Sleeping Beauty (1959)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Clyde Geronimi

Writers:

Erdman Penner (story)
Charles Perrault (story)

Release Date:

6 February 1959 (Brazil)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Now the magic moment! Full-length feature fantasy - Beautiful beyond belief

Plot:

A snubbed malevolent fairy casts a curse on a princess that only a prince can break, with the help of three good fairies.

Plot Keywords:

Prince | Fairy | Princess | King | Birthday

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Mary Costa	...	Princess Aurora (voice)
Bill Shirley	...	Prince Phillip (voice)
Eleanor Audley	...	Maleficent (voice)
Verna Felton	...	Flora (voice)
Barbara Luddy	...	Merryweather (voice)
Barbara Jo Allen	...	Fauna (voice)
Taylor Holmes	...	Stefan (voice)
Bill Thompson	...	Hubert (voice)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (original release) | 70 mm 6-Track (RCA Sound Recording) (70 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (DVD version) | Mono (35 mm prints) (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:o.Al. | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | Canada:G (video rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1970) | USA:Approved (certificate #19062) (original rating) | Finland:K-3 (2008) (DVD release) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-8 (1959) | Peru:PT | Spain:T | Sweden:7 (re-release) | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

The little-known second half of the original Sleeping Beauty fable involves the Prince's attempts to protect Sleeping Beauty and their children from his mother who is an ogress. In the end, of course, she is thwarted and jumps into a pot of live serpents to avoid being killed by her own son.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Fauna was trying to make the cake herself, she read that she needed two eggs to go into the cake mix, and yet when she used her magic, three were put in.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: In a faraway land, long ago, there lived a King and his fair Queen. Many years they had longed for a child, and finally their wish was granted. A daughter was born, and they called her Aurora. Yes, they named her after the dawn, for she filled their lives with sunshine. Then a great holiday was proclaimed throughout the land, so that all of high or low estate could pay homage to the infant Princess. And our story begins on that most joyful day...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: The Best of Saturday TV Funhouse (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

I Wonder

One of the finest films of the 1950's

In its scale, beauty, and dramatic power, Sleeping Beauty stands as (I think at least) the pinnacle of Disney's animated features. While in terms of cultural significance, it holds a second tiara to Snow White and Fantasia, it is set apart by its richly detailed, groundbreaking expressionistic design. The Disney animators had decidedly moved away from the European storybook feel of its 30's and 40's triumphs with Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), yet it was Sleeping Beauty that was the most radical departure. With its $6 million budget, the film has an epic sweep and scope never before achieved in animation. From the crowds of celebrators in the beginning to the tremendous size of King Richard's throne room, it achieves a tremendous feel of space and depth pioneered by the multi-plane work in Snow White and Fantasia. The film shows many other applications of the lessoned learned from the great experiment of Fantasia, particularly the remarkable scene of the three fairies bestowing their gifts on the infant princess. The camera pans up and off into dreamy, surreal vignettes slightly reminiscent of Fantasia's "Toccata in Fugue" segment. Its one of animation's finest moments. Yet what surely is the most memorable element of this film in the eyes of many viewers is its villain, the Marc Davis creation, Maleficent. Voiced by longtime Disney staple Eleanor Audley, she is easily Disney's most overtly evil villain. Davis' brilliant streamlined design exudes of an infernal elegance (complete with demonic horns). She carries a royal nobility that only adds to her ambiguous, sinister nature as well as to her dramatic presence. She slanders and cackles and proclaims her evil decrees with such bile and disgust it's almost overwhelming. In the final conflict between Prince Phillip, she cries out in utter fury, "Now shall you deal with me, o prince, and all the powers of hell!" Lightning cracks, smoke gathers and Maleficent rises, now changed into a fire-breathing dragon. It is one of Disney's most daring moments and very well one of its finest. Sleeping Beauty is a masterpiece, a tremendous artistic triumph from one of Hollywood's most successful and prolific studios. Its artistry, dramatic power, and compelling performances stand it along side the great American films of the decade, which is a fact not stated often enough.