I have seen Sleeping Beauty approximately 3,294,923 times since last Thursday, when I bought it for Sophia at Costco.
It has not grown on me.
Sophia, of course, loves it. So much so that we’ve watched it twice so far before lunch today. I thought nothing could overcome Dora the Explorer in her heart, but apparently Aurora has done so.
I wish Sophia could have picked a better movie. This one is awful. No, seriously. On just about every level it’s awful. The story is atrocious, from the evil fairy casting what’s probably the weirdest curse in the world to the three fairies hiding the baby in the forest to Prince Philip fighting to get to the Princess…
And the Princess herself. Oh. My. God. The titular character of this flick is as vapid and useless as a box of packing peanuts. In the opening scene her father’s giving her away in marriage to his friend’s kid so that they can unite their kingdoms. Then the three fairies whisk her off to the forest, where apparently she should have starved because the three fairies are completely hopeless at cooking or sewing (as we see in a scene sixteen years later). Then she talks to a strange man in the forest and doesn’t give him her name…but tells him to come to her house in the forest that night. She falls into Maleficient’s evil trance, pricks her finger, falls asleep.
(Every time I read this story to Sophia I stop and ask, “Why do the fairies give Prince Philip the sword and shield? Why don’t they do a little more to help Aurora out directly?”)
But let’s look beyond the story and the characters—and look at the movie itself. The animation in this flick is just terrible. This is not Golden Age quality. In many scenes the background is completely static, with only figure in the foreground animated. Maybe it’s a stylistic choice…but it still looks cheap.
And the songs. Yuck.
Have I mentioned how much I dislike the Princess?
I’ll have to watch this about 8 billion more times though. Or until The Lion King comes out. And boy, won’t you love to read what I have to say about The Lion King (a movie I loathed when it came out, but Sophia is fascinated by Simba and Nala, so we’ll probably have to get it).
I think you’re glossing over the allure of Maleficent. Stupid curse or not, she’s still probably the Disney villain I’d least like to meet in a dark alley. Or even a well-lit avenue. She deserved a better movie.
Dodgy story notwithstanding, I love the animation in ‘Sleeping Beauty’. I don’t know whether it is the static quality, or the fact that everything looks consciously drawn rather than blandly painted that wins me over… I don’t think Disney tried anything quite like that again until ‘Hercules’, though I’m certainly no expert.
Each to their own, I guess.
Agreeing with Jason and Greg here. Sleeping Beauty is my favorite Disney movie, both because Maleficent is so wonderful and because the animation is so beautiful.
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I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Sleeping Beauty. (I’ve never been much of a Disney fan. It was always Warner Brothers shorts for me.)
I did kind of enjoy The Lion King once I decided that it was basically a Buddy Flick. It’s not really a Buddy Flick, of course, but that’s because it’s not really sure what it is. The animation is very good and the songs are nice (sorry, big Elton John fan here).
Plus the concept of animals preferring to be eaten by one lion over another is just so ridiculous.
So is there a worse Disney film than Atlantis: The Lost Continent?
I like Sleeping Beauty because its unique. And whoever was complaining about the fairies not helping Aurora out after Malificent curses her, they explain in the movie that the faries can’t directly reverse the curse, but they can put a spell on top of it that makes it not as severe. Thus, Merriwether casts a spell for Aurora not to die but to be in a deep sleep until her true love can wake her back up.
Plus, one has to remember that like most Disney movies, this is based on a pre-existing fairy tale. Of course, Disney never sticks exactly to the story, but maybe in Sleeping Beauty’s original form there was a spindle. I don’t know, I’ve never read the story, but its just a theory. Plus, it was the 14th century… Maybe spindles were more common.
I love the movie. It is also my favorite Disney movie..simply because it has the roots of disney in it…there is a girl, she finds her true love but she is cursed, he saves the day…
If you hate is, i think it’s because you have no sense of romance…
but i hate to sound judgemental… I only wanted to tell you that the music that you hate so much is based off of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty…so i guess you just aren’t able to percieve beauty…
I agree with you. I hate many Disney movies, merely for the fact that they suck the life out of an interesting story and change it into a cliched and sexist tale.
It’s not romantic. Romance is fair and right and equal. Sometimes the female saves the day and fairies are usually smart and crafty enough to see the loopholes (they should have found a way to muscle though).
I wish that for once in it’s very long life Disney would make a movie with believable characters.
Keats
As a note: there was no spindle in the original Sleeping Beauty. It began life as “The Ninth Captain’s Tale” and she had an alergic reaction to flax. You can find an essay on the evolution of the story here: http://www.endicott-studio.com/forsleep.html
Ok – I love sleeping beauty but I admit it is a totally sexist story. It is based on a really old story – way before Disney. I like that the prince has a real name – not “Prince Charming” as in Cinderella and Snow White. I like that the prince falls in love with her after acutally meeting her. I love this movie b/c since my name is Dawn, and I’m Italian, my grandfather used to call me Princess Aurora b/c Aurora is Dawn in Italian. The actress who is the voice for Maleificent was also the same women who played the stepmother in Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty is the only disney princess who was a princess before hand – before marrying the prince. And even though they were to be wed via their parents, Philip is opposed to this and it is only by chance that he falls in love with the person he is already supposed to marry. And the music is from the ballet by Tchochovsky – except for the songs with words – but the instrumental stuff is from the ballet.
I think this movie is a unique masterpiece. It is based off of a story written about people in the middleages, and in those times females acted like Princess Aurora. They where not heros. Disney was just trying to be accurate in its portayal of the Princess as a midieval charactor.
I think this movie is a unique masterpiece. It is based off of a story written about people in the middleages, and in those times females acted like Princess Aurora. They where not heros. Disney was just trying to be accurate in its portayal of the Princess as a midieval charactor.
also, the way the movie was illustrated was to reflect the art form of the time. It was done as though it where a midieval tapesrty.
i think that sleeping beauty is a bit annoying in this story, i prefer a book i read based on the same story which was called ‘spindles end’ (can’t remember the author…) its sort of like the movie shrek, a fairy tale where it works out differently than expected. Overall though i love all the disney fairy tale princess stories, cheesy as they may be!
Medieval is spelled medieval. The sexism of this Disney flick, like the sexism in most of them, cannot be explained away by pointing out the age of the story. Especially since the Disney versions barely resemble the originals. If you think as Carly Does that Disney accurately portrays medieval characters, you should learn more about the middle ages.
I guite liked sleeping beauty but i dunno about the bit when Maleficent turnes into a dragon i mean whats up with that?!?!
Personally, I think that this movie is quite spectacular. I agree with Jason from above. Malificient is one of the most remembered villians. I am still some what scared of her to this day. As for the story, it is the typical romantic and heroic story. Everyone loves them and I do as well. The animation could use some work, yes but overall I think this is possibly one of the best disney movies ever.
Doesn’t anyone find it odd, though, how any woman with power in Disney films is portrayed as evil? Cruella deVille: Rich and powerful–owner of her own company=evil
Maleficant (MALEficant): Most powerful sourcerer=evil
Snow White’s mother: Queen, ruler of a kingdom=evil
Ursula=powerful sourceress=evil
haha…you probably get the point…*shrugs* I just thought it was interesting how all of these women who didn’t need men to save them were depicted as evil
I agree about the sexism…Come on, we should also get annoyed and make fun of cavemen. Their hygiene was horrible and they should have known better. Then again, you can look at the power of Sleeping Beauty and the different translations throughout history. The changes speak of social events during each ‘translator’s’ time. Is this a story about passive women? Okay, the early (European) versions dealt with passivity because that is what they expected out of women. The rape seems symbolic of women’s lack of choice based on love. Women had to marry (or forced through arranged marriages) for necessity. It was their duty to have children (the family name must go on). More than just passivity, this is indicative of the social status of a woman in European culture. Alternatively, the Middle Eastern version (The Ninth Captain’s Tale) gives the woman much more power. This appears to be more about becoming an adult in the 1001 Nights version.
I agree Disney butchers many tales, but they are also preserving them. Do a little research and find the truth of the original taleâ€â€you’ll enjoy it more.
Alex,
I think this comes from aspects of history. Women held power, but that power shifted easilyâ€â€what did they do to keep it. For example, a king has power, he dies, the power shifts to his son…What is the queen to do? Especially when the son marries a woman who now has more power… This is actually reflected in one of the versions of Sleeping Beauty.
Does it justify Disney and their views on womenâ€â€no! I’m just showing you this comes from our history (IMO). You mention all the powerful and evil women, but you don’t mention how often mom dies… My wife would agree with you about Disney’s perspective, but I do not think it has anything to do with “women who didn’t need men to save them were depicted as evil.†You don’t think there are evil women in the world? Why does it have to be about men…So, if a man is niceâ€â€is he gay? Lose the stereotypes in your arguement.
What exactly is wrong with The Lion King??? That’s a classic, just like Sleeping Beauty is. And about the realism…..this is a CHILDRENS movie.
I agree, Disney versions barely resemble the originals, but if you take most movies they all barely resemble their original stories. I take each movie as its own story, and enjoy it as it is.
I love Sleeping Beauty because my children want to play all the parts. My son (age 4) loves to be the prince excaping the dungen and fighting (me) the dragon. Then I get be the princess he kisses (on the cheek) to wake up. My son’s little sister (age 2) is an new charactor in the story: Prince Phillup’s little sister, who fights just as hard for Princess Aurora and gives her a kiss too.
To Diane (spoken nicely, I am not yelling at you)- I have limits on TV time for the day and that encludes vidios. The TV gets turned off and the children can replay the parts of the movie themselves if they want, but no more watching until tomorrow.
I am amazed at the amount of people that say ignorant things like “It is just a children’s movie”or “it has some good parts” when I explain to them why I don’t like Disney movies…You are right…It’s a kids movie, made for children but that is the whole harm of the matter! It TEACHES little girls that the true motivation of their life is to find ‘true love’…little girls should worry about learning what they like and who they are and what makes them happy…You think I am wrong? Go look at your little girl…She may already be measuring herself up to the unreasonably beautiful and vapid character she is unknowingly idolizing. It is just so sick sometimes how this society pushes domestication on such very young little girls. Look at Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty…I could go on and on…they all have the same plot…Girl has a problem, girl is incomplete, girl tricked by evil ‘powerful’woman, girl saved by boy and ultimately leaves her family for boy. (Not to spoil them if you haven’t seen them but I just saved you 20 bucks in rental fees) And you still find nothing wrong with this?? Open your eyes people!
You are a horrible human being and deserve to be put to sleep for 1000 years.
Wow, there’s simply no arguing with the perspicacity of that kind of comment!
Did you not pay any attention whatsoever to the film? Did you even look at the date that “Sleeping Beauty” came out? I didn’t think so.
“Sleeping Beauty” was released in 1959. The background that you hate so much was ground breaking technology back then. The Princess, though she may seem helpless, really is a sound character considering the time period that the movie was taking place and the fact that her life is being controlled by everyone other then herself. Her being married to a selected prince for land was normal back then. And the fairies even explain in the beginning of the film that the curse can’t be undone, but altered so when Aurora fell asleep the fairies could only help her by helping Philip.
The movie is a great movie. It needs no real explanation when you are three years old. Now if Disney had used the original story, then there would be serious problems with this film.
(For those of you who don’t know in the original story Sleeping Beauty is raped in her sleep and wakes up when her twins are born. She finds “Prince Charming”, who happened to be married to someone else, and forced her way into his life. Try explaining that story to your three year old.)
Yes, I know what year it came out.
I don’t care what year it came out, or what “time” it was supposed to depict — it’s still not a great portrayal of women. And beyond that, the character of SB herself is passive — simply as a character, she doesn’t DO anything. Things happen TO her, which makes for pretty boring drama.
What was considered groundbreaking about the technology? (This is a serious question — I’ve never heard that comment applied to SB before.) I know what was considered groundbreaking about “Snow White” — and it’s still pretty remarkable today. But I don’t see it in SB.
The groundbreaking technology with SB is the way the movie was shot. The “static” background was actually a painting with the animation as an overlay. Those individual stills took days to a week to make. That was the ground breaking part of it: splitting the movement form the background.
And of course this movie wasn’t a great representation of woman. What movie is? If the film isn’t the life story of a historical woman, then women are never going to be represented as we should be. You can watch any movie now-a-days and I can promise you that the woman, whether she is the main character or not, will be saved my a man and end up falling for the guy even if he is the dumbest person on earth.
Oh my gosh. I hate that movie soooo much. It is soo freaking stupid! The animation, characters and all the things in that “movie” suck.