Maleficent first appears in the film Sleeping Beauty in King Stefan's castle by means of supernatural teleportation during the christening of Stefan's daughter, Aurora. Her appearance is preceded by a gust of wind and accompanied by a streak of lightning and her signature green flames. She is outwardly courteous but implies she is offended that she did not receive an invitation to the ceremony like the other fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. When she asks the king and queen why she was not invited, Merryweather speaks up and tells Maleficent that she was "not wanted". Shocked (or more likely, pretending to be shocked), she turns to leave this "awkward situation", giving the king and queen one last chance to make up for not inviting her, but the queen asks her if she was offended by this, Maleficent denies it, and offers to give a "gift" to Aurora to prove she "bears no ill will". Maleficent then says that Aurora will grow in grace and beauty and be "beloved by all who know her" as well, but to punish the king and queen for their insolence, places a curse on Aurora, so that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will "prick her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel and die!" Merryweather, who still has a gift she can use, weakens the curse so that Aurora will fall into a deep sleep instead, with only a kiss from her true love to awaken her.
The three fairies hide Aurora until her sixteenth birthday passes while an angry Maleficent realizes her instructions to her goblin minions were wasted for most of the sixteen years as the goblins focused on searching for a baby the whole time. Maleficent then blasts lightning at them in her fury and then instructs her raven familiar Diablo to hunt down the now adolescent Aurora. Once he succeeds, Maleficent visits Aurora on the evening of her sixteenth birthday in a form of a will-o'-the-wisp, hypnotizing Aurora before luring her to a remote tower and transforming into a spinning wheel where she pricks her finger to fulfill the curse.
To ensure Aurora would not be immediately awakened, Maleficent and her goons trap Prince Phillip, Aurora's true love, and take him to Maleficent's castle in the Forbidden Mountains. She taunts Phillip before she retreats to her own tower, explaining that she intends to leave him in her dungeon for 100 years, and then free him (if he is still alive then) on his way to awaken his true love after he has aged and she has not. She leaves satisfied, saying, "For the first time in sixteen years, I shall sleep well." After Maleficent leaves, the fairies then free Prince Phillip of his chains and they escape the dungeon, fending off repeated attacks from Maleficent's minions which are thwarted by the fairies' magic. Merryweather turns Diablo into stone as well. Maleficent soon discovers that the Prince has escaped from her dungeon, and is even more furious to see Diablo's fate. She ascends to the top of her highest tower of the castle. She summons lightning bolts and spells at Phillip to hinder him, including a "forest of thorns", which Phillip is able to overcome, before personally dealing with him by transporting herself in front of King Stephan’s' castle, blocking his entry. She then tells him that he shall have to fight her, and "all the powers of Hell" and transforms into a huge dark dragon. Though she overwhelms him, and it looks like Phillip is about to meet his death, the three fairies transfer some of their power to Phillip's sword as he throws the weapon into her heart, fatally wounding her. As she falls forward, she attempts to devour him, but misses. Her heavy weight collapses a cliff beneath her, and she falls to her death. All that's left is her shredded robe, with the sword still embedded in it as it blackens.
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