Eight years in production, Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY only recouped it's budget thanks to 1970s and '80s reissues.
Disney wanted a different style to previous films and asked a recently-employed background artist Eyvind Earle to give it a unified look. A designer had already suggested a theme based on Medieval tapestries which Earle pursued.
Of course the characters have the unique touch that Disney's animators gave them so the main characters - Aurora, the three fairies and Maleficent - really pop from the austere backgrounds.
When the original director became ill he was replaced by Eric Larson who also delivered the forest sequence where Aurora sings to woodland creatures and meets The Prince.
He was replaced by Chuck Geronimi whose bickering with Earle led to the latter leaving Disney in 1958.
Wolfgang Reitherman joined Geronimi to direct the climax where Maleficent transforms into a dragon.
The lush score derives from Tchaikovsky's ballet.
Shelf or charity shop? A keeper... SLEEPING BEAUTY is still not everyone's favourite Disney but I have always liked it's tug-of-war between it's painterly austere backgrounds and standard Disneyisms like the cute woodland characters - I am a sucker for the squirrel and the two rabbits! Of course I also love the pure evil of Maleficent, superbly voiced by Eleanor Audley and animated by Marc Davis. He also animated Aurora who likewise has excellent vocal casting with 29 year-old soprano Mary Costa, the only cast member still with us at the time of writing. All together now: "I know you / I walked with you / Once Upon A Dream..."
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