Commentary track, documentary, featurettes, storyboards

One of Disney’s crowning achievements in animation, “Sleeping Beauty” has aged better than some Disney animated epics and not as well as others. In the post-feminist era, “Sleeping Beauty” could be invested with all sort of analogies and meaning that are absent from this straight ahead f airy tale retelling of one a classic tale. Missing much of the irreverent humor of “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid”, the film looks amazing w ith stunning design stylized and animation that has stood the test of time ---

Image & Sound: Disney does a brilliant job of transferring the film to Blu-ray eschewing the over processing that marred some of their earlier efforts. This is a flaw early in the film but once past that flaw, the film looks amazingly detailed with a crisp presentation that has added depth particularly when compared to the earlier DVD incarnation of the film. Color is bold when it needs to be and moody when reflecting the action of the film. Aside from the brief flaw at the beginning, the film looks spectacular in its Blu-ray presentation. ***

The 7.1 mix sounds quite good as well and although it lacks the depth of a contemporary film, “Sleeping Beauty” gets the deluxe treatment in the audio department.

We get a marvelous commentary track from Pixar’s John Lassiter (“Toy Story”) and film crtici/historian Leonard Maltin joined by Disney animator Andreas Deja . There’s a wealth of detail covering the production of the film, the unusual approach of the designs (particularly when compared to earlier Disney films) that would become a hallmark of many of their feature films. ***

We also get the short film “Grand Canyon” which was originally released with the film in theaters in 1959. ***

There is also a “Dragon Encounter” that gives us a CGI tour of the dungeon “set”. ***

The second disc includes the bulk of the extras. We get a marvelous HD featurette on the making of the film as well as a fine featurette on production designer Eyvind Earle who’s stamp is all over the design of the film. We also get “Peter Tchaikovsky” an episode from the original “Disneyland” TV show that preceded “The Wonderful World of Disney” . There’s an alternate track for this as well since at the time the show was broadcast in stereo on radio at the same time that the show aired as a simulcast. ***

“Four Artists Paint One Tree” gives us an insight into the “look” that the individual artists added to Earle’s original design. “Sequence 8” focuses on a sequence that caused trouble at Disney went it went over budget. We also get an extra that takes us behind-the-scenes into the Sleeping Beauty attraction that was at Disneyland via CGI and we get a history on the attraction as well. “The Sound of Beauty” focusing on the soundtrack and storyboard sequences round out the bulk of the best extras included on this deluxe Blu-ray edition. I should point out that extras are presented in high definition as well. ---

Final Words: