WE GOT MOVIE SIIIIIGN!
Right off the bat, you’ll notice one significant difference between this film and our previous ones; widescreen! Or Technirama, as it was called back in the day. This was the first animated film to be made with the Technirama process. The last film to be made with it was, interestingly enough, The Black Cauldron.
There’s another thing to take note of here; the music is adapted from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ballet adaptation of the Sleeping Beauty story. Yes, that Tchaikovsky. Rather clever of them, don’t you think? Now you’ve got an awesome score that you only sort of have to write. One could even say that they took the idea behind Fantasia to its logical conclusion. And speaking of music, our chorus is singing the movie’s most famous number, “Once Upon A Dream.” It comes up later, so we won’t discuss it just yet, but this performance gets an honorable mention for setting the fairytale tone so well.
Oh, and the backgrounds are really pretty. :)
You guys know the drill by now. Live-action book that opens, narrator tells story. Once upon a time, there lived a king and queen who had always wanted a child. They finally had a daughter, and because her arrival “filled their lives with sunshine,” they named her Aurora. The chorus really likes that name, because they sing it.
The king and queen then declare a kingdom-wide day of celebration on which everyone can come and pay their respects to the new princess. And the story begins “on that most joyful day.” The chorus really likes that phrase, because they sing it twice.
We fade from the book right into the action with another song, “Hail to the Princess Aurora.” This is a tune that’s made for marching, and march the people of the kingdom do. They march into town, across the drawbridge and right into the castle courtyard while singing the praises of the king, queen and princess. All of her subjects adore her, they proclaim, and they wish her health and wealth.
There’s a certain kind of animation associated with Disney movies. Soft, round lines, elaborate painting-like backgrounds, that sort of thing. Sleeping Beauty doesn’t have that. Pretty much everyone and everything has sharp lines, and the backgrounds are fairly subdued when compared to what comes before and after it. At one point, you can see the sky and it’s just lots of gray. What’s more, it all looks straight and flat. The filmmakers used medieval European art as inspiration for the look of the film, and I’ve heard it compared to tapestries. It definitely shows, and it gets your attention in a good way.
We go inside the castle, where the proud parents are sitting on their thrones with the cradle next to them. These are King Stefan and Queen Leah, and they’re about to receive one of their closest friends. Several trumpets are blown, and a herald announces the arrival of King Hubert and Prince Philip. They come to the thrones, and the two kings greet one another while the narrator chimes in to inform us that they’ve often wished to unite their kingdoms. Now they finally have a good excuse! Philip is going to be betrothed to Aurora.
Philip, who appears to be four or five, is brought before the cradle with his gift while the narrator says that he is looking unknowingly on his future bride. It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t know, because he makes a face at the sight of her.
The trumpets are blown again, and a beam of white light comes down from the ceiling. Several sparkles travel down it and materialize into three winged old ladies, the three Good Fairies. One by one they are announced; Flora is the one in red, Fauna is the one in green and Merryweather is the one in blue who also looks nothing like her friends. They all fly up to the cradle and gush over the baby for a few seconds before lining up in front of the thrones.
"Each of us may bless the child with a single gift," Flora says. "No more, no less." She approaches the cradle first. "Little princess, my gift shall be the gift of beauty," she proclaims as she waves her wand.
The sparkles that come out of it form images of the older Aurora while the chorus sings about how she’s going to be blonde and have really red lips. The pictures then turn back into sparkles which float down into the cradle.
Then it’s Fauna’s turn. “My gift shall be the gift of song,” she says. The sparkles from her wand also form pictures while the chorus sings about nightingales or something. Again, sparkles float into cradle.
Now Merryweather’s up, or so she thinks. She’s getting ready to wave her wand and presumably bestow Aurora with the gift of personality when FWOOSH! A mighty wind blows open the doors. Everyone gapes as green flames shoot up from the floor. Out of them fades a pale-skinned woman in a black Grim Reaper-like robe carrying a staff and petting the raven sitting on it. Oh, and the horns. Can’t be forgetting the horns.
"Why, it’s Maleficent!" Flora exclaims.
"What does she want here?” says Merryweather.
Just to note how good the party is, apparently. “Well, quite a glittering assemblage, King Stefan,” she says smoothly. “Royalty, nobility, the gentry, and…oh, how quaint. Even the rabble.” This last bit is directed at the fairies, and Merryweather tries to come after her for it but is held back.
Maleficent ignores this. “I really feel quite distressed at not receiving an invitation,” she continues. There is no indication that she didn’t, especially since it was said right in the opening that anyone could come. So keep in mind that what she’s about to do is most likely just her idea of a little weekend fun.
Merryweather pipes up again. “You weren’t wanted!”
"Not wanted?" Maleficent asks with feigned surprise before brushing it aside with a little chuckle. "Oh, dear, what an awkward situation. I had hoped it was merely due to some oversight. Well, in that event, I’d best be on my way.”
"You’re not offended, your excellency?" Queen Leah asks.
"Why, no, Your Majesty," Maleficent answers, still very calm. "And to show I bear no ill will, I too shall bestow a gift on the child."
The Good Fairies gather around the cradle to shield Aurora, but it’s no good. Maleficent proclaims that the princess shall be beautiful and graceful and loved by everyone. Then her eyes widen and her voice grows sharper as she waves her hand around the top of the staff, conjuring up images of skulls and demons. "But, before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die!” She tops it all off with a nice little cackle as Leah freaks out and grabs Aurora. Stefan orders her seized, but she just continues to laugh as she leaves the way she came.
"Don’t despair, Your Majesties," Flora says once the dust settles. "Merryweather still has her gift to give." She can’t undo the curse because their powers aren’t as great as Maleficent’s, but she can help. "Just do your best, dear," they say as they push her forward. No pressure, Merry!
Merry starts to wave her wand. “Sweet princess. If through this wicked witch’s trick, a spindle shall your finger prick, a ray of hope there still may be in this, the gift I give to thee. Not in death, but just in sleep, the fateful prophecy will keep. And from this slumber you shall wake when true love’s kiss the spell shall break.”
The sparkles form an image of the sleeping Aurora that dissolves and falls over the baby while the chorus gets their two cents in. "For true love conquers all…"
Stefan, just to be on the safe side, orders a bonfire made with every spinning wheel in the kingdom. This gets done that very evening, right in the courtyard. Let’s hope the economy of England/France/Wherevertheheckia isn’t heavy on the textiles.
Flora watches this from the throne room. “Silly fiddle faddle,” she mutters.
Fauna conjures up a tea set and cookies from thin air. “I’m sure it’ll work out somehow.”
Maleficent rightfully points out that a bonfire won’t stop someone who dresses like a genderbent Satan, so they’ve got to come up with a plan. Fauna wants to reason with her, but this idea explodes in the hangar. Merry wants to turn Maleficent into a fat old hop toad, but their magic can only bring joy and happiness. “Well, that would make me happy,” she responds.
Flora finally gets an idea, but they need to talk about in private because “even walls have ears.” Using their wands to shrink themselves, they hide inside a box on the table.
So what is Flora’s brilliant plan? “We’ll turn her into a flower!” Aurora, not Maleficent. A flower can’t prick its finger because it hasn’t got a finger, right? “She’ll be perfectly safe.”
"Until Maleficent sends a frost," says Merryweather.
"Yes, a…oh, dear!” Maleficent always ruins her nicest flowers, after all.
Merry doesn’t seem to see the point of trying to do anything. Maleficent will expect whatever plan the fairies cook up, because she knows everything.
"Oh, but she doesn’t, dear," Fauna says. "Maleficent doesn’t know anything about love or kindness or the joy of helping others. You know, sometimes I don’t think she’s really very happy."
This gives Flora the idea she needs. Maleficent won’t expect it if she can’t understand it! They’ll need to commandeer the abandoned woodcutter’s cottage in the forest, and they’ll need to explain to Aurora’s parents that it’s the only way…
"Explain what?” Merry asks.
"About the three peasant women raising a foundling child deep in the forest!"
"Oh, that’s nice of them," Fauna says. "Who are they?"
Flora answers by changing her friends’ dresses into more plain wear. It’s them, of course!
Fauna is delighted when she figures this out, but Merry has a few objections. First of all, her new duds are pink when they ought to be blue. Second of all, they’ll be living like mortals for sixteen years? Doing everything themselves? They have no idea how to do things without magic!
"And that’s why Maleficent will never suspect it," Flora reasons. Besides, they’ll all pitch in to do the work. After getting rid of their wings, she confiscates the others’ wands and uses hers one last time to return them all to normal size before going off to pitch this to the king and queen.
A lot going on in those first fifteen minutes, wasn’t there? See you in the next part!
