Maybe it wasn’t very nice that Maleficent cursed Aurora, but why wasn’t she invited to the royal christening when all the other fairies were? She even gave the royals a chance to apologize for their disrespect and they blew it, so what is a powerful spurned fairy to do? And there’s also just the irresistible camp of Disney villains. Somewhat similar to the way queer men gravitate towards pop divas because of their larger-than-life theatricality, the camp and grandeur with which these posh Disney villains get up to in their evildoing is wildly appealing. 

Villainous women have existed in fiction for as long as there's been fiction, though they often fall into types: mean girls, evil queens, harping wives, revenging mistresses. Often, they all share one quality: they are unsympathetic. This is not a sweeping statement across the board, of course, and characters intended to be unsympathetic can be read sympathetically by certain audiences. However, female characters of questionable morality are not always granted the automatic sympathy of a lot of their male counterparts. Men can be antiheroes; women often aren't allowed that luxury. 

In truth, “Maleficent” is a winner no matter how one feels about “Sleeping Beauty.” A viewer could conceivably enjoy the film without even watching the original, but it’s definitely more fun for the acquainted. Familiarity with the cartoon allows viewers to contrast pre-existing impressions of Maleficent against those generated by the new picture, and that makes things interesting from an academic standpoint.