Sleeping Beauty/Fridge

Fridge Horror

• In the original story, Sleeping Beauty is asleep for a hundred years and her entire castle and servants were put to sleep too. How would that feel for the servants to wake up in a new century with nothing left of their old lives anymore, just because a magical curse wanted the princess to have some hired help when she woke up?
  • In that era, odds are that their entire lives were in the castle, or at least the town that was most likely within its outer walls.
    • That was the case and was lampshaded in the Twice-Told Tale book A Kiss in Time. After the curse is broken, most of the people in the castle think that a month has gone by at the latest, when centuries have passed. Towards the end of the book, when the protagonist (a boy from modern times) interrogates a lot of the peasants living in the town, most of them still had no idea that any time at all had passed.
• The movie Maleficent planned this as an ultimate punishment for Aurora and Phillip as she planned to keep the latter in her castle for a hundred years, letting him go to the princess causing her to Go Mad from the Revelation once she realizes that she hasn't aged a day.

Fridge Logic

• The good fairies are capable of many feats of magic, yet when they sneak into Maleficent's stronghold of the Forbidden Mountain, they don't turn themselves invisible (like any faerie would). This could be because Maleficent might have enchanted her orc guards to see invisible things, but had she done so she probably would have invested a lot more in them, including the intelligence to look for an aging girl over the past 16 years.
  • Or, more simply, the fairies just can't turn invisible. They're never shown to have that power at all. Maleficent seems to be able to become intangible or diffuse into the aether, but, then, she has power gained from Hell itself, and her magic far exceeds what the good fairies are capable of, so it's not surprising she can do something they can't.
• No one in the film seems to realize the entire story could have been avoided by just waiting until after Aurora's 16th birthday to re-introduce her to her parents and royal life.
  • The original ballet actually addresses this. Aurora is never removed from her home, and is instead raised with love (and presumably without the presence of sewing apparatuses). On her 16th birthday, she is given a coming of age ball, complete with suitors. Carabosse (Maleficent) crashes Aurora's party, in a Paper-Thin Disguise, and gives Aurora the spindle in person as a present. The spindle is either disguised (for instance, hidden in a bouquet of flowers), or just handed to her. From there, the story relies on Aurora being only 16 and acting like an excited teenager. She rushes over to show her parents her new and mysterious toy, then dances away from them when they try to take it away from her. (It's my present!) And then promptly pricks her finger as Carabosse does her "I told you so" ritual, and the Lilac Fairy shows up to give the hysterical kingdom a massive sedative.
• Maleficent's crow found out Aurora's hideout thanks to the magic coming out the cottage's chimney. If Flora and Merryweather didn't start the color fight, the crow might have never found the cottage in the first place. So waiting at least an extra day would have been better.
  • Maybe they couldn't. Maleficent's curse forced them, her magic was far more powerful than their's and she said it would happen by certain time and it happened at almost the last possible moment.

Fridge Brilliance

• Early on, Merryweather expresses the desire to turn Maleficent in "a fat old hop toad". The others chide her, saying that it's impossible because their magic can only be used to bring happiness. Merryweather gripes "Well, that would make me happy". During the climax, the fairies never attack Maleficent directly, instead essentially buffing Phillip and his gear. Presumably it's because of this happiness thing, which makes their magic useless for direct offense. Yet Merryweather is able to turn Diablo to stone. Why? Because doing so certainly made her happy.