Sleeping Beauty at the El Capitan
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Then there’s the look of the film. "Sleeping Beauty" influenced an entire generation of animators, art directors and production designers who saw a breathtaking blend of old and new. Andreas Deja likened it to a moving stained glass window, and Scott MacQueen offered analogies of Miro and Chagall. The visionary nature of this film is revealed in that complicated and innovative blend of classical painting and "modern" graphics. A blend that feeds the entire production.
Turning to classical music, illuminated manuscripts and Renaissance tapestries as well as cubists and modern artists such as Picasso and Chagall reflects an approach to story telling more likely found in the theatre than in film making. It’s pretty heady stuff, even for present-day film goers. Based on the criticism the film received in its initial release it was perhaps too innovative for film goers in 1959, but seeing the film today it’s difficult to ignore the legacy of those designs in more recent films like "Hercules" (which Charles Solomon mentioned) as well as "The Emperor’s New Groove", and the upcoming "Home on the Range." (Surely it’s hard to deny that Bucky the squirrel has his devious little roots in the forest squirrel who devises the Mock Prince in "Sleeping Beauty.") And that brings up the most important design element of the film.
Charles Solomon
While Charles Solomon and Andreas Deja spoke to the more angular and less rounded character designs, sadly nobody mentioned the influence Tom Oreb had on those designs. His brilliant character stylings are often overshadowed by Eyvind Earle’s contribution. But thankfully the audience had a chance to experience Oreb’s presence in a double helping with the screening of "Toot Whistle Plunk & Boom" (which hopefully will be screened with each showing of the film while at the El Cap.) Seeing them together helps bring home the unique and almost anatomically impossible whimsy of Oreb’s twig-thin ankles and wrists and waists supporting the great triangular masses that rest on them. This same Oreb styling would be seen in "101 Dalmatians" before Oreb departed for more creative freedom at UPA studios.
The film ended up as one of the most exciting and innovative visual treats mid-20th century audiences had. In retrospect the saturated colors set the screen ablaze with a sense of 1950’s high fashion and dramatic flair and almost make it a retro-feast in today’s Charles Eames obsessed interior and graphic design culture.
All of that aside, and well beyond being a lesson in innovative design and production, Walt Disney’s "Sleeping Beauty" is ultimately a delightful and enchanting seventy-five minutes of story telling that holds up wonderfully.
I think the most sensitive observation of the evening came from Andreas Deja, who in responding to Charles Solomon’s critique of the story’s slow pacing, noted that it was this lack of "action packed fast paced shoot-em-up approach" that let the audience take time to fall into the film and experience the environment fully. Thanks to Johnston and Thomas and Davis (and the great Milt Kahl’s Prince Phillip and King Hubert) the acting is just as solid and often at its most subtle and charming. The drama is equally as powerful, and the thrill of seeing it in 70 millimeter is icing on the cake - icing that, unlike Fauna’s, stays in place to top off a confectionary cinematic delight unlike any other.
So, here’s the perfect excuse to turn off the DVD, get up off the couch and go to the movies. The real movies. Don’t get me wrong. I treasure my DVD’s. They give me the fix I need when I’m longing to see old favorites on a rainy afternoon….well, OK, it doesn’t rain in Los Angeles, but a less blue and sunny than usual afternoon. But in the end nothing beats the ‘original’ big screen. It’s a wonderful thing to experience a film as its creators truly intended it. Now if we could just convince them to dust off "Pinocchio" and "Snow White" and "Cinderella". Hey…a guy can dream, can’t he?
Tickets for this special engagement of "Sleeping Beauty" are on sale at 1-800-DISNEY6 or online at www.elcapitantickets.com. Daily screenings are at 12:00 noon, 2:30, 5:00 and 7:00 p.m.
Discuss It
-- Rhett Wichkam
Rhett Wickham is a frequent contributor to LaughingPlace.com. Mr. Wickham is a writer, story editor and development professional living and working in Los Angeles. Prior to moving to LA, Rhett worked as an actor and stage director in New York City following graduate studies at Tisch School of the Arts. He is a directing fellow with the Drama League of New York, and nearly a decade ago he founded AnimActing ©®™ to teach and coach acting, character development and story analysis to animators, story artists and layout artists - work he continues both privately and through workshops in Los Angeles, New York and Orlando. He can be reached through [email protected]
-- Posted August 23, 2002
-- Pictures by Rebekah and Doobie Moseley