I know you, I walk with you on DVD
If you’re not familiar with the story of Sleeping Beauty you certainly will be after this review. Princess Aurora is cursed from childhood by an evil malevolent woman named Maleficent. Maleficent says that on her 16th birthday she’ll prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall dead. Countering the curse, but not lifting it, she is given the power of falling into a deep sleep rather than dying from a triplet of fairies named Flora, Merryweather and Fauna. Their ultimate idea is to save Aurora from this fate by hiding her away in the forest away from any spinning wheels. Regretfully, she meets a prince and finds her way back to the castle at the age of 16 and ends up pricking her finger on a spinning wheel, thus fulfilling her curse. Her only hope is to be kissed by a prince (Prince Phillip), but before he can get to her he must dispose of Maleficent, which is much harder than he expects.
Celebrated as the saving grace for Disney and truly the turning point for his artists, Sleeping Beauty is truly the next step in animation (at least for 1959). Disney’s approach to this film is much different than the previous animated features that the company produced. Death is taken more serious, the antagonist is very clearly defined through an extremely evil character and the cutesy theme that generally follows Disney animation didn’t show up in this film. Truly it was most a light-hearted drama that changed the way animated stories were told and broke rules that were set in place by animated shorts. Again, for 1959 the film truly was remarkable in so many different ways.
Of course, what makes this movie truly stand out was the modern look and feel to the overall film and the colorful attitude that it brought with it. Most people will tell you two things about this film without giving it a thought: Maleficent and the good fairies. Maleficent is still considered one of the most evil characters (if not the most evil) in Disney history. Her presence onscreen is so powerful, starting out with her showing up and cursing a newborn child into death. Her ultimate climax towards the end of the film is nothing short of memorable, as she turns into a fiery dragon and tries to prevent Prince Phillip from waking Aurora. The good fairies have just as much effect on the viewer with their light-hearted ways and their protective motherly instincts for our favorite blonde princess. They create an atmosphere of humor and actually build tension by being too over-protective of Aurora; eventually they fail because of this. Their presence onscreen is not only in attitude and storytelling, but also colorful art that catches your eyes, which helps to make this film truly spectacular on so many levels. When you can visually capture your audience, that’s nice, but when you can do that on top of catching them with character development, that’s quite a challenge.
Sleeping Beauty does both and they do it with every character onscreen. You can associate the character with their colorful costumes (which is a motif throughout the film), plus you can guess what type of person they are through their appearance. This is something that showed deep thought when it came to making all of these characters and the story, come to life.
So pretty, so beauty-ful
Disney did a near-perfect job on bringing the color and life back to one of its most prized possessions. It cleaned up Sleeping Beauty so well that I don’t have one regret not being able to review the Blu-ray version. You will be enormously impressed with the difference between the previous release of this and the most recent release. It truly makes the film new again. And let’s not forget the audio that has been sweetened so much that it makes you want to cry and smile at the same time. I can only picture Beth Barnes singing this over and over again in her office; it will make you want to do that, it’s so nice to listen through a 5.1 surround sound system.
As for features, here’s a taste:
• Original Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Walk-Through Attraction With Walt Disney
Imagineering
• Alternate Opening
• All New Documentary “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty”
• A New DVD Game, “Briar Rose’s Enchanted Dance Game”
• Four Deleted Songs
• Grand Canyon
• The Peter Tchaikovsky Story
• Four Artists Paint One Tree
• Fun with English Game
Again, there’s a bit more than what’s listed, but you’re talking about hours of extra content, starting with the making of Sleeping Beauty, which will give you a great look into what exactly went into the creation process for this animated feature. Believe me, it wasn’t all singing and dancing, but it turned out well (obviously) by the end. This is practically a stand-alone size of features that will make the already-worth-it-purchase, more so.