Product description

Sleeping Beauty (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) - 2 Disc DVD and Book Set [1958]

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Average customer rating: 5.0

Binding : DVD
EAN : 8717418178062
Label : Disney
Manufacturer : Disney
Publisher : Disney
Release date : 2008-10-27
Title : Sleeping Beauty (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) - 2 Disc DVD and Book Set [1958]
Audience rating : Universal, suitable for all
Format : PAL
Number of items : 2
Original release date : 1958-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 75
Studio : Disney
Theatrical releaseDate : 1958

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty was the studio's most ambitious effort to date, a lavish spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapted from the music of Tchaikovsky.

In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her sixteenth birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Fortunately, some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are on hand to assist.

It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here, alongside Maleficent's castle, which, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke, Amazon.com

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-10-16 rating:

a medieval tapestry coming to life..............
What is so exquisite about Sleeping Beauty is that it looks like a medieval tapestry coming to life. If you look closely at the details in the backgrounds you can see little twists in the leaves and curves in the tree bark which overall gives an ornate and opulent look still refreshing to this day. It was the most expensive film in it's day, it took over four years to make and Walt Disney stated to his artists and animators that they should take their time over it, make it beautiful and so it came as a shock when it didn't do all that well in the cinemas. It wasn't really able to communicate to an american youth who were smoking things they shouldn't and it seemed this highly romantic film was too idealistic in it's portrayal of young love, it felt as if it should have been released earlier than the late 1950's, so culturally you can see that it wasn't able to make audiences identify with it. But this is probably the one Disney film which stands the test of time better than any other, artistically speaking; since the music is exemplary and the imagery and animation highly captivating, more so than anything Disney has attempted in recent years. In places it is so beautiful to watch.

The Disney studios today have developed the way they tell fairy tales now to another stunning level as 2010 will mark a new leap in visual storytelling for the company with the release of Rapunzel Unbraided, a computer animated film which has the feel and sensitivity of a traditional animated 2d film yet with the texture of an oil painting coming to life. For years now the company has been trying to reinvent their style, pushing their visual language to another stratosphere and they may well have done it in Rapunzel, but from what I have viewed it does echo slightly the romantic style of Sleeping Beauty, it's attention to detail is just as shimmering and splendid ... we'll have to see. We can see though that this film, Sleeping Beauty, set a standard which modern animators and film makers still aim for and that is why Sleeping Beauty is such an enduring work of art, as it really aimed to make animation a cinematic art form, it was ahead of it's time and held a maturity wiser than it's time.

This edition is presented in a beautifully gold embossed covering, with a thoughtfully produced book, printed very well (with more care and attention than the previous editions; The Jungle Book ... collectors edition with book wasn't that well produced). The book has art work and an informed text which makes this version very attractive.

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