Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney based on The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault.

Directed by Clyde Geronimi. With Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton. After being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.

Disney produced this lavish animated fairy tale, the most expensive cartoon ever made up to its release with a budget of $6 million. When the young princess Aurora is cursed at birth by the evil fairy Maleficent, the baby is kidnapped by a trio of good fairies who raise the girl themselves, hoping to avoid the spell's fulfillment. Nevertheless, at the age of 16, the beautiful Aurora falls into a deep sleep that can only be awakened by a kiss from her betrothed, Prince Phillip. Knowing that Phillip intends to save Aurora, Maleficent takes him prisoner. When the good fairies launch a rescue attempt, Maleficent transforms herself into a spectacular fire-breathing dragon, forcing Phillip to defeat her in mortal combat. Sleeping Beauty (1959) was Oscar nominated for its musical score, which featured adaptations of Tchaikovsky compositions. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Disney's fairy tale classic about a princess saved by true love's kiss

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista...

On the day that Princess Aurora is born, Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) comes to the kingdom to bestow a deadly curse on the child. 'Sleeping Beauty' - A film b...

Even the biggest Sleeping Beauty devotee might have missed these fun facts (possibly while sleeping).

The animators and painters evoke an expressionistic netherworld influenced by numerous Gothic, Persian and Medieval sources.

A worthy successor to the early classics Snow White and Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty is the one great fairy-tale adaptation of Disney’s post-war period, outshining Cinderella and unrivaled until 1991’s Best-Picture candidate Beauty and the Beast.

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated musical fantasy film based on The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault and Little Briar Rose by The Brothers Grimm. It is the 16th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and was the last Disney adaptation of a fairy tale until the release of The Little Mermaid in 1989.