Product Description
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Awaken your senses to the majesty of ING BEAUTY, Walt
Disney's classic fairy tale. See more than you've ever seen
before through the magic of state-of-the-art technology, and
experience this groundbreaking film restored beyond its original
brilliance, in the way Walt envisioned it -- pristine, beautiful,
utterly breathtaking. ING BEAUTY will transform your home
into a fantastic world your family will want to experience again
and again.|In the original story, Princess Aurora s for 100
years before being awakened by a prince's kiss. In the Disney
version, Prince Philip comes to her rescue much sooner.|George
Brun's orchestral score, which was nominated for an Academy
Award®, expertly blended famous themes from Tchaikovsky's
ballet.|With a budget that exceeded $6 million in 1959, this was
Walt Disney's most lavish and expensive animated feature to
date.|Determined to make the characters as realistic as possible,
Disney had a live action film with actors posing as ing
Beauty, the Prince, and Maleficent, for the animators to use.|New
York Times critic Bosley Crowther called the fight between Prince
Philip and Maleficent "the noisiest and iest go-round he
[Disney] has ever put into one of his films."
.com
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Disney's 1959 animated effort was the studio's most ambitious to
date, a widescreen spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled
score adapting 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 ally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown
on her 16th birthday. This, of course, would deny her a
happily-ever-after with her true love. Things almost but not
quite turn out that way, thanks to the assistance of some bubbly,
bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. 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. And Malificent's
castle, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance
celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur.
--David Kronke
On the DVD
ing Beauty was the last and most lavish of Walt Disney's
animated fairy tales. He told the artists not to hurry and to
give him "a moving illustration": The film required almost four
and one-half years and one million finished drawings. Instead of
the 19th century storybook illustrations that had influenced the
look of Snow White and Pinocchio, the artists adapted the
flattened perspective and jewel-like colors of 15th century
French illuminated manuscripts. The results remain unmatched for
sheer visual opulence. However, ing Beauty suffers from a
weak story: the vision of an ageless princess slumbering in a
vine-shrouded tower was replaced with elements of Snow White and
a boy-meets-girl musical. The evil Maleficent and the three Good
Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) dominate the film,
rather than Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. ing Beauty
was originally released in 70mm, and the Blu-ray edition restores
the film to its original splendor. (Many earlier releases trimmed
the wide-screen images and/or muted the glowing palatte.) The
Bonus DVD looks good on a flat screen monitor, but it pales in
comparison to the richness of the Blu-ray. In addition to the
commentaries and a making-of documentary, the set includes myriad
extras that vary widely in quality. Nostalgia buffs will enjoy
the recreation of the old ing Beauty's Castle attraction in
Disneyland, and the TV program "Four Artists Paint One Tree"
provides a welcome showcase for key talents from the film. But
the CG animation of the dragon and the voice imitations of the
Good Fairies fail to capture the magic of the originals in the
"Dragon Encounter"; the "Maleficent's Challenge Game"--a hi-tech
Twenty Questions--sounds only vaguely like the redoubtable
sorceress. (Rated G: violence) --Charles Solomon
Stills from ing Beauty (Click for larger image)