Sleeping Beauty

Description

Awaken your senses to the majesty of SLEEPING BEAUTY, Walt
Disney’s classic fairy tale. See more than you’ve ever seen before through the
magic of state-of-the-art technology, and experience this groundbreaking film
restored beyond its original brilliance, in the way Walt envisioned it —
pristine, beautiful, utterly breathtaking. SLEEPING BEAUTY will transform your
home into a fantastic world your family will want to experience again and
again.|In the original story, Princess Aurora sleeps for 100 years before
being awakened by a prince’s kiss. In the Disney version, Prince Philip comes
to her rescue much sooner.|George Brun’s orchestral score, which was nominated
for an Academy Award®, expertly blended famous themes from Tchaikovsky’s
ballet.|With a budget that exceeded $6 million in 1959, this was Walt Disney’s
most lavish and expensive animated feature to date.|Determined to make the
characters as realistic as possible, Disney had a live action film shot with
actors posing as Sleeping Beauty, the Prince, and Maleficent, for the
animators to use.|New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called the fight
between Prince Philip and Maleficent “the noisiest and scariest go-round he
[Disney] has ever put into one of his films.” Disney’s 1959
animated effort was the studio’s most ambitious to date, a widescreen
spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapting Tchaikovsky. In the
14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked Queen in
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs taunts a king that his infant Aurora
will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her 16th
birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true
love. Things almost but not quite turn out that way, thanks to the assistance
of some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. It’s
not really all that much about the title character–how interesting can
someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry
the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the
malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number
of animated films since. See it in its original glory here. And Malificent’s
castle, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating
their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. –David KronkeOn the DVD
Sleeping Beauty was the last and most lavish of Walt Disney’s animated fairy
tales. He told the artists not to hurry and to give him “a moving
illustration”: The film required almost four and one-half years and one
million finished drawings. Instead of the 19th century storybook illustrations
that had influenced the look of Snow White and Pinocchio, the artists adapted
the flattened perspective and jewel-like colors of 15th century French
illuminated manuscripts. The results remain unmatched for sheer visual
opulence. However, Sleeping Beauty suffers from a weak story: the vision of an
ageless princess slumbering in a vine-shrouded tower was replaced with
elements of Snow White and a boy-meets-girl musical. The evil Maleficent and
the three Good Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) dominate the film,
rather than Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. Sleeping Beauty was originally
released in 70mm, and the Blu-ray edition restores the film to its original
splendor. (Many earlier releases trimmed the wide-screen images and/or muted
the glowing palatte.) The Bonus DVD looks good on a flat screen monitor, but
it pales in comparison to the richness of the Blu-ray. In addition to the
commentaries and a making-of documentary, the set includes myriad extras that
vary widely in quality. Nostalgia buffs will enjoy the recreation of the old
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle attraction in Disneyland, and the TV program “Four
Artists Paint One Tree” provides a welcome showcase for key talents from the
film. But the CG animation of the dragon and the voice imitations of the Good
Fairies fail to capture the magic of the originals in the “Dragon Encounter”;
the “Maleficent’s Challenge Game”–a hi-tech Twenty Questions–sounds only
vaguely like the redoubtable sorceress. (Rated G: violence) –Charles Solomon
Stills from Sleeping Beauty (Click for larger image)

Features:

Product Details:

• Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 2.55:1
• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ G (General Audience)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches; 6.08 Ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎
• Director ‏ : ‎ Clyde Geronimi
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Color, AC-3, NTSC, Animated, Widescreen, Dubbed, Dolby, Special Edition, Restored, Subtitled
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ October 7, 2008
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Mary Costa, Eleanor Audley, Barbara Jo Allen, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy