Product Description
Awaken your senses to the majesty of SLEEPING BEAUTY Walt Disney's ultimate fairy tale. See more than you've ever seen before through the magic of state of the art technology and experience this groundbreaking film restored beyond its original brilliance in the way Walt envisioned it pristine beautiful utterly breathtaking. From the grand celebration of Princess Aurora's birth to the fateful day when she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and falls under Malificent's evil curse to Prince Philip's courageous battle against a fire-breathing dragon the stunning artistry and spine-tingling sounds will transform your home into a fantastic world. The adventures continue as you are immersed into a wonderful world of bonus features.BONUS FEATURES
In the original story, Princess Aurora sleeps for 100 years before being awakened by a prince's kiss. In the Disney version, Prince Philip comes to her rescue much sooner.
George Brun's orchestral score, which was nominated for an Academy Award, expertly blended famous themes from Tchaikovsky's ballet.
With a budget that exceeded $6 million in 1959, this was Walt Disney's most lavish and expensive animated feature to date.
Determined to make the characters as realistic as possible, Disney had a live action film shot with actors posing as Sleeping Beauty, the Prince, and Maleficent, for the animators to use.
New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called the fight between Prince Philip and Maleficent the noisiest and scariest go-round he (Disney) has ever put into one of his films.
Live Menus Featuring A Real Time Castle Environment
All-New Making Of SLEEPING BEAUTY Featurette
Deleted Songs
And More!
DISNEY BD LIVE innovative features premiering on Sleeping Beauty include Chat and Create Custom Video Messages With yoru Friends As You Watch The Film, Shop For Add-Ons and Downloads, Maleficent's Challenge Game, Living Menus Real Time Castle Environment Changes Based on Your Location System Requirements:Running Time: 75 minutes Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: G UPC: 786936746228 Manufacturer No: 05560800
Product Details
- Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
- Released on: 2008-10-07
- Rating: G (General Audience)
- Aspect ratio: 2.55:1
- Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
- Original language: English
- Subtitled in: English
- Dubbed in: French, Spanish
- Number of discs: 3
- Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
- Running time: 75 minutes
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.comDisney's 1959 animated effort was the studio's most ambitious to date, a widescreen spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapting Tchaikovsky. In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her 16th birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Things almost but not quite turn out that way, thanks to the assistance of some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here. And Malificent's castle, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke
Stills from Sleeping Beauty (Click for larger image)
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On the Blu-ray Disc
Sleeping Beauty was the last and most lavish of Walt Disney's animated fairy tales. He told the artists not to hurry and to give him "a moving illustration": The film required almost four and one-half years and one million finished drawings. Instead of the 19th century storybook illustrations that had influenced the look of Snow White and Pinocchio, the artists adapted the flattened perspective and jewel-like colors of 15th century French illuminated manuscripts. The results remain unmatched for sheer visual opulence. However, Sleeping Beauty suffers from a weak story: the vision of an ageless princess slumbering in a vine-shrouded tower was replaced with elements of Snow White and a boy-meets-girl musical. The evil Maleficent and the three Good Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) dominate the film, rather than Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. Sleeping Beauty was originally released in 70mm, and the Blu-ray edition restores the film to its original splendor. (Many earlier releases trimmed the wide-screen images and/or muted the glowing palatte.) The Bonus DVD looks good on a flat screen monitor, but it pales in comparison to the richness of the Blu-ray. In addition to the commentaries and a making-of documentary, the set includes myriad extras that vary widely in quality. Nostalgia buffs will enjoy the recreation of the old Sleeping Beauty's Castle attraction in Disneyland, and the TV program "Four Artists Paint One Tree" provides a welcome showcase for key talents from the film. But the CG animation of the dragon and the voice imitations of the Good Fairies fail to capture the magic of the originals in the "Dragon Encounter"; the "Maleficent's Challenge Game"--a hi-tech Twenty Questions--sounds only vaguely like the redoubtable sorceress. The BD-Live features require an awful lot of bother: after wading through (or ignoring) 130 screens of legalese, participants must enter their Social Security number or other personal information in the drawn-out sign-on process. Once that's finally done, viewers can send special messages to pop up during the film, chat online with others who are watching, and view it in synch with others. The question is whether or not you want to. (Rated G: violence) --Charles Solomon
Customer Reviews
Impressive
OK, I always thought Sleeping Beauty was one of Disney's least exciting offerings from their classic animation films. Although I saw in the theaters when I was very young, I mostly know it from the VHS version. But my wife said it was her favorite so when it came out on Blu Ray, I picked it up.
Just a few points on why it is so impressive. First, the BR version displays the full original aspect ratio, you get to see the film in full Cinemascope. Second, the transfer to BR looks flawless, you'll see details in the animation you didn't know where there. I kept staring at it in awe. Finally, the sound quality was full and clean.
So put that all together and it actually makes the semi-flat characters come alive and the kinda lame plot seem exciting. Overall, BR gave me a new appreciation for Sleeping Beauty, and I can't wait for future Disney BR releases. (Beauty and the Beast next, please?)
Oh, and how awesome is it that they threw in the DVD version too?
Very nice restoration
Disney Home Video kindly sent me this DVD, in exchange for an honest review.
Movie: This is a very traditional fairy tale romance, with Princess Aurora being the only child of a king, betrothed at birth to Prince Phillip, the only child of another king. At the grand party to celebrate Aurora's birth, almost everyone attends, including the good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. However, the powerful, evil fairy, Maleficent, is not invited. Maleficent attends anyway, to bestow a "gift" on the child: a curse that, upon her sixteenth birthday, she would prick her finger on a spindle and die. Maleficent then disappears. Flora and Fauna had already bestowed the gifts of beauty and song, and Merryweather adds the gift of amending Maleficent's curse to be that Aurora would falls asleep, instead of die, only to be awakened by the kiss of her true love.
Of course, Princess Aurora does not die, but the road to the inevitable Disney ending includes magic, a dragon, intrigue, an unexpected romance, lots of singing, an enchanted forest with many creatures, kidnappings, and, of course, a spinning wheel with a spindle. The ending will not disappoint the little ones, but there is some suspense along the way.
Much is made of the Super Technirama 70 film method that was used, but I did not see it as noticeably better than similar-era animation. I prefer the look and the animation of Disney's original Bambi, with its incredibly rich colors. This DVD does involve a new digital restoration, and the before-and-after samples show a definite enrichment in color and detail resolution.
The songs and the singing were very nice. It was more music-based than I had expected or remembered. It had been many years since I last saw this film.
Voice Cast:
Mary Costa as Princess Aurora
Bill Shirley as Prince Phillip
Eleanor Audley as Maleficent
Verna Felton as Flora
Barbara Luddy as Merryweather
Barbara Jo Allen as Fauna
Taylor Holmes as Stefan
Bill Thomson as Hubert
Everyone does a very respectable voice performance, at least. The two who stood out were the good but mischievous Merry weather (Barbara Luddy) and, by far the star in this aspect, Eleanor Audley as the drippingly, snidely evil Maleficent. Maleficent made a truly scary villain, and it is my guess that she was the prototype for Cruella De Vil of the 1961 Disney One Hundred and One Dalmatians. It is probably no coincidence that both movies were directed by Clyde Geronimi.
I would have liked to have seen a bit more attitude to the characters, but I had to remind myself that the film goes back to 1959. Aurora pined a bit too much for me, although Phillip, Merryweather, and Maleficent certainly had enough attitude. Maybe, Princess Fiona of Shrek spoiled me!
Extra features: Immediately following the movie, on the same disc, is a music video of an upbeat, fairly contemporary version of a song from the movie, Once Upon A Dream, sung by Hannah Montana's Emily Osment. It is fairly good, and adds to the Prince Charming fantasy from the movie.
After that comes another music video, running almost thirty minutes, featuring The Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe;, accompanied with video of the Grand Canyon, including the dramatic scenery, amazing sequences of storms and cloud changes, and the native wildlife. Both the music and the video are excellent, and I only have two minor quibbles with it. First, I am not sure why this video is there, as it does not seem connected, in any way, to the movie. I guess that Disney is just using this as an opportunity to introduce children to more classical music. The other quibble involves a few of the wildlife sequences, showing predator-prey situations, involving a cougar and an antelope, and a golden eagle and a large owl, and a hare and a small rodent. The music is fitted around these sequences to suggest that predators are villains and prey are pitiable good-guy victims. In all these sequences, there is no bloody climax (this is a Disney movie, after all), and the music suggests this is victory. Well, it is victory for the prey, but it is also possible starvation for the predator. Maybe I am over-thinking this, but that was my take on it. I still enjoyed this video segment.
The next video is a vintage one, with an introduction by Walt Disney, on where the movie concept came from, and mainly about the life of Peter Tchaikovski. It is very nicely done.
All of the above is on Disc One.
On Disc Two, there are a host of bonus features:
There is a simple word game, with six basic variations. It appears, from the pace of the instructions and the level of the task, to be aimed at pre-schoolers, as it is a basic word-object pairing game.
Another extra feature is a basic waltz instruction program, with two parts. One part shows the basic steps, and the player is guided toward picking the steps in the right order. The other part involves actually dancing in the forest; the player chooses the role of Aurora or Phillip and is taught to do the basic moves in the right order.
A virtual walk-through of original Sleeping beauty castle. This is like taking a tour of a Disneyland exhibit.
A never-before-seen alternate opening sequence. This was interesting and would have been a perfectly acceptable choice of how to start the movie.
A sample of the songs that were deleted from the original movie. Several features on the making of the movie, with a heavy emphasis on the artists who did the animation, finish up the bonus features.
-- Chris McCallister, author of Coming Full Circle
What Size Is Your Set?
What? Disney's released another two-disc edition of "Sleeping Beauty?" Why, pray tell? Because they can? Because poor Disney-addicted saps like myself will fall for the ruse and pony up more of our hard-earned cash, even though we already own the Special Edition that was released a mere five years ago? You can tell I was skeptical. But there are some wonderful new extras on this release that weren't included in the last, and for hardcore fans, they're definitely worth having. And the film itself...? Well, for those of you who have never seen "Sleeping Beauty," by all means snatch it up. This may not be Disney's most entertaining film in terms of story line, but it's certainly its most visually gorgeous. The look of the film is based on ancient tapestries and medieval artwork, and the way that the studio's animators and background artists have translated them to the screen (led by the brilliant, visionary Eyvind Earle), is nothing less than breathtaking.
The biggest drawback to any edition of "Sleeping Beauty," and it's not necessarily a small one, is that the scope of the film, its visual, widescreen beauty and impact will be completely lost on a conventionally sized television. If you don't have a big screen TV, it's almost not worth the investment.
So, if you have the old edition of the film, try selling it on Amazon and put the money towards getting the new one. If you don't have either, just be aware that the size of your set may seriously effect (or enhance) your enjoyment of this most beautiful and unique of Disney's masterpieces.
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