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Fan Forum Hero
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 95,377
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Sleeping Beauty #5: "They say if you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true."
Welcome to the Sleeping Beauty appreciation thread!
Film Summary
When a new princess, Aurora, is born to King Stefan & his wife, the entire kingdom rejoices. At a ceremony, three good fairies - Flora, Fauna & Merryweather - bestow gifts of beauty and song upon her but the festivities are interrupted by the wicked fairy, Maleficent. Because she wasn't invited, Maleficent curses the princess, proclaiming that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather is able to use her blessing to weaken the curse, so that instead of death, little Aurora will fall into a sleep from which she can only be awakened by true love's kiss. Though the king orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned, the three fairies convince him that his daughter needs to be hidden away from the crafty Maleficent, at least until Aurora turns sixteen.
Years later, Aurora, renamed Briar Rose by her "aunts", has grown into a beautiful young woman with the blessings that Flora and Fauna bestowed to her. On her sixteenth birthday, the three fairies ask Rose to gather berries in the forest so they can prepare a surprise party for her. While singing in the forest, Rose attracts the attention of Prince Phillip (who, unbeknownst to either of them, had been at the ceremony of her birth and been betrothed to her). When they meet, they instantly fall in love but when Rose tells the fairies, they reveal she's a princess and her father has already arranged for her to marry a prince to join their kingdoms. They escort the heartbroken princess to the castle and thanks to Maleficent's hypnotic magic, the curse comes true and Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle, falling into a deep sleep. The Prince is the only one who can save her, which Maleficent discovers. She kidnaps and imprisons him but with the help of the three good fairies, Prince Phillip escapes Maleficent's dungeon, slays her dragon form, and makes his way to his sleeping beauty, awakening her with a kiss. The royal kingdom awakens (they had been put under a sleeping spell along with the princess) and everyone rejoices as the prince and princess dance the night away.
"Not in death but just in sleep. The fateful prophecy will keep.
And from this slumber you shall wake, when true love's kiss the spell shall break."
 
"I wonder, I wonder. If my heart keeps singing. Will my song go winging?
To someone who'll find me. And bring back a love song to me?"
Film History
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault. This is the 16th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and it was released by Buena Vista Distribution. This is also the last fairy tale produced by Walt Disney due to its initial box office disappointment. (After his death, the studio returned to the genre with 1989's 'The Little Mermaid'.) This was the first animated film to be photographed in the Technirama widescreen process. This was also the last Disney animated film to use hand-inked cels (the next film would use "xerography" to transfer animators' drawings from paper to celluloid).
Its animation style was inspired by medieval art since Walt Disney wanted to distinguish this fairy tale film from it's predecessors (Snow White and Cinderella), and give it the appearance of a "living illustration". During its original release in 1959, Sleeping Beauty earned approximately $7.7 million in box office rentals and production costs were around $6 million. It's not until it was re-released in the following decades that it was lauded as a Disney classic and appreciated for it's vibrant colors, lush music score, and memorable villain. The film was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Musical Score) and a Grammy Award.
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