Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Summary: A classic fairy tale with a princess who falls into an enchanted sleep and can only be woken by her true love’s kiss.
Warnings: The villain, Maleficent, is potentially pretty scary for younger viewers, especially once she transforms into a dragon. There is also a scene of drunkenness that is played for laughs.
Opinion: This Disney Animated classic is beautiful and well done. The plot has a few issues, namely that there doesn’t seem to really be a strong main character. Despite the name, the film doesn’t really focus on the princess. Nor on the prince. Probably the three fairies, despite not being the heroes, would be the main focus of the movie, which is honestly a strange choice.
The visuals are excellent, the songs are not bad, the plot is fine, and the villain is quite evil. My children didn’t have any problems with being scared, although they lost focus a few times during the film (namely, during the meeting between Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora as well as during the drinking scenes with the kings), but overall were interested in the film.
Overall, this is a great classic fairy tale with nothing preachy about it like many modern animation films. It was simply a good fantasy.
Sequels/Remakes: There are several other versions of Sleeping Beauty either as movies or part of TV shows. The most direct tie-in film would be “Maleficent”, a quasi-prequel focused on making the wicked fairy more redeemable (a movie that isn’t great, isn’t horrible, but is definitely for a much older audience).
Educational Value: 1 out of 3 stars. Nothing educations about this movie.
Cultural value: 4 out of 5 stars. This is a very well known movie, and a very well known fairy tale. Pretty much everyone has watched this at some point in their lives, and it had a huge impact on Disney film making as that company invented several visual film processes through this film’s development.
Age rating: I rated this for ages 6 and older. The evil Maleficent is probably to scary for much younger viewers. However, this movie is timeless and can be easily viewed by any ages bracket.