(c) Disney

The Bonus Features on Disc 2 are divided into two sections: Games, Music and Fun and History and Behind the Scenes. As can be discerned from the titles, this basically means the ‘children’ and ‘adult’ sections.

• Most of the Games, Music and Fun section is strictly for kids (arts and crafts in Disney’s Art Project, DVD game in Rescue Aurora, a “Once Upon a Dream�? Sing-Along Song), but the Princess Personality Profile and Sleeping Beauty Ink and Paint games can be fun for all (for the record, my ‘princess personality’ is Ariel). No fun for anyone is the absolutely dreadful no secrets (more like ‘no talents’) Music Video of “Once Upon (Another) Dream�?, which touts a second volume of the retched Disney Mania pop album. Why, or why?
• The History and Behind the Scenes section offers more substantial features, including the expected Once Upon a Dream: The Making of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ featurette (originally seen on the 1997 VHS edition), featuring Leonard Maltin, production designer Ken Anderson and Pocahontas co-director Eric Goldberg in addition to Earle, Costa and the others. After the audio commentary, there is not much new to add in this all to brief program, save for such juicy facts as how Walt originally wanted the three good fairies to all look alike, a lá Huey, Dewey and Louie, and that the live action reference footage starred such beloved character actresses as Madge Blake (Batman’s Aunt Harriet) and Frances Bavier (The Andy Griffith Show’s Aunt Bee).
• Not to worry though, the ‘making of’ elements are fleshed out in the Production section, which includes individual features on the film’s Music, Design, Backgrounds and Live Action Reference, which includes footage used for the Briar Rose dance and Phillip’s battle with the dragon. Also included in this section is still photographs of dancer Helene Stanley (who modeled Briar Rose) and Maleficent’s own voice actress, Eleanor Audley, in full costume as the evil fairy. This section also includes a brief explanation of the film’s extension Restoration; Sleeping Beauty was only the second film (after Snow White) that underwent such an extensive restoration process.
• In Story, one can read of The History of the Story, where it is noted that, although the Disney film is credited as being ‘based on’ Charles Perrault’s version of the tale, it is actually closer in story structure to the Brothers Grimm’s Brier Rose. Also available is The 1951 Outline (the original story treatment for the film, wherein most of the fairies names were different and Maleficent wielded an indestructible silver spinning wheel) and two Storyboard Sequences (current Disney animator Andreas Deja introduces split-screen comparisons of the “Fairies Put the Castle to Sleep�? and “The Capture of Prince Phillip�? scenes).
• The extensive Sleeping Beauty Galleries feature a wealth of artwork on display in a virtual castle art gallery that you can peruse at your leisure, complete with narrated ‘guided tours’ for both children and adults. Aside from the usual Layouts and Backgrounds, Posters, Concept Art (almost all painted by Earle), Character Design and Storyboards, these galleries offer two sections unique to this production: the Sleeping Beauty Storybook Gallery (photos of the prop storybook and its pages as used at the beginning and end of the film) and the Disneyland Walkthrough Gallery; this attraction, housed within the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, actually opened two years prior to the film and offered roughly stylized designs (by Earle and Anderson) telling the familiar story. As the attraction was changed in 1977, this collection is the only opportunity one has to see this rare original artwork.
• Publicity offers three trailers: the original teaser and 1959 trailers and the 1995 re-release trailer.
• The Sleeping Beauty Scrapbook features a catchall of photographs divided into Behind the Scenes (with no captions! Don’t they ever learn?), Publicity (including rare holiday art depicting the characters celebrating Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter), Merchandise (check out the nifty light-up fairy wand - for only 98¢ !) and Theme Parks (showcasing Sleeping Beauty Castle, the centerpiece of the original Disneyland in California, and the more fanciful design of Disneyland Paris’ Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant, as well as close-ups of the stained glass windows and tapestries seen inside the later; alas no shots of Maleficent and her dragon form, who figure so prominently in both versions of Fantasmic! at Disneyland and the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World).
• Rounding out the DVD program is three additional short programs loosely affiliated with the main feature: Four Artists Paint One Tree was originally aired during the Adventures of Art episode of the Disneyland television show. Narrated by Walt himself, the short ‘stars’ Disney artists Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, Josh Meador and Walt Peregoy, ostensibly on a break from working on Sleeping Beauty, as they demonstrate how four different people can look at the same object and all see different things, as seen through their paintings … think of it as Reality TV, circa 1958.
• The Peter Tchaikovsky Story, which first aired on Disneyland around the time of Beauty’s 1959 premiere and was later released theatrically abroad, stretches the truth a bit to indicate that Tchaikovsky was ‘destined since childhood’ to write the Sleeping Beauty Ballet; includes an extended sequence from the composer’s other famous work, Swan Lake.
• The Cinemascope short Grand Canyon, paired with Sleeping Beauty during their original run, was inspired by another popular orchestral piece, Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite. The majestic vistas of the titular wonder of the world helped the short win the Academy Award that year for Best Live Action Short Subject and were also the basis for the Grand Canyon Diorama attraction at Disneyland.

• Sleeping Beauty was originally released on January 29, 1959. It was subsequently re-released in 1970, 1979 and 1986.
• Mary Costa was named a Disney Legend in 1999.
• Eleanor Audley voiced Lady Tremaine in Cinderella and Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion at the Disney theme parks. She also appeared on television in Swamp Fox.
• Verna Felton can also be heard in Dumbo, Cinderella (as another fairy, the Fairy Godmother), Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book.
• Barbara Jo Allen, who also performed in The Sword in the Stone and Goliath II, is sometimes credited under the name Vera Vague.
• Barbara Luddy voiced Lady in Lady and the Tramp and Kanga in the first three Winnie the Pooh shorts, and was also heard in 101 Dalmatians and Robin Hood.
• King Hubert is only one among Disney voice fave Bill Thompson’s many roles, including the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Smee in Peter Pan, Jock in Lady and the Tramp, Professor Owl and Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore.
• Two familiar voices can be heard as Maleficent’s goons: Pinto Colvig (a.k.a. Goofy, Grumpy, Sleepy) and Candy Candido (Peter Pan’s Indian Chief, The Great Mouse Detective’s Fidget).
• Dallas McKennon voiced the friendly owl in Beauty, but is best known to Disney fans as the voice of Benjamin Franklin in The American Adventure at Epcot.
• Although it is not mentioned in the film itself, the name of Maleficent’s raven is Diablo, which, literally translated, means “the devil�?.
• Disney Legend George Bruns was nominated for the Academy Award for Scoring of a Musical Picture for Sleeping Beauty.
• Sleeping Beauty was the last Disney animated film to use hand-painted cels in production. The next feature, 101 Dalmatians, began the use of the Xerox process, which was the standard through the next few decades.
• Sleeping Beauty was also the first Disney film to use a true stereo soundtrack.

Coming Soon:

• Get those shovels out to dig some more Holes, coming to DVD on September 23^rd.
• The circle of life will be completed on October 7^th when The Lion King finally makes its DVD debut in a deluxe two-disc Platinum Edition. Bonus features will include the never-before-seen animated musical number “The Morning Report�?.
• Also available October 7^th, a Special Edition DVD of Frank and Ollie, a documentary on the legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
• Watch out for that tree … again! George of the Jungle 2 makes its video premiere on October 21^st.