I think this was only my second time watching Sleeping Beauty (1959) all the way through since my mom bought it on VHS back in the day. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised with the charm of this movie. All in all, this story is a very compact romance--one of those "love at first sight" stories people either love or love to mock (except if you count when young Prince Phillip sees the infant Princess Aurora, which technically makes it second sight)--but it does the trick.
In a vaguely Shakespearean fashion, the prince and princess fall for one another, neither knowing the other is their royally arranged fiancée, through a case of mistaken identity. This is all cute but predictable. In fact, Sleeping Beauty as a whole is cute. It's very similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), but that's okay. You've got the cute forest creatures that understand English (but don't speak it) and seem glad to interact with our heroine and the magical medieval unspecified yet clearly European setting.
Unlike Snow White, however, we have the addition of fairies. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, while visually confusing (shouldn't Flora wear green?), each have distinct and charming personalities. Their bumbling, chaotic parenting leads to some laughs, especially as they fight over the color of our heroine's dress.
Maleficent is one of the most iconic Disney villains, and certainly the most recognizable villainess, even if people can't always pronounce her name. She's even getting her own movie soon.
Prince Phillip has a few humorous lines, but is largely there to literally slay the dragon and rescue the damsel. His horse, Samson, is the first in a string of Disney horses with real personality--many of which also act very dog-like at times. This is something I love about the Disney Renaissance, especially, but I would say Samson is the first example of this. Major from Cinderella (1950) just doesn't have that same je ne sais quoi, and I think it's because he doesn't look much like a real horse. Of course there are many other animated Disney horses, but the others that qualify for my "awesome Disney horse" list are as follows: Achilles from Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996); Pegasus from Hercules (1997); Khan from Mulan (1998); Maximus from Tangled (2010); and Sven from Frozen (2013). Yes, I'm counting Sven as a horse. He's close enough. Phillipe from Beauty and the Beast (1991) probably deserves a spot, too. I can't explain why, but I just really like what Disney did with these horses... and the pegasus and the reindeer.
Our VHS had a special feature on it at the end, discussing the artwork. I thought the scenery in this movie was very weird and simple in its geometric shapes until learning that the artwork was made to imitate Medieval tapestry art, which emphasizes vertical and horizontal planes, etc., etc. Once I heard that, it made so much more sense to me and I retrospectively appreciated the style.
Another thing that makes Sleeping Beauty's style unique among Disney movies is the recycling--or, I should say, adaptation--of pre-existing music. The tunes for all of those iconic songs are actually from the Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty ballet, which is kind of awesome, although somehow, I don't think the drinking song the kings sing was from the ballet.
All in all, this is a fun movie with more magic and action than most princess movies. I don't know why it took me so long to write this review, but I think it may be because there are so many facets to this movie that are worth discussing.
