Sleeping Beauty (1959)

 Hail To The Queen....Hail To The King...Hail To The Princess Aurora!...
In a sense, this was my Snow White.

When I was a kid, my family never bothered with Snow White, Pinocchio, Cinderella, even Peter Pan. We ended up with Alice, Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty when they were released on VHS. And were better for it.
My sister and I used to love Maleficant because she was such a ... well, lets just say a "female dog". And for no reason it seemed. Oh, because she wasn't invited to Aurora's Birthday Party? Pfft...

Grab it on BLU-RAY this time though so you don't miss the band wagon.
Grab it on DVD too if you feel the need ( though really you should already own it on DVD from the last time it was out a few years back ).
Even if you don't have a Blu-Ray player yet, when you get one you'll have a Disney Classic ready and waiting to impress the neighbours. And it'll save you looking for it in 4 years time after its discontinued!!!

I have nothing to add about how good to the movie actually is, because we all know how good a movie it is. Also, just by the by, grab
Fantasia on BluRay when they get around to re-releasing that.
Believe me, your kids will thank you. My daughter Trixxie watches her Snow White DVD at least 4 times a week. I really don't enjoy it that much, that and its sad at the end, but hey she loves it, so lucky I bought it on DVD when I had the chance.
Hooray Sleeping Beauty Woo.

March 25, 2008

 Great Movie
I think the story line was great. The villian is one of the coolest ever. Music was great too. One of my favorite Disney movies. Not as good as Cinderella or Snow White, but a great Disney classic for people young and old to watch! March 20, 2008

 "SLEEPING BEAUTY": DISNEY'S DEFINITIVE FAIRY TALE MASTERPIECE
"Sleeping Beauty" (1959) marked a stunning departure from the usual "house style" of animation at Disney Studios. Eyvind Earle designed the production to resemble a Renaissance painting in motion; with a stylized juxtaposition of horizontal and vertical lines in relation to the characters and backgrounds. This extremely expensive, lavish film took six years to complete, and, for once, you can see where all the money went. It's right up there on screen-- thankfully preserved forever on DVD. The expense and time are extremely well-justified. "Sleeping Beauty" is Disney's definitive fairy-tale masterpiece!
The film presents a wonderous 14-Century Kingdom where good and evil magic are both commonly practiced. Malificent is certainly the Wickedest of all Disney Witches. Malificent, voiced with icy authority by the outstanding Eleanor Audley (who also voiced Lady Tremaine, the cruel, abusive Stepmother in Disney's "Cinderella") is the self-proclaimed "Mistress Of All Evil." She places infant Princess Aurora and her Kingdom under a curse that is to be fulfilled on her 16th birthday.
"Sleeping Beauty" is blessedly free of the slapstick humor and superfluous "padding" found in Disney's "Snow White" and "Cinderella." This story is told in a straitforward manner. The Good Fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather (Merryweather resembles my beloved Aunt Betty) attempt to save Aurora from Malificent by raising her like little old mortal women in a cottage in the woods. They call Aurora by the name Briar Rose. Their attempts at making a cake and dress for her 16th birthday are so disasterous they resort to magic. When sparkles from their magic wands fly up the chimney, Malificent's raven knows he has at last discovered the hiding Princess. The fairies are so inept at cake-baking and dress-making like mortals, I do wonder HOW they managed to feed and dress themselves and the young girl AT ALL for 16 entire years, but I won't ponder this plot problem any further.
A nice case of romantic, mistaken identity is employed. The Princess meets Prince Phillip without knowing he's a Prince. Phillip thinks Aurora is a common peasant girl. Mary Costa provides the beautiful soprano voice for Aurora/Briar Rose. She sings the haunting songs "I Wonder" and "Once Upon A Dream", based on themes from Tchcovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet. It is a pity that Aurora/Briar Rose is not a well defined or developed character, and she spends half the film in a sleeping coma. Prince Phillip, however, is very well-defined and active. The two Prince Charmings in "Snow White" and "Cinderella" are bland plot footnotes and afterthoughts. The same CAN NOT be said of Phillip, who, with some help from the Good Fairies, leaps into action to save himself and his beloved Princess from Malificent's black magic. The climax, with Malificent transforming herself into a demonic dragon, is one of the most scary battles of Good Versus Evil in cinema history. As Tchchovsky's score rages on, Malificent screams, "Now, you shall deal with me, Oh Prince-- and ALL THE POWERS OF HELL!!!!!" Hey, that's heavy stuff for a Disney film. I LOVE IT!!!!!!
On repeated adult viewings, Disney's "Snow White" and "Cinderella" leave me feeling cold and disappointed. "Sleeping Beauty" thrills me and is vastly superior. The animation is detailed and dazzling. This film lingers long in my imagination, and I often return to the enchantment that only happens "Once Upon A Dream." And it all happens in an amazing 75 minute running time! "Snow White", at 83-84 minutes, feels draggy and much too long to me. March 11, 2008

 Should be part of any child's DVD collection
In 1959, the New York Times called Sleeping Beauty "a crisply stylized fairyland where the colors are rich [and] the sounds are luscious." In his book The Disney Films, critic Leonard Maltin writes that Sleeping Beauty is "a very good film, but more so for older audiences than for young children." The Gospel According to Disney says the movie illustrates "an eternal promise of resurrection," while From Walt to Woodstock claims it is a "therapeutic experience" that celebrates "a male-female relationship based on true equality."

As for me, I'd say that regardless of what you read into it, Sleeping Beauty is a must-own. A true Disney classic, the movie has such stunning visuals and such a strong villain that it makes up for its one major flaw: the lack of a good lead character.

The art, for example, is astounding. Full of bright 1950s color, each background is a stylized, graphic collage of rectangles and straight lines that is also filled to the edges with meticulous details, every one in sharp focus. For each tree you see every leaf. For each shrub you see every thorn. It's a look that set the stage for other Disney movies to come, such as Pocahontas, Mulan and Hercules.

As a whole, the characters are terrific. Kids will love the fairies. On-screen longer than anyone else, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather fly like bumblebees, have lots of personality and are truly funny. They lose their temper and make many mistakes, especially when it comes to baking a birthday cake or sewing a dress.

The villain is perhaps the scariest in any Disney film. "The mistress of all evil," devil-horned, green-skinned Maleficent is a high-class, sarcastic horror show all by herself. She curses baby Aurora to death, later imprisons a prince so that he can't save the girl, and eventually turns herself into a towering dragon that breathes green fire.

In fact, the movie's only weakness is the princess herself. Aurora -- dare I say it? -- is quite a snooze. Unlike the lead characters in Cinderella or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this 16-year-old has an oh-so-plain, passive personality. With no history of being mistreated, she looks like a Barbie doll and sings like an opera star. You just can't relate to her.

Still, that's the opinion of an adult, not a child. I give Sleeping Beauty five stars because of the art, because young kids -- especially girls -- will love it, because parents can easily sit through it, and because its wholesome message that love conquers hate has rarely been presented better. A product of its time, it's not perfect but tough to beat. If you have kids and are building a collection of DVDs for them, this should be on your list. March 9, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...