--- title: "Sleeping Beauty" year: 1959 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/sleeping-beauty" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 76 critics_reviews: 10 published: "2026-09-17T06:07:55.613031+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T06:07:55.904805+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Sleeping Beauty (1959) Directed by Clyde Geronimi · 1h 15m · MPA G · Fantasy, Animation, Romance, Family **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 76 from 10 reviews *In a sentence:* The heroine sleeps through half her own film, and the three fairies are too busy squabbling over a dress to notice > Disney’s best-looking film and one of its coldest. Eyvind Earle’s backgrounds and Eleanor Audley’s Maleficent are worth the evening on their own; the princess barely appears, and is asleep for much of the time she does. Good, with that caveat. ## Synopsis A king and queen who have waited years for a child christen their daughter Aurora, and the whole kingdom comes to celebrate. King Stefan (Taylor Holmes) betroths the baby to Prince Phillip, the small son of his neighbour King Hubert (Bill Thompson). Three good fairies, Flora (Verna Felton), Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen) and Merryweather (Barbara Luddy), arrive with gifts. Then Maleficent (Eleanor Audley), uninvited, sweeps in on a column of green fire and curses the child: before sunset on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather softens the curse to sleep, to be broken by a kiss, and the fairies carry the baby off to a cottage in the forest to raise her in secret as a peasant girl. ## Review Walt Disney’s *Sleeping Beauty* is the best-looking film the studio made in its first three decades, and one of the coldest, and the two facts are connected. Every frame has been designed down to the last leaf. The people in it are the least interesting things on screen. It is a good film and we recommend it, for the backgrounds and the villain rather than for the girl in the title. The story is Charles Perrault’s, adapted by Erdman Penner from the work of a team of story writers, and Clyde Geronimi directs. A princess is cursed at her christening, hidden in a forest cottage by three fairies, and meets a prince in the woods on her sixteenth birthday without either of them knowing who the other is. That is most of the plot. The film runs 75 minutes and spends a good many of them on wide, still views of a kingdom nobody seems to live in. Those views are the point. The colour and styling belong to Eyvind Earle, and they look like nothing else Disney made: trees that rise straight up like cathedral columns, foliage laid in flat tiers, a castle built of stacked rectangles on a horizon drawn with a ruler. Where [*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*](https://film.one/film/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs) (1937) is soft and round, this is hard-edged and vertical, closer to a medieval manuscript than to a storybook. Shot in widescreen Technirama, it fills the frame side to side and asks you to look at the edges. We did, and we kept doing it. Eleanor Audley’s Maleficent is the other reason to watch. She arrives at the christening in a burst of green flame, horned, with a raven perched on her staff, and she does not shout. She asks, pleasantly, whether she was not wanted, and we found the pleasantness colder than any threat; she was the first thing on a cinema screen that frightened us as children, and the way she holds a pause still does. The animators give her long fingers and a slow turn of the head, and Audley gives her the diction of a hostess who has been snubbed and intends to be gracious about it for exactly as long as it suits her. The three fairies carry the middle of the film. Verna Felton’s Flora is the one in charge, Barbara Jo Allen’s Fauna is the soft one, and Barbara Luddy’s Merryweather is the cross one, and the sequence in which they try to make a dress and a cake without magic is the warmest thing here. The dress fights back. The cake sags. The argument over whether the dress should be pink or blue, conducted with wands, is a good gag and is also how the villain finds them, which is neat writing. Aurora herself is the problem, and it is not Mary Costa’s fault. Costa’s soprano is lovely in the forest song, and the sequence in which she dances with her animal friends got up in a stranger’s cloak and boots is charming. But the princess has almost nothing to want, meets Bill Shirley’s Phillip for one duet and is sent home, and is asleep for a large part of the film that bears her name. Phillip at least gets a horse and a sword. She gets a bed. George Bruns builds the score out of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet, and it is the best decision the film makes. “Once Upon a Dream” is the ballet’s waltz with words on it, and the rest of the music has the same borrowed weight, so that a film with a thin story sounds as though it has a thick one. Roy M. Brewer Jr. and Donald Halliday cut it without slack, and the final confrontation, which we will not describe, moves a great deal faster than we remembered. Watch it on the largest screen in the house and sit close, because the film was made to be looked at rather than followed. If you want a heroine who does something, look elsewhere. If you want to see what hand-drawn animation looked like when a studio was willing to draw every leaf, this is the one. *Fi1m score 78, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Sleeping Beauty, and nearly all of them like it for the same reason: the look. The reviews cluster around Eyvind Earle’s stylised backgrounds, the wide Technirama frame and the depth of the colour, and several call it a leap in ambition for the studio. Maleficent is the other point of agreement, named in almost every review as the film’s strongest element, with the three good fairies and the score drawn from Tchaikovsky close behind. The reservations are about warmth and about the heroine. Several critics find the film cooler and more remote than Disney’s earlier features, and they disagree about where it ranks: Slant thinks it betters Snow White, while Time Out thinks it falls short of it. Den of Geek finds the animation uneven in places and Aurora too passive to carry her own story. The spread runs from a lukewarm three stars to unqualified praise, wider than the average suggests. ### Reviews we read (10) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (90/100, inferred): The review praises the 1959 film's cosmic pathos, pagan ritual staging, and especially the autonomous, expressionistic visual stylings of Eyvind Earle and his team as superior to Snow White. Maleficent's ferocious, almost postmodern bitchery is highlighted as a standout element. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/sleeping-beauty-1410/) - **Radio Times**, Andrew Collins (4/5): The critic praises the film's technical ambition and strong supporting characters, especially the good fairies and Maleficent, along with standout sequences like the spinning wheel scene and the climactic battle. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-9v73ne/sleeping-beauty/) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (70/100, inferred): The critic finds that time has been kind to this lavish but initially disappointing Disney film, which benefits from a strong video re-release. The elaborate gothic-inspired designs and lively supporting characters like the fairies and Maleficent are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/sleeping-beauty-1798195404) - **The New York Times** (70/100, inferred): The Blu-ray restoration highlights the film's state-of-the-art 1959 technology and grand scale as a return to epic Disney animation. It notes the picture's visual ambition but mixed original reception due to its remote, less warm style compared to earlier features. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/movies/homevideo/14dvds.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (**): The film follows the familiar Perrault fairy tale of Princess Aurora cursed by Maleficent and awakened by Prince Philip. It praises the vocal work, especially for the three good fairies, and notes the technical achievements in Technirama and Technicolor. [Read](https://variety.com/1958/film/reviews/sleeping-beauty-3-1200419326/) - **Time Out**, GA (60/100, inferred): The review notes that the film falls short of Disney classics like Snow White but highlights its polished animation and the exciting final confrontation with Maleficent as moments where the magic succeeds. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sleeping-beauty-2) - **Collider**, Eli (A+): The critic calls Sleeping Beauty the best classic fairy-tale Disney film, praising its atmospheric art direction, Tchaikovsky-inspired score, and cool villain Maleficent while noting strong character work from Aurora and Prince Phillip. [Read](https://collider.com/sleeping-beauty-dvd-review/) - **/Film**, Josh Spiegel (85/100, inferred): The critic highlights the film's ambitious animation style, widescreen presentation, and musical score inspired by Tchaikovsky, while noting its initial box office failure and how it influenced Disney's future approach to animation. Praises the visual feast and elemental fear and joy it evokes. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/563885/sleeping-beauty-at-60/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the jaw-droppingly good animation and eye-popping colors from the restoration, along with the simple fairytale story and memorable characters like the fairies and Maleficent. They note minor dated elements but highlight its enduring magic and timeless theme. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/sleeping-beauty-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **Den of Geek**, Mark Pickavance (3/5): The critic praises the 1959 Disney animated classic as one of the studio's most polished fairytales, highlighting its technical innovations, stunning color design, and the restoration's vibrant transfer on Blu-ray. Minor complaints focus on inconsistent animation quality in some sequences and the passive nature of the title character. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/sleeping-beauty-blu-ray-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Clyde Geronimi - **Director:** Clyde Geronimi - **Screenplay:** Erdman Penner - **Story:** Charles Perrault, Joe Rinaldi, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, Milt Banta, Winston Hibler - **Novel:** Charles Perrault - **Editor:** Roy M. Brewer Jr., Donald Halliday - **Music:** George Bruns, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - **Producer:** Walt Disney - **Cast:** Mary Costa as Princess Aurora (voice); Bill Shirley as Prince Phillip (voice); Eleanor Audley as Maleficent (voice); Verna Felton as Flora / Queen Leah (voice); Barbara Luddy as Merryweather (voice); Barbara Jo Allen as Fauna (voice); Taylor Holmes as King Stefan (voice); Bill Thompson as King Hubert (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 15m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 25 December 1959 - **Genres:** Fantasy, Animation, Romance, Family - **Budget:** $6 million - **Box office:** $52 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfsyUyi_FJM ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1960: Best Original Musical Score (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* (1937), Fi1m 85: The warm, round film this one was reacting against, and the better story. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs.md) - *La Belle et la Bête* (1946): Cocteau’s fairy tale in live action, with candelabra held by living arms. - *The Adventures of Prince Achmed* (1926): Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette feature, every figure cut from black paper by hand. - *The Tale of the Princess Kaguya* (2013), Fi1m 84: A princess who refuses her fate, drawn in charcoal lines that never quite settle. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya.md) - *The Secret of Kells* (2009), Fi1m 76: Irish animation that takes the illuminated-manuscript look and runs with it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-secret-of-kells.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/sleeping-beauty