Walt Disney Screencaps – Princess Ariel & Flounder

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character Description of Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959)

Of all the characters in Sleeping Beauty, the one that everyone remembers, even decades later, is the wicked fairy Maleficent. She is one of the finest creations ever to come out of the Disney studio - and the brilliant transformation of her into the Dragon to fight Phillip merely adds to the strength of the characterization. Even her name - a wonderful combination of "malice" and "malevolent" - testifies to her pure evil....

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Although she is the central character of the movie, the part of Princess Aurora/Briar Rose is in fact a very small one - smaller, for example, than that of Prince Phillip (in marked contrast with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs whose Prince hardly made an appearance, but whose heroine occupied a fair deal of screen-time). In fact, her functions in the movie are three: (a) to be cursed; (b) to meet and fall in love with Phillip; and (c) to prick her finger and fall into a death-like sleep. Over (a)...

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules by
John Grant

Bambi is not a tightly plotted movie in the way that Dumbo, for example, is: it depends much more for its effect on the superb animation and the exquisitely executed backdrop of the forest. As with the story, most of the characterization is not profound - one does not find oneself rooting for Bambi in the same way that one does for, say, Dumbo (again) or Snow White. The only really strong characterizations are those of Friend Owl and Thumper. But this lack of depth in the characterization is not...