Book Vs. Movie: Sleeping Beauty
The Fairy Tale from the 1600s Vs the the1959 Disney Animated Film
The Margos are feeling kind of Disney this month so we are dedicating our next few episodes to those animated classics beginning with Sleeping Beauty from 1959. At the time, it received mixed reviews for its obvious comparison to Snow White & the Seven Dwarves which was considered a masterpiece.
There are several origin stories for this specific tale but we are mainly focused on the Charles Perrault version in 1697 and was later translated by the Brothers Grimm. The plot is a beautiful princess is born and seven goof fairies give her certain special powers (Beauty, music, wit, grace, dance, and goodness) with the sixth one feeling left out and ignored. That fairy puts a curse on the baby who will prick her finger on a spindle and die. The seventh fairy tries to reverse the curse by putting her to sleep instead of dying with the chance she will wake up when kissed by her true love.
100 years later she awakens when a prince meets her and falls in love with her. They get married and have two children who are of ogre origin. The Ogress Queen wants to eat the kids but is tricked into eating goat and lamb instead. The King eventually saves them all. The Grimm Brothers’ version does not include ogres.
The animated film took several years to complete and came with all sorts of internal issues (including director Wilfred Jackson’s heart attack in 1953) and the hiring and firing of other directors who could not agree on the ultimate vision. The character of Maleficent was created for the film and her look & performance hold up until this day.
So, between the fairy tale and the animated movie–which did we prefer?
In this ep the Margos discuss:
- The varying stories that inspired the film
- The look and art direction of the film
- The main differences between the fairy tale & film.
- Starring: Mary Costa (Princess Aurora,) Bill Shirley (Prince Phillip,) Eleanor Audley (Maleficent,) Verna Felton (Flora,) Barbara Jo Allen (Fauna,) and Barbara Luddy as Merryweather.
Clips used:
- Maleficent puts a spell on the baby princess
- Sleeping Beauty trailer
- The Prince and Princess meet-cute
- Maleficent hypnotizes the princess
- Music by George Bruns (Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet)
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