Some consider SLEEPING BEAUTY Walt Disney's last classic and others consider it a neglected stepchild, not given the attention that animated features once received due to the birth of Disney's live-action ventures and the construction of Disneyland. Stylistically the animation is lush and beautiful, but it's style that doesn't enhance the problematic story.
When Princess Aurora is born she is betrothed to marry the young Prince Phillip. At her christening, the good fairies Flora, Merryweather and Fauna bestow gifts of beauty and song on the infant, but before Merryweather can give her gift, the evil sorceress Maleficent arrives and curses the baby. Before her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather, unable to reverse the curse completely, is able to modify it so that Aurora would simply fall into a deep sleep until she is awakened by the kiss of her true love. To protect the princess from Maleficent, the fairies take on mortal forms and take Aurora to live in the forest as a peasant girl named Briar-Rose. Complicating matters, upon the eve of her birthday, Briar-Rose meets a handsome young man in the woods and falls in love. While the fairies prepare for her birthday celebration, Maleficent's pet raven Diablo locates their cottage, giving Maleficent a chance to send Aurora into a deep sleep.
For a film called SLEEPING BEAUTY, Sleeping Beauty is probably fifth of sixth when it comes to screen time in her own film. The true central characters are the fairies, followed by the hapless Prince Phillip. Robbing the film of all tension, the fairies assist Aurora and Phillip at every turn, using magic to fix nearly every problem. It's a story cheat that makes the adventure so trivial. The plot borrows elements from SNOW WHITE, WIZARD OF OZ and the Christ tale. None of the characters get anything more than cursory development at best.
For fans of animation though, there is some worth in seeing the film. The design work is up to the standards of classic Disney films. The design and Marc Davis's animation on Maleficent make her more than the evil queen in devilish head attire. Her transformation into the dragon is gothic and gorgeous. Too bad it means nothing emotionally to the audience. As animated visual spectacle, the film has beautiful things to look at. But you need more than a pretty princess and handsome prince to make a fairy tale engaging.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
