| Sleeping Beauty (Fully Restored Limited Edition) (Walt Disney's Masterpiece) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 240 reviews)
Sales Rank: 48
Category: Video
Actors: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy
Director: Clyde Geronimi
Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video
Studio: Walt Disney Home Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Video
Label: Walt Disney Home Video
Format: Animated, Color, Limited Edition, Thx, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: VHS Tape
Running Time: 75 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6304401132
UPC: 786936023862
EAN: 9786304401132
ASIN: 6304401132
Release Date: September 16, 1997
Theatrical Release Date: January 29, 1959
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
Disney's 1959 animated effort was the studio's most ambitious to date, a widescreen spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapting Tchaikovsky. In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her 16th birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Things almost but not quite turn out that way, thanks to the assistance of some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here. And Malificent's castle, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke
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| Customer Reviews: Read 235 more reviews...
 A big "WOW!" to the new DVD October 7, 2008
Most new Disney editions have been improvements over what has come before, but this new edition of SLEEPING BEAUTY is an unparalleled improvement on all previous editions. Before receiving the new Platinum DVD copy I dipped back briefly into my old VHS copy that I had for my daughter when she was a child. 4:3 ratio, poor color, in general nothing special.
I then put in the disc for the new Platinum edition. I was utterly and absolutely astonished. Widescreen instead of 4:3. The improvement in the color was unbelievable. Now, I have to offer a disclaimer. I watched the Platinum edition on a Philips up-conversion DVD player. Unless you own an up-conversion DVD player and a high-def TV it won't look this good for you (though it is also available in Blu-ray -- I would love to have checked this out on Blu-ray through my Sony PS3, but I only had the regular DVD). But with my set up the results were nothing short of spectacular. I was absolutely thrilled with the results. Even if you have a relatively low-tech DVD set up, this is going to be a vast improvement over the old VHS edition.
SLEEPING BEAUTY has always had special emotional importance for me. My Dad and I never did much stuff together. I don't have many childhood memories of just me and him. But for some reason he took me, when I was a very small child, to the theater to see SLEEPING BEAUTY. I believe that it was the only movie that only he and I ever saw. My mother took me to many, many movies, but my father only this. We would later go as a family to many movies, but this one was just the two of us. This alone would mark this as a special movie. This new edition brings back the original big screen experience that I had at the Markham Street Cinema (since torn down) in Little Rock, Arkansas as a small child.
As an adult SLEEPING BEAUTY is both a wonderful experience and something approaching self-parody. There is A-List Disney and B-List Disney. SLEEPING BEAUTY is without any question A-List. It was one of the last feature length films done before the institution of the Xerox process. I consider it the end of the Golden Age of Disney. It ends the era that began with SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. The self-parody comes out in the endless take offs on elements contained in the film. The recent (and exceptionally good) Disney film ENCHANTED takes off on the aspects of this film that shows Aurora as intimate friends with wild animals. It is also seen in SHREK when Princess Fiona sings and makes wild birds explode.
The was the last Disney film to be completely hand painted. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS, the next major Disney production, utilized a xerox process that eliminated the need for most of the background painters. The difference between this and subsequent films is palpable. While the economics of the industry dictated that the switch to Xerox be made, it is truly said that the transformation was made.
As a child, I found this to be far and away the most terrifying of all the Disney films. I stil vividly remember the horror I felt as the Prince chopped his way through the barrier of thorns that surrounded the castle and the terrifying transformation of Mileficent into a terrible dragon.
If you are already a fan of SLEEPING BEAUTY then this is a must-owen film. If you don't know the movie, this is the only edition that you should consider for your first encounter. As I've learned first hand, all of the Disney re-releases of their movies are utterly first rate. But this is one of the great Disney movies. We get not only a exquisite version of a Disney movie, but a first rate version of one of the greatest fims that Disney had mde.
Detailed Remastering Extras Awaken Disney's Stunning "Sleeping Beauty" October 7, 2008
Walt Disney's 1958 "Sleeping Beauty" marked the end of the studio's first golden era and, by extension, an era in American filmmaking. Watching this 50th anniversary edition (the most lovingly compiled among these 2DVD resissue series sets), you sense everyone involved - Disney's legendary "Nine Old Men," animators, Walt himself, even the characters on screen - knew it.
For years Disney called his TV show, "The Wonderful World of Color," but in "Sleeping Beauty" he told an admittedly thin story (adapting an opulent Tchaikovsky soundtrack)almost through vividness alone. Sets overflow with near 3D level detail and depth, swirling scene to scene and rewarding the eye when stopping a frame. Green dominates: Princess Aurora's ponders and meets her future in the pastoral forest singing "I Wonder," dark pea-moss clouds surround and shadow villanous Maleficient's castle (joining royal purple in her angry frustration) or green flames where Aurora's betrothed Prince Philip defeats her in the film's climax.
Eyvind Earle's justifiably praised art background (feted in a DVD bonus) rests behind loveable ancillary characters. Three fussy good fairies (distinctive to the film's betterment by "Old Men" Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas,over Disney's objection), sweet forest animals always in Disney's repertory, a jolly king and tipsy troubadour jester divert and move the plot, pumping humor and life into a film little about plot to start with.
"Sleeping Beauty" was about allowing Disney's audiences one last unabashedly romantic, unironic visit to 14th century fantasyland, to the sword of truth and shield of virtue where (as Maleficient mocks),"True love does conquer all" and good fairy Fauna cries, "I just love happy endings." Almost every animated feature to follow, starting with Disney's 1961's "101 Dalmations," gave a sly wink or modern in-joke reference, stretching right to Princess Fiona's parody of forest scene in Dreamworks' 2000 postmodern masterpiece, "Shrek."
"Sleeping Beauty"'s bonus features acknowledge its cross-generational appeal. Three exceptional documentaries address its making (one covers the lengthy, excruciating "Sequence 8" alone). You get an instructive if overdramatic vintage "Disneyland" Tchaikovsky bio, featuring Walt Disney's explaining of "Sleeping Beauty"'s Technirama 70mm filming style and demonstrating stereophonic sound and widescreen picture. You get an intriguing if conventional alternative opening, deleted songs and storyboards.
You also get children's word and dance games and Emily Osment's gawky teen-pop version of Sammy Fain's "Once Upon A Dream." But the most notable extra is the film's digital remastering and soundtrack. It takes advantage of Blu-Ray and other home theater technology in ways even visionary Walt could not have imagined previewing the film for his TV audience. (To illustrate, compare this print with the bonus trailers from the film's re-releases). "Sleeping Beauty" stands as one of Disney's most important achievements artistically and historically, and this 50th anniversary set is the most complete and essential way to own it.
An unforgettable story becomes even harder to forget October 7, 2008
The Sleeping Beauty story never gets old, no matter how old you are or how long ago you saw it. But this Platinum Edition brings out the best in the story with a great-looking digitally restored picture, making it now even harder to forget with colors that jump at you. If you can watch the movie on a widescreen TV you will enjoy it at its fullest as it was the first one that Disney did on 70 mm film.
Alongside the unforgettable tale, there are lots of extra material packing the two discs, such as children games, a great documentary on the making of the movie and even a short on the life of Tchaikovsky (whose music is featured on the film) that make this package a must have for Disney fans.
Reconsidering Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" as a restored classic October 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have been trying to remember the first time I saw Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty," and I cannot remember if I ever saw it in a theater, caught it on television some time, or never sat down to watch it until it came out on videotape. What I did remember is not being particularly impressed by the movie. Certainly I did not consider it to be a classic Disney animated film like "Bambi" or "Cinderella," which is a way of saying that it was not on my "must have" list of Disney movies. Then I watched this 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition of "Sleeping Beauty" and all I can say is that however I saw this film for the first time it was NOT in this expanded version that has restored the original Super Technirama 70 dimensions of the film. I would have remembered a film that had art this gorgeous, even when it is this stylized and even when the music is classical high brow stuff. In the final analysis, "Sleeping Beauty" is clearly like no other Disney animated film, and that is a good thing.
Disc 1 includes "Grand Canyon," a contemporaneous Disney feature (1958) that combines photography of the national park with Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite," and it would be the classical music that is the common denominator to the main feature. Disc 2 has Games & Activities over in the Cottage, while the Castle is devoted to the Backstage Disney special features. The games are pretty much geared for younger children (e.g., see "mop" and click on the item the word represents), so most of the goodies on the second disc are for the adults. There is a new documentary on "The Making of 'Sleeping Beauty,'" which combines archival footage with contemporary interviews. The "Never-Before-Seen Alternate Opening" and "Deleted Songs" are not animated but storyboard drawings accompanying the original, more traditional Disney-like, songs that were written for the film before Walt decided to go primarily with a score based on Tchaikovsky's ballet version of the fairy tale.
If you have picked up any of these platinum editions, then you should be well versed in the sort of extras you can expect here in terms of storyboards, artwork, live-action reference footing, music video by some teenage singer, etc. The other one that stands out here is the fully immersive virtual tour of the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough, a Disneyland attraction that actually existed before the part opened and years before the movie was released.
Besides reminding us again that Walt Disney was a true visionary, the special features highlight the pivotal role of Eyvind Earle, the film's production designer. It was Earle who was given an amazing amount of freedom by Walt to design the settings and to paint most of the film's elaborate background paintings (which usually took a week to do, rather than a single day like in most animated films). The interviews with surviving members of the studio make it clear that Earle did not play well with others, but he was fully committed to creating a unique animated film and now that we can see the expanded version, there is no denying that is exactly what they accomplished. Consequently, I am confident I can remember in the future that "Sleeping Beauty" is a beautifully stylized animated film that is a unique jewel in the Disney crown.
Beauty and MaleficienceTogether. October 7, 2008
Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY is based upon the story of Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm. In this version of the tale, a beautiful baby girl named Aurora is born to a friendly king and queen. After her birth people and creatures from all around come to give her gifts, including three good fairies. Two of the fairies give their gifts to the child but before the third fairy is able to do so, an un-invited guest, the evil sorceress Malificient, appears and places a curse upon the child. Before the end of Aurora's birthday she will prick her finger upon the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. After Malificient leaves, the third fairy bestows her gift: instead of dying, Aurora will only fall into a deep slumber when the event happens and will only awaken with true love's kiss. The fairies take Aurora and hide her and raise her deep in the woods as their own child. When Aurora meets her true love, Prince Phillip, it would seem that everything is going to work out as planned. But in fairy tales, even a Disneyized version of one, nothing is quite as it seems.
SLEEPING BEAUTY had been in pre-production and production for almost a decade before it was originally released in theatres in 1958. The film was incredibly expensive to make and had it failed it would have bankrupted the studio. In fact, the film was so expensive that it was the last Disney animated picture to mostly have hand-drawn animated cells for each frame of the picture. Xeroxing was king after that and a glory age of animation came to an end. The film turned out to be a huge critical and financial success and remains as one of the most beautiful animated Disney features ever. The influence of the movie can clearly be seen on modern animated pictures, most prominently Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The movie also contains some very memorable Disney characters, including the most wicked of all Disney villains, Malificient.
Besides the visual impact of the picture, the film is also notable for it's very un-Disney-like score. The film was scored by an adaptation of George Bruns from Tchaikovsky's famous ballet, SLEEPING BEAUTY.
As beautiful and stunning a movie that SLEEPING BEAUTY is, it has one major drawback. Like all Disney animated pictures, the writers in adapting the original story from the Brother's Grimm failed to include some of the more dark and graphic parts of the story of Briar Rose, e.g. as the final confrontation between Malificient and Prince Phillip. Other than that, though, SLEEPING BEAUTY is a meticulously-crafted example of the art of animation and one of the most beautifully drawn pictures ever to grace cinema screens. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys Disney films or well-done animation.
The special 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition of the movie comes with two discs. The first disc includes the movie in widescreen digitally restored format; "Once Upon a Dream" music video with Emily Osment; song selections that can be played with or without lyrics; a commentary with John Lasseter, Andreas Deja, and Leonard Maltin; "Princess Facts" (pop-up factoids that appear while watching the movie); the short pictorial GRAND CANYON (this was the short that originally accompanied SLEEPING BEAUTY in theatres); and a Walt Disney special entitled "Peter Tchaikovsky Story", which was the first tv program to be simulcast in widescreen picture and stereo sound
The second disc is a special feature disc. It includes the documentary "Picture Perfect: Making of SLEEPING BEAUTY"; a featurette about Eyvind Earle; a featurette about how expensive the picture was to make; the original planned opening sequence of the movie; three deleted songs; two storyboard sequences; a virtual tour through the now closed Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland; a Disney special entitled "Four Artists Painting a Tree" (which is really just a long commercial for SLEEPING BEAUTY disguised as a show to encourage young artists); art galleries; trailers for the film; a matching game; and a language game. I found the documentary about the making of the movie to be really interesting as well as the story about the history of the Sleeping Beauty Castle attraction at Disneyland. I found the two games to be the least-interesting thing on the DVD. Disney puts those things on there for young children, but I really think they are a waste of space and time.
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