Beautiful! Frightening! Wonderful!

This is the first movie that I remember seeing in a theater. I was a few months short of five years old when I sat between my two brothers in the back seat of Dad’s '56 Mercury at the Culver Drive-in to see Sleeping Beauty. Too bad the days of the drive-in theater are pretty much over. There is nothing quite like the experience of snuggling in a blanket while watching the movie (through the car windshield) on a huge outdoor screen and listening to the sound track from a box that hangs on the car window. You could even control the volume with a little knob on that box. Back in those days, you did not have to go to the snack bar. An attendant came to your car, took your order and then went and got your food for you.

Mom was worried that the wicked witch might give me nightmares, but I was more frightened by the forest of thorns that sprang up outside the castle to keep Prince Philip away from Sleeping Beauty. Oh, and the dragon.

This movie is based on the classic fairy tale, and it is my absolute favorite Disney animated movie.

The Story

When King Stefan and the Queen (she has no name in the movie) finally have the child that they have wanted for so many years, they name her Aurora after the dawn because she brings light into their lives. People come from all around to bring gifts to the new child. They agree that Princess Aurora will marry Prince Philip, the son of a neighboring King and Queen, when the children grow up.

Three fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, come to the celebration. Flora gives Aurora the gift of beauty, and Fauna gives her the gift of song. Then the evil witch Maleficent crashes the party and curses Aurora, saying that on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather still has one gift to give, and although she cannot take away the curse, she softens it> She says that Aurora will not die, but she will fall into a deep sleep, and the kiss of her true love will awaken her from that sleep.

Well, you can imagine the panic that Aurora’s parents feel. They order every spinning wheel in the kingdom destroyed. They agree to allow the three fairies to raise Aurora in their cottage in the woods, to keep her safe until her sixteenth birthday has passed. The fairies agree not to use any magic the whole time, since that might enable the evil witch Maleficent to find them.

Maleficent frets the years away at her home in the Forbidden Mountains, while her goons search fruitlessly for the Princess.

Aurora grows up happy and beautiful. The fairies call her Briar Rose, to conceal her true identity and keep her safe from the evil witch and her goons.

She meets Prince Philip by chance when he rides by in the woods where she is picking berries. They fall immediately and deeply in love, not knowing that their parents had already arranged for them to get married. “Briar Rose” does not know that she is Princess Aurora. Prince Philip is sad because he knows that he is betrothed to Princess Aurora, and not to the beautiful girl that he met in the woods.

Now, you know that Princess Aurora will come across a spinning wheel, and she will prick her finger, and she will fall into a deep sleep.

Evil seems to win, for the moment.

But this is a fairy tale, so Prince Philip must win in the end and marry Princess Aurora. They must live happily ever after.

What I like

The animation is the finest that I have ever seen, even better than the modern CGI (computer graphic imaging). It looks as three-dimensional as anything that we have today, and it is much more beautiful than words can describe.

The vivid colors, realistic people, animals, sets, props and backgrounds almost make me believe that I am watching a live action movie. But it is much more beautiful than live action could achieve.

The fairies add comedy to the story. They try to make a dress and bake a cake without using their magic, and they make a horrible mess. They bicker and fuss at each other, arguing over the color of the dress and the cake, repeatedly changing them with their magic wands. They even find it necessary to resort to magic to clean their cottage.

Aurora’s singing voice is wonderful. You simply have not lived until you have heard her sing “Once Upon a Dream”. Mary Costa, who did Aurora’s voice, went on to become a successful opera singer.

They adapted music from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet for the sound track.

The dragon looks and sounds terrifying.

Trivia:

The art work was inspired by medieval painting and architecture.

Live actors in costume served as models for the animators.

When the fairies discuss how to help the king and queen, Merryweather magically creates cookies in the shape of Mickey Mouse.

The elaborate background paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint. By contrast, a typical animation background takes one work day to complete.

What I do not like

Nothing.

Voices:

Princess Aurora - Mary Costa
Maleficent - Eleanor Audley (also the voice of Cinderella's stepmother)
Taylor Holmes – King Stefan
Bill Shirley – Prince Philip
Verna Felton – Flora
Barbara Jo Allen – Fauna
Barbara Luddy – Merryweather


Other stuff

Supervising Director - Clyde Geronimi

Run time 75 minutes

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Thank you so much for reading my Epinion!

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