Sleeping Beauty (1959)

This is a beautiful movie! From backgrounds to songs, this is a masterpiece. The backgrounds look real, Aurora is a beautiful singer, there is romance, there is adventure, Maleficent is one of the most dangerous and exciting Disney villains.... This is an excellent movie.Of course, it isn't perfect. There are some parts that are a bit dull and where I'm itching for the movie to become a bit faster, such as when Aurora is walking up stairs to touch the spindle or when the fairies put everyone to sleep; and meeting someone "once upon a dream" is a bit weird, but the song makes up for it, and those are not enough to make me keep from watching it! There are moments that give me sheer joy. I love the little-known song "I Wonder" that Aurora sings, and the movie is a beautiful and delicate story that is entertaining and worth watching.

That is my favorite quote from this Disney classic. Disney really didn't shy away from being real and didn't try to stay completely G rated. And I love that about this film. Maleficent is an excellent villainous, she has the perfect evil look and the voicing is great too, fits the character well. The fairies are great lovable characters. I always forget which is which but I know they're flora fauna and maryweather, hope I didn't butcher the names lol. But anyways, the fairies that guard and look after Aurora as a child are very colorful and fun characters which makes the movie overall more fun and fitting for kids to love. Aurora is an alright Disney princess, I don't know she's just not a very good character to me personally. Now I did like Prince Philip as a character, he's a charming lovable male love interest. I would've liked the romance between Aurora and Philip better if Aurora wasn't so bland and boring as a character. Aurora really is the only part of the movie I just don't really care for. The rest is great and very entertaining. This is yet another Disney movie that I do recommend for a fun family movie night. The action is fun and engaging and I especially loved the special effects, they're the best when it comes to Maleficent. 8/10.

One of the most famous (and beautiful) adaptations of the classic Grimm fairy tale, "Sleeping Beauty" remains a Disney masterpiece. Funny, romantic, scary and magical, this animated film creates an enchanting picture of Medieval Europe (probably Germany) that resembles the Gothic artistic movement, enriched with music inspired by Tchaikovsky's ballet. "Sleeping Beauty" touches themes such as love, hope and the perennial battle between the forces of Good and Evil. Although it is not similar to the latest Disney films that present independent, emancipated women, it is, nonetheless, an exciting artistic creation that has received a place among the films that comprise the Golden Age of the cinematic (animation) world.

There are some classic movies that you get to know so well, that eventually you think you can just put it on as background noise while you do other stuff, but if you happen to look up at the screen for one moment, you are completely captivated and kept from looking away until the credits have rolled. Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty is one of those movies. This animated production is that rare, perfect alignment of masters of their crafts, like Marc Davis, directing animator of both the film's protagonist and antagonist, and painter Eyvind Earle who served here as production designer, among many other artists, that creates something wonderfully unlike anything else. When it was decided to do Sleeping Beauty, the company knew they would have to push the artistry further than they ever had before to purposefully make the film stand out from everything that had ever come before it. The story's medieval setting perfectly caters to this with Gothic architecture, patterned tapestries, sculpted box trees and other hyper detailed background elements. To match, Disney ditched the soft and round and inviting characters that they usually portray for character designs that are more jagged and angular, strong with deep straight and vertical lines. The detail of the film really is just staggering. Add to that the fact that this was all done in Super Technirama 70 means not only more detailed art, but physically larger portions of art needed to be created to fill the film's frame, and every single frame from this film could be a framed painting hanging in a museum all on its own.Just as your eyes finally settle from all the detail and you think the movie couldn't be any more perfect, it happens. A blustery wind and a flash of lightening introduces you to the most iconic villain in all of the Disney stable. If anyone can crash a party and completely steal a show, it is Maleficent, which is a feat from a character with very little action. She's a speech giver, which means her captivation comes completely from her design, her slight movements, her voice, and her overall demanding presence. She can stand completely still and yet you will never lose her within the intricacies of the settings around her because you will never even take your eyes off of her. A spell has truly been cast, and while our princess has the least amount of lines for any human title character in a Disney animated movie, Maleficent more than fills the stage, making the movie really all about her.Other characters, like the film's hero Prince Phillip, are also more well rounded than the archetype had been in previous Disney films, and he would have to be to even enter into such a dark and threatening climatic battle. This Dark Ages atmosphere of Sleeping Beauty is spurned on by its classical score, a brilliant arrangement by George Bruns of the original music from the Sleeping Beauty ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The idea to take this well known music and reset it to the events of the movie adds weight and seriousness, as well as an heir of familiarity. It also does well to heighten certain moments in the film to truly chilling and mesmerizing states.It's a wonder that the film was a failure upon its initial release. The increase to its art and production meant that it was also Disney's most expensive animated film to date, and unfortunately could not make its money back at the box office, resulting in quite a change in style at the studio. The company's next release would be the scratchily designed 101 Dalmatians, with Sleeping Beauty ending the era of the lush and overly romantic Disney animated film. It has since gained both its money back and popularity, though, considered by many to be one of Disney's crowning achievements. As for me, I am perfectly comfortable in going further than that to call Sleeping Beauty the best animated film of all time.