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Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

1959 American animated film

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American Disney film. A snubbed malevolent fairy, Maleficent, casts a curse on a princess named Aurora that only a prince named Phillip can break, with the help of three good fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.

Directed by Clyde Geronimi. Written by Erdman Penner, based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault.
See It With Someone You Love. (taglines)

Dialogue

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[A storm blows up and a gust of wind blows open the castle doors. Maleficent magically appears from the green flames]
Fauna: Why, it's Maleficent!
Merryweather: What does she want here?
Flora: Shh!
Maleficent: Well! Quite a glittering assemblage, King Stefan. Royalty, nobility, the gentry, and- [chuckles and looks at the Good Fairies] How quaint! Even the rabble. [Merryweather charges at her, but is held back by Flora] I really felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation.
Merryweather: You weren't wanted.
Maleficent: Not wa-? 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.
Queen Leah: And...you're not offended, Your Excellency?
Maleficent: Why, no, Your Majesty. And to show I bear no ill will, I, too, shall bestow a gift on the child. Listen well, all of you! The princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. But...before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel...and DIE!
Queen Leah: [grabs Aurora] Oh, no!
[Maleficent maniacally chuckles]
King Stefan: Seize that creature!
Maleficent: [to Stefan's advancing guards] STAND BACK, YOU FOOLS!
[Maleficent cackles and disappears in green flames while her crow flies away into the distance]
The Narrator: But King Stefan, still fearful of his daughter's life, did then and there decree that every spinning wheel in the kingdom should on that very day be burned, and so 'twas done.
Flora: Oh, silly fiddle-faddle!
Fauna: Now, come have a nice cup of tea, dear. I'm sure it'll turn out somehow.
Merryweather: Well, a bonfire won't stop Maleficent.
Flora: Of course not, but what will?
Fauna: Well, perhaps if we will reason with her.
Flora: Reason?
Merryweather: With Maleficent?
Fauna: Well, she can't be all bad.
Flora: Oh, yes she can!
Merryweather: Ooh, I'd like to turn her into a fat old hoptoad!
Fauna: Now, dear, that isn't a very nice thing to say.
Flora: Besides, we can't. You know our magic doesn't work that way.
Fauna: It can only do good, dear, to bring joy and happiness.
Merryweather: Well, that would make me happy.
Maleficent: It's incredible! Sixteen years, and not a trace of her! She couldn't have vanished into thin air! Are you sure you searched everywhere?
The Minion: Yep, yep, uh, everywhere, we all did.
[The other minions agree]
Maleficent: And what about the town? The forests? The mountains?!
The Minion: Yeah, we searched mountains, uh, uh, uh, uh forests, and, uh, houses, and uh - Let me see, uh...and all the cradles.
Maleficent: Cradle?
The Minion: Yep, yep. Every cradle.
Maleficent: CRADLE?! [to Diablo] Did you hear that, my pet? All these years, they've been looking for a baby. [begins laughing maniacally, leading her minions to do the same, but suddenly goes into a fierce rage] Fools! IDIOTS! IMBECILES! [shoots lightning bolts at them all, sending them fleeing from the room] Oh! They're hopeless. [sits down] It's a disgrace to the forces of evil. [to Diablo] My pet, you are my last hope. Circle far and wide. Search for a maid of sixteen, with hair of sunshine gold and lips red as the rose. Go, and do not fail me.
Princess Aurora: Oh, dear. Why do they still treat me like a child?
The Owl: Who?
Princess Aurora: Aunt Flora and Fauna and Merryweather. They never want me to meet anyone. But you know something? I fooled them. I have met someone.
The Owl: Who? Who? Who?
Princess Aurora: Oh, a prince. [The birds twitter] Well, he's tall and handsome and- and so romantic. [The birds twitter] Oh, we walk together and talk together. And just before we say goodbye he takes me in his arms...and then...I wake up. [The birds sigh] Yes, it's only in my dreams. But, they say, if you dream a thing more than once it's sure to come true, and I've seen him so many times.
[Phillip and Aurora meet for the first time]
Prince Phillip: I'm awfully sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you.
Princess Aurora: Oh, it, uh, wasn't that. It's just that you're a-a-
Prince Phillip: A stranger?
Princess Aurora: Mm-hmm.
Prince Phillip: But don't you remember? We've met before.
Princess Aurora: We-We have?
Prince Phillip: Well, of course. You said so yourself. Once upon a dream.
[Princess Aurora's singing after meeting Prince Phillip]
Fauna: She's in love of-
Merryweather: Oh no!
Flora: This is terrible!
Princess Aurora: Why? After all, I am sixteen.
Flora: It isn't that, dear.
Fauna: You are already betrothed.
Princess Aurora: Betrothed?
Merryweather: Since the day you were born.
Fauna: To Prince Phillip, dear.
Princess Aurora: But that's impossible! How could've I marry a prince? I have to be-
Merryweather: A princess.
Fauna: And you are, dear.
Flora: Princess Aurora. [Diablo is surprised that he'd found her] Tonight we're taking you back to your father, King Stefan.
Princess Aurora: But I can't! He's coming here tonight, I'd promised to meet him.
[Diablo flies off to alert Maleficent]
Flora: I'm sorry, child. But you must never see that young man again.
Princess Aurora: Oh no! No! I can't believe it! No! No! [runs to her room crying]
Merryweather: And we thought she'd be so happy.
[The fairies led Aurora up to her new bed chambers after secretly returning to the castle]
Flora: Come along, now. [they side-step against a castle wall and come to a private room at last] All right, in here, dear. [Merryweather closes the door and sighs] Bolt the door, Merryweather! Fauna, pull the drapes! [Merryweather and Fauna do so as told] And now, dear, if you'll just sit here. This one last gift, dear child for thee,[she, Fauna, and Merryweather magically conjure up a crown] the symbol of thy royalty. [as she ceremoniously places the crown on Aurora's head] A crown to wear in grace and beauty; as is thy right, and royal duty.
[Aurora puts her head in her arms and weeps]
Fauna: [comfortingly] Now, dear...
Flora: Come. Let her have a few moments alone.
[They went into another room]
Merryweather: It's that boy she met.
Fauna: Whatever are we going to do?
[Back in the room, the fire goes out and a hovering green flame appears; Aurora rises, entranced, and begins walking toward it to eerie music]
Merryweather: [irked] Ooh, I don't see why she has to marry any old...prince!
Fauna: Now, that's not for us to decide, dear.
[Aurora continues to follow the flame; a doorway appears in the fireplace]
Fauna: [to Flora] Maybe we should tell King Stefan about the boy.
Merryweather: Well, why don't we?
Flora: [listening at the door] Listen! [gasps] Maleficent! Rose! [they rush in] Rose!
[They gasp, seeing Aurora step through the doorway in the fireplace]
Fauna: Oh, why did we leave her alone? Rose!
Flora: [they rush towards the doorway; it vanishes] Rose!
Fauna: Poor King Stefan and the Queen...
Merryweather: They'll be heartbroken when they find out.
Flora: [getting an idea] They're not going to.
Merryweather: They aren't?
Flora: We'll put them all to sleep, until Rose awakens. [closes the curtains] Come.
[They shrink into small sizes and fly around the castle, putting everyone to sleep, including the knights, servants, nobles, townspeople, lords, ladies, and peasants]
The Chorus: [singing]
Sleeping Beauty fair,
Gold of sunshine in your hair
Lips that shame the red, red rose
Dreaming of true love in slumber repose
One day he will come
Riding over the dawn
When you awaken to love's first kiss
Till then, Sleeping Beauty, sleep on
One day you'll awaken to love's first kiss
Till then, Sleeping Beauty, sleep on...
[In the dining room, while Merryweather is putting the townspeople and other people to sleep, she spots Sir Minstrel awakening and puts him back to sleep, yawing as he lay on the floor under the table again. Meanwhile, in the throne room, Flora has put the sleeping spell on King Stefan, Queen Leah, and King Hubert]
King Hubert: [while drifting off to sleep] Well, just been talking to Phillip. Seems he's fallen in love with some peasant girl.
Flora: [stops herself] Peasant girl? Yes, yes? The peasant girl, who is she?! Where did he meet her?!
King Hubert: Just some peasant girl he met.
Flora: Where, where?!
King Hubert: Once upon a dream. [finally falls asleep]
Flora: "Once upon a dr-" [gets the connection] Rose! Prince Phillip! Oh! Oh! [flies to Merryweather and Fauna] Come on! We've got to get back to the cottage!
Maleficent: Oh, come now, Prince Phillip. Why so melancholy? A wondrous future lies before you. You, the destined hero of a charming fairy tale come true. [shows Philip an image of King Stefan's castle, using her staff] Behold, King Stefan's castle. And in yonder topmost tower, dreaming of her true love, the Princess Aurora. But see the gracious whim of fate. Why, 'tis the selfsame peasant maid who won the heart of our noble prince but yesterday. She is indeed most wondrous fair, gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red, red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose. The years roll by. But a hundred years, to a steadfast heart, are but a day. And now, the gates of a dungeon part and our prince is free to go his way. Off he rides on his noble steed- [shows him walking slowly away on his horse, old and slumped] a valiant figure, straight and tall- to wake his love with "love's first kiss"...and prove that "true love" conquers all! [laughs wildly and evilly]
Merryweather: Why, you, you, y- [Flora pulls her back into hiding]
[Flora pulls Merryweather back into hiding. Diablo hears them, but doesn't see them.]
Maleficent: [summons Diablo] Come, my pet. Let us leave our noble prince with these happy thoughts. [at the door] A most gratifying day. For the first time in sixteen years, I shall sleep well. [she leaves]
[Diablo eyes the door suspiciously before returning to Maleficent; Flora, Fauna and Merryweather fly in.]
Flora: Shh! No time to explain. [they magically break his chains and he gets up to leave] Wait, Prince Phillip. The road to true love may be barred by still many more dangers, which you alone will have to face. So arm thyself with this enchanted Shield of Virtue, and this mighty Sword of Truth, for these weapons of righteousness will triumph over evil. Now come, we must hurry.

About Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

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  • It holds up extraordinarily well. As a work of art it was kind of like the pinnacle for Walt. It was the last film of its kind, really. It ended an era, back in 1959. From then on films would be made differently. So Sleeping Beauty was, I like to say, Disney's last hand-made product, where everything in that motion picture was done by hand.
  • Well I think the thing that a handmade film gives us is an artistic sensibility that is somewhat lost when technology is introduced. On the other hand, technology is amazing as it enables us to do incredible things. We had very distinct limitations on Sleeping Beauty. We were limited to five levels of cels. We could not go beyond five levels because then the image would become degraded. In the new digital technology there is no limit to how many levels you can have. So, there's a give and take. The technology enables us to do amazing things, yet the old hand drawn process brought a certain sensibility that I'm afraid we've lost because of that change.

Taglines

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  • Now the magic moment! Full-length feature fantasy - Beautiful beyond belief
  • Wondrous to see... Glorious to hear... A magnificent new motion picture!
  • Ablaze With Wonder!
  • Awaken to a World of Wonders!
  • See It With Someone You Love.

Cast

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