Sleeping Beauty

I'm sure I've seen this film before but for the life of me I cannot remember when. Perhaps I saw it when I was very young and not since but it is equally like that my "memory" of it has just been created by cultural reference points, clips and a general knowledge that it exists. Either way when I sat to watch this the other day as a man in his mid-30's it did very much feel like I was coming to the total film for the first time and I was quite surprised by how simply it engaged and entertained me.

The plot is simple and will be known to all and within this telling we do pretty much go from one bit to the next with little in the way of extrapolation or development – a potential problem for older viewers looking to get into it, but it still manages to work. A big part of this is the sense of fairy tale that it delivers, because it puts you in a frame of mind suitable for this. The "opening on a shot of a book" start to this film has been done since many times so it is easy to overlook how effective it can be, but here it works very well and the whole film captures the feel that this opening is suggesting. The telling is lightly comic but avoids cynicism or cruel humour and instead goes for a light touch; although I do love the edge that modern cynicism gives to some films, I will concede that it was quite refreshing to have a film free of it. The broad strokes of a fairy tale are here – the good fairies are non-threatening and comic while the evil fairy is tall, lean, strict and menacing; the prince is handsome, the princess stunning etc and it does feel like being read to as a child because it is simple yet vivid in the way it is told.

It is easy (and tempting) to look at the film with a cynical modern eye and criticise it for its presentation of beauty and its gender politics but, while I do believe that things like this film and Barbie and others had a major role in shaping the view of beauty, it is not a thought that occurred to me once while watching the film. Instead it charmed me to its agenda, not my own and I would suggest anyone watching this and muttering their way through it has simply not come with an open mind. The voice work perhaps lacks the character of modern animated films, but all are good in their various roles – in particular the evil fairy is strong in her presence.

Overall Sleeping Beauty is considered a classic and it is so for good reason – because it is. It is the type of film that parents will want their children to see because it is simple, engaging, well presented, beautiful to look at and tells a story that has danger and evil in it while also showing the power of love and that good will always prevail. Of course this is not true – but this is a fairy tale and it takes you with it while you watch. It says something that over 50 years after this was made that a audience of all ages can sit to watch this and all come away loving it. A delight.

When 'Sleeping Beauty' was first released it was the target of critical villification--perhaps because of the more stylized art work. The art work is actually a leap forward from 'Snow White' and the earlier classics. It took me awhile to get used to the new technique when I first viewed the film--but now I recognize how effectively it manages to convey the "feel" of a genuine fairy-tale. A nice discussion of the art work is featured in 'The Making of Sleeping Beauty' which accompanies the latest VHS release of the film. Aside from the richly textured backgrounds and brilliant animation, 'Beauty' is blessed with the rapturous singing voice of Mary Costa's light soprano doing full justice to the ballad, 'Once Upon A Dream'. The idea of using Tchaikovsky's 'Sleeping Beauty' music for the background score and songs was an excellent decision. This is a film that can be enjoyed on so many different levels--music, animation, story, art work--it ranks with the very best of the classic fairy-tales from Disney. And yes, Maleficent, in all of her wicked glory, makes the most impressive fire-breathing dragon you're ever likely to see!

This Disney cartoon feature has the familiar-princess-in-distress theme of a lovely girl, kind fairies, a handsome prince, forbidding castles and an evil witch. A perceived slight by a king and queen enrages a sorceress who casts an evil spell on the child that will take effect on her sixteenth birthday. Only her prince charming's kiss can save the girl from an unhappy fate and the frightening Maleficent stops at nothing to locate the princess in order to bring her prophecy to fruition. There are several pitched battles between the prince and the fairies against the forces of evil that accelerates into an exciting combat at the finish. The picture is bathed in beautiful color and the music of Tchaikowsky's ballet serves as a wonderful musical accompaniment.

...which is that it may have been designed more for an adult audience than a children's. At any rate it was way ahead of its time in 1959. "Sleeping Beauty" was one of the movies I watched as a child, and its grandness overwhelmed me even at the age of ten. I couldn't be happier to see it finally in the DVD format. But watch closely; you'll notice many subtle, sophisticated things which other viewers have touched on in earlier reviews. The animation is almost surreal-- so incredibly lifelike that it abandons its cute, 'Disneyesque' pretensions from previous fairy tales. There are no talking mice, dogs or cats anywhere to be seen. Here the animals are silent, as animals are supposed to be. (I love the sequence with the forest animals as they are awakened by the singing of the barefoot princess and join up with her, like multiple chaperons, in harmonious whistles.) Even the fairy godmothers- who may initially appear as sugary stereotypes- spend so much time bickering (well, two of them do anyway) that you get to identify them as thoroughly fleshed out personalities. The adaptation of the original Perrault fairy tale is also impressive. An ingenious move was to have the prince and princess meet in the forest *first* and fall in love- unaware that they are already engaged to be married. Someone mentioned the chilling sequence which shows the princess, cloaked in an eerie green pallor, actually being lured to the fateful spinning wheel. So dark, so frightening- when was the last time you saw something like this in a Disney fairy tale? And then immediately afterwords is a cleansing sequence of unmatched beauty showing the fairies sailing through the sky like fireflies, magically dusting the rest of the castle to sleep. It is, of course, only matched by the film's finale which shows storm clouds, lightning, a forest of thorns, and a flame-spewing dragon-- all seamlessly bringing the story to a 75-minute conclusion. It stands, in my opinion, as Disney's masterpiece.

Classic Disney fairy tale adaptation about a princess named Aurora who is cursed by an evil witch named Maleficent. Lovely in every way with memorable characters and scenes that have stood the test of time. The animation is beautiful and stylish with rich, vibrant colors. The voice actors all do wonderful work. If I had a complaint, it would be that the narrator is rather bland. Someone with a stronger voice would have been better. But it's a minor thing in a film that is so wonderful from start to finish. The Tchaikovsky music is amazing and the song "Once Upon a Dream" is a real gem. I'm no film historian but it seems like, in many ways, this movie represents the end of an era for animated Disney films that began with Snow White in 1937. There would certainly be some great movies to come, even some classics, but they wouldn't have quite the same grand feeling and charming old-fashioned qualities of the films from this era.