Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20150325212442/@comment-24674051-20150326164515

I have not seen Maleficent yet. But in all of the literature and tellings prior to that movie, she is a fairy, and that's going all the way back to the original sleeping beauty story.

So this is probably the first retelling of any part of Sleeping Beauty where Maleficent (or whatever name you want to give the Antagonist from that story) is not a fairy, but simply a powerful Sorcereress.