Review of Sleeping Beauty (1959) by Carol H — 22 Aug 2012

"Sleeping Beauty" is probably Disney's darkest fairy tale. This is because of its emphasis on Maleficent (I'm not joking when I say she's one of animation's scariest villains) and the seemingly hopeless conflict.

However, another reason "Sleeping Beauty" gets only two stars is because of its 'good' characters as well. Even though she's the title character, Princess Aurora gets very little screentime and even fewer lines.

So we can't really emphathize with her the same way we can with other Disney protagonists. The same goes with the story's prince. Because of its near-absent 'heroes', most of the film instead focuses on the side characters (ALWAYS a big mistake, no matter what kind of film you're watching).

All in all, I consider "Sleeping Beauty" to be one of Disney's lesser princess films.