Audience Rating: Universal, suitable for all
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5017182047629
Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Digital Sound, HiFi Sound, PAL
Label: Walt Disney Home Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageAnalog
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video
Release Date: May 22, 2000
Running Time: 72 minutes
Studio: Walt Disney Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: January 29, 1959

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty was the studio's most ambitious effort to date, a lavish spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapted from the music of Tchaikovsky. In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her sixteenth birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Fortunately, some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are on hand to assist. It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here, alongside Malificent's castle, which, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke, Amazon.com




Rating: - A Real Visual Beauty
This is my favourite Disney movie. The backgrounds are detailed and stylised like a series of medieval tapestries. The intergration of the characters in what look like the best sets ever designed for a semi-swashbuckling musical/comedy/thriller is stunning.
I still get frightened when the fire goes out and Maleficent appears to tempt Aurora through the back of the fireplace (Maleficent being a truly evil villainess). The score is superbly used in these scenes. Brilliant stuff.

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Rating: - Outstanding
Like "Cinderella" and "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty" has gained a rather negative reputation over recent years. It represents, some critics might argue, everything that is wrong with the traditional Disney film: the princess is a brainless sweetheart who requires rescuing by a dullard of a prince, who is very brave and noble but not much else. The villain - shrouded in black and bearing a deep grudge against the princess - is treated mercilessly by the story, but somehow manages to be more interesting ... Read More

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Rating: - Beautiful :D
As a child, this edition of sleeping beauty was my favourite film. I loved it and watched it over and over again. I especially liked the evil mallificent, her raven and the dragon. This film is a childrens classic that will live forever.

I just wish amazon were still selling this item :( I'd love to buy it on dvd.

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Rating: - Gorgeous artwork, lovely rendering of the classic tale
It took Disney's animators six years to create "Sleeping Beauty" and the effort really shows in this magnificent rendering of the German fairy tale "Dornroeschen" or "The Little Briar Rose." The fairy tale is variously transcribed from European folktales by Perrault and The Bros. Grimm. (My favorite part in the Grimm rendering is how the arrival of the long-desired child is announced to the Queen-- she gets the news from a talking crab that jumps out of her bathwater. Now, what kind of crab would that be?) ... Read More

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Rating: - An Enchanting Restoration
Keyed to the style of Disney artist Ervind Earle, SLEEPING BEAUTY has long been renowned as one of Walt Disney Studio's most artistically beautiful films--and now with this meticulous restoration Earle's vision comes to the home market in a DVD package that is sure to win praise from every fan of hand-drawn animation.

The story, of course, is the time-honored fairy tale. Princess Aurora is cursed at birth by the evil Maleficent, who declares that on her sixteenth birthday the princess shall prick ... Read More

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