VHS : Sleeping Beauty (Fully Restored Limited Edition) (Walt Disney's Masterpiece)

Rating: - 1:33:1 P&S Edition of BLUE RAY? Really?
This has to be a typo, if not, what a sad release this will be for the first big classic Disney on Blue Ray. I mean, wasn't this film in particular THE first widescreen Disney animated feature? ;)

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Rating: - Great Movie
I think the story line was great. The villian is one of the coolest ever. Music was great too. One of my favorite Disney movies. Not as good as Cinderella or Snow White, but a great Disney classic for people young and old to watch!

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Rating: - Too much Tchaikovsky, not enough Disney
The movie is cute, but I have a few problems with it that ultimately made me decide not to buy it after I rented it:

1) It's too much like one of Tchaikovsky's ballets, of which I'm not much of a fan. I haven't seen his version of Sleeping Beauty (on which this was based), but I have seen his version of The Nutcracker; if you like to watch ballet, you might enjoy this one, but otherwise, no. It is not the kind of thing I would expect from a Disney movie.

2) We don't see enough of Aurora or Prince Phillip. (In fact, it seems that Aurora is better known through Disney Princess products than through the actual movie.) We see them dance together one time, and then they don't do much after that. OK, we can forgive the fact that Aurora sleeps on the job (which is really what she's doing; the original tale had her sleep for a hundered years and not meet the prince until he woke her up), because it is, after all, Sleeping Beauty. But even when Phillip is trying to rescue her, he's just a paper tiger; the fairies do all the work by releasing him from his prison, giving him a sword and shield, turning the arrows that are shot at him into flowers, etc. It's really the fairies who rescue her, while the prince gets all the credit--and no one in the movie notices this! Again, this is not what I expect to see in a Disney movie.

Still, it's interesting to watch from the point of view of a student of animation. Fans of Nintendo will notice how much the castle looks like the castle from Super Mario Bros. and how much one of Maleficent's henchmen looks like Ganon (the villain from The Legend of Zelda).

If you want a better movie with a similar concept, try Snow White. If you want one of Disney's movies from around that time, try Cinderella. My absolute favorite Disney Movie is The Little Mermaid; if you haven't already, I recommend that you buy that one instead.

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Rating: - Great movie
This was my favorite movie when I was a kid, can't wait to share it with my own now that I own it again!

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Rating: - "SLEEPING BEAUTY": DISNEY'S DEFINITIVE FAIRY TALE MASTERPIECE
"Sleeping Beauty" (1959) marked a stunning departure from the usual "house style" of animation at Disney Studios. Eyvind Earle designed the production to resemble a Renaissance painting in motion; with a stylized juxtaposition of horizontal and vertical lines in relation to the characters and backgrounds. This extremely expensive, lavish film took six years to complete, and, for once, you can see where all the money went. It's right up there on screen-- thankfully preserved forever on DVD. The expense and time are extremely well-justified. "Sleeping Beauty" is Disney's definitive fairy-tale masterpiece!
The film presents a wonderous 14-Century Kingdom where good and evil magic are both commonly practiced. Malificent is certainly the Wickedest of all Disney Witches. Malificent, voiced with icy authority by the outstanding Eleanor Audley (who also voiced Lady Tremaine, the cruel, abusive Stepmother in Disney's "Cinderella") is the self-proclaimed "Mistress Of All Evil." She places infant Princess Aurora and her Kingdom under a curse that is to be fulfilled on her 16th birthday.
"Sleeping Beauty" is blessedly free of the slapstick humor and superfluous "padding" found in Disney's "Snow White" and "Cinderella." This story is told in a straitforward manner. The Good Fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather (Merryweather resembles my beloved Aunt Betty) attempt to save Aurora from Malificent by raising her like little old mortal women in a cottage in the woods. They call Aurora by the name Briar Rose. Their attempts at making a cake and dress for her 16th birthday are so disasterous they resort to magic. When sparkles from their magic wands fly up the chimney, Malificent's raven knows he has at last discovered the hiding Princess. The fairies are so inept at cake-baking and dress-making like mortals, I do wonder HOW they managed to feed and dress themselves and the young girl AT ALL for 16 entire years, but I won't ponder this plot problem any further.
A nice case of romantic, mistaken identity is employed. The Princess meets Prince Phillip without knowing he's a Prince. Phillip thinks Aurora is a common peasant girl. Mary Costa provides the beautiful soprano voice for Aurora/Briar Rose. She sings the haunting songs "I Wonder" and "Once Upon A Dream", based on themes from Tchcovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet. It is a pity that Aurora/Briar Rose is not a well defined or developed character, and she spends half the film in a sleeping coma. Prince Phillip, however, is very well-defined and active. The two Prince Charmings in "Snow White" and "Cinderella" are bland plot footnotes and afterthoughts. The same CAN NOT be said of Phillip, who, with some help from the Good Fairies, leaps into action to save himself and his beloved Princess from Malificent's black magic. The climax, with Malificent transforming herself into a demonic dragon, is one of the most scary battles of Good Versus Evil in cinema history. As Tchchovsky's score rages on, Malificent screams, "Now, you shall deal with me, Oh Prince-- and ALL THE POWERS OF HELL!!!!!" Hey, that's heavy stuff for a Disney film. I LOVE IT!!!!!!
On repeated adult viewings, Disney's "Snow White" and "Cinderella" leave me feeling cold and disappointed. "Sleeping Beauty" thrills me and is vastly superior. The animation is detailed and dazzling. This film lingers long in my imagination, and I often return to the enchantment that only happens "Once Upon A Dream." And it all happens in an amazing 75 minute running time! "Snow White", at 83-84 minutes, feels draggy and much too long to me.