Buena Vista Sleeping Beauty Dvd Anv Ws

I bought this gift for my granddaughters 6th birthday, and she loves it. When my daughter (her mother) was a little girl, we had it on vhs (we still do), and she loved it. Sleeping Beauty is a classic that I am sure my granddaughter will share with her own daughter some day.

The title “Sleeping Beauty: 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition” says it all. In addition to the movie itself, this two-disc DVD provides many extra features, most notably a “Making of” documentary (and much more). “Sleeping Beauty” (1959) is the last Disney animated feature to use the pen-and-ink process. The next movie, “101 Dalmatians” (1961), abandons the laborious pen-and-ink process for a Xerox process. Animators liked the Xerox process because their work appeared onscreen without any clean-up by middlemen, so to speak. But the loss of the pen-and-ink look was the end of an era. “Sleeping Beauty” has an unusual look and appeal because of the backgrounds by Eyvind Earle, the “man who likes square trees”, as Bob Thomas describes him in “Walt Disney: The Art of Animation”. The Earle backgrounds were based on medieval paintings and designs. Other notable animators are the magnificent Marc Davis (who animated the evil Maleficent in “Sleeping Beauty”) and the superb draftsman Milk Kahl (who animated the Prince, an assignment that apparently few animators wanted). Davis' last assignment was the cadaverous Cruella De Vil, after which he produced most of the concept art for the Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree and America Sings! attractions. The temperamental but unparalleled artist Milt Kahl animated Madame Medusa in “The Rescuers” (1977). Her removal of make-up in front of a mirror is a tour-de-force.