Sleeping Beauty [Blu-ray]

Sleeping Beauty is considered one of Disney's most artistically beautiful films, and the new Platinum Edition 2 Disc DVD release is a fitting new polishing of the Disney gem. The story is about Princess Aurora, who was cursed as a baby by the evil witch Maleficent due to the fact that she was not invited to the christening. Fated to an eternal sleep upon reaching the age of 16, she is given somewhat of a reprieve by one of the Good Fairies who bestows upon Aurora the blessing of being reawakened by true love's kiss. The 3 Good Fairies (Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna) take Aurora into the woods as a baby and raise her as Briar Rose in order to keep her away from Maleficent, hopefully avoiding the curse in the first place. However, on the crest of her 16th birthday, Aurora happens to meet Prince Phillip and naturally falls in love. Neither knows the true identity of the other and that their kingdoms have already decreed that they marry each other. When she is returned to her parents, the King & Queen, Aurora is upset that she cannot marry her boyfriend from the woods, and instead, must marry a Prince she has not met (as far as she knows). Maleficent finds the Princess and carries out her original curse. Can Prince Philip save the Princess with true love's kiss?The film looks and sounds spectacular. Shot in Super Technirama 70, the widescreen (2.55:1 enhanced for 16x9 TVs) film has been restored using state-of-the-art technology, and will fill up your speakers with its 5.1 enhanced home theater mix. For purists, the restored original theater track is also included. Either way you choose, Mary Costa (the voice of Aurora) sounds incredible. It would be hard to imagine anyone else vocalizing the Princess with such warmth and beauty. Eleanor Audley also deserves kudos for her vocalization of the evil Maleficent. She is definitely one of the most scary and memorable Disney characters.This project was special to Walt; it was the last feature based on a fairy-tale (until 1989's "Little Mermaid"). Since the studio had already done a similar tale with "Snow White," Walt wanted to make it different by adding a classical music inspired Tchaikovsky score and giving the film a less cartoony and more artistic visual representation. Breaking all box-office records, this film succeeded on all levels.And the extras...wow! On Disc One, in addition to the feature, you get:*Music & More: "Once Upon A Dream" music video performed by Hannah Montana's Emily Osment, who updates the song with a pop rock beat* Disney Song Selection: Instantly access your favorite songs from the movie* Backstage Disney includes audio commentary for the film (John Lasseter, film critic Leonard Maltin, and Disney animator Andreas Déja), Princess Fun Facts (pop-up trivia fact option while watching the movie), "Grand Canyon" short (1959 Oscar winner for best short subject film and features the music of Ferde Grof's "Grand Canyon Suite"), and The Peter Tchaikovsky Story. The Peter Tchaikovsky story was featured on the 1959 Walt Disney Presents anthology. It was a historic telecast due to the fact that home viewers could listen in true-stereophonic sound, by turning on two additional radios with ABC simulcast of the necessary stereophonic channels. Disney explains the process at the beginning of the featurette. You can choose between this version and the version that replaces Disney's explanation. Although the featurette was first broadcast in black and white, it was shot in color. The remaining color footage is here on this DVD set.* Naturally, there are trailers/promos for other Disney films, including the upcoming theatrical release "Princess & The Frog" and the next Platinum Edition DVD release, "Pinocchio."Extras on Disc 2:Games & Activities:* Briar Rose's Enchanted Dance Game: Learn to Waltz, taking on the role of Princess Aurora or Prince Phillip.* "Sleeping Beauty" Fun With Language Game. This one is definitely for VERY young children who must identify the most basic of words using visuals from the film.Backstage Disney:* Picture Pefect: The Making Of "Sleeping Beauty" (43:32) A wonderful documentary detailing the making of the movie. Features interviews with animators and Mary Costa, who is still beautiful today. Watching this will definitely enhance your appreciation for this movie as the artistic masterpiece that it is.* Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art (7:33) is about the man responsible for the artistic backgrounds and overall look of the film. Disney stepped up everyone's game at the animation studio by having Earle oversee the design. Features interviews with Alice Davis and John Canemaker.* Alternate Opening (3:28) is recreated with storyboards and sketches. After viewing this, I'd say they made the right decision, as the music intended for this sequence was more pop-oriented and not fitting the classical Tchaikovsky score.* 3 Deleted Songs* 8 Art Galleries, including visual design, character development, storyboards, publicity, and a detailed look at the Storybook featured in the film's opening,* Original Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough attraction, unseen for years, presented in a virtual digital recreation which is BREATHTAKING. Almost like being at Disneyland. "Tour" it yourself, or with host Tony Baxter explaining your tour as you go through. There is also a featurette explaining the history of the walkthrough.* Sequence 8 (Forest Scene) (5:30) is a featurette that shows the detail and labor that went into this sequence put together by Disney's famous "Nine Old Men." This sequence alone cost the studio over $10,000. It is also interesting to note that only about 8 drawings were able to be done per day because of the precision required; considering it takes 24 to make a second of film, well...you do the math.* Publicity features 3 trailers (teaser, original 1959, and 1995 re-release)* "Four Artists Paint One Tree" (16:08) is a 1958 featurette that has four Disney artists (Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle, Joshua Meador, and Walt Peregoy) painting the same tree, each showing their own personal style. Walt Disney himself encourages each to "be themselves." An excellent lesson for budding young artists.* Storyboard sequences* Live-action reference footage. See three of the black and white films that were shot to aid the animators. Especially fun to watch is the sequence where Prince Phillip fights the dragon.For those wanting the Blu-ray, here is the exclusive content:* Maleficent's Challenge - Go head to head with one of Disney's most infamous villains. Think of anything in the world and Maleficent will read your mind.*Dragon Encounter - The ultimate audio experience utilizing Blu-ray high-definition 7.1 or 5.1 audio quality. Explore Maleficent's dungeon in a fully-immersive audio sensory adventure like you've never experienced before. Deep in the bowels of Maleficent's dungeon a dragon encounter awaits.*Cine-Explore - An all new Cine-Explore experience with full motion Picture-in-Picture featuring commentary by John Lasseter, Andreas Deja & Leonard Maltin.*Restoring The Sound Track - This featurette covers the creation of the all new 7.1 mix of the score of Sleeping Beauty that was done exclusively for this Blu-ray release using the source tapes from the original recording sessions resulting in an audio experience of superior quality with greater detail and fidelity than before.*Customized Living Menu - This menu is exclusive to Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray Disc owners only. It is a "real time" virtual castle that magically changes based on the viewer's location, time of day and current weather forecast (requires Live enabled players). If preferred, viewers will also have the ability to manually change the castle's weather to match any of the Magic Kingdom Castles around the world.*Disney BD-Live Network - The Disney BD-Live Network is just one of the many ways viewers can continue to stay connected and engage in their favorite movies.*Movie Chat - Communicate with your remote friends on-screen while in a synchronized viewing party using your remote control or any text enabled device such as a laptop, desk top or any PDA device such as a Blackberry, iPhone or most other regular cell phones. Your chat session will appear over the movie and occur in real-time while watching the movie together.*Movie Mail - Record a personalized video message of themselves, superimpose that capture onto one of many pre-selected clips of the movie, and send it off to a friend, colleague, or relative. This specific feature enables the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray Disc owner to personalize a special greeting.*Movie Challenge - Test your skills against other players in a synchronized, real-time, online trivia game while watching Sleeping Beauty with anyone online. Movie Challenge is always active no matter what time of the day it is, and there will always be a game in progress.*Disney Movie Rewards Live - Accumulate Disney Movie Reward Points by participating in many Disney BD-Live Network activities. Viewers can redeem points for exclusive content such as Avatars, downloadable extras and more.*A DVD of Sleeping Beauty -Blu-ray owners will also receive a special bonus DVD of the movie!What a set! Definitely not to be missed for your Disney home movie collection.

Walt Disney released his greatest artistic masterpiece "Sleeping Beauty" in February of 1959. After spending 6 million dollars and 8 years in the making of this masterpiece, Sleeping Beauty managed to gross 5.3 million at the box office, certainly not enough for Disney to break even on his greatest artistic achievement in animation. Disney spared no expense on Sleeping Beauty, as he used Technicolor and Technirama 70. Technirama 70 was a special system of film running through the camera horizontally, exposing two 35mm frames simultaneously. This unusual film is then printed normally on standard 35mm film and shown with an anamorphic lens for the widescreen, extra dimension effect.Unlike Disney's earlier box office successful films of "Snow White" and "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty" lacked the music and characters that younger children love. There are no fun songs like "Heigh Ho" or "Cinderelly" and no adorable little mice like Jacques and Gus. This movie is definitely for a little older audience that appreciates the greatest art ever created for a full length animated movie. To say it is Disney's artistic masterpiece is an understatement! I saw Sleeping Beauty when it premiered in the winter of 1959, and even though I was a small child, it was then and is still now my absolute favorite Disney movie of all time!This new blu-ray version of "Sleeping Beauty" made me feel as though I was seeing it again in 1959! This is the widest version I have ever seen and when you add hi-def 1080p and the all new digital restoration to it, it's like seeing it for the first time ever! Everything is so colorful, super wide, sharper, brighter than you can imagine! You can see every crack in every brick and stone! I am keeping my fingers crossed, that they treat more of the other great old Disney films with this same blu-ray restoration, as it's like seeing the film like you've never seen it before!"Sleeping Beauty" may not be known for it's songs, like in "Snow White" or it's cute characters in "Cinderella", but it is known for the most fantastic hand drawn art that will never be surpassed by anyone ever again. Every scene is pure art in it's highest form due to the fantastic work of the best Disney artists of the time. This blu-ray dvd has a Bonus Feature disc that features many of the artists that contributed to this masterpiece. Seeing Eyvind Earle, who was given complete control of every artistic aspect of the film, along with other artists Marc Davis, Mary Blair, Ken Anderson and others is a real treat!This bonus disc also features the beautiful Mary Costa, whose looks and gorgeous voice made Princess Aurora come to life. We also get to see Bill Shirley, the voice of Prince Phillip, Eleanor Audley, the voice of Maleficent as well as the wicked stepmother in Cinderella (She is the best villainess voice of any in animation!) and of course the three good fairies Verna Felton the voice of Flora, Barbara Jo Allen the voice of Fauna and Barbara Luddy the voice of Merryweather. This is so great as Disney shows how the people whose voices played the characters look so much like the characters! Of course they show how the film looks like Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty music seems to have been written for this Disney masterpiece, instead of the other way around!More Bonus features include a Maleficent game, learning to waltz, an all new dragon encounter and a never before seen alternate opening. The best bonus feature for me is the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough. This is unbelievable, to be able to take a digitally re-created 3-D tour of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, just as it was in 1957 and 1958 (two years before the movie premiered)in Disneyland in California! What a treat! If you don't have a blu-ray player, now is the time to get one to enjoy the most breathtaking Disney masterpiece ever created! Sleeping Beauty is pure art in every way one can imagine from it's Tchaikovsky music to it's fairy tale of how good always conquers evil, but mainly for the opulent, gorgeous art dominated by the talents of Eyvind Earle's scenery and Marc Davis' characters- it's a rare treat for the senses and one you don't want to miss!

Classic sleeping beauty

A great movie for growing up and respect