Walt Disney Animation Studios Part 16: Sleeping Beauty

Series Intro: Here's Part 16 of this multi-part retrospective of Walt Disney Animation Studios' endeavors. They'll mostly be in release date order, save for those that aren't available on DVD at Netflix. (Numbers will be skipped to note missing movies)

Some background info (compiled from Wikipedia and imdb and my own knowledge of the movie).

Official Title: Sleeping Beauty
Release: January 29, 1959
Running Time: 75 minutes
Estimated Cost: $8,500,000 (1959) ($62,665,446.74 (2009)) 
Estimated Revenue: $36,469,805 (1959) ($266,568,915.56 (2008))
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5


Plot Summary:
Like any good Christian parents, Aurora's parents christian her and through a big party to celebrate. But after an expected visit from the Three Good Fairies, Maleficent  crashes and is pee'd off. She places Aurora under a curse that before her 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. The Three Good Fairies, still having one more present to give, change the curse so she will just be put into a deep sleep and only awoken by true love's kiss. The Fairies give up magic to take care of Aurora in hiding.

Just under 16 years later, Aurora (now Briar-Rose) is almost full grown and while in the forest, falls in love with a young man, who is later revealed as Aurora's betrothed. The Good Fairies fight over how to celebrate Briar- Rose's birthday and use magic - thus cluing Maleficent in to their hidden location.

The Fairies rush Aurora to her parent's castle - making her miss her date with the handsome gentleman caller - Philip. Maleficent finds them, forces Aurora to prick her finger, then captures the love-struck Philip and tortures him. The Good Fairies rescue him and he has to fight through many of Maleficent's traps, including herself as a giant dragon. Philip defeats Maleficent (thanks to the Good Fairies), kisses Aurora and all is revealed that they are actually betrothed.

And they live happily ever after.

Songs: 
There is a lot of background music in this movie (starting to set the stage for the movie/musicals down the road.

Plot Rating: 4 stars out of 5

OMG! This was amazing, I wish I was able to watch this in release order for a better apriciation of how the movie plots of WDAS have evolved. But I've got to say that Maleficent is a wicked bad a$$. She tries to ruin a baby's life because she wasn't invited to a party!

Animation Rating: 5 out of 5

WOW!! The cartoony-ness of Cinderella and other previous releases are gone. The angular faces and sharper contrasting colors really makes this movie pop. WDAS wasn't just learning how to make full length animated movies anymore, they have it! The stylized backdrops (according to Wiki) were full fledged paintings, taking days and weeks to create (thank you multi-angle panes and the new "Xeroxing" of the animation onto cells). I hope that this represents a changing point in the WDAS history, as the shorts are far behind and the renaissances is still decades away, WDAS has found a way to tell good stories and give it its own look.

I do feel disappointing though that even after over 20 years, WDAS is still filming live actors performing the entire movie. At least that's better than Snow, where WDAS animators were literally tracing the film of the the live actors.

The Test of Time:

Aurora has 4 Kingdoms! (Disneyland (Anaheim); Disneyland Paris; Tokyo Disneyland; and Disneyland Hong Kong. I would say she is very much ingrained in our society. (Although I have to say, I understand why the original Disneyland pays homage to her - as the film and the park were in the works at the same time; but why not use one of the other princesses some where else (as was started with the second park in Orlando with Cindy's castle). Snow White doesn't have a home and as we move towards more of the modern parks, why doesn't Bell (who's Beast's castle is actually one of the prettiest) have a kingdom; or Ariel (Eric's castle has some great architecture); or even the Palace of Agraba (from Aladin). I understand that by the time Eisner took over they didn't want to make mistakes so stuck with what they knew would work. I hope the new Disneyland Singapore uses a new movie castle.)

Sleeping Beauty was one of my least favorites as a child. I watched it once, and never again. At the time I didn't like the lack of songs or the fact that Maleficent really didn't need to be so mean. But now, both of these things create a great movie that really shows off what WDAS is capable of.

Next Up:
(Should be) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (but because of this movie going into the vault in just a few days, I pushed this very high on my Netflix queue.)
  

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Walt Disney Animation Studios Part 9: Fun and Fancy Free

Series Intro: Here's Part 9 of this multi-part retrospective of Walt Disney Animation Studios' endeavors. They'll mostly be in release date order, save for those that aren't available on DVD at Netflix. (Numbers will be skipped to note missing movies)

Some background info (compiled from Wikipedia and imdb and my own knowledge of the movie).

Official Title: Fun and Fancy Free
Release: September 27, 1947
Running Time: 73 minutes
Estimated Cost: none available (Like many of the shorts)
Estimated Revenue: n/a
Overall Rating: 2 stars out of 5


Plot Summary:
Series of two shorts, loosely connected by Jiminy Cricket (from Pinocchio.

Bongo is about this circus bear that escapes the circus and finds himself trying to be a wild bear and is completely bad at it. He falls in love with a wild girl bear, but because he doesn't understand the courting rituals of bears, he almost looses her. Until, finally he learns more about being a bear and they get together.

Mickey and the Beanstalk is a standard Jack story with Donald, Goofy and Mickey all playing "Jack." Not much here that you don't know already. This bit was also bookended with live action sequences starring some famous ventriloquist of the time.

Songs:
Honestly, there were songs, but I can't remember any!

Plot Rating: 2 stars out of 5

I'm tired of commenting on the lack of through lines in these shorts. But, here it is again. Bongo had nothing to do Beanstalk... god, how much longer am I going to be watching these "package films"

Animation Rating: 2 out of 5

Bongo felt too cartoony and Mickey was too dark.

The Test of Time:

None. This series of shorts still should stay in the vault.

Next Up:
Melody Time (god another packaged film!)

  

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Facebook Events of Homophobia

Ok, this one is scary, My State Line is reporting about a high school facebook event in Massachusetts called "Kill All Gay People." Apparently 9 people RSVP'ed "yes" to this event which is supposed to take place on January 19th! The High School's Gay-Straight Alliance is encouraging all queer and queer friendly people to travel in large groups that day, just to be on the safe side.

This kind of Hatred is scary. Is the next generation supposed to be more accepting of "others?" It's this kind of blind homophobia that scares me. How can people hate a whole group of peoples because of one thing. At least when I dislike someone, it's at a personal level (lol).

Sigh, I hope that the f*ckers who made this group get caught by the police (who are actively investigating this threat).  

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Legal Male Prostitute!

My friends over at Queerty just shared a great story about Nevada's first, legal male prostitute!

His stage name is "Marcus" and you can have him for $200 for 40 mins (kind of low balling it there if you ask me) (although for his level of attractiveness, this might be right).

Sadly, Mr. "Marcus" is neither gay nor gay for pay. So all my ladies who need this male gigolo, just set your sights on Nevada and don't stop 'till you see the line of women in front of a Rhamada Inn... lol

On a more serious note, this is a major step forward is Sex Workers rights. I believe that all prostitution should be legalized. This is my body and I should be able to do what I want with it.

And the more laws there are to protect Sex Workers, the safer the whole profession would be.

  

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Walt Disney Animation Studio Part 12: Cinderella

Series Intro: Here's Part 12 of this multi-part retrospective of Walt Disney Animation Studios' endeavors. They'll mostly be in release date order, save for those that aren't available on DVD at Netflix. (Numbers will be skipped to note missing movies)

Some background info (compiled from Wikipedia and imdb and my own knowledge of the movie).

Official Title: Cinderella
Release: February 15, 1950
Running Time: 72 minutes
Estimated Cost: $2,900,000 (1950) ($26,031,410.79 (2009))
Estimated Revenue: $85,000,000 (1950) ($752,299,839.02 (2008)) (just a smidge over the 3mill (1942) that Bambi brought in... which was WDAS' last true feature length release before Cinderella)
Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5


Plot Summary:
Cinderella's father had died and she is now living, as a servant, with her step-mother and step-sisters. Cinderella helps a new mouse escape a trap, gives him clothes and starts her daily chores to make sure her step-family's lives are wonderful. Cinderella appears happy through all these chores and such. While Cindy is working, we get a side story of Lucifer the cat and the mice Gus Gus and Jack as they get into many different happenstances throughout the story. Another sub-plot consists of King Charming trying to find a princess for his son, when he decides that every eligible maiden in the village should attend a ball. Well, Cindy's mice and bird friends work to make her gown while she's off doing her chores, but at the last moment the step-sisters ruin the dress. Cindy's Fairy Godmother comes, makes mischief with the animals and turns Cindy into a beautiful princess.

After wooing the Prince, by dancing the night away, the clock strikes 12 and Cindy must return home for the magic is ending. But lucky for the Prince, she leaves behind a shoe (that isn't transformed when the magic is over). He sends a search the next day for a woman who fits this shoe, and despite Lady Tremain's (step-mother) best effort and because of Jaq and Gus Gus, Cindy finds a way to prove she is the Prince's mystery date and the two promptly get married.  

Songs:
Cinderella, A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes, Oh Sign Sweet Nightingale, The Work Songs, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, and So This Is Love

A Dream I A Wish Your Heart Makes would become one of those staple songs that would represent the ideas of WDAS productions for ages to come.

Plot Rating: 3 stars out of 5

How nice it was to have a through line for the entire movie again. But the side plot of Lucifer (the cat) and Jaq and Gus Gus doing anything seemed more of a filler than adding anything of value to the plot. It was as if, WDAS had forgotten how to make a strong plot since Bambi (more like Pinocchio). While watching their interactions I felt like I was watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Animation Rating: 3 out of 5

The cartooniness of several of the previous WDAS releases was gone. Real actors were used once again as models for the cast, thus giving the characters a more realistic feel (unlike the humans in the packaged films). Cindy could also emote much more than her previous princess predecessor, Snow White.

What really keeps this from getting a higher rating is background art. Bambi had amazing backgrounds, while for Cindy the background was very undefined. Looking at the castle, it's actually hard to see how Imagineers created the Walt Disney World castle.

I also have to say though, I saw this movie on my old VHS, because it was put back into the Disney Vault back in 2008.

The Test of Time:

Considering Cindy heads the Princess campaign, has had 2 direct to video sequels, has a real life castle in Florida, I would say this movie still kits home as a happy ending movie.


Now, I'd like to comment on this movie from a feminist stand point. How ridiculous is it for Cindy to marry Prince Charming after just a few hours of dancing? I do understand that Fairy Tales are just that, but still, this just doesn't fly anymore (Tiana from Princess and the Frog at least spent several days with Naveen before marrying him).

Next Up:
(Should be) Alice In Wonderland (but because of the vault, things will be out of order)
  

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