It began production in 1951 and wasn’t completed until 1959. It was the second-highest grossing film of that year, and it still didn’t break even. The blow it dealt to Disney was so hard that the studio wouldn’t touch another fairy tale for thirty years.
That’s right, it’s time to talk about Sleeping Beauty, Disney’s first foray into the wonderful world of feminism!
…What do you mean, Aurora’s a terrible female character? Did I say I was talking about Aurora?
This is one of only two Disney Princess movies where the princess in question is not really the protagonist. At least, that’s how the animators saw it. They were the ones who wanted the Good Fairies to have distinctive looks and personalities, and they ended up paying much more attention to them than to Aurora. So as a result, we have not one but three female protagonists who are not pretty princesses that only wait for someone to come make their dreams come true. And their adversary? A powerful villainess who’s still revered as a terrifyingly awesome bad guy today. Or at least until next summer, but we’ll deal with that as it comes.
These four are just two of the reasons why Sleeping Beauty has such a large fanbase. You probably couldn’t guess from hearing people talk about it today, but it got rather average reviews when it was first released. It could have suffered the fate of The Black Cauldron, which Disney has largely disowned. So what elevated Sleeping Beauty to its current status?
You lot probably know, but I’ve only seen about twenty minutes of this thing. Let’s (re)discover it together, shall we?
