Sleeping Beauty (1959) – Review

Once upon a time, in the golden age of Disney animation, a princess named Aurora dozed off, and a classic was born! It was in 1959 that Walt Disney gave us this technicolor dreamscape where we learned that a kiss really could solve all your problems! And while Sleeping Beauty was not a success on its initial release it has since become a beloved classic to millions of fans.

The story begins in a faraway kingdom, where King Stefan (Taylor Holmes) and Queen Leah (Verna Felton) joyfully welcome the birth of their daughter, Princess Aurora. To celebrate her arrival, the royal couple hosts a grand christening ceremony, inviting nobles from across the land, including King Hubert and his young son, Prince Phillip, who is betrothed to Aurora. Among the esteemed guests are three good fairies—Flora (Verna Felton), Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen), and Merryweather (Barbara Luddy)—who come to bestow magical gifts upon the newborn princess.

“Hi, we’re the all-powerful comic relief.”

Unfortunately, wicked fairy Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) was left off the guest list and she arrives in a storm of dark magic, enraged by the snub. Maleficent curses the baby princess, declaring that on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. I must say, while being snubbed isn’t cool, laying a death curse on a baby is a pretty heavy overreaction to being left off a guest list, then again, I’m not The Mistress of All Evil. Lucky for the royals, Merryweather was able to mitigate the curse with her own “magical gift” so that instead of dying, Aurora would fall into a deep sleep, only to be awoken by true love’s kiss. Needless to say, Maleficent is not one to take such things lying down.

“Did I come at a bad time?”

Despite Merryweather’s actions, King Stefan is desperate to protect his daughter so he orders every spinning wheel in the kingdom to be burned, but the good fairies know this will not be enough to thwart Maleficent’s evil so they devise a plan to hide Aurora until her sixteenth birthday, taking her to a remote cottage in the forest and raises her as a peasant girl named Briar Rose (Mary Costa). Sixteen years pass, and Aurora grows into a beautiful young woman, unaware of her royal heritage or the curse that hangs over her. But one day, while wandering through the forest, singing of falling in love – which is pretty standard Disney Princess activity – she attracts the attention of Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley), who just so happened to be riding by.

“Do you guys believe in love at first sight?”

Sadly, true love is put on hold when the three good fairies reveal to Briar Rose her true identity, as well as her arranged marriage to Prince Phillip, not realizing he is the same man she had just met in the forest. Heartbroken, Aurora reluctantly agrees to return to her parents and fulfill her duty as a princess. However, Maleficent’s raven Diablo spotted magical activity – the three good fairies had a magical argument regarding the colour of Aurora’s gown – and reports back to her mistress that the princess has been found, who immediately sets a trap and lands herself a prince.

I’m not all that surprised Maleficent was into bondage.

Things may look dark but the goodness and virtue aren’t down for the count just yet. Prince Phillip is rescued by the fairies, is given the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue, and fights his way through a thorn forest, where he encounters a rather peeved Maleficent who transforms into a fearsome dragon and turns the thorn forest into an inferno. But like any stalwart hero, he ultimately defeats the villain and makes his way to the side of the beautiful sleeping Aurora, who he awakens with a kiss and breaks the spell over the entire kingdom and they throw a grand ball for these crazy kids. My only question is “Is this the basis for a long-term relationship?”

I give these kids three months tops.

As was the case with the adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Disney made several key changes to the classic fairy tale. In the Disney version, three good fairies are invited to the christening but in the original tale it was a group of “Wise Women” which causes the king a bit of a problem as there are thirteen Wise Women and he has only twelve gold plates as gifts. So, he decides to only invite twelve and simply not tell the thirteenth one about the party. Things go as expected, eleven bestow their gifts upon the child, gifts like beauty, virtue, and riches, but before the twelfth can give the child her gift in walks wise woman number thirteen and a shit storm.

Who forgets to invite the Mistress of all Evil?

Another key change concerns the hero, in the Disney version Maleficent threatens to keep Prince Philip imprisoned for a hundred years before releasing him to “rescue” Aurora, and when the prince escapes Maleficent creates a thorn barrier and turns herself into a dragon. In the original tale, once Briar Rose had been cursed a hedge of thorns started to grow around the castle, each year growing higher and higher until finally the entire castle was covered. Over the years random princes from far-off lands would try to get through to look at the princess but they’d all get caught in the thorns and die. Eventually, after one hundred years, one special prince gives it a try but instead of dying on the thorns the hedge of death turns into beautiful flowers that part for him and he then goes to where the princess, kisses her and this wakes her up and everyone else in the castle.

“Excuse me sir, but do I know you?”

Stray Observations:

• In the Brothers Grimm version, Sleeping Beauty is named Briar Rose while in the Tchaikovsky ballet, her name is Aurora. Disney solved this problem by giving their heroine both names.
• Queen Leah is the first mother of a Disney Princess to be alive during the film until Mulan came along in 1998. It’s tough being a Disney mom.
• The fairies claim that their magic cannot be used maliciously, “It can only do good, to bring joy and happiness” but later Merryweather turns Maleficent’s raven into stone and they later create an enchanted sword to slay Maleficent. Those sound a trifle malicious to me.
• The castle for Sleeping Beauty is based on the Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria, Germany, which also inspired the castles in both Snow White and Cinderella.
• Due to its less-than-financial success this was the last fairy tale-based Disney movie until The Little Mermaid was released thirty years later and started the Disney Renaissance.
• Only one other Disney animated film was shot in the Technirama format, that film was 1985’s The Black Cauldron which was another Disney box office disappointment. Was the format Cursed?
• Disney gets a lot of grief for “sanitizing” these classic fairy tales but I’ll say this, in the original fairy tale there was no mention of a dragon and for this addition, I thank Disney from the bottom of my heart.

This is easily one of cinema’s greatest dragons.

One of the most striking aspects of Sleeping Beauty is its unique visual style, which stands apart from the softer, more rounded aesthetic of earlier Disney films like 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and 1950’s Cinderella. Inspired by medieval art, particularly the illuminated manuscripts and tapestries of the Gothic period, the film’s backgrounds and character designs have a distinct angularity and precision. This style, spearheaded by Eyvind Earle, the film’s art director and production designer, creates a rich tapestry of colour and form that gives this film a storybook quality unlike any other Disney film. Simply put, it’s a feast for the eyes and Disney went all out with its medieval tapestry style, and it shows. Every frame is dripping with colour and detail. It’s like looking at a moving painting—an extra pretty one, not those boring landscapes your grandma hangs in the dining room.

This is possibly the most gorgeous of all the Disney animated features.

The score for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is one of the film’s most defining elements, elevating it from a simple fairy tale to a majestic cinematic experience. Adapted from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1890 ballet of the same name, the music weaves through the film like a rich tapestry, adding emotional depth, narrative cohesion, and a sense of timeless beauty to the story. One of the most iconic musical moments in the film is the “Once Upon a Dream” sequence. Based on the “Garland Waltz” from Tchaikovsky’s ballet, this song is a perfect blend of lyrical romanticism and melodic accessibility. It serves not only as Aurora’s signature piece but also as the emotional heart of the film, encapsulating the themes of love, destiny and enchantment.

The music and the landscape are in perfect harmony.

But let’s be real, as great as the film’s art direction was and how the score was a classical banger, the real star of the show was Maleficent, Mistress of all Evil. With her dramatic entrances, sinister laugh, and the ability to turn into a freakin’ dragon, Maleficent is the original Disney diva. You can’t help but root for her—even if she is cursing infants. Plus, she’s got the best lines. “Now you shall deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of hell!” If that isn’t one of the most badass villain lines ever uttered, I’ll eat my tiara. The Disney studio would later return to this iconic villain for their ongoing live-action remakes, but with Maleficent we didn’t so much as get a remake but a re-imagining where Maleficent was a more sympathetic character.

This Maleficent does not have much of a good side.

On the downside, Aurora is, to put it bluntly, one of Disney’s least compelling heroines. She has roughly eighteen lines of dialogue and is only in the film for a total of eighteen minutes, she sings two songs and then takes a nap, it’s like Disney asked the question, “What if we made a movie where the title character doesn’t actually do anything?” Aurora is less a character and more of a plot device. She’s very beautiful and has a very lovely singing voice but other than being a skilled napper there isn’t much to her character. To bolster her limited range, we have her three fairy guardians—Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather—who provide both comic relief and emotional depth, driving much of the plot with their well-intentioned magic and sisterly bickering.

They are good fairies but terrible dressmakers.

If one is to poke fun at the title character it must be pointed out that the film’s hero isn’t much better. Prince Philip is handsome, brave and utterly devoid of personality. He dances, he rides a horse, he kills a dragon, he kisses the girl, the end. Not exactly the most fleshed-out character in cinema history. And just how heroic is Prince Phillip? After he is freed by the fairies they tell him that he alone will have to face certain dangers in his battle against Maleficent, which is a nice sentiment but the fairies pretty much aid him at every turn, right up to the final defeat. It’s here where their magic causes Phillip’s sword to fly into Maleficent’s heart while she is in dragon form. a moment that does lead to one of the film’s other great lines, “Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure!”

The ultimate clash of good versus evil.

Sure, the story may be simple—girl meets boy, girl gets cursed by evil faerie, girl takes a long nap, boy kisses girl and everyone lives happily ever after—but that’s part of the film’s charm. This is a tale as old as time, told with the kind of magic that only Disney could muster and if you’re in the mood for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, or if you just want to see how a spindle and a well-placed curse can change everything, Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is the perfect film to get lost in. Just be careful—you might find yourself humming “Once Upon a Dream” for days!