Review of Sleeping Beauty (1959) by Ryan K — 05 Mar 2016

When I watched Sleeping Beauty as a kid I remember feeling thrilling emotions of spellbounded joy from the visuals and music, romance, humour from the amiable good witches, and dauntless fear from one of the most terrific villains of my childhood.

I watch it now and I still become possessed by the art background details and the carefully directed dialogue. Though from being a kid to now I still do get disappointed from the lack of dialogue from the leading lady.

Mary Costa's singing and voice adds sudden magic and weight to the character and like a dream its spellbounding but brief. After the scene with the prince, Aurora doesn't get to utter a single line again.

Thanks to her enchanted sleep and the time period that this was made in that makes it more understandable. The character itself won't stand up to the much more feminist modernist heroines such as Repunzel, Mulan, and Belle, but thanks to impressive direction, colour, and sound, Sleeping Beauty will always remain a dream in an awakened world.