Sleeping Beauty

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. I do not claim ownership of this material- all images and footage used are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise.

                                                    

                                                  

Of all the ‘classic’ Princess films covered so far, this one is by far the best. I implied in my Lady and the Tramp review that Philip and Aurora are incredibly dull and to be honest they are- but the film more than makes up for it with great protagonists (I’ll get to that point in a minute), one of the greatest villains in the entire canon, a lovely use of classical music and animation so good it almost sank the studio, as its $6 million budget was essentially too high for it to ever make much money back.

That is the first thing to talk about- from an artistic perspective, this film is wonderful. It has a unique and beautiful art style unlike anything seen previously and this combined with the music based on the famous ballet gives it the lovely classical feel of Cinderella tenfold.

Maleficent is also one of the greatest Disney villains of all time- there is just something in her design combined with Eleanor Audley’s cold yet powerful vocal performance that makes her fantastic to watch.

I mentioned this before, but Aroura herself is one of the weakest Disney Princesses, as this was really a time before they had personalities, with the possible exception of Cinderella. She does have more dialogue than people give her credit for, but none of it is really worth much- just the stereotypical ‘someday my prince will come’ stuff that I have ironically spent a lot of time claiming is over exaggerated by many people, as a Disney fan. I seriously can’t wait to get to Ariel.  

Prince Phillip isn’t much better, so they don’t really have much chemistry in the two scenes they share.

But now, let’s talk about the real lead characters, the three fairies- in terms of the narrative, they are truly the protagonists, as they feature most prominently in the story as the ‘good guys’. And they all have unique personalities and are very funny throughout. And others have also pointed out that the fact that much of the plot is primarily driven by strong women does more than make up for Aroura’s lack of agency.    

Overall, Sleeping Beauty is a stunning film, which is the greatest masterpiece of the Silver Age.

Rating

Good guys: Aroura and Phillip don’t do much, but the three fairies are great characters, so that characters get 7/10

Bad guys: As I said, one of the best Disney Villains of all time, Maleficent gets 10/10

Animation: Beautiful and unique, the animation gets 10/10

Music: The use of classical music really adds to the classic fairy tale feel, so the music gets 8/10

Plot: Another great adaptation of a classic fairy tale, but with additional scenes that actually feel relevant to the plot, the story gets 7/10  

Overall Rating: 42/50

Next review: 101 Dalmatians