Review of Sleeping Beauty (1959) by Trevor M — 02 Feb 2014

I feel like people just give this movie insanely high ratings because it is traditional Disney and makes them think of their childhood or something. Time to take off the rose colored glasses people and realize not only is this a horrible excuse of a movie, but it has some horrible messages for children...not to mention persistent ear splitting singing.

- Details Breakdown -.

The Good: The animation is quite excellent for 1959...yeah, that's literally the only good thing I can say about this movie.

The Bad: What in the world is up with this storyline? I thought Disney was supposed to be the master storyteller and then out comes this pile of garbage. The first thing to address about this movie is the sheer stupidity of the plot line. Let's break down the initial set-up of this movie: a princess is born and Maleficent isn't invited, she gets upset and curses the princess to prick her finger on a spindle by her 16th birthday. What villain casts a curse that takes 16 years to be fulfilled? She is supposed to be the most powerful being in the land and yet her magic takes 16 years to take effect whereas the weak fairy magic is instant and much more complicated? Yeah, not buying that one bit. Next, the king burns every spindle in the kingdom to stop the curse. Smart man really, that should have been the end of the movie, but the three fairies decide that instead of keeping the princess safe inside the castle, they will dress as peasants, take the princess into the forest, and raise her by themselves. There is no logical reasoning behind this, it just happens. 16 whole years pass by and the princess is kept safe, but then on the very last day that the curse can take effect, the fairies send the princess out into the woods by herself, get into a magical fight that can be seen from across the land and shows Maleficent exactly where they are and they don't even think about it. The entire reason they were out in the forest was to hide from Maleficent and then they forget she exists? Not plausible. This is just the first 20 minutes of the movie too, I could continue, but you get the picture. Moving on from stupid plot lines, there is the atrocious never-ending music and singing that makes you want to claw your ears off, the horrible casting decision of having a 35 year old play a 15 year old, and the most stupid and facepalm worthy love story to ever foul the Disney name other than The Little Mermaid. Then there is the fact that to call this movie sexist is the understatement of the year. Aurora's sole purpose in life is to be pretty, sing well, and be able to commune with the random wildlife in the forest. The three fairies at the beginning could have given her any gifts in life at all and they picked beauty and song, making her be a lovely doorstop, but not much of anything else. I normally love Disney movies, but I could not bring myself to finish Sleeping Beauty. The upcoming film Maleficent is pretty much guaranteed to give a better rendition of the classic story because this movie is garbage.