[Updated 10.29.08]

Sleeping Beauty isn’t one of Walt’s best animated features.  In many respects, it’s a triumph of style over substance. The background paintings by Eyvind Earle are stunning in their sheer detail and masterful technique and, coupled with the stylized verticals in the character design, they make “Beauty” look like a medieval tapestry come to life (if that medieval tapestry were somehow filtered through a nineteen-fifties design aesthetic). For me, however, it’s like the filmmakers poured the majority of their efforts into the look of the film and the story suffers a deficit of warmth as a result. As is usually the case in these films, the ostensible heroes of the piece — the prince and princess — are virtual ciphers and the supporting characters are allowed to take center stage. This tendency has never really bothered me, however, since princes and princesses are generally pretty boring people; it’s the sidekicks and villains we’re usually most interested in. The Good Faeries (Beauty’s de facto guardians) are sufficiently motherly and amusing and the villain is a real doozy. Maleficent — despite the blandness of some of the supporting material — is one of Disney’s best villains. Not only is she a chilling presence in every scene she inhabits, she has a speech late in the film where she mocks the prince for his naivete and hope. At the end of this bit of dialogue, Maleficent probably has the audience believing that they may not get their expected happy ending. But this stately and cruel villainess is not enough to lift Sleeping Beauty to the level of the great Disney animated features that preceded it (or the ones the followed it in the late nineteen-eighties and nineteen-nineties). Although the film is indisputably gorgeous, the story obviously never received the much-vaunted input of Walt himself. No, by 1959, Walt was much too interested in theme parks, and television, and live action fare like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to give animation the loving attention it once enjoyed. Does that mean Sleeping Beauty wasn’t worth my time? On the contrary, it’s a perfectly enjoyable way to spend 75 minutes. It’s just not one of the true classics is all.

In parting, let me just say that “Beauty” was a terrific choice for the first ever Disney animated feature on Blu-ray. The aforementioned detail really pops on this new high definition disc. Both the sound and picture were superlative. Soon I may even violate a long-standing rule of mine and listen to the disc’s audio commentary which features John Lasseter, Leonard Maltin and animator Andreas Deja — three guys I really admire and respect.

[I tend to avoid audio commentaries for two reasons: 1) Time is fleeting and death awaits and 2) Most of them suck.]

The Commentary:

Well, I did indeed listen to the commentary track and it didn’t suck at all. The aforementioned Maltin, Deja and Lasseter are all obvious fans of the work and their knowledge and enthusiasm made for a very pleasant 75 minutes of audio. The comments of the three hosts are periodically bolstered by the addition of archival audio from some of the men who actually worked on Sleeping Beauty (including Walt Disney himself).  Out of everyone, I’d say Lasseter brings the least to the table (he comes off more as a fan than an expert), but this is a very minor criticism.

I have no qualms at all in telling you that, if you bought the disc, you should definitely put in another viewing to experience the commentary.