Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition)

Now, I'll be honest, the story is sort of cliched when you look at it. But I'm talkin' BARELY, here. Plus, even if you think so too, you'll be totally entranced and enchanted by everything previously mentioned to even care. I'd also like to add that the humor is among the best you'll ever see in a Disney cartoon. Though the film is not exactly bursting with it, the laughs are kind-hearted and of good taste. Notice, that this is the exact opposite of most modern Disney films, which are usually overflowing with lame jokes.

"Sleeping Beauty" is definitely among Disney's top five. It is certainly the best of Disney's "traditional" fairy tale adaptations, as well as their "Princess" brand films. I mean, in their previous princess films "Snow White" (which I absolutely hate) and "Cinderella" (a major improvement, but still entertaining mainly for the animation), the prince is just some pretty boy waltzing around catching the heroine's eye. You never understand why exactly the princess falls for him! Hence, the "Happily Ever After" ending simply felt extremely contrived. But this is not the case in "Sleeping Beauty", which paved a new tradition for the prince's characterization that would be carried on in such other Disney masterpieces as "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty & The Beast". Indeed, Prince Phillip at times seems more of the main character than Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)!

The new "Special Edition" DVD is gonna rock! With the new remastering technique used for the "Snow White" Platinum DVD (which, regardless of the actual movie, looked absolutely stunning), and all those special features, you can bet your butt that this is one Disney classic that they will NOT shove back into the vault before I get my hands on it!


The DVD lacks of something...   April 16, 2003
 1 out of 4 found this review helpful

The title has just been released in Mexico in DVD and I bought it as soon as I knew it was available. This is my favourite classic Disney movie and was expecting that all the extras would be treated in the same way as in Snow White or Beauty and the Beast, but was very dissapointed. Most of the "Extras" are just plain text and the menu in the second disc is very plain, nothing to talk about.

The images are very clear and the sound very good, that's the least Disney could do for its very first movie in stereo.


Eleanor Audley's Voice Makes This Film Work   April 7, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The Disney heroes/heroines never really did it for me. Maybe, its my slightly warped personality that makes me root for the villains. "Sleeping Beauty" boasts a humdinger of a bad girl in the guise of Malificent, maliciously voiced by the late character actress Eleanor Audley. She had the perfect pipes for the portrayal of one devoid of compassion and love.

The actress had previously made a distinctive contribution to an earlier Disney film, the classic "Cinderella" (she was the wicked stepmother). '60's audiences also remember her as Eddie Albert's mother on the comedy classic "Green Acres" and her frequent appearances on that other country-themed comedy "The Beverly Hillbillies".

Also, being a dragon fan, I love Malificent's final transformation as she takes on the valiant, handsome, and dashing (although, bland) prince.

Unfortunately, the good guy wins.


One of Disney's best   March 28, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

One of the better Disney animations. After years of trying, King Stephan and his wife finally have a kid. They name their daughter Aurora and throw a huge party and betrothe her to the neighboring king's son, Phillip. Right as the three fairies are giving magical gifts to Aurora (to ensure she won't grow up to be a hideous tone-deaf beast), the evil witch, Maleficent, crashes the party. She's a little miffed because somebody "forgot" to include her on the guest list. Maleficent decides to bestow her own gift on the baby, but being an evil witch, you can guess it won't be a Hello Kitty pen set. Poor Aurora is cursed to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel on her sixteenth birthday and die. Since the last fairy didn't get to give her gift to Aurora (she was rudly interrupted by Maleficent's uninvited arrival), to lessen the evil curse she changes her gift. Instead of dying, Aurora will fall asleep until her true love gives her a kiss and then she'll wake up and live hapily ever after. ...


The best ever...   March 24, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is the best of the Fairy Tale films Disney has ever done, with Beauty and the Beast a close second. The thing that makes this the best is the Villian, Malificent. She is still the best villain they have created and so far has never been topped.
The songs are lovely AND until The Little Mermaid and beyond was the first time they gave the prince a name besides "Charming" as well as a good character instead of just being there to get the girl at the end....and his horse Samson is wonderful.
Simply a delight.
I do have one comment about the review of the foreign DVD 2-disc set.
Sadly there is NO guarantee that what has been released in Europe will be what we get in the US and vice-versa. For example the Legend DVD here in the US is far superior to the European release, with more extras etc.. And the Brotherhood of the Wolf DVD released in Canada is a 2 or 3-disc set instead of the one disc we got here in the US.
So watch this listing and make sure this has what you want before you just assume it will have the extras they get across the big pond....