Sleeping Beauty

Disney produced this lavish animated fairy tale, the most expensive cartoon ever made up to its release with a budget of $6 million. When the young princess Aurora is cursed at birth by the evil fairy Maleficent, the baby is kidnapped by a trio of good fairies who raise the girl themselves, hoping ...more

During a turning point in the Disney classic Sleeping Beauty, the epitome of all evil, Maleficent (Eleanor Audley), exclaims, "For the first time in 16 years, I shall sleep well." That remark resonates provided that the 50th anniversary of the seminal 2-D animated film is upon us. Even after half a century and a seeming slumber in the "to-be-revived" section of the Disney backlog, Sleeping Beauty is just as magical and powerful as ever. In fact, it's gotten even better with age due to a 21st ...more

The lavish, expensive Sleeping Beauty was something of a throwback for the Walt Disney Company, which had been churning out popular, if slight, live-action films throughout the 1950s. The musical's painstakingly rich animation and the timeless fairy-tale material place it in the same league as other, earlier beloved Disney titles such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Pinocchio (1940), or Cinderella (1950). The animation is the most notable aspect of the film: it combines the lush ...more