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Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated feature produced
by Walt Disney and originally released to theatres on January 29,
1959, by Buena Vista Distribution. The sixteenth
animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, it was the
last animated feature produced by Walt Disney to be
based upon a fairy tale (after his death, the studio returned to the
genre with 1989's The Little Mermaid). In addition,
Sleeping Beauty was the first animated feature to be shot in Super
Technirama 70, one of many large-format widescreen
processes. Only one more animated film, The Black Cauldron,
was ever shot in Super Technirama 70.
The film was directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang
Reitherman, under the supervision of Clyde Geronimi. The film was
based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault, with
additional story work by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted
Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta. The film's musical score and
songs, featuring the work of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, are
inspired from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky.
Princess Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn
"because she fills her father and mother's lives with sunshine."
While still an infant, she is betrothed to the also-young
Prince Phillip, son and heir to King Hubert's throne. At her
christening, the good fairies Flora (dressed in
red/pink), Merryweather (in blue), and Fauna (in green) arrive to
bless her. Flora gives her the gift of beauty, which is
described in a song as "gold of sunshine in her hair" and "lips that
shame the red, red rose." Fauna gives her the gift of song .At
this point, Maleficent, the film's villain and Mistress of All
Evil, appears on the scene.
Claiming to be upset at not being
invited to Aurora's christening ceremony, she curses the princess to
die when she touches a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun
sets on her sixteenth birthday. Fortunately, Merryweather has not
yet blessed Aurora, so she uses her blessing to weaken
Maleficent's curse: Aurora will not die when she touches the
spinning wheel, instead, she will fall asleep until she is
awakened by true love's kiss. In addition, Aurora's father, King
Stefan, orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom burned, but
knowing Maleficent is extremely powerful and will stop at
nothing to see her curse fulfilled, the three good fairies take
Aurora to live with them in the woods, where they can
keep her safe from any harm until she turns sixteen and the curse is
made void. To fully protect her, they even change her
name to Briar Rose.
Rose grows into a very beautiful young woman, barefoot, with long
golden yellow hair, rose-colored lips, lilac-colored eyes, and a
marvelous singing voice, 'with golden sunshine in her hair and lips
that shame the red red rose'. She, although very beautiful and
sweet, does not care for her appearance but she hopes that someday
"her song will go winging" to a handsome man.
She is raised in a cottage in the forest by the three fairies, who
she believes are her aunts. Meanwhile, the evil creatures employed
by Maleficent admit to their mistress that they have not been
able to find the princess, despite looking in every cradle they
could find. Maleficent realizes that they have been looking
for a baby for 16 years and sends her "last hope," her pet raven
Diablo, to look for Aurora. On the day of her sixteenth
birthday, the three fairies choose to use magic to make Rose a gown
and a cake.
As Flora and Merryweather fight it out to have the dress their
signature color, Maleficent's raven flies over the forest and spots
the magical glitter fluttering in the air and reports back to
Maleficent. While out picking berries, Rose sings to entertain her
animal friends; her angelic voice gains the attention of
Prince Phillip, who has grown into a handsome young man and is out
riding his horse in the woods. When they meet, they instantly
fall in love. Realizing that she has to return home, Aurora flees
from Phillip without ever learning his name.
Despite promising to meet him again, she is unable to return, as her
"aunts" choose that time to reveal the truth of her birth to her
and to tell her that she is betrothed to a prince named
Phillip.
They leave the woods, and Aurora makes it into the palace.
Unfortunately, Maleficent uses her magic to lure Aurora away from
her chambers up into the tallest tower of the palace, where a
spinning wheel awaits her. Fascinated by the wheel, she touches the
spindle, pricking her finger. As had been foretold by the
curse, Aurora is put under a sleeping spell. The good fairies place
Aurora on a bed with a red rose in her hand, and
cause a deep sleep to fall over the entire kingdom "until Rose
awakens."
While doing so, they realize, from King Hubert trying to tell King
Stefan that his son is in love with a peasant-girl, that the young
man Aurora had fallen in love with is Prince Phillip.
Unfortunately, he has been bound, gagged, and captured by Maleficent
and imprisoned in her castle to prevent him from kissing
Aurora and waking her up. The three good fairies sneak into
Maleficent's lair, The Forbidden Mountain, aid the prince in
escaping and explain to him the story of Maleficent's curse.
Armed with the magical Sword of Truth and The Shield of Virtue,
Phillip battles Maleficent when the sorceress turns herself into a
gigantic fire-breathing dragon. The sword, blessed by the fairies'
magic, is plunged into the dragon's heart, killing her. Phillip
climbs to Aurora's chamber, and removes the curse with a kiss.
As the film ends, the prince and princess both happily learn that
their betrothed and their beloved are one and the same,
and they dance a waltz.
Fauna comments how she loves happy endings, but Merryweather and
Flora squabble over the color of Aurora's dress once again,
adding to the humour. |
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