Disney's adaptation
of a classic fairy tale opens with the birth of a princess, her
immediate betrothal to a child prince, and the visit of three fairy
godmothers and a malign witch. A fast forward finds Princess Aurora
being raised in the forest by the three fairies, unaware of her royal
parents or the witch's curse. While her godmothers clumsily prepare
for her return to her parents' palace on her 16th
birthday, the princess wanders and meets a mysterious traveler. When
her real parents tell her she is about to be wed to a man she has
never met, she runs away, straight into the witch's curse.
“Sleeping Beauty”
represents a transitional period in Disney animation, and this is
reflected by a rather high percentage of artistic misses. The
strikingly stylized animation looks a decade ahead of the film's 1957
release date, and it is very debatable whether this is a good thing.
The fairy godmothers are entirely too cute, though slapstick
sequences of their efforts to “help” the princess are reasonably
amusing, and it is almost refreshing to see one of them break
character to get back at Maleficent's obnoxious familiar. It does not
help that the script takes the drastic liberty of compressing a
century of failed adventurers in the story into one whirlwind rescue.
The film's best moments are its dark ones, as Maleficent's
appearance, her castle, the materialization of a fateful spinning
wheel and her final transformation offer a gothic spectacle
comparable to the final sequence of Fantasia. What is perhaps
of even greater interest is an unintentional commentary on the
changes that were occurring in American society just in the epic six
years that Disney took to make it: Its matter-of-fact portrayal of an
arranged marriage between teenagers could have been shredded as
chauvinistic in ca. 1960, never mind today. Yet, the film does
capture something of the tension between feminism and traditionalism
that would soon erupt into open conflict, and that in turn offers a
more timeless (if not entirely coherent) lesson on the turmoil of
youth, choices and fate.
David N. Brown
Mesa Arizona
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