Sleeping Beauty #100DaysOfDisney

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Welcome to Day 27 of 100 Days of Disney here on The Purple Pumpkin Blog! Be sure to check out all of the other posts in this series, and if you would like to share your own Disney blog posts or pictures, make sure you check out the #100DaysOfDisney Link Party!

With the release of Disney’s Maleficent I thought it was appropriate for today’s Saturday Night At The Disney Movies to be about one of my favourite Disney Classics – Sleeping Beauty.

The story begins with the birth of Princess Aurora, the precious daughter of King Stefan and his wife. To celebrate the arrival of the Princess, three good fairies – Flora, Fauna & Merryweather bestow gifts of magic on Aurora, but an evil sorceress named Maleficent places a curse upon the little Princess – that she will die on her 16th birthday after touching the poisoned spindle of a spinning wheel. Merryweather tries to undo the damage by casting a spell that will allow the Princess to awake from an ageless sleep with a kiss from her one true love.

Aurora, now named Briar Rose, is hidden in a woodcutter’s cottage in the forest and raised by the three good fairies, until her 16th birthday. Maleficent can’t understand how the princess has evaded her all these years, and is amused and disgusted when she realises her goons have been searching for a baby all this time! She sends her raven who makes the discovery, when the fairies are using magic (which had previously been banned around the princess) to create a surprise 16th birthday for Briar Rose. Meanwhile, the daydreaming princess is out in the woods, collecting berries and sings Once Upon A Dream, and handsome Prince Phillip hears her; unbeknown to them both, that they are actually betrothed…

 

The Statistical Stuff…

  • released in 1959
  • 16th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series
  • took nearly a decade to produce
  • the last Disney animation to be hand-crafted using ink
  • was the last Disney adaptation of a fairy tale (it was a box office bomb) until 1989 with The Little Mermaid.
  • at the time, the most expensive Disney animation. Although it was a hit on its initial release, it still didn’t gross enough to recoup its $6 million outlay
  • the film’s musical score and songs, featuring the work of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, are arrangements or adaptations of numbers from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
  • the music from the film was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Grammy Award
  • when the fairies discuss how to help the King and Queen, Merryweather makes cookies in the shape of Mickey Mouse – a Hidden Mickey
  • in the traditional Italian version of this fairy tale, the Sleeping Beauty is named Princess Aurora. In the German version, she is named Briar Rose. The film incorporates both names by having Princess Aurora use the name Briar Rose while undercover.
  • released on 2 June 2014 on Blu-Ray™, Digital Download and DVD in the UK

The Cast…

  • Mary Costa – Princess Aurora (Briar Rose) / Sleeping Beauty
  • Eleanor Audley – Maleficent
  • Verna Felton – Flora, the pink fairy and Queen Leah, Princess Aurora’s mother
  • Barbara Jo Allen – Fauna, the green fairy
  • Barbara Luddy – Merryweather, the blue fairy
  • Bill Shirley – Prince Phillip
  • Taylor Holmes – King Stefan, Princess Aurora’s father
  • Bill Thompson – King Hubert, Prince Phillip’s father
  • Marvin Miller – The Narrator

Why I Love Sleeping Beauty…

  • Maleficent – she has always been my favourite Disney villain! I love her style, her voice, and she’s beautiful too
  • Flora, Fauna & Merryweather – these three good fairies provide the comedy element to this fairy tale
  • The pink/blue dress – I can never decide if I prefer Princess Aurora in pink or blue! The running gag where two of the fairies argued about what colour her dress should be comes from the filmmaker’s problem as to what the colour should be
  • The musical score – it’s hauntingly beautiful
  • Once Upon A Dream – possibly one of my favourite songs from a Disney movie
  • The kiss – it’s the moment I’m waiting for after the epic battle between the Prince Phillip and Maleficent

To celebrate the release of this Disney Classic, I’ve been sent these Sleeping Beauty Activity Sheets for you to download and use. Just click each link below to save them to your computer.

Sleeping Beauty String Maze
Sleeping Beauty Colouring Page
Sleeping Beauty Maze

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Have you seen Sleeping Beauty? Watch it if you can – it is a classic!
Day 27 of #100DaysOfDisney is done – 73 to go!
Come back tomorrow for another Disney related blog post!


Posts in the #100DaysOfDisney Series…
Disney Make It Monday | Tasty Tuesday | Wednesday Around The World | Theme Park Thursday | Disney Fashion Friday & Disney Merchandise | Saturday Night at the Disney Movies | Disney Sunday Sounds

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