Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Feature
length: 75 minutes
Extras:
Rescue Aurora Game, Music Video, Sing Along, Making Of Sleeping Beauty,
Featurettes, Galleries, Trailers, Commentary, Bonus Tracks
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 30
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1959/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: G
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
The
first Walt Disney feature length animated film to take advantage of the
possibilities of a 70mm theatrical aspect ratio with a singular animated vision
is now available on DVD. “Sleeping Beauty” is my favorite of the Disney
cartoons because it has a wonderful and colorful look that seems as if a
storybook had come to life complete with knights in armor, castles, fairies, a
dragon, and other strange creatures. The animation still holds up quite well
today, especially when one considers the cell animation technique used to bring
the story to life. The featurettes often refer to “Sleeping Beauty” as being
Disney’s first modern animated feature. Well, I do not know enough about art
history or even the history of animation to say exactly what that means in my
own words so I’ll leave that to the animation experts to explain. I just know
“Sleeping Beauty” is a timeless fantasy given A-list treatment on DVD
courtesy of Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
“Sleeping
Beauty” was meticulously and painstakingly reformatted one frame at a time
working from the film’s original digitally stored files. The restored film
then went through a direct to digital presentation with an all-new Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Soundtrack resulting in a home video viewing experience that
actually exceeds the capabilities of the original theatrical exhibition back in
1959.
Disc
one presents “Sleeping Beauty” in both an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1)
aspect ratio as well as a pan and scan (1.33:1) presentation. Both transfers are
THX certified complete with the THX Optimizer® program for picture and sound
calibration. The detail and colors simply jumps off of the screen with only the
slightest amount of compression artifacts noticeable in the widescreen version.
One can truly appreciate the stylized look of the film and little touches that
add a bit of realism to the animated characters, such as the way a dress moves
or hair bounces as a character interacts with her environment. Both
presentations feature an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack mix along
with optional English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired. The
score benefits the most from the 5.1 mix, but none of the elements of the
soundtrack appeared flat. The pan and scan version also features a Spanish and
French Language Dubbed Soundtrack option while the widescreen presentation
includes a feature length commentary featuring various animators mixed together
while the film itself is narrated with a historical style.
The
second DVD is full of extra features for adults as well as children with
interactive menus that include animated transitions as if one were turning pages
within a storybook. For the children is the “Rescue Aurora” game where the
player as Prince Philip is guided by the fairies answering questions in order to
awaken Princess Aurora. Players are given three opportunities to save her before
the game resets itself. Next is the music video for “Once Upon (Another)
Dream” by No Secrets (3:39), which is presented with a rather loud 5.1
Surround Soundtrack so one might want to adjust the volume before proceeding to
view it. This is supported by a sing-along for “Once Upon A Dream” (2:55)
complete with images from the film and more interactive set up games such as the
Princess Personality Game, where through answering various questions girls can
see what kind of princess they may resemble, the Sleeping Beauty Ink & Paint
Game, which allows players to color the various characters like the animators,
but with no mess for the parents to clean up afterwards. There is even two art
projects that shows how to make images of the princess (5:17) and the dragon
(5:08) using household items under a parent’s supervision.
For
the adults are bunch of featurettes and documentaries and galleries to explore
under various subheadings covering the film’s history, production, and
publicity. “Once Upon A Dream: The Making Of Sleeping Beauty” (16:22)
feature interviews with animators, actors, and film historians regarding this
Disney masterpiece. There is an onscreen essay on the history of the story as
well as the 1951 outline for the animated film, which is also narrated (22:14).
The story reels show a comparison between the storyboard and completed scene for
the “Capture Of The Prince” sequence (1:50) and “Fairies Put The Castle To
Sleep” scene (2:14) complete with a short introduction (1:50).
Under
the heading of production are a series of featurettes covering the music (2:46),
design (3:22), backgrounds (1:07) and black and white filmed footage of the
animators using dancer Helen Stanley as a reference for posing the Princess
Aurora character (1:07) as well as reference footage for an action scene where
we see an actor blocking his moves for the climactic fight against the dragon (:
48). A gallery of 23 mostly black and white photos and sketches supports these
two demonstrations. Finally a featurette on the film’s restoration (2:47) as
well as comparing the (2.35:1) version with the (1.33:1) version (3:50) sum up
this aspect of the extra value features.
There
are eleven 3-D galleries covering Concept Art, Briar Rose/Princess Aurora,
Maleficent & Her Minions, The Three Good Fairies, Royal Households,
Miscellaneous Characters, Storyboards, Layouts & Backgrounds, Storybook
Images, Posters, and the Disneyland Walkthrough all within a virtual
representation of King Stefan’s castle from the film with some galleries
offering anecdotes for children and adults as well as the option to magnify
various images. There is also another more traditional gallery of scrapbook
images containing more behind-the-scenes images, publicity shots, merchandise,
and images of the theme park.
There
are two installments from Disney’s 1959 television program covering composer
Peter Tchaikovsky (30:22) and a look at the animation techniques from the film
(16:08). Even the Academy Award® winning short “Grand Canyon” (19:59),
which accompanied “Sleeping Beauty” during the original theatrical release,
is included and also features a remastered 5.1 surround soundtrack. The original
theatrical teaser (1:43), 1959 trailer (3:12), and 1995 reissue trailer (1:26)
are provided along with bonus trailers and home video previews for “The Lion
King: Special Edition” (1:40), “Brother Bear” (2:03), “Finding Nemo”
(1:26), “The Santa Clause 2” (1:08), “Kim Possible: The Secret Files” (:
55), “Disney Princess” (: 33) and Disney Electronics’ “Princess Style”
(: 40).
“Sleeping
Beauty: Special Edition 2-Disc Set” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers
on and offline, but only for a limited time from Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Set Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!