First Trailer for 'Maleficent' Released

Disney's Maleficent doesn't come out in theaters for another six months, but this week, the studio chose to release both the first poster and teaser trailer for the Angelina Jolie-starring film — and we couldn't be happier they did. After seeing and loving the poster, which showed a fierce, heavily edited Jolie giving some serious evil eye to the camera, the new trailer for Maleficent , released on Wednesday, is the intense, perfectly creepy follow-up.

Disney may be choosing to keep most details of Maleficent, which tells the tale of the iconic Sleeping Beauty villain, secret until closer to the movie's release, but the teaser trailer is more than enough to satisfy audiences' curiosity. With dark imagery, heavy CGI, and intense, slowly-building music, it's more reminiscent of Harry Potter than a Disney fairy tale — and that's fine by us. Maleficent is an evil character, and her movie shouldn't shy away from earning that PG rating.

And it doesn't look like it will. In the trailer's best sequence, Aurora (Elle Fanning) innocently asks Maleficent (Jolie) to show herself and not be afraid. The villain cooly responds, "I am not afraid." Says Aurora, "then come out!" to which Maleficent answers, "then you'll be afraid."

As portrayed by Jolie, Maleficent sounds wonderfully evil, containing just the right combination of intelligence and intensity to make for a truly memorable villain. In another actor's hands, the lines and costuming — it's a CGI-ed Jolie in horns, not exactly terrifying — could seem ineffective, silly, even, but Jolie makes them menacing. The same goes for the rest of the trailer; the music and visuals are a bit too heavy-handed, but we don't doubt that Jolie will make them seem fitting in the film.

Maleficent, directed by visual effects veteran Robert Stromberg, also stars Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sharlto Copley and Sam Riley. It will be released on May 30, 2014.

Watch the trailer below:

Image: Disney