Sleeping Beauty (1959 film) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sleeping Beauty
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Clyde Geronimi (supervising) Eric Larson Wolfgang Reitherman Les Clark
Produced by	Walt Disney
Written by	Erdman Penner
Story by	Milt Banta Winston Hibler Bill Peet Joe Rinaldi Ted Sears Ralph Wright
Narrated by	Marvin Miller
Starring	Mary Costa Bill Shirley Eleanor Audley Verna Felton Barbara Luddy Barbara Jo Allen Taylor Holmes Bill Thompson
Music by	George Bruns (adapted from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet)
Editing by	Roy M. Brewer Jr. Donald Halliday
Studio	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	January 29, 1959 (1959-01-29)
Running time	75 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million
Money made	$51.6 million (United States/Canada)

Sleeping Beauty is a famous animated musical fantasy film made by Walt Disney in 1959. It is based on the classic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault. This movie was the 16th animated feature film from Disney. It was released in theaters on January 29, 1959.

This film was the last Disney fairy tale adaptation for many years. Disney did not make another fairy tale movie until The Little Mermaid in 1989. That was 30 years later, after Walt Disney passed away in 1966.

The movie features the voices of Mary Costa, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Bill Shirley, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson. It was directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman, with Clyde Geronimi supervising. The music and songs in the film were adapted from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. George Bruns arranged the music.

Sleeping Beauty was the first animated film to use a special wide-screen camera called Super Technirama 70. It was also the second full-length animated movie to be filmed in a wide-screen format. The first was Disney's Lady and the Tramp. When it first came out, the movie got mixed reviews and did not earn a lot of money. However, over time, people started to love it more. In 2019, the film was chosen to be kept safe in the United States National Film Registry. This means it is considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.

Story of Sleeping Beauty

After many years, King Stefan and Queen Leah finally have a daughter, Princess Aurora. Everyone celebrates her birth. At her christening, Aurora is promised to Prince Phillip. He is the son of King Hubert, a close friend of King Stefan. This marriage would bring their kingdoms together.

Three good fairies arrive at the christening: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Flora gives Aurora the gift of beauty, and Fauna gives her the gift of song. But before Merryweather can give her gift, an evil witch named Maleficent appears. She is very angry because she was not invited.

Maleficent puts a curse on the princess. She says that before the sun sets on Aurora's sixteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Maleficent's magic is too strong to completely undo. So, Merryweather uses her gift to change the curse. Instead of dying, Aurora will fall into a deep sleep. She will only wake up when she receives true love's kiss.

Still worried, King Stefan orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned. The fairies know Maleficent will try to get her way. So, they convince the King and Queen to let Aurora live with them. They hide her in a small cottage in the forest until she turns sixteen.

Aurora is renamed Briar Rose and grows into a beautiful young woman. She does not know her guardians are fairies. They are disguised as peasants. On her sixteenth birthday, the fairies ask her to gather berries. They want to prepare a surprise party for her. Aurora sings a song called "Once Upon a Dream" with the forest animals. Phillip, who is now a handsome young man, hears her voice. He is immediately amazed by her beauty. Aurora is at first surprised because she is not allowed to talk to strangers. But she and Phillip quickly fall in love. She invites him to meet her "godmothers" at the cottage that evening.

Meanwhile, Flora and Merryweather argue about the color of Aurora's dress. Their magic attracts the attention of Maleficent's raven, Diablo. Aurora returns home excited to tell her guardians that she has fallen in love. The fairies do not know it is Prince Phillip. They tell Aurora her true identity and that she is already promised to someone else. Diablo overhears this news and flies off to tell Maleficent. Aurora is heartbroken and cries in her room. At the same time, Phillip tells his father he wants to marry a peasant girl, even though he is betrothed to a princess. King Hubert is very upset.

The fairies take Aurora to the castle for her birthday celebration. She is about to reunite with her parents. But Maleficent appears. She tricks Aurora into a dark tower with a cursed spinning wheel. Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna try to stop her. But before they can, Aurora pricks her finger. The curse comes true just moments before the sun sets. The fairies arrive too late. Maleficent laughs at them and shows them the sleeping princess before disappearing.

Heartbroken, the three fairies place the sleeping Aurora on a bed in the highest tower. They cast a powerful spell on everyone in the kingdom. This makes everyone fall asleep until Aurora's spell is broken. The fairies then hear a sleepy conversation between the two kings. They realize that Phillip is the man Aurora fell in love with. They rush to find him, but it is too late. Maleficent and her helpers have taken him away. At the Forbidden Mountains, Maleficent shows Phillip the sleeping Princess Aurora. She says she will lock him away until he is an old man. Only then will she release him to meet his love, who will not have aged at all.

The fairies rescue Phillip. They give him the magical Sword of Truth and Shield of Virtue. They escape from the Forbidden Mountains. An angry Maleficent surrounds the castle with thorns, but she cannot stop Phillip. She faces him directly, turning into a huge black dragon. They battle, and Phillip throws the sword, blessed by the fairies, right into Maleficent's heart, killing her.

Phillip awakens Aurora with a kiss, breaking the spell and waking the whole kingdom. The royal couple goes down to the ballroom. Aurora is reunited with her parents. Flora and Merryweather start arguing again about Aurora's gown color. It finally turns pink as the couple shares a dance. They live happily ever after.

Characters and Voice Actors

Making the Movie

Art and Style

The movie's animation style was very unique. It moved away from the fancy Rococo style seen in Cinderella. Instead, it mixed Medieval art with Art Deco designs.

Kay Nielsen, an artist, made the first design sketches for the film in 1952. The artistic look started when John Hench saw the famous unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters museum in New York City. Walt Disney loved the idea when Hench showed him pictures of the tapestries. He said, "Yeah, we could use that style for Sleeping Beauty."

Eyvind Earle joined Walt Disney Productions in 1951. He became a background painter and color stylist. For Sleeping Beauty, Earle felt free to use his own style. He found ideas in French Renaissance art, and works by artists like Albrecht Dürer and Pieter Bruegel. He also looked at Persian art and Japanese prints. Earle left Disney before the movie was finished.

Character Animation

Because Earle's backgrounds were so detailed, the characters were designed to match. They were made to look more stylized. Animators found it challenging to work with this new, rigid style. But Walt Disney insisted on it.

Tom Oreb designed the characters to fit the backgrounds. He also made them look like the popular UPA animation style of the time. Aurora was first designed to look like actress Audrey Hepburn. But Eyvind Earle redesigned her. She became more angular and elegant. Her dress had sharper, pointed edges.

For Maleficent, animator Marc Davis got ideas from old religious paintings. He used the idea of red and black drapes that looked like flames. He also took parts of her collar from a bat and made her horns look like a devil.

Veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were in charge of animating the three good fairies. Walt Disney wanted the fairies to look very similar. But Thomas and Johnston wanted to give them different personalities. They thought it would be more fun.

Voice Casting

In 1952, Mary Costa was invited to sing at a dinner party. She sang "When I Fall in Love". Afterward, she was asked to audition for the role of Aurora. She got the part the next day. Eleanor Audley first turned down the role of Maleficent. She was sick at the time. But she later changed her mind and took the role.

Music Production

In 1953, Disney decided the movie's music should be based on Peter Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet. This meant that many songs already written could not be used. Only "Once Upon a Dream" was kept. George Bruns became the film's composer. Because of a musicians' strike, the music was recorded in Berlin, Germany. The Graunke Symphony Orchestra played the music.

All lyrics written by Tom Adair, all music composed by George Bruns.

Many artists have covered songs from Sleeping Beauty. No Secrets covered "Once Upon a Dream" for the album Disneymania 2. Later, Emily Osment sang a remake of "Once Upon a Dream" in 2008. In 2014, Lana Del Rey released a darker version of "Once Upon a Dream". This was for the live-action film Maleficent.

Movie Release and Re-releases

Original Release

Buena Vista Distribution released Sleeping Beauty in theaters on January 29, 1959. It was shown in both standard 35 mm and larger 70 mm film. The 70 mm versions had special six-track stereo sound.

The movie cost $6 million to make. This made it the most expensive Disney film at that time. It cost more than twice as much as previous Disney animated movies. Because of the high cost and lower-than-expected earnings, Disney had its first financial loss in ten years in 1960. This led to many job cuts in the animation department.

Later Releases

Sleeping Beauty was not re-released in theaters during Walt Disney's lifetime. However, it has been re-released many times over the years. It came back to theaters in 1970, 1979, 1986, and 1995. These re-releases helped the movie earn more money. Its total earnings in the United States and Canada reached $51.6 million. This made it the second most successful film released in 1959, after Ben-Hur.

In 2012, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held a film festival. They showed movies shot on 70 mm film. Sleeping Beauty was one of the films chosen. This was to show the importance and beauty of the 70 mm film format.

Home Video Releases

Sleeping Beauty was released on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc on October 14, 1986. It was the first Disney Classics video to have digital Hi-Fi stereo sound. Over one million copies were sold during its 1986 VHS release.

In 1997, the film was digitally restored. This new version was released on VHS and LaserDisc in widescreen. In 2003, a 2-disc "Special Edition" DVD was released. It included both widescreen and full-screen versions.

A "Platinum Edition" of Sleeping Beauty was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 7, 2008. This was the first time a Disney movie produced by Walt Disney himself was released in high-definition video. This release used a new restoration from the original film negatives. The film was re-released on Blu-ray and digital in 2014 and 2019. This was to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Legacy and Appearances

Video Games

• Princess Aurora is one of the seven "Princesses of Heart" in the game Kingdom Hearts.
• Maleficent is a major villain in many Kingdom Hearts games.
• The good fairies also appear in Kingdom Hearts II, giving the hero, Sora, new clothes.
• Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep features a world based on the movie called Enchanted Dominion. Characters like Aurora, Maleficent, the fairies, and Prince Phillip appear.
• Aurora is also a character you can play as in the game Disney Princess.

Board Games

• Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty Game (1958) is a Parker Brothers board game for kids. Players try to be the first to reach the castle with three picture cards.
• Maleficent is a playable character in Ravensburger's Disney's Villainous board game. Her goal is to curse all four locations in her kingdom.

Theme Parks

• Sleeping Beauty was made while Walt Disney was building Disneyland. The park's main castle was named "Sleeping Beauty Castle" to help promote the movie.
• An indoor walk-through exhibit was added inside the castle in 1957. Guests could see scenes from the film. It reopened in 2008 after being closed for some time.
• Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris also have Sleeping Beauty Castles. The one in Paris, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, looks very much like the castle in the movie. It even has an animatronic dragon that looks like Maleficent's dragon form.
• Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, the fairies, and Maleficent often appear in the Disney parks and parades.
• Maleficent is a villain in the nighttime show Fantasmic! at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Other Appearances

• Maleficent's helpers appear in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
• Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather were guests in Disney's House of Mouse. Maleficent was also one of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains.
• A new story featuring the characters appeared in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams in 2007.
• In the TV show Once Upon a Time, live-action versions of Maleficent, Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, and King Stefan appear.
• Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are teachers in the Disney Channel series Sofia the First. Princess Aurora also makes a guest appearance.
• Aurora and other Disney Princesses appeared in the 2018 film Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Stage Show and Live-Action Films

• A shorter stage musical version of the film, called Disney's Sleeping Beauty KIDS, is often performed by schools and children's theaters.
• Walt Disney Pictures made a live-action movie called Maleficent in May 2014. Angelina Jolie played Maleficent, and Elle Fanning played Princess Aurora. A sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, was released in 2019.

See also

In Spanish: La bella durmiente (película de 1959) para niños