Rating: 
Summary: Disney at Its Best
Review: Sleeping Beauty is by far one of the greatest films put out by Disney during its Golden Age. Before the age of Toy Story, The Lion King, and the rest of today's popular Disney productions, the film's were made for more than just kids. I highly recommend Sleeping Beauty for its beautiful animation, believable and imaginitive characters, and fast-paced story line. Its a wonderful movie for the whole family, not just the kids. It is the best example of Disney at its best.
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Summary: DVD Awakens Sleeping Beauty at last, after 44 years.........
Review: This beautiful 2 disc DVD was released here in the UK some months ago and it does full justice to one of Walt Disney's greatest achievements. I'ts terrific to be able to see the full Widescreen image again, after all these years - and the sound is absolutely breathtaking.
Apart from the main feature, there are many, many great extras, not least of which is Disney's fabulous CinemaScope featurette "Grand Canyon" - again, with breathtaking sound.I remember seeing this as the support to "Sleeping Beauty" on it's original Road Show release and it's just wonderful to be able to catch up with this lost masterpiece again. The people who put this package together have done a great job - don't miss it when it comes your way.
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Summary: Great Edition of a Classic
Review: I live in Guatemala, Central America and yesterday I found out that the Latin American version of this Special Edition of Sleeping Beauty was already for sale. I bought mine and let me tell you that the movie never looked better, brilliant colors, wonderful Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and it has a lot of really cool features. Based on what I've seen in my copy of this classic, I recommend that you buy the American edition, you won't be disappointed. The Latin American has only one diference with the one for sale in the U.S. It doesn't have the Full Screen version of the movie (I won't miss that). Reserve your copy of this wonderful movie today!
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Disney Classic!
Review: Ever since I was a little girl, this movie has touched my heart. I'm 13 now, and I still love it! :) This movie is great, funny, romantic, and proves that you CAN have your Prince Charming, with a little faith. I'm still waiting for mine, but I have faith that the beloved boy I adore will be my Prince Charming someday... :) Anyway, back to the story. LOL. The voices are excellent, espically Mary Costa for the speaking and singing voice for Princess Aurora. Kids and adult's will love this movie, I can't wait for the DVD!
Rating:
Summary: the greates
Review: This is a disney classic that i loved i had the video but it broke
whoever did the music for this classic they shure did a great job because the music makes this disney classic worth wile
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Summary: Once Upon A Time In 1959: A Disney Masterpiece
Review: 1959: Disney's presence had already been established. "Snow White" was the first animated film ever to grace the big screen and Disney had dazzled audiences with the 1940 "Fantasia". But in 1959, "Sleeping Beauty" won the hearts of fairy tale lovers, romance lovers and the young at heart. Disney was back in the saddle. The animation to the Sleeping Beauty was taken from the greeting card designs and artwork of a 50's artist. Set in the medieval 14th century, at times resembling the beautiful tapestries and cathedrals of the day, Sleeping Beauty is embellished with cool hues of purple, blue, green and black. A magic romanticism fills the air from start to finish. The score to the film was taken from the ballet music of the Tchaikovsky ballet by the same name. "The Sleeping Beauty" ballet is in fact Tchaikovsky's greastet musical masterpiece, and Disney merely sliced up some of the melodies to fit certain moods and scenes in the film. He also put lyrics to the enchanting "Sleeping Beauty Waltz"- in the song "Once Upon A Dream" in which the Prince and the would-be Sleeping Beauty meet for the first time, waltz and fall in love. True in many respects to the old fairy tale, which some claim originated in Germany, others in France, where it is known as "La Belle Au Bois Dormant"- the tale is brought back to life through classic Disney charm. Princess Aurora (named after the Roman goddess of the dawn) is born to King Stephen and his Queen (The March from the Tchaikovsky ballet plays) and all the inhabitants of the land come to her Christening in the great hall of the castle. Aurora's three fairy godmothers Flora, Fauna and Merryweather (later Disney animators said they based them on three actual little old ladies) bestow the baby princess with the gifts of song and grace. But the Gothic enchantress Maleficent, the rotten apple in the bunch, was not invited and naturally, she is outraged. She wears a purple-black robe, has Devil horns on her head and her constant companion on her shoulder is a black raven. "Sometimes I don't think she's very happy" Fauna says of her. Caught up in a nasty mood, the evil sorceress casts an evil spell on Aurora. She will prick her finger on a spinning wheel an die on her sixteenth birthday. To avoid this catostrophe, King Stephen orders all the spinning wheels burned. Merriweather, the fairy in blue, brings hope- only the kiss of a brave and noble prince will lift the curse of the death-like sleep. That prince is Phillip, who was already engaged to wed Aurora as a boy, (in an obvious statement about political unions in European monarchies). The three fairies do their best to prevent the terrible fate on Aurora, so they hide with her in their cottage in the deep forest and change her name to Briar Rose, raising her as their own child. But.. luck would have it, she meets Prince Phillip as he is hunting, they waltz and fall in love and she is brought back to the castle where she was born. There, Maleficent makes her prick her finger on the spinning wheel in a hypnotic trance. The spell is cat Poor Aurora... But you know the rest, don't you ? Fairy tale loves always have a happy ending. The Tchaikovsky music, the artistic animation, and the engaging story will delight audiences as far into the future as 2059. In 1959, children and young girls might have been captivated (they said that Aurora was based on either Leslie Caron or Audrey Hepburn) but in the future, the tale will still win hearts. Young girls will once again be gripped. Virtue will be rewarded. After all, "true love conquers all."
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Summary: Disney's Greatest Effort
Review: My grandmother owned movie theaters in Pittsburgh when I was a boy, and I went to the movies every weekend. I got to see all of the Disney classics, but Sleeping Beauty was, far and away, Disney's finest hour. The colors screamed off of the screen, and were at their best when the fairies were "warring" over what color to make Aroura's birthday dress. The fairies themselves were incredibly fun to watch & listen to, but the real star of the film was the most evil of all Disney's bad guys: Maleficent. When she laughs, your blood crawls. And when she turns into a dragon, the graphics are amazing. I can only imagine what the restoration process will do to the colors in this movie, but if the restoration of "Snow White" is any indication, then the relaease on DVD of Sleeping Beauty will be the masterpiece of all animated films. I can NOT wait until September for the release of this film. Even my kids are salavating at the thought of having this in our family DVD library.
Rating:
Summary: A Tour-de-force ofGlorious Art and Music
Review: In the small town of Carlsbad California, my spare time was spent looking at the new Disney coloring books and picture books at our local store. This was 1958, and one day, the first copies of "Sleeping Beauty" started arriving. The stylish design elements in the characters and backgrounds just blew me away. I bought every single book available.
The late Eyvind Earle produced those background designs so full of rich texture, in all locales. In the king's castle, there are the stone walls and tapestries; we can almost feel the metal and velvet inside the jewelry box where the fairies have their conference; in the forest, we see intricately detailed tree trunks and grasses; Briar Rose gazes at the castle in the distance, in a wide-screen Eyvind Earle-type panorama filled with those square-topped trees, the first and last time I have ever seen such a fantastic expression of trees carried out with such panache!
The colors for this film have been described as "jewel-like", and I suppose the best example of this would be the costumes of the three good fairies. Flora's clothes are orange-red, red, dark red, and pink. If you look at a multi-faceted jewel, each facet is another variation of the basic color. Eyvind Earle put these colors together in a way that I have seldom seen equalled. We might say that he put the "beauty" into Sleeping Beauty! The colors are absolutely mind-blowing.
Princess Aurora is possibly the most beautiful of all Disney heroines, and why wouldn't she be? She was blessed with "beauty rare" from birth. Mary Costa's speaking and singing voice provides the vocal sincerity of this character, never overdoing it.
Maleficent is a very interesting character, especially visually. She seems to be more attractive in her first scenes in the film, almost beautiful. Sixteen years later in the story, she looks uglier. Was this intentional, or did the artists draw her differently as the 6-year production period dragged on? We may never know. I like the way she looks in her first appearance, at the christening. Her collar is smaller, and her face bears a faint resemblance to the young Briar Rose, even in a foreshadowing way.
Maleficent first appears out of a green flame, one phase at a time. Before she is fully formed, we see only a stark outline of her horns and black robe. When I first saw this apparition in 1959, it triggered a subconscious memory I had of a film I had seen about a year earlier, Hammer Studios' "Horror of Dracula" (1957). The first moment we see the count, we look up to see him at the top of the stairs, almost in silhouette. The stately figure in the trim black cloak is almost like an icon of that era. If you have a chance, compare the two films. The resemblance at that one moment is eerie and very very 50's!
In the natural world, one can find many things which seem to be perfectly formed: a rose, the Matterhorn, or a lion. This is how I see Maleficent, as a number of parts that fit together perfectly. From her horns and bat-points to her skinny neck and flame-like sleeves, she looks as she IS. Her clothes are black, because she is evil, and black represents a void. But, she also has purple sleeves, as this color is associated with royalty, and she is an evil queen. Maleficent (as is Christopher Lee's Dracula) is tall, stately, dressed in flowing black, has impeccable manners, moves with grace, and is thoroughly horrifying and hateful!
Eleanor Audley who provided the voice said, "I tried to do a lot of contrasting to be both sweet and nasty at the same time." Through foreign versions of this film on video, I have heard Maleficent voiced by many actresses, in Japanese, Dutch, French, Polish, Czech and Hungarian. The only one that comes close to Eleanor Audley is the Dutch actress, Jasperina de Jong. The voice work requires a rendition teetering on the thin, bladelike edge between kindness and hatred. The original English version is just teeming with it. Another thing I love about this film is the musical treatment. Tchaikovsky's ballet score fills the story from beginning to end, and George Bruns used it and augmented it masterfully. After watching this film, I very often feel elated, as if I have just been to an art museum AND a concert of classical music at the same time. Apart from Fantasia, how many films can boast that? Stunning animation, gorgeous art and uplifting music are here in abundance!
Rating: 
Summary: Not as wonderful as the hype makes it out to be, really
Review: Before the hardcore Disneyphiles ready their pitchforks, let me explain that yes, I enjoyed the movie when I was younger, I enjoyed the songs and the characters and the overall experience. However, rewatching it recently I've noted that most of the points people seem to rave about (the music, the villaness) are borderline cliched when compared to other Disney movies. Maleficent is evil, sure, and yes her pet bird is cool but she's far from the end-all-be-all of Disney villanry. Aurora/Sleeping Beauty is the epitome of a boy-crazy 16 year old girl (complete with the "But WHY can't I fall in love with the Prince?!" whine-scene reminescent of the entire "Triton arguing with Ariel" scene(s) from that -other- Disney movie, "The Little Mermaid"), but her singing voice is fair enough, so that can be overlooked (to an extent). The 3 fairies were mere fodder. Amusing, and sometimes laugh-worthy, but mostly there just to hold the story together. The deus-ex-machinas that crawled out of the woodwork for the 2nd half of the film were less than belivable, and mostly cringe-worthy. (example: "Aurora's walking into a corridor! It's Malifecent!" and later the faires just -happen- to know Malifecent's weak spot..? Ri-ght..) Disney has been known to overhype the snot out of their dvd releases, and this will be no exeption. The special features -sound- like they'd be something that would intrest the average child viewer, but from an adult standpoint, they reek of "Fodder made in less than 2 months just so we could take up the 2nd dvd." A making of special, a few games and some other random things that Disney whipped up in less time than it took to actually create the film. All in all, buy it if you don't want to settle for the VHS tape or if you're the kind of person who absolutely has to have -every- Disney DVD that's released, but otherwise, stick with the VHS tape or see if you can buy it secondhand.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the movie and 4 stars for the dvd
Review: Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty got a G rating, but this movie does not deserve a G rating. This deserves a PG rating. This movie may frighten young children than to charm them. And this movie is coming out of the vault on video and dvd in America on September 9. This animated movie does not have a lot of familar voices (or at least to me) but a lot of them has gone on to perfrom more voices in Diseny's later movies like The Sword in the Stone, and the Jungle Book. As the movie opens, a baby is born to King Stefan (Taylor Holmoes) and his queen. They name the baby Aurora (Mary Costa). And then at a celbration, three good faries show up with the gifts. Flora (Verna Felton) gives Aurora the gift of beauty, Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen) gives Aurora the gift of song, but before Merryweather (Barbara Luddy) can give her gift, an evil fairy named Maleficent (Eleanor Aldey) shows up uninvited, and to prove she is not upset by not getting invited, she does give Aurora a gift, which is before the sun set on her 16th birthday, Princess Aurora will prick her finger on ths spindle of a spinning wheel and will die. Merryweather changes the speel form death to sleep if this does happen. Princess Aurora was promsied to King Huevert's (Bill Thompson) son Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley). And King Stefan who is afraid for his daughter's life, has all the spinning wheels in the kingdom burned. And then the 3 good faires comes with a plan to become 3 peasents and raise Princess Aurora and protect her from Maleficent, and they change her name to Brair Rose. And for 16 years, Maleficent is so frusted about worrying about where Princess Aurora is hiding for 16 years, and she sends out her pet, to search for her. While the 3 good fairs, are planning a party for Briar Rose.
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