Barnes & Noble

Movies like this come along "once upon a dream." Released in 1959, the wildly ambitious and stylistically bold Sleeping Beauty -- at the time the most expensive animated feature ever -- mimicked Walt Disney's similarly grand Fantasia at the box office. That is, it failed. Nevertheless, both films are now considered among Disney's masterworks. This is old-school Disney, with enchanting princess Aurora; spell-breaking Prince Philip; evil villainess Malificent; scene-stealing good fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather; and cute forest creatures to befriend our heroine. Sleeping Beauty makes a royal debut on DVD in a wide-screen presentation that does full justice to the majestic panoramas. The Tchaikovsky-inspired score contains the Disney standard "Once Upon a Dream," as well as the rollicking drinking song "Skumps." The climactic fight between Prince Philip and Maleficent, who transforms herself into a terrible dragon, is the stuff nightmares are made of, and it remains spectacular. It would be another 30 years until the Disney studios reentered the fairy tale realm with The Little Mermaid. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Disney produced this lavish animated fairy tale, the most expensive cartoon ever made up to its release with a budget of $6 million. When the young princess Aurora is cursed at birth by the evil fairy Maleficent, the baby is kidnapped by a trio of good fairies who raise the girl themselves, hoping to avoid the spell's fulfillment. Nevertheless, at the age of 16, the beautiful Aurora falls into a deep sleep that can only be awakened by a kiss from her betrothed, Prince Phillip. Knowing that Phillip intends to save Aurora, Maleficent takes him prisoner. When the good fairies launch a rescue attempt, Maleficent transforms herself into a spectacular fire-breathing dragon, forcing Phillip to defeat her in mortal combat. Sleeping Beauty (1959) was Oscar nominated for its musical score, which featured adaptations of Tchaikovsky compositions. Karl Williams

From the Studio

In the original story, Princess Aurora sleeps for 100 years before being awakened by a prince's kiss. In the Disney version, Prince Philip comes to her rescue much sooner. George Brun's orchestral score, which was nominated for an Academy Award®, expertly blended famous themes from Tchaikovsky's ballet. With a budget that exceeded $6 million in 1959, this was Walt Disney's most lavish and expensive animated feature to date. Determined to make the characters as realistic as possible, Disney had a live action film shot with actors posing as Sleeping Beauty, the Prince, and Maleficent, for the animators to use. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called the fight between Prince Philip and Maleficent "the noisiest and scariest go-round he [Disney] has ever put into one of his films."

Product Details

• UPC: 786936746228
• Source: WALT DISNEY VIDEO
• Region Code: 1A
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Editions: Special Edition, Subtitled, Dubbed, Restored
• Time: 1:15:00
• Sales Rank: 4,977

Features:

DVD MENU