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Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition)

Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My favorite disney dvd so far
Review: This DVD probably has the most special features and options that have been released so far. It has so many picture galleries and extras to keep you and your kids busy for hours. The widescreen adds so much more to the movie than the old versions ever could. Aside from the excellent restorations of colors , Sleeping beauty has come back to life in a way words can't describe. Plus, watching it in spanish or french along with closed captions is another entirely new movie experience. This Disney DVD is my favorite so far!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Wonderful film and DVD...
Review: ...however, I gave the Sleeping Beauty DVD itself three out of five stars due to no closed-captioned and/or subtitled feature for the entire special features. Cannot understand why the studio is not doing this for us and it is very disappointing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Finally on DVD!!!
Review: I've benn waiting for this to be released on DVD for a while now.My original Vhs is completely worn out.The DVD is definitely not a disappointment!Great picture and sound.And of course,you can't forget the extras...my favorite extra is the Princess Personality game.The little girls out there will love this one!And collectors will appreciate the art galleries and behind the scenes info.This DVD has something for everyone.A perfect gift whether you're 5 or 50 :)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Beware! Digital flaw
Review: Everything about this release is wonderful except that it has a manufacture digital flaw. Both our original and replacement had the exact same digital flaw, in the exact same location. Too bad that this dvd was released without getting the bugs out first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: like rock on dude, this movie is narley
Review: This movie is spectacular! yeah Walt Disney knew what he was doing when he made this movie! man. Ya know, I almost think that this is the best movie that Walt Disney ever made! but there are a few nit picky things that bother me about this movie, nothing major by all means, but what I am talking about is Phillip, now I think that Philip is alright for who he is but, the thing that I am knawing on is the fact that Phillip doesn't have like a ponytail or a mullet of some kind, like beauty and the beast, another great movie by Walt Disney, but what I like so much about beauty and the beast is that like all the men have Ponytails, that is how the hairstyles were back then, I mean like this movie takes place basically the same time as beauty and the beast, and notice the difference in the hairstyles between the two movies, I mean if there were more guys that had ponytails in this movie, alright all of the guys had ponytails, this would be the movie that I would like most of all by Walt Disney, but just that little detail can change everything, I mean it is sad that only kind Steppen is the only cool dude with the, I don't know rather he has a mullet or a ponytail but either way, I think you know that I am a fan of long hair. Okay I will stop harping on the hairstyle thing, one of my most favorite charectors in this movie is like not in this movie but like 45 seconds but, the servant dude that plays the gutar and gets drunk on Hubert's "drinkage" Man he is rightous, what really makes me laugh is when Hubert toasts to the wedding and king Steppen pushes the bottle away to where it is spilling on the flour and the servant dude puts his gutar under it making sure that King Hubert can't see him and he sits behind the table and falls over while drinking the wine, man I love the sound of that drunk hiccup that he makes as he is falling underneith the table, he rules man!. Now lets talk about my dream girl, yeah thats right the protagonist, Briar Rose, aka Arora, the way I will explain her is a line that comes from the movie con air, specifically from duncan malloys mouth: Sunsets are beautiful, new born babies are beautiful, she, she is spectacular! well it isn't word for word, but for the most part it is, anyway, she is everything I dream of for a girlfriend, spectacular, blonde, kind to everyone, man she is like the ultimate image for my dream girl, every single detail, nothing included nothing excluded, just the way she is in this movie. One more thing that bugs me about this movie is that they have a newer music group play at the end of this movie, what is it's name, oh yeah, no secrets now that isn't really the group that I would have picked for the end of this movie, the group that I would have picked for this movie is Huey Lewis and the news and I would have played Do you Believe in love, or a song by Pete Townshend and the song is called let my love open the door man both of those songs would work out great for this movie but all I can say is thank goodness it wasn't Britany Spears, I am not saying that she is ugly by any means but she is a bad influence, and I don't think that I have to mention what she and madonna did on that stage, I think that everyone knows what happened there, she is just wacked out in my opinion but yeah, anyway, I think that this movie is narley for the most part. I have some advice for those of you who have not seen it yet, it is a great movie and it is worth the time it takes to watch it all the way through, man you won't be sorry!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply beautiful.
Review: For years, Sleeping Beauty has been my very favorite Disney movie. It features THE most exquisite artwork put into ANY Disney Movie, and some of the most enduring characters. You'll laugh, you'll cry. A perfect addition to my collection, and yours.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's okay for girls
Review: There is nothing bad about this movie, I'm just saying it might be better for girls. My mom has this movie, and we have watched it a couple times as a family, nothing was objectionable, but if you're a boy you should check out "Peter pan" (which is one of my favorites!)or "Aladdin".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An underrated, forgotten Disney Masterpiece
Review: In the fifties Disney embarked on a creative and artistic endeavour of unprecedented scale. Adapting the old folk tale of Briar Rose for a more recent generation, Walt Disney was determined to make this his swan song - his crowning achievement. Millions of dollars and more than 5 years was spent creating this lavish work of art.

And the film was successful, to a degree. Although not among the very highest grossing films of its year, it pulled in a respectable amount, and later more than made it's creation cost on video. However, seeing that Sleeping Beauty did not have the success that they were hoping for, Disney decided to not attempt such lavishness again, a tradition which has only been broken with recently.

But what of the film, is it worthwhile? The answer is yes - the timeless setting has created a film that is impenetrable to aging. It retains its humor, and the plot maintains an excellent balance of simplicity combined with challenge and confusion. The characters are all voiced beautifully, and each fit their purpose in the story perfectly. In addition to this, now that the film is on dvd, it can be seen as it was meant to be - in glorious widescreen. When you see the effect the widescreen has on opening up the framing and shaking of the claustrophobic atmosphere the movie had in it's pan and scan format, you'll vow never to go back.

It is worth noting that this is Disney's most humanist work. The movements of the characters are so natural and lifelike, and their motivations so uncluttered and benign, that it is impossible to wish them anything but happiness. The romance between Aurora and Phillip has been derided for being too simplistic, too sappy, too unrealistic, but those who do not seem to understand that this is what works for such simple people. Phillip is the ultimate good guy, while Aurora is the ultimate good girl. When they interact, everything feels natural, everything feels right. There is much to their romance than a simple list of adjectives.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Darkly Beautiful - Archetypal Depth - Superb Color Styling
Review: Highly recommended to those who want to see background art at its zenith. Taking one aspect at a time: 1) COLOR: Incredible! The same dark intensity I remember from the 70mm prints. One reviewer said the DVD color blew away the original theatrical print he saw when the film was first released. He may have seen a 35mm print back then, because the original 70mm print I saw in 1959 was about equivalent to this DVD, but, in the theatre, the image on the retinas if all viewers in the 20 or so rows nearest the screen was much bigger -- bigger than is currently possible, while maintaining sharpness, with any home equipment. 70mm in those days was projected on a very large screen with at least some curve, and was meant to simulate the arc of vision. In Sleeping Beauty, the effect seemed like being immersed in a dream-like, ornate, medieval world. That the color in the DVD is equivalent to the 70mm, the first DVD I can say that about, means that the restorers and transferors are to be heartily congratulated! The marvelous color styling of Eyvend Earl comes through in all of its carefully thought out detail. There is a marvelous, rich, often dark look. There is a wider range of colors, and more variegated backgrounds, both drawn and suggested, than usual, by far. The story I heard a few years after the film was released, during a visit to the Disney studio (as a college newspaper writer) was that Disney had asked Earl (and the other background artists) for "A moving Illustration; a medieval tapestry come to life." "But Walt, medieval tapestries had muted colors!" "But Eyvend, ours won't!" Disney, Earl, and the others later decided to go for dark, rich images, and to imitate the fancier and more colorful style of the rubrics. While it would not be appropriate for many other films, this color is the best of the best.

2) SOUND. They toned down the dynamics, and shaved off the deep bass! Try turning the Bass control way up, and crank up the subwoofer, if it has a separate control. If you have seen the film before, ask other viewers to step out of the room for a moment, and go to one of the scenes with thunder, or the climax, and make sure there is enough bass -- then go to another spot and check to see if the quiet and delicate treble music is still clear. The escape from the castle and the events immediately following should be overwhelming, and Tchaikovsky's mad, wild, frenzied string music -- particularly the "Dance Vertigo" part of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet that they used for the thorns catching on fire, and just about the whole climactic sequence (as the prince tries to get to Aroura's castle), should really rage, and shake the floor. It did in the theater in 70mm and 6 channel stereo, and it did at my house, when I got through with it. Manufacturers often slice bass and dynamics in DVDs of films that had spectacular sound, to avoid blowing out the feeble speakers people have in their TV sets. They should either offer special "full dynamics" DVDs for those who are equipped, or just risk it.

3) THE FILM AS A WHOLE : Using Goethe's Three Principles: a) "What was the artist trying to do?" Probably trying to make a more elaborate and beautiful than usual Disney fairy tale film. b) "How well has the artist done that?" Very well indeed, in most ways. Much of the archetypal depth of such tales is intact. There is the nurturing mother (aunt type, in the three good fairies) the incompetent parent (King/Queen/ and the good fairies when befuddled), and the feared/bad mother (you-know-who). Jung would have liked the demonstration of what happens when you try to exclude the bad/feared parent from your consciousness. The Uninvited. More scuttlebutt from the time the film was released: at first, Disney was going to have all the good fairies the same, and mysterious, (this was partly confirmed in the supplementary material on disk 2). This was rumored to be in response to critics who didn't like him giving the Dwarfs in Snow White, and later the Mice in Cinderella, very individual personalities. Based on his many humorous, public comments, if this happened to be true, he might not have admitted paying attention to the critics. When the animators complained that making the fairies the same was "no fun," he decided to go the other way, and make them very individual, and since one of them was to be named Flora anyway, he decided to make her gently bossy, like his own mother, a school teacher, who was named Flora. So Flora in SB is Disney's mother, and Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins is his father (with a little of Walt thrown in by Bill Walsh and Don Da Grady). I would have used a larger orchestra, and not lightened Tchaikovsky's music quite so much (but in the fiery climax the music used is untouched, except for adding a repeat!. They did a marvelous thing by turning the "Blue Bird" into a vocalise for Aurora walking into the forest! c) "Was it worth doing? " Yes. And you will see several younger animators/artists in supplementary materials saying how much it influenced them. Favorite characters: Merriwether and Maleficent, the quintessence of projected evil.

4) SUITABILITY FOR CHILDREN --- not too young, can be scary.
For more information about 70mm, try the excellent widescreenmuseum.com & in70mm.com

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my Favorites
Review: I remember when I would watch this movie a countless number of times when I was younger and now that I am older I appreciate the movie more than ever. It is the last fairytale that Walt Disney helped create and for his last fairytale, it is stunning. The animation is very modern for 1959 and very detailed. The story is wonderful, with the typical Disney ending of good conquering evil and true love winning out. It is a great movie and I highly recommend it.


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