It took six years. Six long, grueling years of hand-painting every single frame, stretching budgets to the breaking point, and driving animators to the brink of insanity. When people talk about the film Sleeping Beauty today, they usually think of the pink-versus-blue dress argument or that terrifying dragon sequence. But honestly? The movie was a total disaster when it first hit theaters in 1959. It’s kinda wild to think about now, considering it’s basically the gold standard for animation aesthetics, but at the time, Walt Disney was facing a legitimate financial nightmare.
The film Sleeping Beauty wasn't just another cartoon. It was an obsession. Walt wanted it to be a "moving tapestry." He was tired of the soft, rounded look of Snow White and Cinderella. He wanted something sharper, more sophisticated, and way more expensive. He got exactly what he asked for, and it almost bankrupt his company.
The Eyvind Earle Factor: Why It Looks So Weirdly Beautiful
Most Disney movies have a look that you can easily identify as "Disney style." Not this one. The film Sleeping Beauty looks the way it does because of one man: Eyvind Earle. Walt gave Earle unprecedented control over the background paintings and the overall art direction. This was a massive shift. Usually, the character animators lead the way, and the backgrounds just... exist behind them. Not here.
Earle’s style was heavily influenced by pre-Renaissance art, Persian miniatures, and medieval tapestries. Everything is vertical. Everything is detailed. If there’s a tree in the background, Earle didn't just paint a green blob; he painted every single leaf, every bit of bark, and every shadow with mathematical precision.
The animators actually hated it.
Chuck Jones, the legendary Looney Tunes director, once joked that the backgrounds were so detailed you could barely see the characters. But that was the point. Walt wanted a masterpiece. He wanted people to feel like they were walking through a museum. Because Earle’s style was so complex, the animators had to change how they drew. They couldn't use the usual squash-and-stretch techniques. The characters had to be more rigid, more "design-y" to fit into those incredibly horizontal and vertical spaces. It was a technical nightmare that slowed production to a crawl.
The 70mm Technirama Struggle
To make matters even more complicated, Disney decided to shoot the film Sleeping Beauty in Super Technirama 70. This was a massive widescreen format. Think about that for a second. Every single frame had to be twice as wide as a normal movie. That meant twice as much work for the background painters.
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If you watch the movie on a big screen today, you’ll notice that the composition is unlike almost anything else in the Disney canon. It’s grand. It’s sweeping. It’s also the reason the movie cost $6 million in 1959. To put that in perspective, that’s about $60 million today, but it felt like much more back then because the studio didn't have the diversified income streams it has now.
Maleficent and the Power of the Understated Villain
We need to talk about Maleficent. Honestly, she carries the whole movie. While Princess Aurora only has about 18 minutes of screen time and 14 lines of dialogue, Maleficent dominates every second she's on screen.
Eleanor Audley, the voice actress who also played Lady Tremaine in Cinderella, gave Maleficent this cool, detached regalness that is genuinely chilling. She doesn't scream. She doesn't cackle like a maniac (at least not until the very end). She is just... offended. She wasn't invited to a party, and she decided to ruin a kingdom over it. That’s a level of petty we have to respect.
Marc Davis, the lead animator for Maleficent, based her design on a mix of religious paintings and traditional demonic imagery. Her "horns" aren't just hair; they're part of her silhouette. When she transforms into the dragon—a sequence animated largely by the brilliant Wolfgang Reitherman—it wasn't just a gimmick. It was the first time animation truly captured the sheer scale of a mythological beast. They even used a flamethrower to record the sound of the dragon's breath to give it that terrifying, realistic "whoosh."
The Music: Borrowing from the Best
The film Sleeping Beauty doesn't have a traditional "Disney songbook" in the sense that The Little Mermaid or Frozen does. Instead, the entire score is an adaptation of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1890 ballet.
George Bruns was the guy tasked with taking Tchaikovsky’s massive orchestral pieces and turning them into 1950s pop-friendly movie songs. It was a bold move. It gave the film a classical, timeless feel that sets it apart from the more "Broadway" style of later films. "Once Upon a Dream" is basically the "Garland Waltz" with lyrics. It works because the melody is already part of the cultural DNA of Western music.
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But this choice also added to the production time. Matching animation to a pre-existing, complex classical score is way harder than writing a simple 32-bar showtune and animating to that. Every beat had to be timed perfectly to Tchaikovsky’s flourishes.
Why It Failed (And Why It Eventually Won)
When the film Sleeping Beauty premiered on January 29, 1959, the reviews were... mixed. Some critics found it too cold. Others thought it was too scary for kids. But the real problem was the money.
The film grossed about $5 million in its initial run. Remember, it cost $6 million to make.
Disney actually posted its first annual loss in a decade because of this movie. There were massive layoffs at the studio. For a while, it looked like the era of the "big" Disney princess movie was over. The studio pivoted to cheaper, more "sketchy" animation styles, like the Xerox process used in 101 Dalmatians. They didn't make another traditional princess fairy tale until The Little Mermaid thirty years later.
So, how did it become a classic?
Re-releases. Disney used to put their movies back in theaters every seven to ten years. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, new generations of kids (and stoners, honestly, who loved the psychedelic backgrounds) discovered the film. They realized that the "coldness" critics hated in 1959 was actually "sophistication." The film Sleeping Beauty aged better than almost any other movie from that era because it doesn't look like it was made in 1959. It looks like it was made in a dream.
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Modern Legacy: Beyond the Animation
The influence of the film Sleeping Beauty is everywhere. You see it in the design of the castle at Disneyland (which was actually opened before the movie was finished as a promotional tool). You see it in the Maleficent live-action franchise starring Angelina Jolie, which took the villain's perspective and turned it into a billion-dollar idea.
Even modern creators like Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) have cited Eyvind Earle’s work on this film as a major influence. The flat, graphic, highly stylized look is now considered the peak of the medium’s artistic potential.
Common Misconceptions About the Movie
- Aurora is the protagonist. She’s really not. The three fairies—Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather—are the true protagonists. They drive the plot, make the decisions, and provide the emotional core. Aurora is more like the "prize" they are trying to protect.
- It was a hit. Nope. As mentioned, it nearly broke the studio.
- Prince Phillip is boring. Actually, compared to the Prince in Snow White (who doesn't even have a name) or Prince Charming, Phillip is the first Disney prince with a personality. He argues with his dad, he has a relationship with his horse, Samson, and he actually does the heavy lifting in the finale.
How to Appreciate Sleeping Beauty Today
If you’re going to watch the film Sleeping Beauty again, don't just put it on in the background. You have to really look at it.
Watch the Forest Scenes
Notice how the trees are square? Notice the textures on the rocks? That’s all Eyvind Earle. Every frame is a painting that could be framed on a wall.
Listen to the Sound Design
The climax where Phillip fights the dragon is a masterclass in sound. The silence, the clashing of the shield, the roar of the flames—it’s visceral in a way that modern CGI often fails to be.
Check Out the Live-Action Reference Footage
Disney actually filmed live actors performing the entire movie on a soundstage so the animators could study their movements. You can find clips of this online. Seeing Helene Stanley (the model for Aurora) dancing in a studio helps you appreciate the skill it took to translate those human movements into the stylized art of the film.
The film Sleeping Beauty stands as a testament to what happens when an artist—Walt Disney—refuses to compromise on a vision, even when that vision is wildly impractical. It marks the end of an era. It was the last film where every background was hand-painted with that level of detail, and the last time the studio would risk everything on a single fairy tale for decades. It’s not just a movie for kids; it’s the final, glittering peak of the golden age of hand-drawn animation.
Next time you see that iconic silhouette of Maleficent or hear the opening notes of the "Once Upon a Dream" waltz, remember that you’re looking at a piece of art that nearly didn't survive its own ambition. That’s what makes it legendary.
Actionable Steps for Film Fans
- Compare the Formats: If you have the chance, watch the 4K restoration versus an older DVD copy. The 70mm aspect ratio is crucial to the experience; older versions often "pan and scan" the image, cutting off Earle’s incredible background work.
- Visit the Castle: If you ever head to Disneyland, walk through the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough. It uses dioramas inspired by Eyvind Earle’s original style to tell the story, and it’s one of the most underrated attractions in the park.
- Study the Color Theory: Look at how the fairies' colors (Red, Green, Blue) contrast with Maleficent’s purple and lime green fire. It’s a simple but effective way to track the "battle" for the kingdom's soul throughout the movie.