Line #54 Trivia/SleepingBeauty


1	* AcclaimedFlop: Technically a box office flop ''and'' a success for critics at the same time, in that while it was second only to ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'' in it's reissues ($5.3 million), it still wasn't enough to recoup the obscenely high production costs ($6 million - nearly $53m in 2019 dollars - something which ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' [[HistoryRepeats had also fallen victim to]]) due to it being filmed in 70mm in its original release. This along with several other factors in Walt's studio that year resulted in the company winding up over $1 million in the red, which led to layoffs.
2	* ActingForTwo: Material put out decades after the movie's release credit Verna Felton as providing the voices for both Flora and Queen Leah.
3	* BabyNameTrendStarter:
4	** "Aurora" as a baby name took a while to catch on, but it suddenly became much more popular in the 2000s, notably around the time the Disney Princess line was established, which gave the film a renewed burst of popularity. It leapt up even higher after Film/{{Maleficent}} was released.
5	** Likewise, "Meriweather" was known as a boys' name before the movie (with Merry being a common nickname for it), but it's now associated with girls after the good fairy.
6	* BoxOfficeBomb: While the film did relatively well at the box office, making about $5.3 million during its later years, it failed to make back its then-expensive $6 million budget in its original run.
7	* CreatorBacklash: Mary Costa has had no problem badmouthing the segment based on this movie on the ''Enchanted Tales'' DVD.
8	* CutSong:
9	** Maleficent [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwyJR8hdBCM was going to have a refrain in]] a VillainSong concerning her minions.
10	** The Three Good Fairies were also going to have their own song but was later cut. The tune (having come from the ballet) still serves as their {{Leitmotif}}.
11	* DevelopmentGag: The artists really couldn't decide what color to make Aurora's dress, which leads to the gag of Flora and Merryweather perpetually changing it back and forth between blue and pink.
12	* ExtremelyLengthyCreation: The film was in the works for almost all of TheFifties with production starting in 1951 and being released in 1959. In that time, it became a financial disaster which didn't make its cost back despite being the second-highest grossing movie of the year[[note]]Did we mention [[WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}} this tended to happen a lot]] with Disney movies?[[/note]]. Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland had visitors walking past a set of dioramas of scenes from the movie in 1957, and the movie was still two years off.
13	* FakeBrit:
14	** In a sense. Knoxville-born Mary Costa had a rather thick Southern accent when she was cast, and she describes Creator/WaltDisney asking her to do a British accent for Aurora. She ultimately used a mid-Atlantic accent for the role. This is less of an issue now since Costa's accent faded after years of musical theatre.
15	** Maleficent is widely assumed to be British due to her accent, but her voice actress, Eleanor Audley, was an American.
16	*** On the other hand, Lord Duke (the herald) is also assumed to be British, due to his Mid Atlantic accent which is possibly done in a higher and exciting pitch by Hans Conried, who was also an American.
17	* IAmNotSpock: Although an accomplished opera singer, Mary Costa will always be best known as the voice of Princess Aurora. It's better remembered than her other roles, because naturally, opera is less mainstream than Disney films.
18	* KidsMealToy: UsefulNotes/McDonalds released a set of six art supplies in 1997 to promote the film's VHS release. There was a pencil topper of Aurora with a spindle eraser, a figure of Maleficent with a ruler and stencil, a figure of Prince Phillip with a marker and palette, a paper stamp cutter of Flora, a pen of the Dragon, and a book clip of the Raven.
19	* OrphanedReference: The three fairies' names are holdovers from when they were originally going to have powers based [[MeaningfulName off what they were named after]]. There are still some references to this in their gifts to Aurora - Flora's gift sequence features a rose, Fauna's some animals. Likewise Flora's original plan to turn the princess into a flower, and her turning the arrows into flowers in the climax.
20	* TheOtherMarty: Hans Conried, who voiced Captain Hook and Mr. Darling in ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', recorded some dialogues as King Stefan while Bill Scott, who voiced Dudley Do Right in ''WesternAnimation/DudleyDoRight'', recorded two lines as Lord Duke. In the final cut, Scott was dropped out for the role of Duke for no reason, as Conried was himself replaced by Taylor Holmes for the voice role of Stefan for no apparent reason; therefore, setting off countless unanswered questions and the unsolved mystery of Duke’s voice actor.
21	* PlayingAgainstType: Voice actress Verna Felton typically played mean old ladies such as the AlphaBitch Matriarch elephant in ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', Aunt Sarah in ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', the Queen of Hearts in ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and, later on, Fred's eternally nagging mother-in-law in ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. Here she plays one of the heroic Good Fairies, Flora (Coincidentally, Felton voiced a good fairy godmother in the other animated film Eleanor Audley was in, which was ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}''.) Typically, Hans Conried usually portrayed villains and cranky type figures such as Captain Hook in ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', Dr. Terwilliker in ''Film/The5000FingersOfDrT'', Snidley Whiplash in ''WesternAnimation/DudleyDoRight'', the second voice of the Grinch in ''WesternAnimation/HalloweenIsGrinchNight'', and other of his villainous roles. Here, he probably played his minor voice role as one of the supporting characters who is the helpful herald and majordomo with only a few lines in a higher pitch tone, Lord Duke. (Coincidentally, Conried also voiced one of the supporting characters, Mr. George Darling, in the other animated film Bill Thompson and Candy Candido were in, which was ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan''.)
22	* RealitySubtext: Mary Costa claims she had a "schoolgirl crush" on Bill Shirley, who voiced Phillip.
23	* TheRedStapler: Many a PrincessClassic in Western Animation have gowns that are inspired by Aurora's. Likewise, a good amount of princess costumes in stores are based on it. Also, along with the rest of the Disney Princesses, execs noted that children would be seen at the parks and ice shows attempting to dress in the gowns - so they created official dress-up gowns as merchandise.
24	* ReferencedBy:
25	** In the Dan Brown novel ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'', ''Sleeping Beauty'' is discussed as an allegory of the Holy Grail.
26	** In the film ''[[Film/Passengers2016 Passengers]]'', Jim awakens a woman named Aurora from stasis so he could have companionship.
27	* RefittedForSequel: The sequence of Maleficent capturing Philip and taunting him in the dungeon came from an idea they had for ''WesternAnimation/{{Snow White\|AndTheSevenDwarfs}}'' - where the Queen would have captured the prince and made skeletons dance for his amusement. The sequence was scrapped due to the animators not being confident drawing a realistic human male yet.
28	* StarMakingRole: This film helped launch Mary Costa's career as an opera singer. She would star in over forty-four operas as a result.
29	* SwanSong: ''Sleeping Beauty'' was Taylor Holmes's final appearance, as he died eight months after the film's release, in which he ''infamously'' replaced Hans Conried as the voice of King Stefan, making it ''highly'' unknown who had voiced the unnamed herald and fueling off unanswered questions.
30	* TroubledProduction: While not as problematic as some of their other productions, it suffered from quite a few conflicts of egos behind the scenes, mostly stemming from lead background designer Eyvind Earle inserting himself into more and more aspects of production with Creator/WaltDisney's encouragement, in an attempt to produce a more stylized and modern-looking Disney animated feature. As for the voice cast in regards to the role of King Stefan, they replaced Hans Conried (who was working on this film when he was responsible for performing live action reference as King Stefan for animators to capture his expressions and movements for the character) with Taylor Holmes for no apparent reason, setting off some unanswered questions and made it unknown who voiced Lord Duke. This caused the production to prolong and the budget to balloon massively and on release. And while it earned decent reviews and being second only to ''Ben Hur'' because of the re-releases, it would prove to be the worst financial failure of any of the studio's animated canon until ''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron'' over a quarter-century later, resulting in the animation department being heavily downsized afterward, making that film the only one of the Disney Dark Ages to be both a critical and financial failure.
31	* UncreditedRole:
32	** The voices for Queen Leah and for Maleficent's goons weren't credited. However, a bonus feature on the ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'' 70th Anniversary Edition [[https://youtu.be/6GQlxM7A59w?si=dvmHIjFUU-i1y5xw&t=212 states]] that after Verna Felton voiced Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, she went on to voice Flora and Leah.
33	** On the other hand, the voice of Lord Duke has not been solved or confirmed for many years, due to Taylor Holmes replacing Hans Conried for the voice role of King Stefan. His voice kind of sounds like Hans Conried in a higher pitch tone since Duke has a Mid Atlantic accent.
34	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
35	** The original storyline had Aurora grow up at the palace, like in the original fairy tale. She and Philip would have met after she sneaked out to a local fair, disguised as a servant girl. The concept of sneaking out in disguise was apparently recycled in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' for Jasmine.
36	*** In the original treatment outline given on the 2004 DVD release, Aurora meets Philip while out in the woods like in the final film, and later learns that he is the leader of a cavalcade of knights. Philip would have given her a ring with his cavalcade's insignia on it, which the fairies would notice once the palace is put to sleep and later recognize while searching for Philip.
37	** Diablo was originally a falcon who would have spoke with an anachronistic Brooklyn accent.
38	** The filmmakers were considered to have Hans Conried voice King Stefan, only if Taylor Holmes turned down the voice role of Stefan and just be used as the singing voice. It should possibly be noted that it would have likely made Conried a Disney Legend. In fact, he was the man responsible for modeling Stefan to help the animators capture his movements and facial features of the character to animate, but was himself, in fact, replaced by Holmes as the voice role, which eventually gave out some unanswered questions like Lord Duke’s original voice actor.
39	** An early treatment has Aurora prick her finger not because Maleficent hypnotizes her, but rather because Maleficent convinces her that touching the spindle would grant her strongest wish (similar to how WesternAnimation/{{Snow White\|and the Seven Dwarfs}} bit the poisoned apple after the Witch called it "a magic wishing apple").
40	** Another treatment, mentioned earlier from the 2004 DVD, has Stefan recognize that his daughter has fallen in love, an idea later repeated in ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 The Little Mermaid]]''. On the day of Aurora's 16th birthday, Stefan makes an order to ensure that nothing can get in or out of the castle in order to protect Aurora from Maleficent's curse, with Flora encompassing the castle with a protective barrier. Unfortunately, like in the final film, they FailedASpotCheck, as Maleficent not only knows where Aurora has been couped up, but also manages to sneak into the castle in the form of a large purple fish in the moat, taken to the kitchen by a servant boy to prepare to be cooked, and then changes into the form of an old crone.
41	*** Adding to this, Aurora would eventually wander the castle during her party, with her disappearance causing worries among her parents, with them realizing that [[YouAreTooLate they're too late]] and Maleficent has already cursed the princess.
42	** During Aurora's sleep, Maleficent would create the Forest of Thorns herself while the Three Good Fairies were searching for Philip, making her own protective barrier against the hope of waking the princess up. This also lines up with the original fairytale where the castle is surrounded by brambles during the hundred years that the curse is in effect, acting as a timer to prevent anyone from awakening her too early.
43	** The Three Good Fairies were originally meant to have powers associated with their names, but this was scrapped during production. Flora's idea of turning Aurora into a flower is a leftover from this part of development.
44	** Walt Disney wanted the three fairies to be [[SingleMindedTwins Single-Minded Triplets]] at first, but other animators convinced him to diversify their personalities. Additionally, early drafts of the film had seven fairies like the original tale.
45	** The spinning wheel in this original draft was not only an ArtifactOfDoom created by Maleficent as a "birthday present", but it was [[NighInvulnerability indestructible.]] The spinning wheel is finally destroyed when Merryweather shoots Maleficent with a lightning bolt during the final battle with the spindle stabbing her heart, being indestructible only while she lived.
46	** Eleanor Audley initially turned down the role of Maleficent, as she was battling tuberculosis at the time. Fortunately, she recovered and the role of Maleficent became one of her career-defining roles.
47	** The drunken argument between King Hubert and King Stefan was initially going to take place at the beginning of the film. It would feature a song where they would compare pictures of their children before Lord Duke interrupts the two kings and told them that the fairies have arrived at the castle gates. The deleted song was called "It Happens I Have A Picture" and it was spoken by Bill Thompson, Hans Conried, and Bill Scott. In this sequence, while Thompson was finalized as Hubert, Conried (who did live action reference movements for Stefan) read some of his lines for Stefan while Scott read two lines for Duke. For the voice role of Duke, Scott was dropped out for no reason — not to mention Conried’s ''own'' replacement by Taylor Holmes soon gave rise to numerous unanswered questions, such as about who had really voiced the unnamed herald.
48	** The sequence with the cake would have the fairies cause the first attempt to crash through the roof. It was cut because Walt Disney felt it was one gag too many.
49	** Mary Costa says that she was wanted for the singing voice of Aurora straight away, but Disney employees were concerned about her thick southern accent when she spoke naturally. Fortunately for her, she was able to tone it down to sound more princess-like.
50	** At one point, Creator/ChuckJones was attached to direct, having been fired from Creator/WarnerBros when it appeared 3D was going to be the new thing in the industry. However, Jones soon tired of Disney's tyrannical nature and returned to Warner's animation house as soon as he heard it was back in business.

Context Trivia / SleepingBeauty