The ultimate traditionally animated swords-and-sorcery film from Walt Disney, Sleeping Beauty brandishes gorgeous animation, an amusing fairy tale plot, and the unforgettable song “Once Upon A Dream.” Stylized modernistic artwork by Eyvind Earle resulted in beautifully medieval backgrounds and a fresh new look for an animated feature, and the villainess Maleficent set a new bar for frightening Disney antagonists.

King Stefan and his queen long for a child, and are finally granted their wish with a baby girl, Aurora. Three good fairies, Fauna, Flora, and Merryweather are each able to grant the newborn a single wish – the first two are beauty and the gift of song. But just as Merryweather is about to bestow her magic present, the fearsome Maleficent, an outcast evil sorceress, condemns the child with a terrifying curse: on her sixteenth birthday Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. As Maleficent vanishes in a flurry of smoke, Merryweather attempts to undo some of the damage by using her one magic gift to change the curse of death to sleep, which can in turn be broken by true love’s kiss.

Although the King commands all spinning wheels to be burned, Aurora is still not safe. The three fairies convince Stefan to let them raise the child in an isolated cottage in the forest so she can remain out of sight from the Argus-eyed Maleficent and her minions. Using the name Briar Rose, Aurora is kept safe for sixteen years, looked after by the fairies under the disguises of peasant women. But when the time comes for Aurora to return to the kingdom to fulfill her betrothal to Prince Phillip, new dangers await.

Several of the plot elements are decidedly goofy – the three fairies have limitless powers as demonstrated countless times in their aiding of Phillip, yet they are unable to counter Maleficent’s spell. They can put an entire castle to sleep, arm Phillip with magical weapons of righteousness, change arrows to flowers and transform searing tar into a rainbow – but are helpless when it comes to actually lifting or usefully altering a simple curse (15th century fairies they are not).

Shadows have gotten significantly better in the later Disney animated features, however the artwork in Sleeping Beauty was by far the best up to that point. Maleficent’s menacing black dragon is breathtaking, and the movements of the human characters are quite convincing. Most impressive of all is just how dastardly the dark witch really is. She moves calmly and assuredly, wickedly laughs at the horrors she causes, and even goes so far as to mentally torture Phillip in her dungeon. This is a villain young children can truly be scared by, and one that exudes a ferocious cool that many later antagonists could be measured by. The exhilarating dragon battle at the conclusion contains perhaps the best action sequences of any of Disney’s cartoon masterpieces.

And finally the music, based on Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet, is simply mesmerizing, with the main song “Once Upon A Dream” sealing the deal on one of the most unforgettable and timeless of all of Walt Disney’s animated classics.

- Mike Massie

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