Sleeping Beauty (1959)

 

Genre: Family/ Fantasy 

Time: 1h 15mins

Directors: Les Clark, Clyde Geronimi,  Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman

Quick Summary: After being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.

In my opinion, this is the prettiest Disney film. It's really slept on (pun intended). Absolutely everything you could want in a film like this in there, a brilliant opening that isn't too long and sets everything perfectly, beautiful artwork and landscape designs, as well as stunning animation, a good balance of humour and action, an adorable blossoming romance, a super tense battle between the prince which shows storm clouds, lightning, a forest of thorns, and a flame-spewing dragon.

While not the most interesting, the princess herself still has her own personality and quirks. There is still humour in her. As well the prince actually says more than three lines for once. In fact, he has a whole-ass battle with a dragon to save his princess, which is more than what most of them have done up until this film. 

The three fairy godmothers are the humour for this film, and I'm so glad they weren't the usual slapstick route Disney likes to pick. It's more witty humour between the three of them, or their not knowing how to do various things without magic. 

There is sophistication to this film, it doesn't feel targeted towards kids. It has more of an adult feel to it with the way the story plays out. Sure there a little moments that will make kids laugh, like when the three fairy godmothers are constantly bickering about colours, or when the courtbard gets drunk and falls asleep under the table. The music by Tchaikovsky was outstanding and perfectly fit this wonderful fairy tale. 

Going back to the animation and artwork, it's so stunning I need to talk about it twice. It's a perfect storybook look, with various rich and deep colours that really pop off the screen. The backgrounds are so detailed and stylised, that I got distracted at various times because I was so busy looking at everything. As well, I adore how medieval everything looked as it really fit with the setting. Usually, there are basic things like costumes or castles used to help the setting, but this was made by the use of a whole world being designed. Everything you looked at screamed medieval in the best way, not in a pop culture way. Detailed symmetrical patterns, tapestries, old architecture, the colours used to subtly show the difference in tones throughout the film, and various other things. My favourite moment of the use of colour is when the princess is hypnotised to go up the tower and prick her finger; the whole thing is flushed in an eerie green where even the shadows and highlights are various greens.

The animation is so fluid too, not a single moment I noticed animation lines or little jittery bits where the animation didn't quite match up. Each character moves in different ways too, Aurora being flowy and graceful, while the faires are bouncy. It's so impressive, especially for the time. I love how much passion went into this.

Maleficent is such an iconic villain too. She has a grand theatrical way of doing her evil ways that made the whole experience that much more terrifying to watch. Her laugh still haunts me. Even still that she is completely evil, there is still an elegance to her, which is honestly really impressive to give us this terrifying villain that would have made little kid me cry and make her still graceful and demanding. 

I love this film wholeheartedly for all the various reasons I've talked about. It's really underrated and ai urge more people to give it a chance. 

10/10

"Merryweather: [after Flora makes the first version of Aurora's dress] It looks awful.

Flora: That's because it's on you, dear."

" Now, father, you're living in the past. This is the 14th century!"

"Prince Phillip: But when will I see you again?

Princess Aurora: Oh never, never!"

The themed food me and my partner made for this: 

Chicken pie with herbed new potatoes, and ginger snaps