Sleeping Beauty [G]

Walt Disney's timeless tale of a true love that conquers evil is out of the vault for a limited time in this Platinum Edition. Relive the tale of the beautiful Princess Aurora, the three good fairies and the handsome Prince Phillip.

Alright alright so I'm going on a little bit of a Disney binge today, first Snow White and now Sleeping Beauty. There is nothing tragic about me at all (there was sarcasm in that last statement).

When Princess Aurora is born, the King and Queen host a celebration and all the Kingdom gives gifts to the infant princess. But the evil sorceress Maleficent, having not received an invite, crashes the party and curses the little princess:

"Before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die!"

Thankfully the third good fairy Merryweather is able to change this curse, by foretelling that the princess will not die, but merely sleep until awakened by the kiss of her true love.

Another old-school Disney movie with the book opening at the beginning, Sleeping Beauty was very different in comparison to Snow White. The animation is much sharper and clearer, but the language used is a little bit mature for the intended audience. I find it entertaining that words like "melancholy" and old-fashioned terms like "lo" and "thou" are used throughout the flick.

As with the older Disney movies, the G rating is used, but I think the film can get a little violent and sinister. I mean the whole thing with the dragon that breathes green fire was pretty scary (scary for young children, I personally found it completely awesome!). I also love how in quite a few of the earlier Disney flicks, the Prince is the most pointless and pathetic character. He's almost the damsel in distress. In Sleeping Beauty, the real heroes are the three good fairies: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. They put the Kingdom to sleep, they rescue the Prince, they make sure that his journey to the castle is safe, and they guided the enchanted sword into the dragon's belly. The prince did absolutely nothing but swing the sword around, looking like a complete idiot.

This movie has a much more sophisticated script with more mature jokes that would go over the heads of young children, but makes it quite entertaining for the tragic people like me who, at the age of 20, go back to the childhood classics.

With another wonderful soundtrack of songs that stay with you, Sleeping Beauty is a timeless tale of true love and its ability to conquer evil (when in actual fact it's the good fairies that conquer evil).

"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream."