Sleeping Beauty - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Sleeping Beauty or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Sleeping Beauty

[wallace]

In 1960, to promote the release of the film in Japan, Walt Disney handpicked some 250 cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings, animation drawings, and story sketches to send to that country for a touring exhibition. Although the material was mostly for Sleeping Beauty (1959), Disney also provided examples from other films as well, including the only known cel and background setup from Flowers and Trees (1932). The exhibition opened at the Mitsukoshi department store that May and then traveled to sixteen other stores throughout Japan. After the tour, Disney donated the artwork to Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art. However, the material did not fit well into its permanent collection, so the museum gave the artwork to Chiba University to enhance the study of the school's visual arts program.

[stephanie]

Much of the musical score is based on Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet "Sleeping Beauty." The musical score throughout the film was recorded by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. The ominous piece of music to which Maleficent hypnotizes Aurora into pricking her finger is called "Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat." In Tchaikovsky's ballet, it is used for a comic number in which two cats snarl at and try to scratch each other. Various movements from The Sleeping Beauty ballet underwent some reworking for the Disney film. The opening song ("Hail to the Princess Aurora") is actually the ballet's second movement, after the overture. Also, the theme playing when the three fairies clean the cottage is based on "The Silver Fairy" movement, which, in its original form, is barely a minute long.

[bernard]

The second-highest grossing film of 1959 due to its re-releases, just behind Ben-Hur (1959).

[kenneth]

The first Disney animated film on which Walt Disney personally worked to be released in high definition.

[ella]

Famed Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones worked on the film briefly when Termite Terrace closed temporarily during the late 1950s. He found the atmosphere at Walt Disney Productions oppressive because everything anyone did there had to be approved by Walt Disney before, during, and after the process of production. He was more than happy when Warner's animation department re-opened, where he stayed until it closed again in 1964.

[sylvia]

Bill Shirley and Mary Costa auditioned together to ensure that their voices complemented each other's.

[jamie]

The music when Aurora and Prince Philip descend the stairs during the finale is the Royal Anthem of France, it was used before the French Revolution.

[kristina]

Despite being the titular role, Aurora's screen time is only 18 minutes in the film.

[lena]

This was the last Disney feature to have cels inked by hand. From One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) onward, the cleaned-up pencil drawings were xeroxed onto the cels. However, some of the scenes in this movie did use the xerography process.

[beth]

The song "Once Upon a Dream," is largely based on the Op. 66, Waltz of The Sleeping Beauty ballet, composed by Tchaikovsky.

[bessie]

One of the first instances when the movie soundtrack album featured the orchestral score instead of just songs from the film. This set the precedent for soundtrack albums that followed.

[ken]

Many elements of Sleeping Beauty (1959) have been recycled into later films. The best example is The Sword in the Stone (1963), which reuses opening credit backgrounds and various animation sequences; the two most noticeable are the owl from the forest scene, who would inspire Merlin's pet Archemedes, and Maleficent in dragon form, which led to Madam Mim in dragon form.

[maureen]

The look of Maleficent was mainly inspired by actress Maila Nurmi's character Vampira who took most of her inspiration from Morticia Addams and coincidentally The Evil Queen from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

[toni]

Even though it is not mentioned in the film, Maleficent's pet raven is named Diablo.

[bernard]

The last fairy tale produced by the studio until The Little Mermaid (1989), thirty years later.

[ray]

In the penultimate scene where Maleficent appears in the fireplace and hypnotizes Aurora, the female vocalist that is heard while the fire is burning out is actually saying "Aurora!" and is sung none other than Mary Costa herself. While difficult to hear in the film, it is much more clearer on the score/soundtrack.

[kim]

The third Disney film to undergo a painstaking computer restoration, after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) in 1987 and 1993, and Pinocchio (1940) in 1992.

[camila]

George Bruns initially started scoring the film in Los Angeles in 4-track stereo, until he got wind of a new studio in Berlin that used 6-track stereo, so he decamped for Germany. Bruns' efforts were rewarded with an Oscar nomination.

[carla]

Sleeping Beauty (1959) was in production at the Disney Studios for nearly a decade. Story work began in 1951, voices were recorded in 1952, the actual animation took place between 1953 and 1958, and the stereophonic score was recorded in 1957. The movie was finally released one to two years later, in 1959.