Sleeping Beauty

I didn't grow up with this movie and when I did finally see it, "Sleeping Beauty" didn't affect me all that much. It still doesn't but that doesn't mean it is a bad movie. The film is highly stylized; different in appearance from past Disney masterpieces. It looks great, especially restored in HD, but I am more attracted to the stories and characters of Disney films. Thus, "Sleeping Beauty" is worthy to be in the Disney canon but doesn't compare with other movies that Walt Disney made during his career.

This film should be called "The Three Good Fairies Versus Maleficent". They are by far the best characters as Aurora for example has very little screen time when compared to her fellow Disney heroines. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are the most active characters and move the story forward. One could say that the same is the case with the mice on "Cinderella" but I would argue against this. The story structure on that movie is such that Cinderella is introduced first. She is hard working and feels like a central character. Because the supporting characters on "Sleeping Beauty" outshine the princess, the story is not as strong as it could be. Walt wanted the fairies to be identical like Huey, Dewey and Louis while animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wanted unique individuals like the Seven Dwarfs. You can see a compromise in the final result because the fairies are dressed in red, green and blue but are distinct characters. Maleficent has an evil that can only be compared to that of the Wicked Queen from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". While she has style, it is not her most dominating characteristic unlike Cruella where she is practically all style. Maleficent's sinister nature is what stands out. Animator Marc Davis' design for Maleficent is noteworthy with her cape of flames, horns of the devil and batwing collar. My favorite scene is Maleficent's appearance in the fireplace and the accompanying score. Another good scene is the second reveal of the Forbidden Mountain because it resembles the reveal of Bald Mountain on "Fantasia". Marc Davis by the way also handled the design and animation for Aurora. As beautiful as she is, we really don't get to spend much time getting to know her as mentioned. I enjoy the comedy between Stefan and Hubert because it reminds me of the scenes between the King and the Grand Duke on "Cinderella". Speaking of that, in this fairy tale, the male characters actually have names. Prince Phillip is named after the Duke of Edinburgh by the way. The romance between Aurora and Phillip is meant to match that of past Disney fairy tales except this time, the prince has a larger role. They fall in love before they even know that they are already betrothed to one another and I like that. This means that their love is meant to be but "Sleeping Beauty" is missing the drama and suspense that Disney injects into his stories. When I first saw the movie, the ending was predicable. The lack of strong characters and the slow pace of the story is the result of the film's focus on its appearance.

This film is the last Disney animated feature film to use hand-inked cells. The Xerox process was used afterwards. Because "Snow White" was the staple for animated films at this time (and some would argue that it still is), the creator of "Snow White", Walt Disney, ironically wanted to dispel this automatic comparison that would happen with every film he released. In the early 50's, the studio created a story adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty" that very much resembled "Snow White" and "Cinderella" both in appearance and narrative. Walt however felt that they should do something different and subsequently expensive. The look of this film was influenced by two sources. Firstly, the background art is very much after the manner of medieval canvases and architecture. The attention to detail is very significant. The backgrounds took over seven times longer to complete than usual. Walt wanted to create the illusion of moving tapestries. This can be seen in the opening animated sequence. Throughout the film, background items like trees, buildings and ground level are on vertical and horizontal planes only. The influences of pre-renaissance and gothic art are apparent. The second source of inspiration, which is more indirect that direct, was the short film "Gerald McBoing-Boing" released in 1950. The animation of this film is extremely simple, crude and quite modern but the cartoon's success started influencing others to animate likewise. Animated lines for example became more defined. Because this was becoming the preferred style of animation in the 50's, the Disney studio followed the trend. The lines on the characters in "Sleeping Beauty" are slightly bolder than those in past animated films. Basically, Disney took the new style and mixed it with the traditional style he himself had mastered. "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" went even further in terms of a modern art design. The characters had to fit in this stylized world for "Sleeping Beauty" and I feel that this was achieved. Mary Costa, the voice of Aurora, has a singing and speaking voice that are very different from one another. It is a good performance but this difference is a little distracting. Walt himself wanted Eleanor Audley as the voice of Maleficent and I applaud that choice. Just as she did with Cinderella's Stepmother, Audley did live action reference for her animated counterpart. Her performance is distinct enough from her work on "Cinderella" but just as wonderful. Verna Felton, who was Cinderella's Fairy Godmother among many other Disney characters, plays Flora and another Disney veteran Bill Thompson is Hubert. I love Tchaikovsky's music with lyrics. It is very beautiful. The musical score did receive an Oscar nomination. As a fun fact in closing, while the Warner Brothers studio was closed for a brief time, Chuck Jones worked on this film without credit.

Six million dollars was a large budget back in 1959. Because Disney was working on other projects such as live action films, TV shows and the brand new Disneyland, the production of "Sleeping Beauty" was six years long. The film did earn more money than it cost to make but not much more and as a result, it was the last fairy tale from the studio until the Disney Renaissance. While it may have had a disappointing initial box office run, it has become a classic as was the case with "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia" before it. With "Sleeping Beauty", Disney created another quintessential version of a fairy tale. "Ben Hur" remains the top grossing movie from 1959 but re-releases of "Sleeping Beauty" have made this animated film second place. The legacy of this film includes Sleeping Beauty's castle as the centerpiece of Disneyland, which was being built as the film was being made. By the way, Mary Costa after this film became a star opera singer. Because the show was photographed in Super Technirama 70 widescreen (the format of such films as "Spartacus"), the restoration today in HD looks incredible although I have yet to see the whole film in HD. The clips I have seen are very impressive. Because I am a lover of story and characters in animated films, "Sleeping Beauty" isn't all that special for me personally.

3.5 Stars