(c) Disney

Creating realistic and believable human characters has always been the bane of animation, and here was a cast almost full of them. But mostly due to the superlative work of supervising animators Marc Davis (who, with both Aurora and Maleficent, handled both sides of the good-versus-evil coin on this picture), Milt Kahl (animator on the classic “Once Upon a Dream�? sequence and lead on Prince Phillip) and Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (the inseparable pair handled all three good fairies), such flaws as plot holes (such as: why didn’t the good fairies just wait until after sunset on Aurora’s sixteenth birthday to take her back to the castle?) and forced attempts at humor (the whole “Skumps�?/drunken Lackey sequence) can easily be overlooked.

And let us not forget the excellent ensemble of voice actors assembled. Not to take anything away from Bill Thompson’s blustering King Hubert or Bill Shirley’s serviceable Phillip, but this picture was definitely one for the ladies. And while Mary Costa’s absolutely beautiful soprano voice brings life to the princess, it is a four-way battle between the film’s fairy foursome (Verna Felton as bossy Flora, Barbara Jo Allen as sensible Fauna, Barbara Luddy as feisty Merryweather and Eleanor Audley as the sinister Maleficent) as the most memorable vocal performance.

Puzzlingly, Sleeping Beauty is often overlooked and/or underrated in comparison to her sister films, Snow White and Cinderella. But with all due respect to those earlier pictures (whose simpler, more straight-forward designs, in actuality, ‘forced’ the individualizing innovations used on Beauty in the first place in order for it to stand out from the crowd), Beauty remains a highly regarded triumph in the art of animated storytelling.

Comparably, with its rich textures, stunning use of color, harmonious music and warm characterizations, one might say that this particular Beauty is more then just skin deep …

Toon Talk Rating: A

• Sleeping Beauty is available for viewing on Disc 1 in both Widescreen and Full Screen versions. Disc 2 offers a telling split-screen Widescreen to Pan-and-Scan Comparison that should answer the question of which version to watch … why anyone would want to chop off the sides of this masterpiece is beyond me.
• Available on the widescreen version only, the heavily researched and voluminously informative Audio Commentary, hosted by ace Disney author and historian Jeff Kurtti, offers a host of contributors, including art director Eyvind Earle, voice actress Mary Costa, supervising animators Ollie Johnston and Marc Davis, background painter Frank Armitage, and contemporary Disney artists Mike Gabriel and Michael Giaimo. With so many voices piping in, this many participants usually come off as disjointed and slap shod (see the Peter Pan DVD). But, thanks to Kurtti’s deft handling, the commentary never seems overloaded with extraneous or repetitive information. Far from it, the Beauty commentary ranks as one of the best of its kind for a Disney release.

1. The Studio’s Special Process Lab handled the film’s innovative effects animation, seen so vividly in the fairies’ gifts sequence. One technique used was filming actual props and using that footage with the animation.
2. For inspiration for the three good fairies, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston observed “little old ladies in the market�?.
3. Then up-and-coming actress Audrey Hepburn inspired the physicality of Briar Rose.
4. The draftsmanship of the film was so precise that the clean-up artists actually used T-squares and protractors to insure their accuracy.
5. Walt personally called Mary Costa to offer her the role of Princess Aurora/Briar Rose. Although they spoke often on the phone, the two didn’t actually meet face to face until the production of the film had ended.
6. In various early written versions of the Sleeping Beauty legend, there was any number of good fairies … as many as 13 in one edition!
7. An early concept for the good fairies was to have their powers match their names: Flora had power over plant life, Fauna held dominion over animals, and Merryweather controlled the climate.
8. Among the original songs written by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence for the film, but not used, were such titles as “Holiday�?, “Mirage�? and “Sunbeams In Your Pocket�?.
9. Several attempts were made at a song for the good fairies during the ‘dress-making’ sequence, including the little ditty “Riddle Diddle�?, heard during that scene on the audio commentary. Another early song, “Go to Sleep�?, which was to be heard when the fairies put the castle to sleep (where “Sleeping Beauty Song�? eventually was) is also played during the commentary. Both songs used the melodies from Tchaikovsky’s original score with original lyrics by Fain and Lawrence.
10. Kurtti notes that, curiously, after using the 70 mm format on Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty in the 1950s, Disney did not return to the format until The Black Cauldron in 1985.