Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition)

Buy This Item Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition) by Walt Disney Video  Available from Amazon  $29.99  on 11-15-2008     Heralded by audiences and critics alike, SLEEPING BEAUTY was the final fairy tale to be produced by Walt Disney himself. Now fully restored with revolutionary digital technology, its dazzling colors, rich backgrounds, and Academy Award(R)-nominated orchestrations shine brighter than ever. When an enchanted kingdom and the most fair princess in the land fall prey to the ultimate mistress of evil, the fate of the empire rests in the hands of three small fairies and a courageous prince's magic kiss. Their quest is fraught with peril as the fellowship must battle the evil witch and a fire-breathing dragon if they are to set the Beauty free. From spectacular action to the breathtaking pageantry of the princess and her kingdom, SLEEPING BEAUTY has something to charm every member of your family. Reader Reviews The movie is cute, but I have a few problems with it that ultimately made me decide not to buy it after I rented it: 1) It's too much like one of Tchaikovsky's ballets, of which I'm not much of a fan. I haven't seen his version of Sleeping Beauty (on which this was based), but I have seen his version of The Nutcracker; if you like to watch ballet, you might enjoy this one, but otherwise, no. It is not the kind of thing I would expect from a Disney movie. 2) We don't see enough of Aurora or Prince Phillip. (In fact, it seems that Aurora is better known through Disney Princess products than through the actual movie.) We see them dance together one time, and then they don't do much after that. OK, we can forgive the fact that Aurora sleeps on the job (which is really what she's doing; the original tale had her sleep for a hundered years and not meet the prince until he woke her up), because it is, after all, Sleeping Beauty. But even when Phillip is trying to rescue her, he's just a paper tiger; the fairies do all the work by releasing him from his prison, giving him a sword and shield, turning the arrows that are shot at him into flowers, etc. It's really the fairies who rescue her, while the prince gets all the credit--and no one in the movie notices this! Again, this is not what I expect to see in a Disney movie. Still, it's interesting to watch from the point of view of a student of animation. Fans of Nintendo will notice how much the castle looks like the castle from Super Mario Bros. and how much one of Maleficent's henchmen looks like Ganon (the villain from The Legend of Zelda). If you want a better movie with a similar concept, try Snow White. If you want one of Disney's movies from around that time, try Cinderella. My absolute favorite Disney Movie is The Little Mermaid; if you haven't already, I recommend that you buy that one instead.

Sleeping Beauty (Special Edition) Available from Amazon Price: $29.99 Updated on 11-15-2008.

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