Welcome back to my Classic Disney review series, and today we’ll be taking a look at Sleeping Beauty, an enjoyable film to say the least. I’m a big fan of Disney, but there are a plethora of films I’ve never seen, such as Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, and The Little Mermaid. Sleeping Beauty was another one of those films, and after seeing it, I have to say, it’s a bit overrated.
The story is pretty generic compared to some of the other Disney films out there, and the fact that everything could have been avoided just by inviting Maleficent to the party is pretty lame. The film itself is kind of a drag itself, nothing really happening at all throughout the course of the run time. There are four or five main plot points in this film. That’s all. The rest is filler. Aurora herself is pretty boring as well and doesn’t do much at all except sing in the forest.
On the other hand, Maleficent is the best villain since the Evil Queen in Snow White. Her laugh, the way she’s animated, her evil plot…it’s all perfect. Her dragon form is pretty damn cool as well, and the backgrounds to that scene are very stunning.
While the animation department is great, the fairies are some of the dumbest characters ever put to screen. I swear if they a.) hadn’t been arguing over the color of Aurora’s dress and given their location away to Maleficent, and b.) hadn’t given the princess some emotional trauma on her 16th birthday, then nothing bad would have ever happened. This film is pretty much filled with “if they didn’t [insert dumb character choice], [insert preventable outcome] wouldn’t have happened” moments.
THE VERDICT
All things considered, this isn’t one of the greatest Disney films ever made like some of its predecessors. It has good music, stunning animation, and the villain is phenomenally terrifying. However, the rest of the film is just useless character dialogue and plot points that go nowhere. I’m going to give Sleeping Beauty a C+.
Sleeping Beauty stars Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen, Barbara Luddy, Taylor Holmes, Bill Thompson. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark.
