Sleeping Beauty (1959)

When a new princess is born to King Stefan & his wife, the entire kingdom rejoices. At a ceremony, three good fairies - Flora, Fauna & Merryweather - bestow gifts of magic on the child. But an evil sorceress named Maleficent shows up, and because of a rude remark by Merryweather, she places a curse on the princess - that she will die on her 16th birthday after touching a poisoned spinning wheel. Merryweather tries to undo the damage by casting a spell that will allow the princess - named Aurora - to awake from an ageless sleep with a kiss from her true love. The fairies take Aurora to their cottage in the woods to keep her away from the eyes of Maleficent, and raise her as their own child, named Briar Rose. On her 16th birthday Aurora meets Prince Phillip, the son of a king whose own kingdom will soon merge with King Stefan's - and falls in love. Maleficent manages to kidnap the Prince and her horrible prophecy is fulfilled when she tricks Aurora into touching a spinning wheel created by Maleficent herself! Realizing that the Prince is in trouble, the 3 good fairies head to Maleficent's castle at the Forbidden Mountain, and spring the Prince loose. But the Prince soon finds himself up against Maleficent's army of brutes, and the power of Maleficent's evil spells - which include a thorn forest as thick as weeds around King Stefan's castle, and a fight against Maleficent when she turns herself into a dragon! Is the Prince strong enough to withstand the powers of the evil sorceress? Will hilarity ensues? (Well, this is Disney)

Trivia: Art direction for this movie was inspired by medieval painting and architecture. Live actors in costume served as models for the animators. The role of Prince Phillip was modeled by Ed Kemmer, who had played Commander Buzz Corry on television's "Space Patrol" five years before Sleeping Beauty was released. For the final battle sequence Kemmer was photographed on a wooden buck. All the live actors' performances were later screened for the animators' reference. When the fairies discuss how to help the king and queen, notice Merryweather magically create cookies, they are the shape of Mickey Mouse. Disney Studios has no record as to who provided the voice for the queen, Briar Rose's mother. Much of the musical score is based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty". A flame thrower was used to create the dragon breath sound effect for the climax of the movie. Castanets were used for the sound of its snapping jaws. The elaborate background paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint. By contrast, a typical animation background takes one workday to complete. Second only to Dumbo (who didn't speak at all), this Disney title character has very few lines of actual dialogue throughout the entire film (well, she was sleeping from half of it). In fact, Briar Rose/Aurora says nothing at all in the film's second half. The Disneyland castle was named for this film, even though the park opened four years prior to the film's release. Princess Aurora's long, thin, willowy body shape was inspired by that of Audrey Hepburn. Briar Rose is the Sleeping Beauty's name the German fairytale. Princess Aurora is Sleeping Beauty's name in the Italian version.

Ah, Disney, for some reason I haven't watched a Disney film in a while so when my niece and nephew watched it this weekend, I joined in. What really struck me with Sleeping Beauty is the whole sense of art. The backgrounds are tremendous. They look like watercolors. Each Disney film has it's own visual style which is why they are so good. Maleficent is truly one of the most evil of Disney villians (why are most of the best Disney villians women?). I liked her design, she looks like the dragon she turns into in the end.