cinemas now.