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Sleeping Beauty is the sixteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney for Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theatres on January 29, 1959 by Buena Vista Distribution.

It was the last animated feature produced by Walt Disney to be based upon a fairy tale (after his death, the studio returned to the genre with 1989's The Little Mermaid), as well as the last cel animated feature from Disney to be inked by hand before the xerography process took over. Sleeping Beauty is also the first animated feature to be shot in Super Technirama 70, one of many large-format widescreen 70mm film processes (only one more animated film, The Black Cauldron, has been shot in Super Technirama 70). The film spent nearly the entire decade of the 1950s in production: the story work began in 1951, voices were recorded in 1952, animation production took from 1953 until 1958, and the stereophonic musical score was recorded in 1957.

Production

Overview and art direction

The film was directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman, under the supervision of Clyde Geronimi. The script was adapted from the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault by Erdman Penner, with additional story work by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta. The film's musical score and songs are adapted from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Sleeping Beauty holds a notable position in Disney animation as the last Disney feature to use hand-inked cels. Its art direction, which Walt Disney wanted to be like a moving tapestry, was not in the typical Disney style. The film eschewed the soft, rounded look of earler Disney features for a more stylized look similar to that seen in the work of UPA.

Disney artist Eyvind Earle was the film's production designer, and Disney gave him a significant amount of freedom in designing the settings and selecting colors for the film. Earle also painted the majority of the backgrounds himself. The elaborate paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint; by contrast, a typical animation background took only one workday to complete. Disney's decision to give Earle so much artist freedom was not popular among the Disney animators, who had until Sleeping Beauty exercised some influence over the style of their characters and settings.

Characters and story development

The name of the titular Sleeping Beauty is "Princess Aurora" in this film, as it was in the Tchaikovsky ballet. The prince was given the only princely name familiar to Americans in the 1950s: "Prince Philip", named after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The witch was aptly named Maleficent (which means "Evil-doer").

Princess Aurora's long, thin, willowy body shape was inspired by that of Audrey Hepburn. In addition, Walt Disney had suggested that all three fairies should look alike, but veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston contrasted this idea saying that having them be like that wouldn't be exciting. Additionally, the idea originally included seven fairies instead of three.

Several story points for this film came from discarded ideas for Disney's previous fairy tale involving a sleeping heroine: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They include Maleficent's capture of the Prince and the Prince's daring escape from her castle. Disney discarded these ideas from Snow White because his artists were not able to draw a human male believably enough at the time.

Live-action reference footage

Before animation production began, every shot in the film was done in a live-action reference version, with live actors in costume serving 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. Among the actresses who performed in reference footage for this film included Spring Byington, Frances Bavier, and Helene Stanley who was the live reference for the title role of 1950's Cinderella.

All the live actors' performances were either screened for the animators' reference or rotoscoped (traced from live-action to animation), as Walt Disney insisted that much of Sleeping Beauty's character animation be as close to live-action as possible.

Release and later history

When it was first released, Sleeping Beauty returned only half the invested sum of $6,000,000, nearly bankrupting the Disney studio. It was mainly criticized as being too slow paced and having little character devlopment. Since then, the film has gained a following, and is today hailed as one of the best animated features ever made, thanks to its stylized designs by painter Eyvind Earle who also was the art director for the movie, its lush music score, and its large-format widescreen and stereophonic sound presentation. The film was re-released theatrically in 1970, 1979, and 1986 and was first released on both VHS and Laserdisc that same year under the Classics collection, becoming the first Disney Classics video to be digitally processed in Hi-Fi stereo. Then the film underwent an extensive digital restoration in 1997, and that version was released to both VHS and Laserdisc again as part of the Masterpiece collection, and in 2003 was released to DVD in a 2-disc "Special Edition" that included both the original widescreen version and a pan and scan version as well. A Platinum Edition DVD/BD is scheduled to be released no earlier than 2008.

Sleeping Beauty release history

Synopsis

Princess Aurora was named after the Roman goddess of the dawn "because she filled her father and mother's lives with sunshine." At her christening, the good fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather blessed her. Flora gave her the gift of beauty, which was described in the Disney song as "gold of sunshine in her hair" and "lips that shame the red, red rose." Fauna gave her the gift of song, and it was her lovely singing voice that later attracted Prince Philip — the film's hero — to her.

She was betrothed to Philip at birth, but this was never revealed to her before her sixteenth birthday. Maleficent, the film's villain and mistress of all evil, was upset at not being invited to Aurora's christening ceremony. So, she cursed her to die when she touched a spinning wheel's spindle on her sixteenth birthday. Fortunately, Merryweather had not yet blessed Aurora. She used her blessing to change Maleficent's curse, so Aurora would not die when she touched the spinning wheel; instead, she would fall asleep until she was awakened by her true love's kiss. Knowing Maleficent would stop at nothing, because her powers were far too great, the three good fairies took Aurora to live with them in the woods, where they could keep her safe from any harm until she turned sixteen and the curse was made void. To fully protect her, they even changed her name to Briar Rose.

Rose grew into a very beautiful woman, with shining blond hair, rose-red lips, and a slender figure. One day, when she was sent to pick berries by her "Aunts" (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather), Aurora ended up singing to entertain her animal friends. Her angelic voice gained the attention of Prince Philip, who had grown into a handsome young man and was out riding in the woods. When they met, they instantly fell in love with each other. (This part of the film contains the song, "Once Upon a Dream", which has become a Disney classic.) Realizing that she had to return home, Rose fled from Philip without ever learning his name. But she promised to meet him that evening. Sadly, she was unable to return to him, as her "aunts" chose that time to reveal the truth of her birth to her and to tell her that she was betrothed to a prince named Philip.

They left the woods to return to her parents' home, but, when they entered the castle, Maleficent used her magic to lure Aurora away from her birthday celebration into a long-unused chamber, where a spinning wheel awaited her. Fascinated by the wheel, she touched the spindle, pricking her finger as had been foretold in Maleficent's curse. Aurora was put under a sleeping spell. The good fairies moved Aurora to an apartment in the top-most tower and laid her on a bed hung with rich curtains with a red rose in her hand and caused a deep sleep to fall over the land until they could find a way to break the curse. Philip had been captured by Maleficent to prevent him from kissing Aurora and waking her up, but the three good fairies aided him in escaping and explained to him the story of Maleficent's curse. Philip killed Maleficent and removed the curse with a kiss. At the end of the film the two lovers danced together, happy to each learn that their betrothed was in fact the one they loved. And thus Aurora and Phillip lived happily ever after.

Voice cast

Gallery

Image:PrincessAuroraSleeping.jpg|Princess Aurora, the heroine in Sleeping Beauty. Image:PrincessAuroraSleeps.jpg|Closeup of Princess Aurora. Image:PrincessAuroraAndTheThreeGoodFairies.jpg|Princess Aurora and the three good fairies. Image:PrincessAuroraPutUnderSleepingSpell.jpg|Princess Aurora with two of the good fairies.

Titles in different languages

Sleeping Beauty in the Disney Theme Parks

Sleeping Beauty was made whilst Walt Disney was building Disneyland (hence the four year production time). To help promote the film, imagineers declared the castle there was Sleeping Beauty's (it was originally to be Snow White's).

Several years later an indoor walkthrough section was added to the castle, where guests could walk through dioramas of scenes from the film. It closed shortly after 9/11, supposedly because the dark, unmonitored corridors were a risk.

When Disneyland Paris opened in 1993 it also featured Sleeping Beauty's Castle, this time a far more romanticised, storybook building. Upstairs guests are able to view stained glass windows and tapestries telling the story, whilst downstairs they are able to view an animatronic dragon.

Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005 also with a Sleeping Beauty Castle, with a fairly similar design to Disneyland's.

Princess Aurora (and, to a lesser extent, Prince Phillip and Maleficent) makes regular appearances in the parks and parades.

Trivia

  • Aurora is also known as "Crown Princess Aurora" because she wore a royal crown.
  • Princess Aurora is also the only Disney princess who has both biological parents present.
  • When Maleficent reveals Aurora's body to the good fairies, Aurora is drawn to appear as if her neck was broken. In later shots, her neck is stable.
  • Briar Rose is another name given to Sleeping Beauty and appears in the German version of the story.
  • Aurora is one of the seven Princesses of Heart in the Squaresoft game Kingdom Hearts, and Maleficent is a villain in all three Kingdom Hearts games. The good fairies appear in Kingdom Hearts II, giving the game's hero new clothes.
  • Three of Disney's theme parks feature Sleeping Beauty Castles as prominent attractions. The first of these opened at Disneyland in 1955, and served as a powerful promotional tool for the film. In 1959, before the film was released, a Sleeping Beauty walk-through was installed in the castle, telling the story of the film through several scenes using models.
  • The studios have no record as to who provided the voice for the queen, Aurora's mother. However, her voice is very close to the voice of Merryweather, Barbara Luddy, so it is likely Ms Luddy is the voice.
  • Aurora's mother, the queen, has no name credited to her. In the various stories about the Sleeping Beauty, no name for the mother is identified, either.
  • A flame thrower was used to create the dragon breath sound effect for the climax of the movie.
  • The cookies the fairies eat with tea are shaped like Mickey Mouse's head and ears.
  • 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. In fact, Aurora says nothing at all in the film's second half, because she was under the curse of the sleeping spell.
  • The musical score throughout the film was provided by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.
  • Barbara Luddy, who is the voice of Merryweather (Blue Fairy), lent her voice to Lady in the earlier Disney movie Lady and the Tramp. After Sleeping Beauty, she would also end up being the voices of Kanga in The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and Mother Rabbit on Robin Hood.
  • The complex and detailed background paintings, most of them done by Frank Armitage and Eyvind Earle usually took seven to ten times longer to paint than average, which takes about a workday to complete. As opposed to having the backgrounds be designed to match the characters, Sleeping Beauty's characters were designed to match the backgrounds.
  • The film was referenced in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code as an allegory of the grail quest.

External links

1959 films | Disney animated features canon

Prinsessa Ruusunen | La bella addormentata nel bosco (film 1959) | 眠れる森の美女 (アニメ映画) | Спящая красавица (мультфильм) | 睡美人 (電影)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)".

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