There are a select few Disney films that my family owned on VHS when I was growing up which me and my sisters used to watch basically on repeat. 'Sleeping Beauty' (1959) is one of these films. Despite watching it so many times when I was a kid it had been a very long time since I had seen it. Well, a long time since I had seen it undistracted (my niece is once again the culprit for this). After all these years I was curious how much of the film I would remember. About 90% of it was the answer. The film tells the story of Princess Aurora (Mary Costa), who has a curse placed on her at birth which says that if she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel spindle before the sun sets on her 16th birthday she will be plunged into eternal sleep, only to be awoken by true loves kiss. She is taken away into solitude by three fairies, Flora (Verna Felton), Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen) and Merryweather (Barbara Luddy). She remains hidden until her 16th birthday when she is discovered by evil sorceress Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) who puts the curse into motion, leaving Prince Philip (Bill Shirley) and the fairies to save her.
I don't want to spend to much time talking about some of the dated aspects of the films gender politics and the like, mostly because I tend to take things as a product of their time and I try to recognise issues in films without it overshadowing the overall product. However, that doesn't mean that the narrative doesn't have some negatives just on a basic storytelling level. Again, this is a kind of standard practice for Disney at the time, with the narrative just being your very basic fairy tale love story. The main issue is that the main characters in this story take a back seat to all the secondary characters. Aurora is a bit of a husk of a character despite being the titular sleeping beauty, and this is the same for Prince Phillip. The way they are both written means they are perfect for each other as they are personality-less, All the side characters are much more fleshed out and have distinct personality traits and quirks that make them all much more fun characters to watch. Pretty much all of these side characters are cliched and fit the Disney mold of characters that you would expect, but just because they are cliched doesn't mean they aren't fun and bring a sense of comedy and levity to the film. They are also performed well with all the voice actors doing a good job. There is one character in particular that I love, but we will get on to that later. Musically the film is also very solid but is a lot less musical than a lot of other Disney films around that time. It has a couple of original sings which are performed as musical numbers but most are are a choir that accompanies the score. It is a bit odd to see in a Disney film but it is also quite welcome.
I mentioned there was one particular character in this film that was head and shoulders above the rest and I don't think there is any surprise in that character being Maleficent. She is in the top tier of Disney villains. She may not be a very complex character as she is just the embodiment of pure evil but my god does that make her a cracking villain. She may also be the scariest of all the Disney villains, with one scene, in particular, reinforcing this in my mind. This is a scene where Aurora has been taken to the castle and Maleficent appears in the fireplace. Holy shit this image is terrifying. Just her silhouette with her eyes glowing in the dark, honestly it had the hairs standing up on end. Also, any villain who turns into a dragon for the climax is a bloody winner. Imagery is the greatest strength of this film. There are moments where the animation does look dated but for the most part, I think the film holds up remarkably well and has some truly beautiful moments of animation. The use of colour in the film is also brilliant with it popping and being great to look at from start to finish, The scene where this all comes to the fore and shown in all its glory in that final climactic scene. The use of colour mixed with the animation in this scene leads to a whole sequence that is visually very impressive and an engrossing action scene on its own. The visuals do lift this film way above the narrative.
I do have a lot of nostalgic feelings towards 'Sleeping Beauty' and this could mean that I look at this film with rose coloured glasses but I do still really enjoy it. My appreciation of the narrative may have waned from when I was a child but I definitely have much more love for the visual aesthetic of the film and it is the visuals that will have me returning to this film. Well, that and Maleficent If you haven't already seen it give it a go, even if it is just to see how Disney has evolved. I don't think it is in the upper echelons of Disney films but is a very solid one.