SLEEPING BEAUTY
US, 1958, 75 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Clyde Geronomi.
Sleeping Beauty is considered the Walt Disney Studios most ambitious animation feature. Though prepared in the early '50s in the aftermath of the success of Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, it was not completed till 1959. By then, wide screen processes had become popular and this film was made in Technirama.
It is lavish, designed for the wide screen and most impressive in its detail. The story, based on the popular Charles Perrault version of Sleeping Beauty, is familiar fairytale material. Disney Studios provided some variations on the theme, most particularly in the three good fairies.
The basic plot of the princess, the prince waking her from sleep, the wicked fairy and witch are all familiar. However, there is pageantry in the opening, forest delight in the middle, and extraordinary battle in which Maleficent
the witch transforms herself into a dragon and does battle with Prince Philip.
As with most Disney animation films, there is a musical score and a range of songs: 'Once Upon a Dream', 'Hail the Princess Aurora,' 'I Wonder', 'The Skump Song' (for the two rival kings), 'The Sleeping Beauty Song'.
The film is interesting to watch in retrospect - in comparison with other Disney animation features rather in the economic questions of film-making of the time and in the light of interest by psychologists in fairy tales. Sleeping Beauty is a delight for family audiences - and a good source for psychological discussion.
1. The impact of this Disney film? In its time? Ambitions? Later?
2. The use of wide screen processes and design, pageantry and beauty? Action? The musical score and the songs for the mood and characters?
3. The familiarity of the story: the fairy tale, popular, myth? Impact for children? Adults? The Disney style: serious, humorous, cute? The comedy, the songs?
4. The familiar material and the variations? The hero and heroine? Maleficent? The magic of the three good fairies? The confrontation between good and evil?
5. The opening with the royalty, the pageantry, the king and queen, the princess, the joy? The absence of the bad fairy? The presence of the good fairies? The spell and the three good fairies protecting Aurora?
6. Aurora as heroine, beauty, in the forest, not knowing her identity? The encounter with Prince Philip, falling in love? The spell, her sleep? Rescued?
7. Philip as hero, in the forest, his love, the kidnapping and imprisonment, the fighting with the dragon? His waking the princess? The comedy with his horse Sampson?
8. The good fairies: the three, their look, manner, pleasant old women, humour, the magic and the making of the dress, the conflict between pink and blue, the chases and rescues?
9. Maleficent in the Disney tradition of witches? Vision and prophecy? The crows, her goons and their sounds, look and work? Her vanity, malice towards Aurora? The spell, her disguises, instilling fear? her confrontation with Philip? Turning into the dragon, the fight and her death?
10. The presentation of the two kings and their rivalry, humour, song? The spoof on royalty?
11. The evil symbols, the crow and the statue, the goons, the dragon and the fight? Good versus evil?
12. The various versions of Sleeping Beauty? Disney's taking its place amongst them? A classic? The echo of Tchaikovsky’s ballet in the adaptation of the musical score?
