Sleeping Beauty tells the story of a king and queen whose infant is cursed by a witch named Malificent (Eleanor Audley), with the promise that before the child’s 16th birthday she’ll prick her finger on a spinning wheel . . . and die! As a result, three good fairies–Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather (Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen, and Barbara Luddy)–vow to put away their wands and secretly raise the child in the forest until the chance of her being killed has passed. While out picking berries, Aurora (Mary Costa) sings to entertain her animal friends; her angelic voice gains the attention of Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley), out riding his horse in the woods. When they meet, they instantly fall in love. Realizing that she has to return home, Aurora flees from Phillip without ever learning his name. Despite promising to meet him again, she is unable to return, as her “aunts” choose that time to reveal the truth of her birth to her and to tell her that she is betrothed to a prince named Phillip.
Aurora makes it back to the palace, but then the real trouble starts. Maleficent uses her magic to lure Aurora away from her chambers up into the tallest tower of the palace, where a spinning wheel awaits her. Fascinated by the wheel, she touches the spindle, pricking her finger. As had been foretold by the curse, Aurora is put under a sleeping spell. The good fairies place Aurora on a bed with a red rose in her hand, and cause a deep sleep to fall over the entire kingdom “until Rose awakens.” The next day, a battle rages as when Prince Phillip tries to rescue her while the rest of the castle-including the fathers of the betrothed, King Stefan (Taylor Holmes) and King Hubert (Bill Thompson) sleep. Coincidentally, Phillip fights with a magical sword and shield provided by the good fairies.
Prince Phillip needs all the help he can get when Maleficent turns herself into transform herself a fire-breathing dragon, and send minions scurrying with jolts of lightning from her staff. As you watch this film, you see plenty of times when Maleficent’s henchmen and castle will remind you of The Wizard of Oz, and Earle’s striking backgrounds stand out in just about every scene.
There’s less humor in Sleeping Beauty than today’s kids are used to to, but the three good fairies provide some comic relief, with the rotund Merryweather and the bossy Flora dueling over their favorite colors, pink and blue. But director Clyde Geronimi (Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp) does his usual excellent job of letting characters tell the story so that the charm of their personalities makes up for any lack of humor.
This new restoration includes a “never-before-seen expanded version of the film” which “unveils images that no one has ever seen in theaters or home entertainment!” That’s because “Sleeping Beauty” was filmed in Technirama 70, which translated into what we’d now call a 2.55:1 aspect ratio, while most theaters at the time were equipped to show standard widescreen, which was 2.35:1. When I looked at my older version of Sleeping Beauty, I noticed that the tops of heads and bottoms of legs ran of the screen, unlike this version.
The new Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track sounds absolutely fantastic from start to finish here, removing the raspy quality present in the older edition’s verbal and musical sound. As to be expected, minimal use is made of the lower-frequency channels, but when needed it does stand up to task in billowing out a few mid-range notes. But the star of this show is the verbal clarity, which just sounds magnificent!
Also included is the “Original Theatrical Audio”, which preserves the more accurate “Hollow” properties about the track. It’s plenty strong as well for purists that wish to avoid the well-mixed enhanced Home Theater option. Optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles are available, as are Spanish and French 5.1 tracks.
The Sleeping Beauty – 2 Disc Platinum Edition has quite a few NEW special features on Disc 2:
Disc one has an audio commentary with John Lasseter, Andreas Deja, and Leonard Maltin which I thought was disappointing. Big fans will want to keep the 2003 Special Edition, which had a commentary track that featured Eyvind Earle and other Grand Old Men from Disney animation.
• Holiday – (3:28) is a musical number that celebrated Aurora’s birth and was originally slated to open the film. Great decision to cut it, since the Broadway and pop-style song really doesn’t jive with the medieval pageantry. The sequence is shown in rough animation.
• Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty – (43:32) covers every aspect of the film’s conception, pre-production, production, and legacy.
• Original Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough Attraction – Takes viewers on a virtual tour of the park attraction, with a behind-the-scenes look at how the special effects were created and used in the castle.
• Once Upon a Dream is a new music video, starring Emily Osment (Hannah Montana’s sidekick).
• Enchanted Dance Game
• Fun with Language Game
• Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art – (7:33) A feature on the man behind the backgrounds.
• Four Artists Paint One Tree – (16:08) that shows how he taught his style and how it was incorporated into the production.
• Several art/photo galleries
• Four deleted songs.
• Peter Tchaikovsky Story – Go back in time and check out Walt Disney’s introduction at the beginning of the Peter Tchaikovsky Story, where it instructs you how to get true stereophonic sound via your radio.
