Sleeping Beauty

As the 16^th Disney animated film, Sleeping Beauty is one of the most beautiful, yet most difficult, Disney films ever made.  It took many years to make the film and, despite the film’s immense popularity now, it received mixed reviews when it came out.  Similar to Lady and the Tramp, critics seemed to think it was too corny and actually unfairly compared it to Snow White.  The film also did poorly during its initial box office run.  In later years after Walt Disney’s death, the movie finally started to be seen by critics and audiences for the work of art that it is and earned its profit with several re-releases.  I actually did not watch the whole movie until I was older, as Maleficent gave me quite a fright when I was younger and so I refused to re-watch it for years.  I hope that everyone loves this movie as much as I do! Whatever your thoughts I’d love to hear from you!

Sleeping Beauty is about a princess named Aurora who is cursed at birth, by an evil fairy named Maleficent, to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die on her 16^th birthday; but a good fairy changes the curse to an eternal slumber that can be broken by a true love’s kiss.  Still, Aurora is taken by three good fairies to live a “normal” life not knowing that she’s really a princess.  This film has very nice parts (like where Aurora dances with the animals of the forest she grew up in); and I also like how so many of the names have special meanings (like “Aurora” means “dawn” and the names of the three good fairies all have to do with nature).  The movie is also probably one of the funniest movies from Disney’s Silver Age; I thought it was very funny when the three fairies were trying to throw a surprise party for Aurora and it ended up being a disaster, since they aren’t used to baking and sewing without magic (I know what that feels like!).  Also, the animation has astounding detail for the time period the film was made in.  While some people think that Aurora was saved by Prince Phillip, it was actually the three fairies who saved her (with my favorite fairy being Merryweather, the feistiest one).  As someone who has grown up with a very special circle of three older women in my life too, I think this movie shows us that we all need older women to guide us along our way (unless their name is Maleficent of course).  Speaking of Maleficent, the villain from this movie, she can be quite scary (she used to scare me when I was very young and still does a little to be honest) and she might scare younger kids (and as a small FYI, there is also a drunk mandolin player shown briefly too).  So, I would caution parents of young kids regarding the evil Maleficent.  Another good thing about the movie is that, despite her status, Prince Phillip wants to marry Aurora (he doesn’t know that she’s a princess yet) and is willing to face the consequences regarding their relationship.  I think the best take away from the movie might just be that we shouldn’t focus on other people’s status; we should focus on their personalities and on how they treat people (and how they treat animals too!).

“Thou sword of truth fly swift and sure.  That evil die and good endure!”  Flora the fairy (one of the three who raised Aurora)