Maleficent is a fictional character from Disney's animated film "Sleeping Beauty," released in 1959. She is portrayed as a powerful and vengeful fairy who curses Princess Aurora to fall into a deep sleep on her sixteenth birthday. The character was later reimagined in the live-action films "Maleficent" (2014) and "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" (2019), where her backstory and motivations are explored, presenting her in a more nuanced light as a misunderstood antagonist.