Review: UK Release of the Sleeping Beauty DVD
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Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty
Personally, Sleeping Beauty has always been the most accomplished of all the Disney fairy tale interpretations. The boldness of the film is testimony to Disney's attempts to ensure animated movies were innovative and creatively diverse. This movie was enhanced by Eyvind Earle's meticulously rich and strangely gothic landscapes, which were a perfect dichotomy of good and evil. The phenomenal architectural attention to detail in the twisted spires of Aurora's family castle is extended beyond the artificial form to the natural landscapes of the forest, with the knarred, knotted shapes of the trees. The characterisations are also some of the most complex and starkly modern visions to be seen, not only in a Disney movie, but also in any Hollywood movie. Marc Davis' Princess Aurora is both beautiful and strong, a female with her own opinions and a will to succeed. Although love is an essential ingredient for Aurora (and the spiritual heart of this tale), she also wants her own life, perhaps even outside the castle walls. Her jealous foe, Maleficent, the self-proclaimed Mistress of All Evil is a stunning gothic creation, with dragon's horns, but a lithe and feminine body. Her transformation and the subsequent battle with Prince Phillip is one of the most exhilarating conclusions to any Disney classic.
For decades, Aurora and the other characters were overlooked in favour of more traditional Disney "princesses" such as Snow White and Cinderella. New villains arrived on the scene with each passing feature, usually usurping the previous incarnations. This changed with the Disneyland nighttime spectacular, Fantasmic that elevated Maleficent to the pinnacle of evil, as she battles Mickey Mouse to control his mind.
A similar situation unfolded with the advent of home video. Other Disney Classics were heralded into the format with massive publicity campaigns. Sleeping Beauty became a "regular" feature, with little need to include it in the list of the greatest classics, which were to be released just once a decade, for each new generation. However, the opinion of Sleeping Beauty as a true masterpiece could change with the arrival of the two disc collector's edition DVD in Europe. Released in late 2002 in most EU member states, including France (where the movie is one of the most popular in the Disney repertoire and the twisted pink spires of Sleeping Beauty Castle look down over Disneyland Park) and the United Kingdom, the movie is displayed as a model of modern restoration, as the original film has been painstakingly restored to its full majesty.
DVD Extras
In the U.K., most of the Disney features have few extras, usually limited to an
interactive children's game and a handful of short features, starring the Fab
Five or a Silly Symphony, that often has no bearing or even tenuous link to the
accompanying movie. Like in the United States, every feature since Dinosaur has
been released in a two disc collectors edition with hours of ancillary material,
utilising the format to the limit. However, except for Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs and the recent debut of Beauty and the Beast, Buena Vista Home
Entertainment has not mined the Disney Archives to create any other Special
Edition DVD.
The arrival of Pinocchio as a Special Edition in the U.K. earlier this month has heralded a new generation of Disney classics. The extras on Sleeping Beauty are revealing and educational, and I was amazed at the amount of material that was located that related to the original 1959 release.
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Four Artists Paint One Tree
Personally, the two highlights are a rare Disneyland T.V. episode, which debuted
on ABC on April 30 1958 and a unique short subject offering, entitled Grand
Canyon. The small screen chapter was one of the "Adventure(s) in Art" episodes
that Walt loved so fondly. As usual, the episode unfolds with Walt in his
office, talking directly to the camera. This time, he is reciting quotes from an
art education manual by Robert Henry. Both the writer and reader are encouraging
viewers to "be yourself" and worry only about your own interpretation of the
world, and not about your perception of how others see it.
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(c) Disney
Laughing Place Podcast
FanBoy returns this week with tales of his trip to Disneyland plus the newest Disney Legends, help for dining at Disney, lots of reader mail, the Captain's Challenge, stump the Crew and more!
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DLP Main St after dark
Posted: 8/29/08
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