As I’m sure regular readers will know, I’m a huge fan of all sorts of children’s vintage stuff, especially books, but I also love introducing my children to some of the television programmes and films that I also remember watching as a child. Little Miss C has really taken to some of the older stuff and regularly asks for specific films or DVDs to be put on when she wants to watch them.
I was therefore really pleased to hear that Disney were re-releasing their classic Sleeping Beauty on DVD and Blue-ray. It was 1959 when this film was originally released, and it holds it’s own bit of Disney history by being the last animation that was hand-crafted using ink. The accompanying musical score is based on the Tchaikovsky ballet of the same name, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
The story of Sleeping Beauty is familiar to many children from the original fairytale by the Brothers Grimm. In the Disney version Princess Aurora is born as the much longed-for daughter of King Stefan and his wife. To celebrate the Princess’ birth three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, give Aurora magical gifts. But an evil sorceress called Maleficent also comes to see the new baby and places a curse on her – she will die on her 16th birthday after touching the poisoned spindle of a spinning wheel. Merryweather tries to reverse the of the damage of the curse, by casting a spell which means that rather than dying Aurora will just fall into a deep sleep, from which only the kiss of her one true love will awaken her.
Little Miss C sat down to watch Sleeping Beauty feeling very excited. She’d read the Ladybird version of the story several times as a bedtime story and she always loves films that bring books to life. She did say that she found some of the story a bit scary in parts, possibly due to the haunting music, but then I also think that several old Disney films are a bit darker than they may be if they were remade today. She did enjoy it though and talked a fair bit about Princess Aurora afterwards.
For any other Princess Aurora fans out there you can also download the following Sleeping Beauty activity sheets. Princess Aurora Colouring Sheet, Princess Aurora String Maze and Princess Aurora Maze Activity Sheet.
Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Sleeping Beauty on DVD for the purposes of this review. This post contains affiliate links.
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