Sleeping Beauty (1959)
While many nuanced takes and criticisms can be thrown at modern Disney and how the studio has evolved its voice, it would be simply false to claim that the earlier portion of the studio's history wasn't ambitious. From first defining what an animated feature film could be to continually pushing new artistic techniques and looking for new achievements in size and scale. While these efforts have made features that have had lasting success, they weren't always beneficial for the studio upon release with one of the biggest blunders being 1959's Sleeping Beauty. After a decade of production and historic highs in production cost, Sleeping Beauty's lackluster performance nearly ruined the studio. Luckily, other successes were enough to keep Disney alive and Sleeping Beauty has gone on to become an iconic fixture of their filmography.
The film adapts the classic titular fairy tale in which a baby princess named Aurora (Mary Costa) falls victim to an evil curse by the wicked fairy Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) which condemns her to a curse that will cause her to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die when she turns 16. The true catch is that the only cure is a true love's kiss, something Maleficent believes to be fictional.
With over a decade of effort put into the film, it only feels natural that Sleeping Beauty would be a rather incredible viewing experience. Often wide in scope with lovely shot composition and cinematography, Sleeping Beauty is at times a truly artistic endeavor. This is also particularly seen within the animation given to Maleficent. Not only does her character design strike an imposing sense of fear, but her powers are given some truly creative and memorable visual designs and flairs that stand out as some of Disney's best work. Of course, her character is only further elevated by Audley's iconic performance.
Perhaps the secret weapon as to why Maleficent stands out so much is because the rest of the film is so basic. Possibly the most talked about example of how one dimensional Disney could be, every character outside of Maleficent is either filler or incredibly bland. While the film tries to fill itself out with the comedic good fairies and various moments of humor, none of these elements land particularly well and none can hide the clear faults of the central romance. Both Aurora and the Prince are bland shells lacking any real personality or depth. Their romance is as forgettable and simple as they come, leaving the film without the true grand emotional climax it clearly hopes to have. Of course, this isn't even getting into the obvious problems of consent that is almost comedical to try to start a dialogue about considering how insane it looks under a modern context.
These elements make it very easy to see why Disney would choose this story to be the one to really kick off the modern trend of remaking classic animated features in live action spaces. While the iconography is strong, the story is an open book that is perfect for expanding and adding new layers. This is a very similar reason as to why the 2015 remake of Cinderella also fit quite well. It is disappointing to see Disney's philosophy on these remakes change over the years from building upon stories that needed more depth to simply being cash grabs that exploit the popularity of their most iconic features. Perhaps, this is telling of a larger issue within Disney as a company.
For all of its narrative faults, Sleeping Beauty is a great example of why Disney was at one point such a magical space. The studio put in the work and effort to create bright new worlds that told simplistic yet effective stories. Highlighting key pieces of iconography and emotional roots within their characters, Disney built stories that all audiences could understand and appreciate. While the advancement to more complex plots and narratives is far from being inherently negative, Disney has continually grown more and more desperate to maintain its status and fans. While the history of Disney is filled with ups and downs, Disney's modern desperation against a wide world of animated projects has seen the studio arguably hit new lows. Failing to create features that have excited audiences while losing the heart of what made the studio special to begin with, the results feel dire with their 2023 release, Wish, being all too pathetic of a 100th celebration for the studio.
Hopefully one day Disney will go back into the vault and not just steal what worked in the past but learn to understand what made the studio what it has been for the last century. As much as people, rightfully, want to condemn Disney, it is undeniable that the studio is one of the most influential cinematic voices in history and it is nearly impossible to find anyone who hasn’t grown up moved by at least one of their works. Revisiting the works of the company over the last year, Disney holds an important perspective on the shifting intentions and goals of the film industry going from an inventive push of wonder to a lifeless and desperate fight for profit. What shouldn’t be lost in that is some of the incredible work seen throughout Disney’s filmography that often feels worthy and comes from motivated voices trying to express their dreams and talents within a system that constantly feels to be working against them.
The film adapts the classic titular fairy tale in which a baby princess named Aurora (Mary Costa) falls victim to an evil curse by the wicked fairy Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) which condemns her to a curse that will cause her to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die when she turns 16. The true catch is that the only cure is a true love's kiss, something Maleficent believes to be fictional.
With over a decade of effort put into the film, it only feels natural that Sleeping Beauty would be a rather incredible viewing experience. Often wide in scope with lovely shot composition and cinematography, Sleeping Beauty is at times a truly artistic endeavor. This is also particularly seen within the animation given to Maleficent. Not only does her character design strike an imposing sense of fear, but her powers are given some truly creative and memorable visual designs and flairs that stand out as some of Disney's best work. Of course, her character is only further elevated by Audley's iconic performance.
Perhaps the secret weapon as to why Maleficent stands out so much is because the rest of the film is so basic. Possibly the most talked about example of how one dimensional Disney could be, every character outside of Maleficent is either filler or incredibly bland. While the film tries to fill itself out with the comedic good fairies and various moments of humor, none of these elements land particularly well and none can hide the clear faults of the central romance. Both Aurora and the Prince are bland shells lacking any real personality or depth. Their romance is as forgettable and simple as they come, leaving the film without the true grand emotional climax it clearly hopes to have. Of course, this isn't even getting into the obvious problems of consent that is almost comedical to try to start a dialogue about considering how insane it looks under a modern context.
These elements make it very easy to see why Disney would choose this story to be the one to really kick off the modern trend of remaking classic animated features in live action spaces. While the iconography is strong, the story is an open book that is perfect for expanding and adding new layers. This is a very similar reason as to why the 2015 remake of Cinderella also fit quite well. It is disappointing to see Disney's philosophy on these remakes change over the years from building upon stories that needed more depth to simply being cash grabs that exploit the popularity of their most iconic features. Perhaps, this is telling of a larger issue within Disney as a company.
For all of its narrative faults, Sleeping Beauty is a great example of why Disney was at one point such a magical space. The studio put in the work and effort to create bright new worlds that told simplistic yet effective stories. Highlighting key pieces of iconography and emotional roots within their characters, Disney built stories that all audiences could understand and appreciate. While the advancement to more complex plots and narratives is far from being inherently negative, Disney has continually grown more and more desperate to maintain its status and fans. While the history of Disney is filled with ups and downs, Disney's modern desperation against a wide world of animated projects has seen the studio arguably hit new lows. Failing to create features that have excited audiences while losing the heart of what made the studio special to begin with, the results feel dire with their 2023 release, Wish, being all too pathetic of a 100th celebration for the studio.
Hopefully one day Disney will go back into the vault and not just steal what worked in the past but learn to understand what made the studio what it has been for the last century. As much as people, rightfully, want to condemn Disney, it is undeniable that the studio is one of the most influential cinematic voices in history and it is nearly impossible to find anyone who hasn’t grown up moved by at least one of their works. Revisiting the works of the company over the last year, Disney holds an important perspective on the shifting intentions and goals of the film industry going from an inventive push of wonder to a lifeless and desperate fight for profit. What shouldn’t be lost in that is some of the incredible work seen throughout Disney’s filmography that often feels worthy and comes from motivated voices trying to express their dreams and talents within a system that constantly feels to be working against them.