Lake Victoria and Sleeping Beauty (1959 film): Difference between pages

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{{Redirect|Once Upon A Dream|other uses|Once Upon a Dream}}
{{otherplaces}}
{{Infobox_lake
|lake_name = Lake Victoria
|image_lake = Topography of Lake Victoria.png
|image_bathymetry =
|caption_bathymetry =
|coords = {{coor at dm|1|0|S|33|0|E|type:waterbody}}
|outflow = [[White Nile]] River
|catchment = 184,000 km²<br>238,900 km² basin
|basin_countries = [[Tanzania]]<br>[[Uganda]]<br>[[Kenya]]
|length = 337 km
|width = 250 km
|area = 68,800 km²
|depth = 40 m
|max-depth = 83 m
|volume = 2,750 km³
|shore = 3,440 km
|elevation = 1,133 m
|residence_time =
|islands = 3,000 ([[Ssese Islands]] Uganda)
|cities = [[Bukoba]], Tanzania<br>[[Mwanza]], Tanzania<br>[[Kisumu]], Kenya<br>[[Kampala]], Uganda<br>[[Entebbe]], Uganda
}}
[[Image:Rift.svg|240px|thumb|right|Lake Victoria and the Great Rift Valley]]
[[Image:Lake Victoria SPOT 1128.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Lake Victoria seen from Spot satellite ]]
[[Image:Hydrography-graph-Lake Victoria.svg|thumb|right|250px|Lake Victoria height variation]]
[[Image:Lake victoria NASA.jpg|right|300px|thumb|right|The lake as seen from space, looking west, with other members of the [[African Great Lakes]] forming an arc in the middle distance. The cloud-covered forests of the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]] can be made out in the distance.]]
[[Image:Africa Lake Victoria 10 006.jpg|right|300px|thumb|right|The Lake as it is visible from the shores of the Speke resort in Kampala, Uganda]]
'''Lake Victoria''' or '''Victoria Nyanza''' (also known as '''Ukerewe''' and '''Nalubaale''') is one of the [[Great Lakes (Africa)|Great Lakes]] of [[Africa]].


{{Infobox_Film|
Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometres (26,560 mi²) in size, making it the continent's largest [[lake]], the largest tropical lake in the world, and the second largest [[fresh water]] lake in the world in terms of surface area ([[List of lakes by area|third largest]] if one considers [[Lake Michigan-Huron]] as a single lake). Being relatively shallow for its size, with a maximum depth of 84 m (276 ft) and a mean depth of 40 m (131 ft), Lake Victoria ranks as the seventh [[list of lakes by volume|largest freshwater lake by volume]], containing 2,750 cubic kilometres (2.2 million [[acre-feet]]) of water. It is the source of the longest branch of the [[Nile]] River, the [[White Nile]], and has a [[water catchment area]] of 184,000 square kilometres (71,040 mi²). It is a biological hotspot with great biodiversity. The lake lies within an elevated [[plateau]] in the western part of Africa's [[Great Rift Valley]] and is subject to territorial administration by [[Tanzania]], [[Uganda]] and [[Kenya]]. The lake has a shoreline of 3,440 km (2138 miles), and has more than 3,000 [[island]]s, many of which are inhabited. These include the [[Ssese Islands]] in Uganda, a large group of islands in the northwest of the Lake that are becoming a popular destination for tourists.
name=Sleeping Beauty |
image=Sleeping beauty disney.jpg |
director=[[Clyde Geronimi]] (supervising)<br />[[Les Clark]]<br />[[Eric Larson]]<br />[[Wolfgang Reitherman]] |
writer=[[Erdman Penner]] (adaptation)<br />[[Joe Rinaldi]]<br />[[Winston Hibler]]<br />[[Bill Peet]]<br />[[Ted Sears]]<br />[[Ralph Wright]]<br />[[Milt Banta]]<br />[[Charles Perrault]] (original fairy tale) |
starring= [[Mary Costa]]<br />[[Eleanor Audley]]<br />[[Verna Felton]]<br />[[Barbara Luddy]]<br />[[Barbara Jo Allen]]<br />[[Bill Shirley]]<br />[[Taylor Holmes]]<br />[[Bill Thompson (voice actor)|Bill Thompson]] |
producer=[[Walt Disney]] |
distributor=[[Buena Vista Distribution]] |
released=[[January 29]], [[1959]] |
runtime=76 minutes |
language=[[English language|English]] |
budget=$6,000,000 USD (estimated) |
amg_id = 1:45151 |
imdb_id=0053285}}
'''''Sleeping Beauty''''' is a 1959 [[animated feature]] produced by [[Walt Disney]] and originally released to theatres on [[January 29]], [[1959 in film|1959]], by [[Buena Vista Distribution]]. The sixteenth [[animation|animated feature]] in the [[List of Disney animated features|Disney animated features canon]], it was the last animated feature produced by [[Walt Disney]] to be based upon a [[fairy tale]] (after his death, the studio returned to the genre with [[1989]]'s ''[[The Little Mermaid (1989 film)|The Little Mermaid]]''). In addition, ''Sleeping Beauty'' was the first animated feature to be shot in [[Super Technirama 70]], one of many large-format [[widescreen]] processes. Only one more animated film, ''[[The Black Cauldron (film)|The Black Cauldron]]'', was ever shot in Super Technirama 70.


The film was directed by [[Les Clark]], [[Eric Larson]], and [[Wolfgang Reitherman]], under the supervision of [[Clyde Geronimi]]. The film was based on the fairy tale ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]'' by [[Charles Perrault]], with additional story work by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, [[Bill Peet]], [[Ted Sears]], Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta. The film's musical score and songs, featuring the work of the [[Berlin Symphony Orchestra]], are inspired from the 1890 [[The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)|''Sleeping Beauty'' ballet]] by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]].
Lake Victoria is relatively young; its current basin formed only 400,000 years ago, when westward-flowing rivers were dammed by an upthrown crustal block.<ref>Reader, John. Africa. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2001. p. 227</ref> The lake's shallowness, limited [[river]] inflow, and large surface area relative to its volume make it vulnerable to [[climate change]]s; cores taken from its bottom show that Lake Victoria has dried up completely three times since it formed.<ref>Reader, p. 228</ref> These drying cycles are probably related to past [[ice age]]s, which are times when [[precipitation (meteorology)|precipitation]] declined globally.<ref>Reader, p. 228</ref> The lake last dried out 17,300 years ago, and filled again beginning 14,700 years ago; the fantastic [[adaptive radiation]] of its native [[cichlids]] has taken place in the short period of time since then.<ref>Reader, p. 228</ref>


==Plot synopsis==
== Exploration history ==
The first recorded information about Lake Victoria comes from [[Arab]] traders plying the inland routes in search of [[gold]], [[ivory]], other precious commodities and [[slaves]]. An excellent [[map]] known as the [[Al Idrisi]] map dated from the 1160s, clearly depicts an accurate representation of Lake Victoria, and attributes it as being the source of the Nile.


Princess Aurora is named after the [[Aurora (mythology)|Roman goddess]] of the dawn "because she fills her father and mother's lives with [[sunlight|sunshine]]." While still an infant, she is [[betrothal|betrothed]] to the also-young Prince Phillip, son and heir to King Hubert's throne. At her christening, the good [[fairies]] Flora (dressed in red/pink), Merryweather (in blue), and Fauna (in green) arrive to bless her. Flora gives her the gift of [[beauty]], which is described in a song as "gold of sunshine in her [[hair]]" and "[[lips]] that shame the [[red]], red [[rose]]." Fauna gives her the gift of [[song]]. At this point, [[Maleficent]], the film's villain and Mistress of All Evil, appears on the scene. Claiming to be upset at not being invited to Aurora's christening ceremony, she curses the princess to die when she touches a [[spinning wheel]]'s spindle before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. Fortunately, Merryweather has not yet blessed Aurora, so she uses her blessing to alter Maleficent's curse: Aurora will not die when she touches the spinning wheel, instead, she will fall asleep until she is awakened by true love's kiss. In addition, Aurora's father, King Stefan, orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom burned, but knowing Maleficent is extremely powerful and will stop at nothing to see her curse fulfilled, the three good fairies take [[Aurora]] to live with them in the woods, where they can keep her safe from any harm until she turns sixteen and the curse is made void. To fully protect her, they even change her name to Briar-Rose.
The lake was first sighted by a European in 1858 when the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[List of explorers|explorer]] [[John Hanning Speke]] reached its southern shore whilst on his journey with [[Richard Francis Burton]] to explore central Africa and locate the great Lakes. Believing he had found the source of the Nile on seeing this ''vast expanse of open water'' for the first time, Speke named the lake after [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]]. Burton, who had been recovering from illness at the time and resting further south on the shores of [[Lake Tanganyika]], was outraged that Speke claimed to have proved his discovery to have been the true source of the [[Nile]], which Burton regarded as still unsettled. A very public quarrel ensued, which not only sparked a great deal of intense debate within the scientific community of the day, but much interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or refute Speke's discovery.


Aurora grows into a very beautiful young woman with long [[golden]] [[yellow]] hair, [[rose]]-colored lips, [[lilac]]-colored eyes, and a marvelous [[sing]]ing voice, 'with golden sunshine in her hair and lips that shame the red red rose'. She, although very beautiful and sweet, does not care for her appearance but she hopes that someday "her song will go winging" to a handsome man. She is raised in a cottage in the forest by the three fairies, who she believes are her aunts. Meanwhile, the evil creatures employed by Maleficent admit to their mistress that they have not been able to find the princess, despite looking in every cradle they could find. Maleficent realizes that they have been looking for a baby for 16 years and sends her "last hope," her pet [[raven]] Diablo, to look for Aurora. On the day of her sixteenth birthday, the three fairies choose to use magic to make Rose a [[gown]] and a [[cake]]. As Flora and Merryweather fight it out to have the dress their signature color, Maleficent's raven flies over the forest and spots the magical glitter fluttering in the air and reports back to Maleficent. While out picking berries, Rose sings to entertain her animal friends; her angelic voice gains the attention of Prince Phillip, who has grown into a handsome young man and is out riding his horse in the woods. When they meet, they instantly fall in love. Realizing that she has to return home, Aurora flees from Phillip without ever learning his name. Despite promising to meet him again, she is unable to return, as her "aunts" choose that time to reveal the truth of her birth to her and to tell her that she is betrothed to a prince named Phillip.
The well known British explorer and missionary [[David Livingstone]] failed in his attempt to verify Speke's discovery, instead pushing too far west and entering the [[Congo River]] system instead. It was ultimately the [[Welsh-American]] explorer [[Henry Morton Stanley]], on an expedition funded by the [[New York Herald]] newspaper, who confirmed the truth of Speke's discovery, circumnavigating the Lake and reporting the great outflow at [[Ripon Falls]] on the Lake's northern shore.


They leave the woods, and Aurora makes it into the palace. Unfortunately, Maleficent uses her magic to lure Aurora away from her chambers up into the tallest tower of the palace, where a spinning wheel awaits her. Fascinated by the wheel, she touches the spindle, pricking her finger. As had been foretold by the curse, Aurora is put under a sleeping spell. The good fairies place Aurora on a bed with a red rose in her hand, and cause a deep sleep to fall over the entire kingdom "until Rose awakens." While doing so, they realize, from King Hubert trying to tell King Stefan that his son is in love with a peasant-girl, that the young man Aurora had fallen in love with is Prince Phillip. Unfortunately, he has been bound, gagged, and captured by Maleficent and imprisoned in her castle to prevent him from kissing Aurora and waking her up. The three good fairies sneak into Maleficent's domain, The Forbidden Mountains, aid the prince in escaping and explain to him the story of Maleficent's curse. Armed with the magical [[Sword]] of [[Truth]] and The [[Shield]] of [[Virtue]], Phillip battles Maleficent when the sorceress turns herself into a gigantic fire-breathing [[dragon]]. The sword, blessed by the fairies' magic, is plunged into the dragon's heart, killing her. Phillip climbs to Aurora's chamber, and removes the curse with a kiss. As the film ends, the prince and princess both happily learn that their betrothed and their beloved are one and the same.They dance a waltz while Merryweather and Flora squabble over the color of Aurora's dress once again.
== Ecology and social impacts ==
Lake Victoria plays a vital role in supporting the millions of people living around its shores, in one of the most densely populated regions on earth.
===Introduction of fish species===
The [[ecosystem]]s of Lake Victoria and its surroundings have been badly affected by human influence. In 1954, the [[Nile perch]] (''Lates niloticus'') was first introduced into the lake's ecosystem in an attempt to improve fishery yields of the lake. Introduction efforts intensified during the very early 1960s. The species was present in small numbers until the early to mid 1980s, when it underwent a massive population expansion and came to dominate the fish community and ecology of the world's largest tropical lake. Also introduced was the [[Nile tilapia]] (''Oreochromis niloticus''), now an important food fish for local consumption. The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus'') proved ecologically and [[Socioeconomics|socioeconomically]] devastating. Together with pollution born of [[deforestation]] and overpopulation (of both people and domestic animals), the Nile perch has brought about a massive transformation in the lake ecosystem and to the disappearance of hundreds of [[endemic (ecology)|endemic]] [[haplochromine]] cichlid species. Many of these are now presumed to be entirely [[extinct]]. A number of other species are [[extinct in the wild]], with populations being maintained in [[zoo]]s and aquaria, e.g. as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium's [[Species Survival Plan]] for these species. Some species which were [[extirpated]] from Lake Victoria itself, are known to survive in nearby smaller so-called satellite lakes, such as [[Lake Kyoga]], [[Lake Edward]], and [[Lake Albert]].


==Production==
Also vanished from the big Lake Victoria is one of two native species of [[tilapia]] (another kind of [[cichlid]] fish), the [[Singidia tilapia]] or ''ngege'' (''Oreochromis esculentus''). The ''ngege'' is superior in taste and texture to Nile tilapia, but it does not grow as fast or as large and produces fewer young. ''Ngege'' and some representatives of haplochromine diversity survive in minute swamp ponds and lakes that dot the Lake Victoria Basin. The initial good returns on Nile perch catches, at their peak delivering export revenues of several hundred million dollars a year, have diminished dramatically due to poor enforcement of fisheries regulations. The proceeds from Nile perch sales remain an important economic engine in the region, but the resulting wealth is very poorly distributed and the overall balance sheet on the Nile perch introduction to Lake Victoria is well into the red{{Fact|date=April 2008}} despite the enormous value of the perch landings as an export commodity.
===Overview and art direction===
''Sleeping Beauty'' spent nearly the entire decade of the 1950s in production: the story work began in 1951, voices were recorded in 1952, animation production took from 1953 until 1958, and the [[stereophonic]] musical score, partially based on [[Tchaikovsky]]'s ballet of the same name, was recorded in 1957. The film holds a notable position in Disney animation as the last Disney feature to use hand-inked cels. Beginning with the next feature, ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'', Disney would move to the use of [[xerography]] to transfer animators' drawings from paper to celluloid. Its art, which Walt Disney wanted to look like a living illustration and which was inspired by medieval art, was not in the typical Disney style. Because the Disney studio had already made two features based on fairy tales, ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]'' and ''[[Cinderella (1950 film)|Cinderella]]'', Walt Disney wanted this film to stand out from its predecessors by choosing a different visual style. The movie eschewed the soft, rounded look of earlier Disney features for a more stylized one. Since Super Technirama 70 was used, it also meant the backgrounds could contain more detailed and complex artwork than ever used in an animated movie before.


Disney artist [[Eyvind Earle]] was the film's production designer, and Disney gave him a significant amount of freedom in designing the settings and selecting colors for the film. Earle also painted the majority of the backgrounds himself. The elaborate paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint; by contrast, a typical animation background took only one workday to complete. Disney's decision to give Earle so much artistic freedom was not popular among the Disney animators, who had until ''Sleeping Beauty'' exercised some influence over the style of their characters and settings.
The three countries bordering Lake Victoria - Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania - have agreed in principle to the idea of a tax on Nile perch exports, proceeds to be applied to various measures to benefit local communities and sustain the fishery. However, this tax has not been put into force, enforcement of fisheries and environmental laws generally are lax, and the Nile perch fishery remains in essence a mining operation.


===Characters and story development===
[[Image:Density evolution Victoria.png|250px|thumb|left|Density growth around Lake Victoria]]
The name of the beautiful Sleeping Beauty is "Princess Aurora" ([[Latin language|Latin]] for "[[dawn]]"), in this film, as it was in the original Tchaikovsky ballet; this name occurred in Perrault's version, not as the princess's name, but as her daughter's.<ref>Heidi Anne Heiner, "[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/notes.html#FORTY4 The Annotated Sleeping Beauty]"</ref> In hiding, she is called [[Briar Rose]], the name of the princess in the [[Brothers Grimm]] variant.<ref>Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, ''[[Grimm's Fairy Tales]]'', "[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html#grimm Briar Rose]"</ref> The prince was given the only princely name familiar to Americans in the 1950s: "Prince Phillip," named after [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]]. The dark fairy was aptly named [[Maleficent]] (which means "Evil-doer").


Walt Disney had suggested that all three good fairies should look alike, but veteran animators [[Frank Thomas (animator)|Frank Thomas]] and [[Ollie Johnston]] objected, saying that three identical fairies would not be exciting. Additionally, the idea originally included seven fairies instead of three, as there are seven fairies in the story's main reference, Perrault's version. In determining Maleficent's design, standard depictions of witches and hags were dismissed as animator [[Marc Davis]] opted for a more elegant look centered around the appearance of flames, ultimately crowning the villain with "the horns of the [[devil]]."
[[Image:Image-Languages-Lakevictoria-fr.svg|220px|left|thumb|Local languages around lake Victoria]]
Currently, the Nile perch is being overfished. Populations of a few endemic cichlid species have increased again, particularly one to three species of zooplankton-eating, herring-like cichlids (''[[Yssichromis]]'') that school with the abundant native [[Silver Cyprinid]] (''Rastrineobola argentea''), known locally as ''dagaa'' (Tanzania), ''omena'' (Kenya) or ''mukene'' (Uganda). In 1996 [[World Bank Group|The World Bank]] funded a project to restore and sustain the ecology of Lake Victoria and its fisheries, called LVEMP (Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project).


Several story points for this film came from discarded ideas for Disney's previous fairy tale involving a sleeping heroine: ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]''. They include Maleficent's capture of the Prince, as well as her mocking him and the Prince's daring escape from her castle. Disney discarded these ideas from ''Snow White'' because his artists were not able to draw a human male believably enough at the time. Also discarded from ''Snow White'' but used in this film were the ideas of the dance with the makeshift prince, and the fantasy sequence of the prince and princess dancing in the clouds, which was also considered but dropped from ''Cinderella''.
Meanwhile, the EU invested another large sum in fisheries infrastructure and monitoring. One product of these foreign aid programs has been the training of a new generation of east African aquatic ecologists, conservation professionals, and fisheries scientists. There has also been an increase in the fishery research institutes of the lake.


===Water hyacinth invasion===
===Live-action reference footage===
Before animation production began, every shot in the film was done in a live-action reference version, with live actors in costume serving as models for the animators. The role of Prince Phillip was modeled by [[Ed Kemmer]], who had played Commander Buzz Corry on television's ''[[Space Patrol (1950s)|Space Patrol]]'' five years before ''Sleeping Beauty'' was released. For the final battle sequence, Kemmer was photographed on a wooden buck. Among the actresses who performed in reference footage for this film were [[Spring Byington]], [[Frances Bavier]], and [[Helene Stanley]].
The water hyacinth ''[[Eichhornia crassipes]]'', a native of the tropical Americas, was introduced by Belgian colonists to [[Ruanda]] to beautify their holdings and then advanced by natural means to Lake Victoria where it was first sighted in 1988<ref name="Thielke">[http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,534060,00.html] Thilo Thielke: Die grüne Pest. Spiegel (de) 2/9/2008, accessed 2/9/2008</ref> There, without any natural enemies, it has become an ecological plague, suffocating the lake, diminishing the fish reservoir, and hurting the local economies. By forming thick mats of vegetation it causes difficulties to transportation, fishing, hydroelectric power generation and drinking water supply. By 1995, 90% of the [[Uganda]]n coastline was covered by the plant. With mechanical and chemical control of the problem seeming unlikely, the mottled water hyacinth weevil ''[[Neochetina eichhorniae]]'' was bred and released with good results. On the [[Kenya]]n site ,however, neglect has led to siginificant economic impact making it difficult to reach the harbor of [[Kisumu]], hurting fishing, and threatening the water supply.<ref name="Thielke"/>


[[Helene Stanley]] was the live action reference for Princess Aurora. The only known surviving footage of Stanley as Aurora's live-action reference is a clip from the television program ''[[Disneyland (TV series)|Disneyland]]'', which consists of the artists sketching her dancing with the woodland animals. It was not the first or last time Stanley worked for Disney; she also provided live-action references for ''[[Cinderella]]'' and Anita from ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'', and she also portrayed Polly Crockett for the TV series ''[[Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier]]''. An episode of ''[[The Mickey Mouse Club]]'' television series features Stanley re-enacting scenes from the ''Sleeping Beauty'' for the Mousketeers to watch (a clip from this episode is included as a special feature on the ''[[Cinderella (1950 film)|Cinderella]]'' Platinum Edition DVD).
== Nalubaale dam ==
{{main|Nalubaale Power Station}}
The only outflow for Lake Victoria is at [[Jinja, Uganda]] where it forms the Victoria Nile. The water originally drained over a natural rock weir. In 1952 British colonial engineers blasted out the weir and reservoir. A standard for mimicking the old rate of outflow called the "agreed curve" was established, setting the maximum flow rate at 300 to 1,700 cubic meters per second (392 - 2,224 yd³/sec) depending on the lake's water level.


All the live actors' performances were screened for the animators' reference as Walt Disney insisted that much of ''Sleeping Beauty's'' character animation be as close to live-action as possible.
In 2002 Uganda completed a second hydroelectric complex in the area, with World Bank assistance. By 2006 the water levels in Lake Victoria had reached an 80-year low, and Daniel Kull, an independent hydrologist living in Nairobi, Kenya, calculated that Uganda was releasing about twice as much water as is allowed under the agreement [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925384.100], and was the primary culprit in recent drops in the lake's level.


==Release and later history==
At 55,372 cubic meters per second (35,000 yrd³), more than double the maximum agreed curve, it would take a year to drain 110.75 cubic kilometres (89,500 [[acre-feet]]) from the lake. That is approximately 4% of the lake's volume.


===Theatrical release===
== Transportation ==
Since the 1900s [[Lake Victoria ferries]] have been an important means of transport between [[Uganda]], [[Tanzania]] and [[Kenya]]. The main ports on the lake are [[Kisumu]], [[Mwanza]], [[Bukoba]], [[Entebbe]], [[Port Bell]] and [[Jinja, Uganda|Jinja]]. The steamer [[MV Bukoba]] sank in the lake on [[October 3]], [[1995]], killing nearly 1,000 people in one of Africa's worst maritime disasters.


Disney's distribution arm, [[Buena Vista Distribution]], originally released ''Sleeping Beauty'' to theaters in both standard 35mm prints and large-format 70mm prints. The Super [[Technirama]] 70mm prints were equipped with six-track [[stereophonic sound]]; some [[CinemaScope]]-compatible 35mm Technirama prints were released in 4 channel stereo, and others had monaural soundtracks.
==See also==
*[[African Great Lakes]]
*[[Rift Valley lakes]]
*[[List of world's largest lakes]]
*''[[Darwin's Nightmare]]'' (documentary dealing with the damage that has been caused by Nile Perch introduction)


During its original release, ''Sleeping Beauty'' returned only half the invested sum of $6,000,000, nearly bankrupting the Disney studio. It was mainly criticized as being slowly paced and having little character development (which is a debatable point, since this was a differently formulated film than other classic Disney fare). Since then, the film has gained a following and is today hailed as one of the best animated features ever made, thanks to its stylized designs by painter [[Eyvind Earle]] who also was the art director for the movie, its lush music score and its large-format [[widescreen]] and stereophonic sound presentation.
==References==
<references/>


The film was re-released theatrically in [[1970 in film|1970]], [[1979 in film|1979]] (in 70mm 6 channel stereo, as well as in 35 mm stereo and mono),[[1986 in film|1986]], [[1993 in film|1993]], and will have a limited release in [[2008 in film| 2008]]. When adjusted for ticket price inflation, the domestic total gross comes out to $478.22 million, placing it in the top 30 of adjusted films. <ref>[http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
==External links==
{{Commons|Category:Lake Victoria|Lake Victoria}}
*[http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/homepage.asp?ID=306 Decreasing levels of Lake Victoria Worry East African Countries]
*[http://www.ppl.nl/bibliographies/all/?bibliography=water Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law]
* [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925384.100 New Scientist article] on Uganda's violation of the agreed curve for hydroelectric water flow.
'''Institutions of the [[East African Community]]'''
*[http://eachq.org:8020/lvdp/ Lake Victoria Basin Information Resources Database]
*[http://www.eac.int/lvdp/ Lake Victoria Development Programme]
*[http://www.lvfo.org/ Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization]


===Home video release===
{{link FA}}


''Sleeping Beauty'' was released on both [[VHS]] and [[Laserdisc]] in [[1986]] in the [[Walt Disney Classics|Classics collection]], becoming the first Disney Classics video to be digitally processed in Hi-Fi stereo. The film underwent an digital restoration in [[1997]], and that version was released to both [[VHS]] and [[Laserdisc]] again as part of the [[Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection|Masterpiece Collection]]. In [[2003]], the restored ''Sleeping Beauty'' was released to DVD in a 2-disc "Special Edition" which included both a widescreen version (formatted at 2.35:1) and a [[pan and scan]] version as well.
[[Category:African Great Lakes]]

[[Category:Lakes of Tanzania|Victoria]]
A 50th Anniversary [[Platinum Edition]] release of ''Sleeping Beauty'', as a 2-disc DVD & [[Blu-ray Disc]], was released on [[October 7]], [[2008]], making ''Sleeping Beauty'' the first entry in the Platinum Edition line to be released in [[high definition video]]. This release is based upon a new 2007 restoration of ''Sleeping Beauty'' from the original Technicolor negatives ([[intrapositive]]s several generations removed from the original negative were used for other home video releases). The new restoration features the film in its full negative aspect ratio of 2.55:1, wider than both the prints shown at the film's original limited Technirama engagements in 2.20:1 and the CinemaScope-compatible reduction prints for general release at 2.35:1. The Blu-ray set features [[BD-Live]], an online feature, and the extras include a virtual castle and multi-player games.<ref>http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=407 Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release</ref><ref>http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/junglebook/ Jungle Book, the first platinum title for DVD, not sleeping beauty</ref> The Blu-Ray release also include a standard-definition DVD of the film in addition to the two Blu-Ray discs.
[[Category:Lakes of Uganda|Victoria]]

[[Category:Lakes of Kenya|Victoria]]
=== Other appearances ===
[[Category:Kampala]]

[[Category:Lake Victoria|*]]
Aurora is one of the seven [[Princesses of Hearts]] in the popular [[Square Enix]] game ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' (although her appearances are brief), and Maleficent is a villain in all three [[Kingdom Hearts (series)|''Kingdom Hearts'' games]], and as a brief ally at the third game's climax. The good fairies appear in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', giving [[Sora (Kingdom Hearts)|Sora]] new clothes.
[[Category:Islands of Lake Victoria|*]]

[[Category:International lakes|Victoria]]
Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather were featured as guests in ''[[ Disney's House of Mouse]]'', and Maleficent was one of the villains in ''[[Mickey's House of Villains]]'.

Maleficent's goons appear in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]''.

The first all-new story featuring the characters from the movie appeared in ''[[Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams]]'', the first volume of collection of the [[Disney Princess|Disney Princesses]]. It was released on [[September 4]], [[2007]].

In the future ''[[Kingdom Hearts (series)|Kingdom Hearts]]'' game, ''[[Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep]]'', Terra is seen fighting his way through the forest of thorns while heading for a castle, which concludes that the setting of this film will be featured in the game. There is also a cut scene where Terra is talking to Maleficent. Maleficent and Ventus are also seen next standing by the sleeping Aurora in the game's recent [[film trailer|trailer]].

Various characters from the film also appear in the [[Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty (board game)|board game of the same name]].

===''Sleeping Beauty'' release history===
*[[January 29]], [[1959 in film|1959]] (original release)
*[[May 18]], [[1966 in film|1966]] ([[New Orleans]] premiere)
*[[June 10]], [[1970 in film|1970]]
*[[September 28]], [[1979 in film|1979]]
*[[March 7]], [[1986 in film|1986]]
*[[Spring (season)|Spring]] [[1993 in film|1993]]
*[[September 9]], [[2003]] (Special Edition DVD)
*[[October 7]], [[2008 in film|2008]] (Platinum Edition DVD)

===Worldwide release dates===
*'''[[Brazil]]''': [[February 6]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Argentina]]''': [[July 9]], [[1959]]
*'''[[U.K.]]''': [[July 29]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Australia]]''': [[September 10]], [[1959]]
*'''[[West Germany]]''': [[October 30]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Italy]]''': [[December 1]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Turkey]]''': [[December 9]], [[1959]]
*'''[[France]]''': [[December 16]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Finland]]''': [[December 18]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Sweden]]''': [[December 19]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Mexico]]''': [[December 24]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Denmark]]''': [[December 26]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Norway]]''': [[December 26]], [[1959]]
*'''[[Austria]]''': [[January 15]], [[1960]]
*'''[[Hong Kong]]''': [[May 26]], [[1960]]
*'''[[Japan]]''': [[July 23]], [[1960]]
*'''[[Spain]]''': [[October 3]], [[1960]]
*'''[[Portugal]]''': [[April 2]], [[1961]]
*'''[[Yugoslavia]]''': [[June 13]], [[1964]]
*'''[[Peru]]''': [[October 15]], [[1966]]
*'''[[East Germany]]''': [[October 10]], [[1969]]
*'''[[Zaire]]''': [[November 14]], [[1977]] ([[Kinshasa]])
*'''[[Poland]]''': [[August 18]], [[1995]]
*'''[[Estonia]]''': [[August 12]], [[1997]]
*'''[[Kuwait]]''': [[May 24]], [[1999]]
*'''[[Brunei]]''': [[February 12]], [[2005]]

==Characters==

[[Image:PrincessAuroraWiththeThreeGoodFairies.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A sleeping Princess Aurora and the three good fairies, Fauna, Merryweather, and Flora, from left to right.]]
*'''Flora''', '''Merryweather''', and '''Fauna''' (The Three Good Fairies), voiced by '''[[Verna Felton]]''', '''[[Barbara Luddy]]''' , and '''[[Barbara Jo Allen]]''' respectively.
*'''[[Maleficent]]''', voiced by '''[[Eleanor Audley]]'''.
*'''Princess Aurora/Briar Rose''', voiced by '''[[Mary Costa]]'''.
*'''Prince Phillip''', voiced by '''[[Bill Shirley]]'''.
*'''King Stefan''', voiced by '''[[Taylor Holmes]]'''.
*'''King Hubert''', voiced by '''[[Bill Thompson (voice actor)|Bill Thompson]]'''.
*'''The Narrator''', voiced by '''[[Marvin Miller (actor)|Marvin Miller]]'''.
*'''Maleficent's Goons''', voiced by '''[[Candy Candido]]''', '''[[Pinto Colvig]]''', and '''Bob Amsberry'''.
*'''The Owl''', voiced by '''[[Dallas McKennon]]'''.
Characters who are unvoiced include the lackey and Maleficent's raven. The actress who voiced King Stefan's queen is unknown.

==Directing Animators==
* [[Milt Kahl]] (Prince Phillip)
* [[Frank Thomas (animator)|Frank Thomas]] (Flora, Fauna, Merryweather with Oille Johnston)
* [[Ollie Johnston]] (Flora, Fauna, Merryweather with Frank Thomas)
* [[Marc Davis]] (Aurora, Maleficent)
* [[John Lounsbery]] (King Stefan, King Hubert)

==Awards and nominations==
===Nominated===
*'''[[Academy Awards]]'''[http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1215145841468]
** [[Academy Award for Original Music Score|Best Scoring of a Musical Picture]] ([[George Bruns]]) (Lost against [[Porgy and Bess]])

*[[Grammy Awards]]
**Best Soundtrack Album, Original Cast - Motion Picture or Television

==Media and Merchandise==

===Theme Parks===
[[Image:PrincessAurora.jpg|thumb|right|Sleeping Beauty cast member at Walt Disney World]]
''Sleeping Beauty'' was made while [[Walt Disney]] was building [[Disneyland]] (hence the four year production time). To help promote the film, [[Imagineer]]s declared the castle there was Sleeping Beauty's (it was originally to be Snow White's).

Several years later an indoor walkthrough section was added to the castle, where guests could walk through dioramas of scenes from the film. It closed shortly after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]], supposedly because the dark, unmonitored corridors were a risk. Currently, the former attraction is being used as extra space to house parts for the new fireworks show for Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration. As a result, none of the original walkthrough remains intact. Recently, photos have been shown of a construction wall going up around the original entrance. Many believe it will reopen in late 2008.

[[Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant]] at Disneyland Paris is a variant of Sleeping Beauty Castle. The version found at Disneyland Paris is much more reminiscent of the film's artistic direction.

[[Hong Kong Disneyland]] opened in 2005, also with a Sleeping Beauty Castle, with a fairly-similar design to Disneyland's.

Princess Aurora (and, to a lesser extent, Prince Phillip, the three good fairies, and Maleficent) makes regular appearances in the parks and parades.

In Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland Paris, a sleeping dragon, designed to look like Maleficent's dragon form, is found in the lower level dungeon.

===Video Games===
Princess Aurora appears in the game [[Kingdom Hearts]] as one of the [[Princesses of Heart]]<ref>[http://na.square-enix.com/games/kingdomhearts/ Kingdom Hearts Official Page]</ref>.

==Soundtrack listing==
# Main Title/[Once Upon a Dream]/Prologue
# Hail to the Princess Aurora
# The Gifts of Beauty and Song/Maleficent Appears/True Love Conquers All
# The Burning of the Spinning Wheels/The Fairies' Plan
# Maleficent's Frustration
# A Cottage in the Woods
# Do You Hear That?/I Wonder
# An Unusual Prince/Once Upon a Dream
# Magical House Cleaning/Blue or Pink
# A Secret Revealed
# Skumps (Drinking Song)/The Royal Argument
# Prince Phillip Arrives/How to Tell Stefan
# Aurora's Return/Maleficent's Evil Spell
# Poor Aurora/Sleeping Beauty
# Forbidden Mountain
# A Fairy Tale Come True
# Battle with the Forces of Evil
# Awakening
# Finale

On [[Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic]], this includes ''Once Upon a Dream'' on the [[Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic#Disc three|green disc]] and ''I Wonder'' on the [[Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic#Disc four|purple disc]].
And on [[Disney's Greatest Hits]], this also includes ''Once Upon a Dream'' on the [[Disney's Greatest Hits#Volume 1|blue disc]].
[[Emily Osment]] has sung a remake of "Once Upon A Dream", released on [[Disney Channel]] on September 12, 2008.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/sleepingbeauty/ Disney Sleeping Beauty DVD official website]
* {{imdb title|id=0053285|title=Sleeping Beauty}}
* ''[http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/cartoon.cgi?film=32&cartoon=Sleeping%20Beauty Sleeping Beauty]'' in the [[Big Cartoon DataBase]]
*[http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com/moviefinder/products/2975503.html ''Sleeping Beauty Special Edition DVD''] - official Disney website


{{Disney theatrical animated features}}
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[[Category:1959 films]]
[[Category:Disney animated features canon]]
[[Category:English-language films]]
[[Category:Films based on fairy tales]]
[[Category:Children's fantasy films]]
[[Category:Romance films]]
[[Category:Romantic fantasy films]]
[[Category:Fantasy films]]
[[Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters]]


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[[ca:Llac Victòria]]
[[it:La bella addormentata nel bosco (film)]]
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[[fr:Lac Victoria]]
[[vi:Người đẹp ngủ trong rừng (phim)]]
[[gl:Lago Vitoria]]
[[ko:빅토리아 호]]
[[zh:睡美人 (電影)]]
[[hr:Viktorijino jezero]]
[[id:Danau Victoria]]
[[is:Viktoríuvatn]]
[[it:Lago Vittoria]]
[[he:אגם ויקטוריה]]
[[sw:Victoria (ziwa)]]
[[la:Lacus Victoria]]
[[lv:Viktorijas ezers]]
[[lt:Viktorijos ežeras]]
[[hu:Viktória-tó (Afrika)]]
[[mk:Езеро Викторија]]
[[nl:Victoriameer]]
[[ja:ヴィクトリア湖]]
[[no:Victoriasjøen]]
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[[pl:Jezioro Wiktorii]]
[[pt:Lago Vitória]]
[[ro:Lacul Victoria]]
[[qu:Ñansa qucha]]
[[ru:Виктория (озеро)]]
[[simple:Lake Victoria]]
[[sk:Viktóriino jazero]]
[[sl:Jezero Ukerewe]]
[[so:Harta Fiktooriya]]
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[[fi:Victoriajärvi]]
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[[vi:Hồ Victoria]]
[[tr:Victoria Gölü]]
[[uk:Вікторія (озеро)]]
[[vec:Lago Vitoria]]
[[zh:維多利亞湖]]

Revision as of 12:47, 12 October 2008

"Once Upon A Dream" redirects here. For other uses, see Once Upon a Dream.
Sleeping Beauty
Directed byClyde Geronimi (supervising)
Les Clark
Eric Larson
Wolfgang Reitherman
Written byErdman Penner (adaptation)
Joe Rinaldi
Winston Hibler
Bill Peet
Ted Sears
Ralph Wright
Milt Banta
Charles Perrault (original fairy tale)
Produced byWalt Disney
StarringMary Costa
Eleanor Audley
Verna Felton
Barbara Luddy
Barbara Jo Allen
Bill Shirley
Taylor Holmes
Bill Thompson
Distributed byBuena Vista Distribution
Release dates
January 29, 1959
Running time
76 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6,000,000 USD (estimated)

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theatres on January 29, 1959, by Buena Vista Distribution. The sixteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, it was the last animated feature produced by Walt Disney to be based upon a fairy tale (after his death, the studio returned to the genre with 1989's The Little Mermaid). In addition, Sleeping Beauty was the first animated feature to be shot in Super Technirama 70, one of many large-format widescreen processes. Only one more animated film, The Black Cauldron, was ever shot in Super Technirama 70.

The film was directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman, under the supervision of Clyde Geronimi. The film was based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault, with additional story work by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta. The film's musical score and songs, featuring the work of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, are inspired from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Plot synopsis

Princess Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of the dawn "because she fills her father and mother's lives with sunshine." While still an infant, she is betrothed to the also-young Prince Phillip, son and heir to King Hubert's throne. At her christening, the good fairies Flora (dressed in red/pink), Merryweather (in blue), and Fauna (in green) arrive to bless her. Flora gives her the gift of beauty, which is described in a song as "gold of sunshine in her hair" and "lips that shame the red, red rose." Fauna gives her the gift of song. At this point, Maleficent, the film's villain and Mistress of All Evil, appears on the scene. Claiming to be upset at not being invited to Aurora's christening ceremony, she curses the princess to die when she touches a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. Fortunately, Merryweather has not yet blessed Aurora, so she uses her blessing to alter Maleficent's curse: Aurora will not die when she touches the spinning wheel, instead, she will fall asleep until she is awakened by true love's kiss. In addition, Aurora's father, King Stefan, orders all spinning wheels in the kingdom burned, but knowing Maleficent is extremely powerful and will stop at nothing to see her curse fulfilled, the three good fairies take Aurora to live with them in the woods, where they can keep her safe from any harm until she turns sixteen and the curse is made void. To fully protect her, they even change her name to Briar-Rose.

Aurora grows into a very beautiful young woman with long golden yellow hair, rose-colored lips, lilac-colored eyes, and a marvelous singing voice, 'with golden sunshine in her hair and lips that shame the red red rose'. She, although very beautiful and sweet, does not care for her appearance but she hopes that someday "her song will go winging" to a handsome man. She is raised in a cottage in the forest by the three fairies, who she believes are her aunts. Meanwhile, the evil creatures employed by Maleficent admit to their mistress that they have not been able to find the princess, despite looking in every cradle they could find. Maleficent realizes that they have been looking for a baby for 16 years and sends her "last hope," her pet raven Diablo, to look for Aurora. On the day of her sixteenth birthday, the three fairies choose to use magic to make Rose a gown and a cake. As Flora and Merryweather fight it out to have the dress their signature color, Maleficent's raven flies over the forest and spots the magical glitter fluttering in the air and reports back to Maleficent. While out picking berries, Rose sings to entertain her animal friends; her angelic voice gains the attention of Prince Phillip, who has grown into a handsome young man and is out riding his horse in the woods. When they meet, they instantly fall in love. Realizing that she has to return home, Aurora flees from Phillip without ever learning his name. Despite promising to meet him again, she is unable to return, as her "aunts" choose that time to reveal the truth of her birth to her and to tell her that she is betrothed to a prince named Phillip.

They leave the woods, and Aurora makes it into the palace. Unfortunately, Maleficent uses her magic to lure Aurora away from her chambers up into the tallest tower of the palace, where a spinning wheel awaits her. Fascinated by the wheel, she touches the spindle, pricking her finger. As had been foretold by the curse, Aurora is put under a sleeping spell. The good fairies place Aurora on a bed with a red rose in her hand, and cause a deep sleep to fall over the entire kingdom "until Rose awakens." While doing so, they realize, from King Hubert trying to tell King Stefan that his son is in love with a peasant-girl, that the young man Aurora had fallen in love with is Prince Phillip. Unfortunately, he has been bound, gagged, and captured by Maleficent and imprisoned in her castle to prevent him from kissing Aurora and waking her up. The three good fairies sneak into Maleficent's domain, The Forbidden Mountains, aid the prince in escaping and explain to him the story of Maleficent's curse. Armed with the magical Sword of Truth and The Shield of Virtue, Phillip battles Maleficent when the sorceress turns herself into a gigantic fire-breathing dragon. The sword, blessed by the fairies' magic, is plunged into the dragon's heart, killing her. Phillip climbs to Aurora's chamber, and removes the curse with a kiss. As the film ends, the prince and princess both happily learn that their betrothed and their beloved are one and the same.They dance a waltz while Merryweather and Flora squabble over the color of Aurora's dress once again.

Production

Overview and art direction

Sleeping Beauty spent nearly the entire decade of the 1950s in production: the story work began in 1951, voices were recorded in 1952, animation production took from 1953 until 1958, and the stereophonic musical score, partially based on Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same name, was recorded in 1957. The film holds a notable position in Disney animation as the last Disney feature to use hand-inked cels. Beginning with the next feature, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Disney would move to the use of xerography to transfer animators' drawings from paper to celluloid. Its art, which Walt Disney wanted to look like a living illustration and which was inspired by medieval art, was not in the typical Disney style. Because the Disney studio had already made two features based on fairy tales, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, Walt Disney wanted this film to stand out from its predecessors by choosing a different visual style. The movie eschewed the soft, rounded look of earlier Disney features for a more stylized one. Since Super Technirama 70 was used, it also meant the backgrounds could contain more detailed and complex artwork than ever used in an animated movie before.

Disney artist Eyvind Earle was the film's production designer, and Disney gave him a significant amount of freedom in designing the settings and selecting colors for the film. Earle also painted the majority of the backgrounds himself. The elaborate paintings usually took seven to ten days to paint; by contrast, a typical animation background took only one workday to complete. Disney's decision to give Earle so much artistic freedom was not popular among the Disney animators, who had until Sleeping Beauty exercised some influence over the style of their characters and settings.

Characters and story development

The name of the beautiful Sleeping Beauty is "Princess Aurora" (Latin for "dawn"), in this film, as it was in the original Tchaikovsky ballet; this name occurred in Perrault's version, not as the princess's name, but as her daughter's.[1] In hiding, she is called Briar Rose, the name of the princess in the Brothers Grimm variant.[2] The prince was given the only princely name familiar to Americans in the 1950s: "Prince Phillip," named after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The dark fairy was aptly named Maleficent (which means "Evil-doer").

Walt Disney had suggested that all three good fairies should look alike, but veteran animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston objected, saying that three identical fairies would not be exciting. Additionally, the idea originally included seven fairies instead of three, as there are seven fairies in the story's main reference, Perrault's version. In determining Maleficent's design, standard depictions of witches and hags were dismissed as animator Marc Davis opted for a more elegant look centered around the appearance of flames, ultimately crowning the villain with "the horns of the devil."

Several story points for this film came from discarded ideas for Disney's previous fairy tale involving a sleeping heroine: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They include Maleficent's capture of the Prince, as well as her mocking him and the Prince's daring escape from her castle. Disney discarded these ideas from Snow White because his artists were not able to draw a human male believably enough at the time. Also discarded from Snow White but used in this film were the ideas of the dance with the makeshift prince, and the fantasy sequence of the prince and princess dancing in the clouds, which was also considered but dropped from Cinderella.

Live-action reference footage

Before animation production began, every shot in the film was done in a live-action reference version, with live actors in costume serving as models for the animators. The role of Prince Phillip was modeled by Ed Kemmer, who had played Commander Buzz Corry on television's Space Patrol five years before Sleeping Beauty was released. For the final battle sequence, Kemmer was photographed on a wooden buck. Among the actresses who performed in reference footage for this film were Spring Byington, Frances Bavier, and Helene Stanley.

Helene Stanley was the live action reference for Princess Aurora. The only known surviving footage of Stanley as Aurora's live-action reference is a clip from the television program Disneyland, which consists of the artists sketching her dancing with the woodland animals. It was not the first or last time Stanley worked for Disney; she also provided live-action references for Cinderella and Anita from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and she also portrayed Polly Crockett for the TV series Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. An episode of The Mickey Mouse Club television series features Stanley re-enacting scenes from the Sleeping Beauty for the Mousketeers to watch (a clip from this episode is included as a special feature on the Cinderella Platinum Edition DVD).

All the live actors' performances were screened for the animators' reference as Walt Disney insisted that much of Sleeping Beauty's character animation be as close to live-action as possible.

Release and later history

Theatrical release

Disney's distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution, originally released Sleeping Beauty to theaters in both standard 35mm prints and large-format 70mm prints. The Super Technirama 70mm prints were equipped with six-track stereophonic sound; some CinemaScope-compatible 35mm Technirama prints were released in 4 channel stereo, and others had monaural soundtracks.

During its original release, Sleeping Beauty returned only half the invested sum of $6,000,000, nearly bankrupting the Disney studio. It was mainly criticized as being slowly paced and having little character development (which is a debatable point, since this was a differently formulated film than other classic Disney fare). Since then, the film has gained a following and is today hailed as one of the best animated features ever made, thanks to its stylized designs by painter Eyvind Earle who also was the art director for the movie, its lush music score and its large-format widescreen and stereophonic sound presentation.

The film was re-released theatrically in 1970, 1979 (in 70mm 6 channel stereo, as well as in 35 mm stereo and mono),1986, 1993, and will have a limited release in 2008. When adjusted for ticket price inflation, the domestic total gross comes out to $478.22 million, placing it in the top 30 of adjusted films. [3]

Home video release

Sleeping Beauty was released on both VHS and Laserdisc in 1986 in the Classics collection, becoming the first Disney Classics video to be digitally processed in Hi-Fi stereo. The film underwent an digital restoration in 1997, and that version was released to both VHS and Laserdisc again as part of the Masterpiece Collection. In 2003, the restored Sleeping Beauty was released to DVD in a 2-disc "Special Edition" which included both a widescreen version (formatted at 2.35:1) and a pan and scan version as well.

A 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition release of Sleeping Beauty, as a 2-disc DVD & Blu-ray Disc, was released on October 7, 2008, making Sleeping Beauty the first entry in the Platinum Edition line to be released in high definition video. This release is based upon a new 2007 restoration of Sleeping Beauty from the original Technicolor negatives (intrapositives several generations removed from the original negative were used for other home video releases). The new restoration features the film in its full negative aspect ratio of 2.55:1, wider than both the prints shown at the film's original limited Technirama engagements in 2.20:1 and the CinemaScope-compatible reduction prints for general release at 2.35:1. The Blu-ray set features BD-Live, an online feature, and the extras include a virtual castle and multi-player games.[4][5] The Blu-Ray release also include a standard-definition DVD of the film in addition to the two Blu-Ray discs.

Other appearances

Aurora is one of the seven Princesses of Hearts in the popular Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts (although her appearances are brief), and Maleficent is a villain in all three Kingdom Hearts games, and as a brief ally at the third game's climax. The good fairies appear in Kingdom Hearts II, giving Sora new clothes.

Princess Aurora, Prince Phillip, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather were featured as guests in Disney's House of Mouse, and Maleficent was one of the villains in Mickey's House of Villains'.

Maleficent's goons appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The first all-new story featuring the characters from the movie appeared in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, the first volume of collection of the Disney Princesses. It was released on September 4, 2007.

In the future Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Terra is seen fighting his way through the forest of thorns while heading for a castle, which concludes that the setting of this film will be featured in the game. There is also a cut scene where Terra is talking to Maleficent. Maleficent and Ventus are also seen next standing by the sleeping Aurora in the game's recent trailer.

Various characters from the film also appear in the board game of the same name.

Sleeping Beauty release history

Worldwide release dates

Characters

File:PrincessAuroraWiththeThreeGoodFairies.jpg
A sleeping Princess Aurora and the three good fairies, Fauna, Merryweather, and Flora, from left to right.

Characters who are unvoiced include the lackey and Maleficent's raven. The actress who voiced King Stefan's queen is unknown.

Directing Animators

Awards and nominations

Nominated

  • Grammy Awards
    • Best Soundtrack Album, Original Cast - Motion Picture or Television

Media and Merchandise

Theme Parks

Sleeping Beauty cast member at Walt Disney World

Sleeping Beauty was made while Walt Disney was building Disneyland (hence the four year production time). To help promote the film, Imagineers declared the castle there was Sleeping Beauty's (it was originally to be Snow White's).

Several years later an indoor walkthrough section was added to the castle, where guests could walk through dioramas of scenes from the film. It closed shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, supposedly because the dark, unmonitored corridors were a risk. Currently, the former attraction is being used as extra space to house parts for the new fireworks show for Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration. As a result, none of the original walkthrough remains intact. Recently, photos have been shown of a construction wall going up around the original entrance. Many believe it will reopen in late 2008.

Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant at Disneyland Paris is a variant of Sleeping Beauty Castle. The version found at Disneyland Paris is much more reminiscent of the film's artistic direction.

Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, also with a Sleeping Beauty Castle, with a fairly-similar design to Disneyland's.

Princess Aurora (and, to a lesser extent, Prince Phillip, the three good fairies, and Maleficent) makes regular appearances in the parks and parades.

In Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland Paris, a sleeping dragon, designed to look like Maleficent's dragon form, is found in the lower level dungeon.

Video Games

Princess Aurora appears in the game Kingdom Hearts as one of the Princesses of Heart[6].

Soundtrack listing

  1. Main Title/[Once Upon a Dream]/Prologue
  2. Hail to the Princess Aurora
  3. The Gifts of Beauty and Song/Maleficent Appears/True Love Conquers All
  4. The Burning of the Spinning Wheels/The Fairies' Plan
  5. Maleficent's Frustration
  6. A Cottage in the Woods
  7. Do You Hear That?/I Wonder
  8. An Unusual Prince/Once Upon a Dream
  9. Magical House Cleaning/Blue or Pink
  10. A Secret Revealed
  11. Skumps (Drinking Song)/The Royal Argument
  12. Prince Phillip Arrives/How to Tell Stefan
  13. Aurora's Return/Maleficent's Evil Spell
  14. Poor Aurora/Sleeping Beauty
  15. Forbidden Mountain
  16. A Fairy Tale Come True
  17. Battle with the Forces of Evil
  18. Awakening
  19. Finale

On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this includes Once Upon a Dream on the green disc and I Wonder on the purple disc. And on Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes Once Upon a Dream on the blue disc. Emily Osment has sung a remake of "Once Upon A Dream", released on Disney Channel on September 12, 2008.

References

  1. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "The Annotated Sleeping Beauty"
  2. ^ Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimm's Fairy Tales, "Briar Rose"
  3. ^ All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation
  4. ^ http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=407 Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release
  5. ^ http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/junglebook/ Jungle Book, the first platinum title for DVD, not sleeping beauty
  6. ^ Kingdom Hearts Official Page

External links

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