"Sleeping Beauty (Blu-ray)

Synopsis

A long time ago, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived King Stefan and his queen.

At the birth of their daughter, Aurora, three fairies visit and present gifts. The first two are beauty and song, but before the third fairy presents her gift, an evil witch named Maleficent, shows up, and says that on Aurora's 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die.

Luckily, the third fairy has not presented her gift yet, so she modifies the curse such that Aurora will only fall into a deep sleep, and will be awakened by love's first kiss.

The three fairies take Aurora deep into the forest to hide her so the curse cannot be fulfilled.

Sixteen years later, Prince Phillip, son of King Hubert from a neighboring kingdom, is riding through the forest, and has a chance meeting with Aurora. They fall in love immediately, but do not know that each other is royalty.

The fairies take Aurora back to the palace where she will meet her betrothed, Prince Phillip, but she does not know that Phillip is the man she met in the forest. Unfortunately, Maleficent discovers that Aurora is there and tricks her into pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. She falls into the deep sleep that was fortold years before.

Maleficent captures Phillip and imprisons him, promising to keep him there until he is too old to find love with Aurora, but the fairies manage to help him escape, he goes to the palace, sees Aurora lying asleep, kisses her, she awakens, and everyone lives happily every after.

Commentary

Sleeping Beauty was made in 1959, and although earlier animated films from Disney had spectacularly fluid bodily motions, this one showed the beginnings of the short cuts that were to be a hallmark of such 1960's animation companies as Hanna-Barbera (The Flintstones). Nevertheless, Sleeping Beauty is a masterpiece of Disney storytelling, and will be a delight for young and old, especially in its restored condition, which includes the full 2.55:1 aspect ratio. Apparently, it was not released in full widescreen in the theaters back in 1959, but rather 2.20:1, and in 70mm.

Technical

There is nothing like spending time and money on restoration. It looks like it was just made yesterday. The sound track sounds like mono that has been jazzed up a bit with some 5.1 processing.

Extras

These include Maleficent's Challenge Game, Commentary with John Lasseter, and other things.