Sleeping Beauty Article: Sleeping Beauty Review by Takuya

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posted by Takuya

Sleeping Beauty Walt Disney´s 16th animated feature and masterpiece of the time.

Introduction
The production started with the story in 1951 then in 1952 the voices were recorded and the animation took from 1953 to 1958 to finish.
In charge of how to give the movie a uniqe look Walt gave Eyvind Earle the position of color stylist and chief background designer.

Disney's decision to give Earle so much artistic freedom was not popular among the Disney animators, who had until Sleeping Beauty exercised some influence over the style of their characters and settings

It was also the first time the studio experimented with the Xerox process. Woolie Reitherman used it on the dragon as a way to enlarge and reduce its size, but due to the primitive equipment available in this early test, the Xerox lines were then replaced with traditional ink and paint.

The Animators
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston: The tree fairy´s

Marc Davies: Aurora and Malificent

Voice Cast

Princess Aurora/Briar Rose, voiced by Mary Costa.
Maleficent, voiced by Eleanor Audley.
Flora the red fairy, voiced by Verna Felton
Fauna the green fairy, voiced by Barbara Jo Allen
Merryweather the blue fairy, voiced by Barbara Luddy
Prince Phillip, voiced by Bill Shirley.
King Stefan, voiced by Taylor Holmes.
King Hubert, voiced by Bill Thompson.
The Narrator, voiced by Marvin Miller

The Characters
Here is a short description of the main forces in the movie

Aurora and Price Phillip

The Princess cursed to sleep for a hundred years and the Prince who is destined to awaken her.
They are the main characters and the movie is about their love.

The three good Fairies.

Flora, Fauna and Merryweather is the force of good in the world and they help out when needed.
They adopt Aurora and loves her as their own child and have a very hard time when she is to return to the castle.

Malificent and Diablo
This is the villain of the story Malificent is described as Evil personified and Mistress of evil.
Diablo is her pet/minion raven.

The Setting
The story takes place in an unspecified country and it show a few special places like the cottage and Malificent´s castle.

The Story
After many childless years, King Stefan and Queen Leah welcomed the arrival of their daughter, Aurora. The newborn Princess Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn because she fills the lives of her mother and father, King Stefan and Queen Leah, with sunshine. While still an infant, she is betrothed to the also-young Prince Phillip, son of King Hubert, so that the kingdoms of Stefan and Hubert will be forever united. At her christening, the Three Good Fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather arrive to bless her. Flora gives her the gift of beauty while Fauna gives her the gift of song. Before Merryweather can give her blessing, the wicked fairy Maleficent appears, expressing disappointment in not being invited to Aurora's christening ceremony and curses the princess to die when she touches a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. Maleficent leaves, and Merryweather is able to use her blessing to weaken the curse so that instead of death, Aurora will fall into a deep sleep until she is awakened by true love's kiss. Though King Stefan decrees all spinning wheels in the kingdom burned, the Three Good Fairies know Maleficent's curse cannot be stopped that easily and devise a plan to protect her. With the king and queen's consent, they disguise themselves as peasant women and sneak Aurora away with them to a woodland cottage until her sixteen birthday lapses, passing themselves off as her aunts and swearing off magic to conceal themselves.

My Favorite Moments
Like with my other reviews i will now talk a little about my favorite scenes in the movie.

First off we have the scene where the fairies are prepare for Aurora´s birthday surprise.
It´s hilarious with the magic war about the color of the dress and the unsuccesful cake.
And the music is beautiful.

Next is the scene where they sing "Once upon a dream" to be honest i think this is the wrong way to have people fall in love its too fast for my taste.
But i have to say that it´s still a very cute scene with beautiful music.

And lastly we have the battle with the dragon Malificent.
This an amazing scene, it really shows how talented the writers and animators at Disney were at that time.
It went by a little to fast if i should be picky but who cares really?

The Message
Sadly i can´t find a message or morale in this story so please if you have one tell me.

The Verdict

The Story gets 8/10
It´s exciting and it´s really well written.

The Characters gets 6/10
We see to little of Aurora and It feels to me like The fairies and Malificent is the most developed characters.

The Art gets 10/10
No complaints here athe art is amazing and very beautiful.

So i give the movie itself a solid 8/10
I hope you have enjoyed this and i hope you comment and say if you agree or disagree with what i have said here.

fishypup, Cherry9090 and 6 others like this

sicelyarien I liked it, you are correct that Aurora is not really a developed character. The fairies seem to have more screen time and their thoughts are the ones most heard. It is as if the story is from the eyes of the fairies and Malificent. Exelent research.

soxfan89 Well, I Loved It. I Find It Interesting That work Started In 1951!

FullMoonFever I loved it ^^ About the message: In my opinion it's "True Love Conquers All" but it's just my opinion :)

hrrypttrfn328 Really good job here :) The only thing I have to say about it is that, while it may be called Sleeping Beauty, I always considered the fairies to be the main characters, with Aurora as sort of just a means to and end story-wise. But most people agree with you. Really good job.

sweetyasi i loved it so much!sleeping beauty is a one of my favorite disney animation!i love Aurora's appearance and philip is a real gentleman!and i didn't know Aurora meaning!

juicyjossy9 If my memory doesn't fool me, I think this is the very first animated Disney movie I saw in a cinema with my dad - I was maybe 6 or 7 years old (he was very fond of everything Disney...). I loved this movie a lot, surprisingly not because of the love story (because I never identified myself to a princess), but because of Fauna, the fairy who gave Aurora the gift of song (I used to sing a lot with my dad when I was young and learned a lot of my English through the songs). I liked it also because it was not a fable but a fairy tale, so it was just pure fantasy in my little girl's heart. Insofar as the review, it is amazingly precise, concise and very well written. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! As far as a message or morale, this is my humble comment: The morale of Sleeping Beauty might be that life, and growing up, presents unavoidable risks. But perhaps it has no morale. Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale, not a fable. Fables were meant to be instructive and provide moral guidance. Fairy tales were frequently sometimes just the opposite. They provided entertainment, sometimes of a spooky kind, and while some of them might indirectly provide instruction, it was certainly not the purpose. Also, there are different versions of the story. The earliest printed version, dating from the 1620s, has more in common with Greek mythology than with modern versions. Hope my comments will be of some help.

Cherry9090 awwww agine i didnt get to see it but u did such a good job i feel like i did