So, we’re about halfway through the Silver Age of Disney Animated Classics, and what has characterised them so far? They can be most typically identified as more modern fairy-tales than what was produced during the Golden Age, with many of them based on stories written within the twentieth century. They also carried with them more progressive ideas than the Golden Age films, such as women having slightly more agency in their own stories, but still being under the authority of a male character. But there wasn’t a hasn’t been a whole lot of progression beyond that. The first half of the Silver Age is generally is extremely similar to the Golden Age, but Sleeping Beauty marks the start of a shift in animation style from what we had seen before, into what is commonly known as the ‘Scratch Era’, but it holds itself back in narrative progression as a result.
King Stefan (Taylor Holmes) and Queen Leah (Verna Felton) have given birth to a gorgeous baby girl, Princess Aurora. During her christening the evil witch Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) bestows a curse upon her wherein the Princess will enter an endless slumber provided she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday.
To protect their daughter the King and Queen destroy all the spinning wheels in the land, and Aurora is sent away to be raised in secret by three fairies, away from Maleficent’s gaze, where she will be reunited with her family once the curse passes.
Sixteen years later and the day has come where Aurora (Mary Costa) will meet her family for the first time, though she meets a stranger in the woods whom she falls in love with. The bickering of the fairies brings the attention of Maleficent who ensures her curse succeeds. And so, it rests upon the fairies and Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley), Aurora’s love interest, to reawaken her with true loves kiss, so she may be reunited with her family.
King Stefan (Taylor Holmes) and Queen Leah (Verna Felton) have given birth to a gorgeous baby girl, Princess Aurora. During her christening the evil witch Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) bestows a curse upon her wherein the Princess will enter an endless slumber provided she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday.
To protect their daughter the King and Queen destroy all the spinning wheels in the land, and Aurora is sent away to be raised in secret by three fairies, away from Maleficent’s gaze, where she will be reunited with her family once the curse passes.
Sixteen years later and the day has come where Aurora (Mary Costa) will meet her family for the first time, though she meets a stranger in the woods whom she falls in love with. The bickering of the fairies brings the attention of Maleficent who ensures her curse succeeds. And so, it rests upon the fairies and Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley), Aurora’s love interest, to reawaken her with true loves kiss, so she may be reunited with her family.
Sleeping Beauty is a timeless fairy-tale for a good reason, it’s a great story. It’s not complex, but the formula works, and the tale told is enjoyable and gripping nonetheless. It does feel like a step back from Disney when looked at in comparison to most of the rest of the Silver Age. Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella are very similar stories with very similar leading ladies, so the progress made through the rest of the Silver Age and handling of more complex stories like Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland does feel somewhat undone by Sleeping Beauty following them.
But what does feel like it is moving forward is the animation style. I mentioned in my review of Lady and the Tramp that things looked as though they were finally moving forward from the style of animation first used in Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s. But Sleeping Beauty does really make an effort to be visually different from any of its predecessors and falls more in line with what was to come from the next era of Disney animation. It closely resembles a tapestry at times, the colours used, the texture given to clothing and environments etc. The environments look more alive than they have done in many of the previous Disney animations, with character looking like they truly inhabit that space, rather than being drawn onto a painted background.
The character models too tend to resemble those of the forthcoming ‘Scratch Era’ more with a generally more angled aesthetic, and a rough around the edges look to them. To me it makes Sleeping Beauty far more memorable and engaging to watch because it tries to be visually distinct from what came before.
Sleeping Beauty is the last fairy-tale story Disney Animation Studios created until The Little Mermaid in 1989, thirty years later. It’s also one of the stronger films in Disney’s repertoire and whilst the narrative can feel like a step back from what has come before at times, the strides it makes in its animation are enough to make the tale feel fresh and interesting, even all these years later. It’s the small baby steps taken here that allowed Disney Animation to begin its progression into what we know today.
But what does feel like it is moving forward is the animation style. I mentioned in my review of Lady and the Tramp that things looked as though they were finally moving forward from the style of animation first used in Snow White and the Seven Dwarf’s. But Sleeping Beauty does really make an effort to be visually different from any of its predecessors and falls more in line with what was to come from the next era of Disney animation. It closely resembles a tapestry at times, the colours used, the texture given to clothing and environments etc. The environments look more alive than they have done in many of the previous Disney animations, with character looking like they truly inhabit that space, rather than being drawn onto a painted background.
The character models too tend to resemble those of the forthcoming ‘Scratch Era’ more with a generally more angled aesthetic, and a rough around the edges look to them. To me it makes Sleeping Beauty far more memorable and engaging to watch because it tries to be visually distinct from what came before.
Sleeping Beauty is the last fairy-tale story Disney Animation Studios created until The Little Mermaid in 1989, thirty years later. It’s also one of the stronger films in Disney’s repertoire and whilst the narrative can feel like a step back from what has come before at times, the strides it makes in its animation are enough to make the tale feel fresh and interesting, even all these years later. It’s the small baby steps taken here that allowed Disney Animation to begin its progression into what we know today.