Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy,
Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, Bill Thompson | Written by Erdman Penner & Charles Perrault
UK certification U | UK RRP £26.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 75 minutes | Directed by Clyde Geronimi
I never saw Sleeping Beauty when it was first released in theatres (hey, it came out in 1959 — I'm not THAT old), and I've never seen it on TV, video or DVD either. So seeing it for the very first time on Blu-ray is something of a treat.
It is, to use that oft-abused and overused word, a true classic. It was Disney's first animated film based on a fairy tale since 1950's Cinderella, and the first to be made in widescreen. Visually and aurally, it's one of the most exquisite films to ever come out of the studio — all bright, primary colours and with the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet. It tells the immortal tale of true love winning out over evil, and is based on the French fairytale written in 1696 by Charles Perrault — with elements of the Grimm version and the Tchaikovsky ballet thrown in. In a far-off medieval land, a king and queen have a beautiful baby daughter, Princess Aurora, who is cursed by an evil witch, with the promise that before her 16th birthday she'll prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Luckily, a good fairy counteracts the spell so that Princess Aurora will instead sleep for 100 years, only to be woken by true love's first kiss. And yadda yadda, we all know what happens next .. and they all live happpily ever after. Except the witch, of course. Because she's mean and evil, and deserved to die.
It's funny seeing Sleeping Beauty for the first time after last year's Disney film Enchanted — I now get so many more of the jokes and references that I didn't before. It's also interesting to note that the main character — Princess Aurora — has hardly any dialogue in the film. The main characters are the three good fairies — Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather — who raise Aurora in the woods, calling her Briar Rose, in the hope of stopping the curse from coming true, and keeping her hidden from the evil witch, Maleficent — surely one of the greatest Disney villains ever. It's now 50 years old, but Sleeping Beauty has lost none of its shine.
EXTRAS **** It's a complete and utter smorgasbord. The Blu-ray edition is remastered in high-definition, with 7.1 channel surround sound. There's an audio commentary with Pixar's John Lasseter, film critic Leonard Maltin and animator Andreas Deja; a making-of featurette; a "Cine-Explore" feature; an alternate opening; deleted songs; a castle walkthrough; the Oscar-winning short Grand Canyon, which played in theatres before Sleeping Beauty on its original release; a featurette on Tchaikovsky; a featurette called Dragon Encounter, a which explore's Maleficent's dungeon; a music video for the song Once Upon a Dreaml; a Disney Song Selection of five tunes from the movie; Princess Fun Facts; two children's games, Enchaned Dance and Fun With Language; two animation featurettes, Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art and Four Artists Paint One Tree; a featurette on the new sound mix, called The Sound of Beauty; plus art galleries and trailers. And as a bonus, the Platinum Edition Blu-ray also includes a DVD version of the film, with some of the same extras, too. All in all, a sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears.