Sleeping Beauty (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) [DVD]

By Clint Morris

“When will Sleeping Beauty be on DVD?” a good friend of mine asked a few years back.

Hell, I didn’t know….and which one was Sleeping Beauty anyway? Is that the one with the chick who loses her shoes?

I’m joking, of course, I know who Sleeping Beauty is – I’ve seen the video subscription site – and like all youngin’s, loved it at the time. It was a beautiful little pic. And even though it’s as old as m, it still plays magnificently well. I dare say my own daughter – she’s only 1, but give it a couple of years and she’ll have worked her way through the entire DVD collection here; starting with “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Almost Famous” at her father’s suggestion – will get into it too. Not bad a film that was made in 1959.

‘’In a faraway land, long ago, there lived a King and his fair Queen. Many years they had longed for a child, and finally their wish was granted. A daughter was born, and they called her Aurora. Yes, they named her after the dawn, for she filled their lives with sunshine. Then a great holiday was proclaimed throughout the land, so that all of high or low estate could pay homage to the infant Princess. And our story begins on that most joyful day…’’ the narrator begins…

Aurora. Oh, the poor thing. So nice, so innocent… yet so naïve. She doesn’t see it coming at all. She’s cursed by the evil witch Maleficent – who declares that before Aurora reaches her 16th birthday she will die by a poisoned spinning-wheel. To try to prevent this, the king places her into hiding, in the care of three agreeable – but not too intelligent – fairies. And what’ll make her all better? Well, a kiss from a handsome – probably gay in the real world – prince.

In all seriousness, this is an exquisite film – the animation is drop-dead gorgeous (so surprised Hollywood’s given up on traditional 2D animated movies – they don’t age as bad as some of the other more technically-advanced kiddie flicks), the storyline is – albeit in a sweet-and-friendly family-film sense – rather gripping, and for what it’s worth, that toon babe has it ‘going on’.

Extras

Disney’s 2-disc Platinum edition, celebrating Sleeping B’s 50th Anniversary, boasts an array of special features. There’s an audio commentary. There’s a short film. There’s a music video. There’s games and activities. There’s a comprehensive making-of. There’s an alternate opening to the film. There’s a featurette. There’s an art-gallery. In other words, there’s a lot of stuff on here. Enjoy.