Sleeping Beauty

Plot

Once upon a time, after many childless years, King Stefan and his Queen welcome the arrival of their daughter, Aurora. While still an infant, she is betrothed to Prince Phillip, the young son of King Hubert, so that the kingdoms of Stefan and Hubert will be forever united. At her christening, three good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, arrive to bless the child with gifts. The first fairy, Flora, gives the princess the gift of beauty, while the next fairy, Fauna, gives her the gift of song. Before Merryweather is able to give her blessing, a wicked witch named Maleficent appears, expressing disappointment of not being invited to the ceremony. The evil enchantress curses the princess, proclaiming that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather is able to use her blessing to weaken the curse, so that instead of death, Aurora will fall into a deep sleep from which she can only awaken by love's first kiss. Though King Stefan orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned, the three fairies know Maleficent's spell cannot be stopped that easily and devise a plan to protect her. With the King and Queen's consent, they disguise themselves as peasant women and sneak Aurora away with them to a woodland cottage until her sixteen birthday passes.

Years later, Aurora, renamed Briar Rose, has grown into a beautiful young woman with the blessings that Flora and Fauna bestowed to her. Sweet and gentle, she dreams of falling in love one day. On her sixteenth birthday, the three fairies ask Rose to gather berries in the forest so they can prepare a surprise party for her. While singing in the forest, Rose attracts the attention of Prince Phillip, now a handsome young man, as he is out riding his horse, Samson. When they meet, they instantly fall in love. Realizing that she has to return home, Rose flees from Phillip without ever learning his name, but asks him to come to her cottage that evening. While she is away, the fairies' magical preparations draw the attention of Maleficent's pet raven, revealing the location of the long-missing Aurora. Back at home, the fairies tell Rose the truth and escort the now-heartbroken princess back to her parents. Meanwhile, Phillip tells his father of a peasant girl he met and wishes to marry in spite of his prearranged marriage to Princess Aurora. King Hubert tries to convince Phillip to marry the princess instead of the peasant girl, but fails.

In the palace, Maleficent lures Aurora away from the fairies and up to a tower, where an enchanted spinning wheel awaits her. Aurora touches the spindle, pricking her finger and completing the curse. The good fairies place Aurora on a bed in the highest tower and place a powerful charm on all the people in the kingdom, causing them to fall in a deep sleep until the spell is broken. Before falling asleep, King Hubert tells Stefan of his son being in love with a peasant girl. The fairies realize that Prince Phillip is the man with whom Aurora has fallen in love. However, the Prince, arriving at his peasant girl's home, is kidnapped by Maleficent to prevent him from breaking her spell.

The fairies discover the Prince's whereabouts and sneak into Maleficent's castle to rescue him. Armed with a magical sword and shield, Phillip and the fairies escape from the witch's prison. Maleficent surrounds Stefan's castle with a forest of thorns, but when that fails to stop Phillip, Maleficent transforms into a gigantic dragon to battle the prince herself. Ultimately, Phillip throws the sword, blessed by the fairies' magic, directly into Maleficent's heart, causing Maleficent to fall to her death from a cliff.

Phillip's kiss awakens Aurora, and the spell over her and everyone else in the castle is broken. The royal couple descends to the ballroom, where Aurora is happily reunited with her parents, and she and Prince Phillip live happily ever after.

Characters and story development

The name of the beautiful Sleeping Beauty is "Princess Aurora" (that means sunrise in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish), in this film, as it was in the original Tchaikovsky ballet; this name occurred in Perrault's version, not as the princess's name, but as her daughter's. In hiding, she is called Briar Rose, the name of the princess in the Brothers Grimm variant. The prince was given the only princely name familiar to Americans in the 1950s: "Prince Phillip", named after Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh. The dark fairy was aptly named Maleficent (which means "Evil-doer").

Princess Aurora's long, thin, willowy body shape was inspired by that of Audrey Hepburn. In addition, Walt Disney had suggested that all three fairies should look alike, but veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston contrasted this idea saying that having them be like that wouldn't be exciting. Additionally, the idea originally included seven fairies instead of three.

Several story points for this film came from discarded ideas for Disney's previous fairy tale involving a sleeping heroine: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They include Maleficent's capture of the Prince and the Prince's daring escape from her castle. Disney discarded these ideas from Snow White because his artists were not able to draw a human male believably enough at the time.

The Box Office

During its original release in 1959, Sleeping Beauty earned approximately $7.7 million in box office rentals. Sleeping Beauty's production costs, which totaled $6 million, made it the most expensive Disney film up to that point.

Like Alice in Wonderland, which was not initially successful either, Sleeping Beauty was never re-released theatrically in Walt Disney's lifetime. However, it had many re-releases in theaters over the decades. The film was re-released theatrically in 1970, 1979 (in 70mm 6 channel stereo, as well as in 35 mm stereo and mono), 1986, 1993, and 1995. Sleeping Beauty's successful reissues have made it the second most successful film released in 1959, second to Ben-Hur, with a lifetime gross of $51.6 million. When adjusted for ticket price inflation, the domestic total gross comes out to $478.22 million, placing it in the top 30 of films.

The Awards

Academy Awards     

• Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (George Bruns) (Lost against Porgy and Bess)

Grammy Awards

• Best Soundtrack Album, Original Cast - Motion Picture or Television (Lost against Porgy and Bess)

Young Artist Award

• Best Musical Entertainment Featuring Youth - TV or Motion Picture

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
• Maleficent - Nominated Villain
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Animated Film

The Trailer of Sleeping Beauty