Walt Disney’s animation classic is one of his film’s that is more akin to art. Disney’s other works are no less artistic, but pause any frame of Sleeping Beauty’s widescreen presentation and you’ve got a vision suitable for the Louve.
Now the company has created an edition fit for a Prince or Princess to celebrate this monumental anniversary.
King Stefan (Taylor Holmes) and his Queen are welcoming their newborn Princess Aurora into the world. She is betrothed to King Hubert’s (Bill Thompson) son Phillip. She is receiving blessings from the fairies Flora (Verna Felton), Merryweather (Barbara Luddy), and Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen).
Flora gives her the gift of beauty and Fauna gives her the gift of song, but before Merryweather can bestow her blessing the evil Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) interrupts the ceremony.
Merryweather uses her blessing to make sure that Aurora will only fall into a deep sleep until she is awakened by true love’s kiss. King Stefan orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned and Aurora goes to be raised in hiding in the forest by the fairies to avoid the attentions of Maleficent.
The fairies blessings come true as Briar-Rose (Mary Costa), renamed to also avoid Maleficent, grows into a beautiful woman with a wonderful singing voice. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Briar-Rose is getting restless about being confined to the forest and wishes that she had some romance in her life.
One day while singing in the forest, Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley) comes upon her and romance develops. He’s not the only one as Maleficent’s raven also discovers her hiding place. The fairies reveal the secret of Briar-Rose’s seclusion and reveal that she’s betrothed to a prince named Phillip, who she doesn’t realize is who she met in the forest.
Briar-Rose returns to the palace for her birthday, but Maleficent has other devious plans and Phillip must bestow love’s kiss before Maleficent does away with him.
Inspired by the ballet by Tchaikovsky, Sleeping Beauty would mark Walt Disney’s first foray into using the widescreen format for an animated film. The film production designer was animator Eyvind Earle and his influence and style can be seen in each fantastic frame.
The backgrounds are a work of art unto themselves and more complicated than other animated films usually were. As magnificent as the backgrounds and animation were the characters were also fabulously drawn and scripted.
I suppose all the girls will delight at the travails of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip, but I’ve always been a sucker for the Disney villains. In the nasty Maleficent, aptly named, they’ve scored big time.
As voiced by the wonderful Eleanor Audley, who also voiced the wicked stepmother in Cinderella as well as Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion ride, Maleficent is the height of Disney’s dark villains.
The big finale with her transforming into a monstrous dragon is one of the highlights of the film and a fine example of animation. In the height of irony, the film wasn’t considered much of a success when it was released in theaters but has definitely gained a reputation as being one of the greatest animated films of all time.
Disney has definitely produced a special edition that is worthy of the film’s fiftieth anniversary. This set is one that you’ll want to add to your buy list.
Sleeping Beauty is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.55:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
Disc one features a commentary with Disney chief creative officer/Pixar founder John Lasseter, animator Andreas Deja, and film historian Leonard Maltin. The film also has a pop-up princess trivia track. The 3 minute “Once Upon a Dream” by Emily Osment continues the tradition of having a current Disney Channel star record a classic song.
The rocked up version of the tune is probably the low point of the disc for me. Next is the 29-minute “Grand Canyon” which is a widescreen visual interpretation of Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon suite. We also get the 49-minute “Peter Tchaikovsky Story” from the Wonderful World of Disney. You get two versions, one with a slightly different introduction from Uncle Walt.
Disc two is divided into the “Cottage” and the “Castle.” The Cottage features two games, Briar-Rose Enchanted Dance Game and the Sleeping Beauty Fun with Language game. The Castle is where the true treasure lies. First up is the fantastic 43 minute “Picture Perfect” that tells how the film came to be. The 7 minute “Eyvind Earle: the man and his art” is a short biography about the man behind the backgrounds and production design.
The 5-minute “Sequence 8” is about the time consuming scene of Briar-Rose and Phillip dancing in the woods. Next is a 3-minute storyboard for an alternate opening for the film. Deleted songs features 12 minutes of songs that didn’t make the final cut. There’s also 2 minutes of live action reference or real life actors performing some of the scenes. A thing of beauty is the expansive galleries for the film.
Another treasure is the “Original Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough Attraction.” You can either go through on auto mode (7 minutes), take a tour with Disney imagineer Tony Baxter (7 minutes), and there’s also a 10 minute history of the attraction.
The Publicity section has the teaser trailer (2 minutes), original theatrical trailer (3 minutes), and a reissue trailer (86 seconds). The 16-minute “Four Artists Paint a Tree” is also from the Wonderful World of Disney.
Sleeping Beauty is another fantastic release from the Walt Disney Company. The film is a certified classic and they’ve produced a special edition that you can’t help but want to add to your collection.
Sleeping Beauty (50th Anniversary Two-Disc Platinum Edition) is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for an Oct. 27th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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