Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)

Walt Disney first considered making an animated version of Charles Perrault's fairy tale Sleeping Beauty in 1938.[23] Preliminary artwork was submitted by Joe Grant, but the project did not move forward.[24] In January 1950, after a preview audience's positive response to Cinderella,[24] Disney registered Sleeping Beauty as a planned production title with the Motion Picture Association of America;[25] in November of that year, he told the Los Angeles Times that development of the film had begun.[26] Disney envisioned Sleeping Beauty as his masterpiece and the ultimate in animated filmmaking,[27] and was willing to pool all resources needed to achieve that.[23] Recognizing the difficulty of producing another fairy-tale feature which would not be too reminiscent of his previous films, notably Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Cinderella (1950),[22] he repeatedly told his staff during production that it had to be different.[28]

Key early story work was done by Ted Sears, Winston Hibler, and Bill Peet, who were joined by other story artists as production continued.[29] They decided to discard the second half of the Perrault's story, which describes a sleeping beauty married to a strange prince, and focus on its first half;[30] this ensured the development of a more convincing relationship between the characters.[29] The earliest known story outline was written by April 1951, featuring a climactic wake-up kiss and the encounter between prince and princess before she succumbs to the curse. It also included the names of the fairies, who had been reduced from eight to four, and their corresponding magical abilities: Tranquility, the Fairy of Dreams; Fernadell, the Fairy of the Forest; Merryweather, the Fairy of the Elements; and Maleficent, the Fairy of Darkness.[31] The story artists significantly expanded the fairies' roles, turning the good fairies into comical companions and guardians of the princess[32] and the evil fairy into a more powerful villain.[33]

In this version of the story, Maleficent would conjure an indestructible spinning wheel which the king and queen would unsuccessfully try to get rid of; they would be forced to hide their daughter in the castle walls and never let her out.[31] The princess was envisioned as a "poor little rich girl", burdened by her royal pedigree and dreaming of exploring the world outside the castle – similar to Jasmine in Aladdin (1992).[24] Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, the princess was to switch clothes with her maidservant and secretly escape to a nearby forest[31] or country fair[34] where she would meet and fall in love with the prince. He would travel to a faraway land and return a few years later to fight Maleficent with the help of the good fairies, find the sleeping princess and wake her up with the kiss.[31] Story ideas of that period also included the good fairies attempting to surround the castle with a protective circle[34] and Maleficent's comically-incompetent vulture sidekick,[35] although the earlier outline depicted him as a huge, sinister falcon.[31]

By June 1952, the full storyboard of Sleeping Beauty was completed; Disney rejected it, however, saying that its approach was too similar to his studio's earlier films.[37] The story artists discarded the original version and started from scratch. However, they decided to retain several story points from earlier suggestions,[24] including the prince's acquaintance with the princess before the curse is fulfilled[38] and a shorter sleep.[24] The story team initially worked out an elaborate sequence in which the characters meet during a treasure hunt, but abandoned it, feeling that it became too drawn-out and drifted from the central storyline. It was written instead that the prince and princess would meet in the forest by chance,[30] which had been introduced in the 1951 outline.[31] Striving for more serious storytelling,[24] Disney decided to cut several gags and comic scenes with the Three Good Fairies which he felt were too "slapsticky" and more appropriate for Donald Duck shorts;[39] in one, the fairies (who had been renamed Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) try to bake a birthday cake for the princess and accidentally blow up the oven.[39] The good fairies were originally intended to rule the domains indicated by their names; Flora would be in charge of flowers and plants, Fauna was to oversee the animals and birds, and Merryweather would control the climate. Disney discarded this idea as well, feeling that it did not advance the central storyline.[9]

Part of the difficulty was in differentiating Disney's third princess, who had been named Aurora, from Snow White and Cinderella.[24] The story artists came up with an idea of the fairies raising her in a forest cottage,[38] with Aurora unaware of her background or the danger she faced. She was also given a different personality – "a freshness and a modern sensibility" – to make her more appealing to audiences.[24] In earlier versions of the story, Aurora would encounter Maleficent, who would trick her into pricking the finger on the spindle.[40] However, Disney felt that the "eerie, haunting presentation of a victim powerless in the hands of evil" would be a better, stronger choice, and the scene was rewritten to have Maleficent lure Aurora with hypnosis.[41] The improvement of his animators' skill in drafting a realistic male figure prompted Disney to expand the role of the prince, who had been named Phillip.[24] To establish him as Aurora's "true love", the story artists developed a plot in which Maleficent kidnaps Phillip and plans to keep him prisoner in her castle for a century (which was also a reference to the 100-year slumber in Perrault's story).[42] Several story elements originated from discarded ideas for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Cinderella (1950), including the prince and princess dancing on a cloud (Disney's favorite concept)[43] and Phillip's escape from Maleficent's domain.[44] More story sessions were held for Sleeping Beauty than for any previous Disney animated production.[43]

Mary Costa worked closely with Marc Davis, Aurora's supervising animator, who incorporated her features into the character.[45]

Disney spent three years searching for an "ethereal" voice for Princess Aurora,[25] and considered shelving the project[46] before Mary Costa was cast in June 1952.[47] She was invited to audition by Walter Schumann, who heard her singing at a dinner party for the entertainment industry.[48] Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Costa had a strong Southern accent which nearly prevented her from being cast until she proved that she could sustain a British accent.[49] Disney contacted Costa within hours of her audition to confirm that she had the role[50] and communicated with her at least twice a week[51] for nine months[46] with advice or guidance by telephone,[52] since he did not want her personality or appearance to influence his vision of the character.[53] Before Costa was cast, LP records by forty female singers were heard by the story artists; fifteen of them auditioned.[54] Costa recorded for three years, from 1952 to 1955.[46]

Twenty singers auditioned for the role of Prince Phillip and Bill Shirley, who had a high baritone voice and experience in light opera, was the final choice. Before he and Costa were selected, they made audition records together to determine if their voices complemented each other; Disney was convinced that they did, and approved the casting.[55] Many actors auditioned for the role of King Stefan, and Taylor Holmes was cast due to his "bemused, but dignified" voice.[43] Sleeping Beauty was the final performance for Holmes, who died eight months after the film's release. An early character outline for King Hubert described him as "built like Bill Thompson, fat and square ... lovable but hot-tempered ... gets in his own trap then explodes ... sincere". Thompson, who had voiced the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Mr. Smee in Peter Pan (1953),[56] got the role.[16]

Disney personally suggested Eleanor Audley, who had voiced Lady Tremaine in Cinderella (1950), for Maleficent.[37] Audley initially refused, since she had tuberculosis and was unsure if she was strong enough for recording sessions, but reconsidered when she began feeling better.[22] About her voice work for the character, Audley later said that she "tried to do a lot of contrasting to be both sweet and nasty at the same time".[43] The character outline for Flora described her as "the matriarch type, large and dominating ... talks with a great deal of authority, is the practical one of the Good Fairies—the 'Doc' type";[16] this prompted Disney to cast Verna Felton,[14] who had voiced similar characters in Dumbo (1941), Cinderella (1950), and Alice in Wonderland (1951).[49] Disney chose Barbara Jo Allen for Fauna, who had been frequently compared by the story artists to Jo Allen's character Vera Vague in The Bob Hope Show;[16] Barbara Luddy, who had voiced Lady in Lady and the Tramp (1955), was cast as Merryweather.[14]

By mid-1952,[57] Disney had planned to release Sleeping Beauty on Christmas in 1955.[58] Production began in July 1953,[59] when supervising director Wilfred Jackson recorded the dialogue, assembled a story reel, and was to begin preliminary animation for a pilot scene in which Aurora and Phillip meet in the forest. The scene was extensively rewritten over the next few months due to a lukewarm response from Disney; Jackson had a heart attack in December 1953 and was replaced by Eric Larson,[57] whose unit would animate the forest scene.[60] The film was scheduled for a February 1957 release by April 1954,[57] and was later postponed to Christmas 1957.[58] By July 1954, Disney began building the Disneyland theme park and developing a number of television series, including Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club. Most of the studio personnel who were working on Sleeping Beauty at that time were assigned to develop those projects, and the film's production was suspended. During its dormancy, the project was given to Erdman Penner and Joe Rinaldi for further development,[38] and the castle at Disneyland was called Sleeping Beauty Castle to promote the film.[61]

Production of Sleeping Beauty resumed in December 1956,[38] with its release rescheduled for Christmas 1958.[58] Although Disney insisted on overseeing every aspect of the film,[62] he remained focused on Disneyland;[63] animators such as Milt Kahl blamed him for the many delays. According to studio executive Harry Tytle, Disney expressed disinterest in the project after an August 1957 screening of finished footage; he "seemed to be tired, had so much on his mind. He didn't give this the treatment he would have in years past, where he'd go in for a couple of days and fine-tooth comb the whole picture ... His comments were general rather than specific."[58] Production delays led to a significant increase in the film's budget; the $10,000 forest scene, which took several years to complete,[64] exceeded its budget and displeased Disney.[22] Relatively late in production, he replaced supervising director Larson with Clyde Geronimi.[65] A quota system was introduced to keep costs down, with animators required to create a specified number of drawings per day.[66]

To distinguish Sleeping Beauty from his previous features,[67] Disney decided to take a different approach to the film's visual design.[22] After one of the story meetings, he told Larson that he needed a "moving illustration" and did not care how long it would take.[68] By December 1952,[69] Kay Nielsen – whose sketches were the basis for the Night on Bald Mountain segment in Fantasia (1940) – was the first to create styling sketches for the film[70] which suggested an "ethereal depiction of the Middle Ages".[71] Although he was impressed with his artwork, Ken Anderson (the film's production designer)[72] felt that Nielsen's soft pastel paintings would be difficult to translate into animation. Disney tasked John Hench to help interpret Nielsen's artwork with opaque cel paint,[73] but Nielsen left the studio by April 1953.[69] The film's tapestry-like style developed after Hench's visit to the Cloisters of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where he saw the Unicorn Tapestries series.[74] Hench brought reproductions of the tapestries back to Disney, suggesting them as a visual template for Sleeping Beauty which Disney approved.[75] Hench made sketches inspired by the museum visit, and background artist Eyvind Earle made trial paintings based on those drawings.[49]

Wanting Sleeping Beauty to have a unified look from beginning to end,[77] Disney made Earle both the film's color stylist and artistic director,[78] with unprecedented control of the film's visual appearance.[28] Sleeping Beauty was the first Disney film in which background paintings determined its art direction.[79] Earle was influenced by the pre-Renaissance Northern European art[80] (including the works of Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer,[24] Huybrecht van Eyck,[81] Giotto di Bondone,[42] and Sandro Botticelli),[82] as well as by Gothic and Persian art,[77] medieval tapestries, and Japanese prints.[80] For Sleeping Beauty, his main inspiration was the illuminated manuscript of Herman and Jean Limbourg, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, from which he took key colors such as the yellow-green of Maleficent's flames and pink and blue for Aurora's gown.[80] Earle created about three hundred visual-development paintings,[42] hundreds of small-scene sketches,[76] and dozens of key background paintings, some fifteen feet long.[81] Over eight hundred other backgrounds in the film were created by Frank Armitage, Thelma Witmer, Al Dempster, Walt Peregoy, Bill Layne, Ralph Hulett, Dick Anthony, Fil Mottola, Richard H. Thomas, and Anthony Rizzo, who worked under Earle's supervision and followed his style to maintain consistency in the film's design.[83]

Although the layout artists and animators were impressed with Earle's paintings, they became discouraged by working in a style which many considered "too cold, flat, and modernist" for a fairy-tale feature.[84] Animators struggled to make the characters (which had to be stylized to match Earle's style) stand out against his detailed background paintings,[85] with their design and color styling inhibiting character animation.[86] At one point, a group of animators, including Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl,[86] rebelled and went to Disney's office to complain.[77] However, Disney insisted on the visual design, saying that the inspirational art he had commissioned in the past (such as Mary Blair's)[80] had always been homogenized by the animators.[84] Earle's design prompted Disney to film Sleeping Beauty in Super Technirama 70,[37] the first animated film in this format.[87] This decision presented additional difficulties for animators and layout artists, who had to work with very large sheets of paper[49] and create twice as much art to fill the frame.[24] Sleeping Beauty was the last hand-inked Disney animated feature film before the studio switched to the Xerox process with One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).[22] Xerox, however, was partially used in Sleeping Beauty to animate the forest of thorns in the final battle scene.[88]

Supervising director Clyde Geronimi had creative differences with Earle,[65] feeling that Earle's paintings "didn't have the mood ... All that beautiful detail in the trees, the bark, and all that, that's all well and good, but who the hell's going to look at that? The backgrounds became more important than the animation. He'd made them more like Christmas cards".[60] By that time, Disney felt that too much focus was on the film's design at the expense of its story.[58] In March 1958, before Sleeping Beauty was completed, Earle left the Disney studio for John Sutherland Productions; Geronimi then had the background paintings softened with an airbrush so they did not compete with the animation.[65]

Before animation began, a live-action reference version was filmed with actors in costumes as models for the animators; Disney insisted on this because he wanted the characters to appear "as real as possible, near flesh-and-blood".[89] Several animators (such as Milt Kahl) objected to this method, calling it "a crutch, a stifling of the creative effort ... anyone worth his salt in this business ought to know how people move".[3] By March 1954,[90] Helene Stanley – who had been a model for the titular character in Cinderella (1950) – was hired to provide a live-action reference for Princess Aurora and several scenes of the Three Good Fairies.[91] Stanley was chosen from over three hundred candidates interviewed for the role.[92] Her costume for Aurora's woodland disguise, Briar Rose, was created by Alice Estes at the behest of her future husband Marc Davis as her first job assignment for the Disney studio.[93]

Prince Phillip was modeled by Ed Kemmer.[89] For a few scenes in the final battle scene, Kemmer had to ride a wooden wagon imitating a horse which was controlled by the animators.[94] Cubby O'Brien, a Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club, was a model for young Phillip.[91] The live-action reference for Maleficent was provided by her voice actress Eleanor Audley and dancer Jane Fowler,[11] who was also a model for Queen Leah.[95] Among the actresses who appeared in reference footage for the Three Good Fairies were Spring Byington, Madge Blake, and Frances Bavier.[37] Hans Conried and Don Barclay, who had previously modeled for Captain Hook and Mr. Smee in Peter Pan (1953), were live-action references for King Stefan[96] and King Hubert.[97] The lackey who serves wine to the kings in the "Skumps" scene was modeled by Franklin Pangborn.[98]

Tom Oreb, whose designs employed a "straight-against-curve" motif similar to Earle's backgrounds, was the film's character stylist;[99] Oreb was the first Disney artist to receive a sole credit in that capacity.[43] He worked closely with Earle (who also had decision-making capability in character designs and color schemes)[77] and created preliminary sketches for most of the characters,[24] incorporating strong horizontal and vertical planes of the background paintings into the designs.[25] The studio's ink and paint department made finished cels of Oreb's sketches, which were placed over Earle's backgrounds to ensure that they would match the film's style.[100] The animators complained that Oreb's designs, like Earle's styling, were too rigid to animate.[101] According to Ken Anderson, the characters became "really, unfortunately, quite stiff. In order to fit this mannered background, they, too, took on a sort of cylindrical, geometrical shape that didn't lend itself as well to the ... Well, you might say, the Bambi type of animation. It wasn't really possible just to make the characters fit the style and still be quite as attractive."[22]

Marc Davis, who (unlike most of the animators) embraced Earle's style,[80] was the supervising animator of Princess Aurora.[102] Collaborating with Oreb, he created a "leading lady of elegance"[93] whose earlier designs were influenced by Audrey Hepburn.[7] Stylizing the character to match the backgrounds, Oreb incorporated vertical lines into the folds of her costume and two-dimensional swirls into her hair;[25] Davis slightly sharpened her features and clothes,[7] adding Art Nouveau and Art Deco style to her curls.[93] Aurora's final design was more refined than those of preceding Disney heroines, and therefore required much more attention to detail than any animated character before.[93] Iwao Takamoto, who handled the quality control of Aurora's animation, called working with her animation drawings a "laborious job"[99] which limited in-betweeners (such as himself) to completing only six or seven drawings per day;[93] twenty-four were required for each second of film.[5]

In designing Maleficent, Marc Davis experimented with flamelike shapes and triangular color patterns.[25]

Davis was also tasked with supervising Maleficent's animation.[103] He takes sole credit for the character's design,[101] which was influenced by a religious painting in a Czechoslovakian art book which Davis found in his home library.[93] Although his original designs had red trim on Maleficent's costume to highlight its flame-like shape,[103] Earle requested a change to lavender because red would appear too strong.[93] Davis also added horns and a collar resembling bat wings to give the character a diabolic look,[104] and endowed her costume with a reptilian quality to foreshadow the dragon into which she would transform at the film's climax.[25] Animating Maleficent was challenging for Davis because of the character's tendency to soliloquize and her lack of physical contact with other characters;[105] this was resolved with the introduction of Diablo, Maleficent's raven,[49] whom Davis also designed and animated.[42] Maleficent's dragon form was animated by Eric Cleworth,[106] who based its head movements on those of a rattlesnake.[42]

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, who struggled the most to adapt to Earle's style,[22] were the supervising animators of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.[107] Disney initially urged that the characters be homogeneous, like Huey, Dewey, and Louie; Thomas and Johnston objected,[108] feeling that it would be more interesting for each fairy to have a distinct personality.[109] Oreb's earlier designs portrayed the characters in a stricter geometrical style, reflecting the three primary shapes (square, triangle, and circle); this was too difficult to animate, and was discarded.[24] The final design was set after Don DaGradi created preliminary drawings[110] suggesting a "lighter and more delicate" look for the fairies,[111] although they retained angularity in their capes and headdresses to match the background styling.[22] Thomas and Johnston studied the movements of old women they saw at wedding receptions and grocery stores for help in animation,[108] and the fairies' costume design was influenced by wardrobe books for medieval Scandinavian and German-style attire.[110]

Milt Kahl, who had animated similar characters in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)[112] and Cinderella (1950),[113] animated Prince Phillip[114] but was displeased with the character's limited emotional range.[115] He also animated Phillip's horse, Samson[49] (whose design was influenced by the works of Ronald Searle),[43] King Stefan, and King Hubert.[116] Kahl's characters were co-animated by John Lounsbery,[117] who also worked on Aurora's forest-animal friends[118] and the pig-like leader of Maleficent's goons.[119] Among other animators working on the film were Wolfgang Reitherman, who directed the climactic dragon battle sequence;[120] Les Clark, who directed the opening scene in which the townspeople march to the castle for Aurora's christening;[121] and John Sibley, who animated the lackey.[49]

The use of music from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's 1889 ballet The Sleeping Beauty was discussed early in the film's development,[122] but the idea was initially discarded due to the potential difficulty of adapting Tchaikovsky's ballet as a film score.[24] Jack Lawrence and Sammy Fain were signed to write the film's original songs in April 1952,[123] and Walter Schumann was the composer.[124] A song score was produced by late summer of that year, which included the main title song and its reprise[125] by Fain and Victor Young;[126] the opening number "Holiday", sung by the royal subjects celebrating Princess Aurora's birth,[127] followed by "It Happens I Have a Picture", in which King Stefan and King Hubert discuss the virtues of their respective children;[128] "Sunbeams (Bestowal of Gifts)", sung by the Three Good Fairies and Maleficent as they bestow gifts on Aurora;[129] "Where in the World", Aurora's solo, followed by the love song "Once Upon a Dream", in which she meets Prince Phillip; and "Mirage (Follow Your Heart)", in which Aurora is lured to the spinning wheel.[126]

After Eyvind Earle became the film's artistic director[125] the following year,[130] Disney returned to the idea of using Tchaikovsky's ballet score;[122] he felt that Lawrence and Fain's Broadway-type songs of would clash with Earle's stylized design.[49] Schumann unsuccessfully tried to create new arrangements for the songs which would give them a "Tchaikovsky sound",[125] but the original song score was unusable except for "Once Upon a Dream" (which was based on the ballet's "Garland Waltz" theme).[130] Schumann later left the project due to creative differences with Disney, and Ward Kimball recommended that George Bruns replace him.[131] Sleeping Beauty was Bruns' first collaboration with the Disney studio[122] and his first experience as a film composer.[125]

Working closely with animators, directors, and story artists, Bruns studied and experimented with Tchaikovsky's music for three years to make it work as a film score.[132] The opening number, "Hail to the Princess Aurora" (sung by the royal subjects going to the castle for Aurora's christening) was based on a march in the ballet's prologue; the third strain of the "Garland Waltz" became "I Wonder", sung by Aurora as she walks through the forest with her animal friends.[125] For the scene in which Maleficent lures Aurora to the spinning wheel, Bruns used the "Puss in Boots" theme from the ballet's third act due to its "ominous quality that fitted perfectly into the needs of the suspense sequence".[133] He made several attempts to create a song from the "Silver Fairy" theme,[24] resulting in "Riddle, Diddle, One, Two, Three"[134] (sung by Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather as they prepare birthday presents for Aurora).[135] The song was eventually cut, but its melody remained in the scene.[24] Among other deleted songs were "Evil—Evil", which would have been sung by Maleficent and her goons,[134] and "Go to Sleep", in which the Three Good Fairies put a sleeping spell on the castle.[136]

Four of Bruns' songs based on the ballet score were used in the film: "Hail to the Princess Aurora", "The Gifts of Beauty and Song", "I Wonder", and "Sleeping Beauty".[125] For "Skumps", sung by King Stefan and King Hubert as they toast their children's upcoming wedding, Bruns composed his own tune in Tchaikovsky's style because he could not find anything suitable in the ballet.[132] The song lyrics were written by Tom Adair, Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, and Ted Sears;[137] most have the same placement and purpose in the plot as Fain and Lawrence's original songs.[125] Recording of the music began in the United States[138] but, due to a musicians' strike,[134] Disney sent Bruns to a state-of-the-art studio in Berlin[25] which permitted a new stereo sound system for the film.[49] Sleeping Beauty's score was the first true-stereo soundtrack.[138] It was recorded with the Graunke Symphony Orchestra from September 8 to November 25, 1958.[25]

Sleeping Beauty premiered at the Fox Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles on January 29, 1959,[139] and was released in theaters[140][lower-alpha 3] with the Academy Award-winning short documentary film Grand Canyon (1958).[142] It was shown in selected theaters which were specially equipped to project the film in large-format Super Technirama 70 with six-track stereophonic sound.[25] To promote the film,[134] a Disneyland episode entitled "The Peter Tchaikovsky Story" was aired on ABC on January 30, 1959.[143] The episode, which included a loose version of Tchaikovsky's life,[144] Disney's explanation of the Super Technirama 70 process, and clips from Sleeping Beauty,[145] was the first television show simulcast in stereo.[143]

With a production budget of $6 million,[1] Sleeping Beauty was the most expensive Disney film at the time; it was over twice as expensive as each of the preceding three Disney animated features: Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), and Lady and the Tramp (1955).[141] During its original release, the film grossed approximately $5.3 million (the distributor's share of the box office gross) in the United States and Canada.[146] It was considered a box-office bomb, and Buena Vista Distribution (Disney's distribution division) lost $900,000.[147] Eric Larson blamed the studio's publicity department for the film's underperformance, feeling that The Shaggy Dog (released later that year) had a far more extensive and successful advertising campaign.[139] The production costs and box-office failure of Sleeping Beauty, coupled with the underperformance of much of Disney's 1959–1960 release slate, caused him to lose interest in animation;[62] his company posted an annual loss of $1,300,000 for fiscal year 1960 (its first in a decade),[1] and there were massive layoffs throughout the animation department.[148]

Sleeping Beauty was re-released theatrically in 1970[149] on standard 35 mm film, earning $3.8 million.[150] It was re-released in May 1979 in the original 70 mm format[151] for a ten-week test engagement at Seattle's Crest Theatre[152] before a wider release later that year[153] in 70 and 35 mm, with stereo and mono sound.[150] The film was re-released in 1986[154] (grossing $40 million in the United States and Canada)[155] and in 1995.[156] With a lifetime gross in the United States and Canada of $51.6 million from all releases,[2] Sleeping Beauty is the second-most-successful film released in 1959 behind Ben-Hur.[157] Adjusted for ticket-price inflation, the domestic total gross is nearly $681 million; this makes it one of the top 40 highest-grossing films.[158]

On October 14, 1986, Sleeping Beauty was released on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc as part of the Walt Disney Classics collection;[159] over one million videocassettes were sold.[160] The film began a moratorium on March 31, 1988.[161] Digitally restored in 1997, it was released on VHS and LaserDisc[162] in fullscreen and widescreen as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection on September 16 of that year.[163] To commemorate the release, Mary Costa (the voice of Princess Aurora) hosted a special theatrical screening of the film in her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.[164]

Sleeping Beauty was released on VHS and in a two-disc Special Edition DVD on September 9, 2003;[165] the DVD edition included widescreen (formatted at 2.35:1) and fullscreen versions of the film.[166] The DVD also included a making-of featurette from the 1997 VHS, the Grand Canyon short documentary film, the life-of-Tchaikovsky segment of the Disneyland episode "The Peter Tchaikovsky Story",[167] a 1951 story outline of the film, live-action reference clips, a virtual gallery of concept art, layout and background designs, three trailers, and audio commentary by Mary Costa, Eyvind Earle, Ollie Johnston, and others.[166] The release ended on January 31, 2004.[168]

On October 7, 2008, a Platinum Edition of Sleeping Beauty was released as a two-disc DVD and on Blu-ray; it was the first installment in the Platinum line released in high-definition video.[169] This release was based on the 2007 restoration of the film from its original Technicolor negatives (interpositives, several generations removed from the original negative, were used for other home-video releases) in its full-negative aspect ratio of 2.55:1, which is wider than both prints shown at the film's original Technirama engagements (2.20:1) and the CinemaScope-compatible reduction prints for general release at 2.35:1.[170] It included an online feature BD-Live, an new documentary Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty, a virtual recreation of Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough at Disneyland, an alternate opening of the film, four deleted songs, and bonus features from the previous DVD release.[171] The set returned to the Disney Vault on January 30, 2010.[172]

Sleeping Beauty was re-released on Diamond Edition Blu-ray and DVD and on Digital HD on October 7, 2014,[173] including the documentary short Art of Evil: Generations Of Disney Villains (dedicated to animators and the legacy of villains in Disney features), three deleted scenes from the film, karaoke, and extras from the Platinum Blu-ray release.[174] For its 60th anniversary on September 24, 2019, Sleeping Beauty was re-released for HD digital download and on Blu-ray as part of the Walt Disney Signature Collection.[175]

In May 1989, Mary Costa sued the Walt Disney Company for royalties of $2 million[176] owed to her since the 1986 home-video release of Sleeping Beauty. Costa said that her contract with the studio prevented it from producing "phonograph recordings or transcriptions for sale to the public" without her permission, although Disney said that the videotapes were nothing more than versions of the film.[177] The case had been settled out of court by June 1991, with Costa receiving an undisclosed sum.[178]

Sleeping Beauty received mixed reviews from critics, with many praising its art direction, voice acting, and musical score but criticizing its plot and characters.[139] Ren Grevatt of Billboard called the film a "Disney best" and complimented its score, colors, and the final battle scene, which he described as a "hair-raiser for the youngsters and grown-up alike."[179] Variety praised the vocal work of Mary Costa and Bill Shirley, and called the scenes involving the Three Good Fairies "some of the best parts of the picture."[180] For The New York Daily News, Kate Cameron wrote that the film "will charm the young and tickle adults" and praised its story, voice acting, and character animation.[181] George Bourke of the Miami Herald described the film as a "magnificent achievement, offering suspense, action and happy humor, in a truly giant-size package."[182] Lorna Carroll, writing for the St. Petersburg Times, called the film a "masterpiece and the last word in the art of animation"; however, although Sleeping Beauty is "far more magnificent, far more advanced, it does not touch the heart as did Snow White."[183] Henry Ward of The Pittsburgh Press praised the film's art direction and said that children "undoubtedly will find the film completely enchanting", adding that a more-mature audience "may find this new effort somewhat of a carbon copy" of previous Disney animated features.[184]

Bosley Crowther wrote for The New York Times that "the colors are rich, the sounds are luscious and magic sparkles spurt charmingly from wands", but felt that the film's plot and characters were too similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).[185] Philip K. Scheuer of Los Angeles Times praised the film's visual design, animation quality, and the Three Good Fairies and Maleficent, but criticized its "stereotyped" human characters and found himself more impressed by the accompanying short film Grand Canyon (1958).[186] In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Harold V. Cohen praised the film's "sharp and unmistakable" art style and animation but found the characters underdeveloped and "not exactly memorable".[187] Harrison's Reports also noted the film's similarity to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), saying that although Sleeping Beauty is "unquestionably superior from the viewpoint of the art of animation", it lacked the "unforgettable" characters, songs, and the overall entertainment appeal of Snow White.[188] Time harshly criticized the film, particularly its design: "Even the drawing in Sleeping Beauty is crude: a compromise between sentimental, crayon-book childishness and the sort of cute, commercial cubism that tries to seem daring but is really just square."[189]

Among contemporary reviews, Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader described Sleeping Beauty as "the masterpiece of the Disney Studios' postwar style". Kehr praised its use of the Super Technirama 70 process, particularly in the final battle scene.[190] Charles Solomon wrote for the Los Angeles Times that the film "represents the culmination of Walt Disney's effort to elevate animation to an art form". Solomon praised its visual design, the character of Maleficent, and the finale battle scene, but felt that it lacks "the strong story line of the other Disney features" (particularly the "not very interesting" romance between Aurora and Phillip).[191] Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine praised the film's "limber and giddy" art style and character animation, calling it "one of [Disney's] studio’s most under-cherished works."[192] A Time Out reviewer wrote that although Sleeping Beauty "rarely achieves the heights of classics like Snow White and Dumbo, it still has its moments", highlighting its "polished if sometimes stodgy" animation, soundtrack, and the final confrontation between Maleficent and Phillip.[193]

In his book, The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin praised the film's design: "The fantastic effort and phenomenal expense do show up on the screen; it is unquestionably Disney’s most elaborate cartoon film."[194] Its animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, said on their website that Sleeping Beauty was "dazzling in color and design but lacked warmth."[195] The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film had an 89% approval rating based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. According to its consensus, "This Disney dreamscape contains moments of grandeur, with its lush colors, magical air, [and] one of the most menacing villains in the Disney canon."[196] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 from 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[197]

It has been recognized by the American Film Institute:

• 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
  • Maleficent – Nominated Villain[206]
• 2006: AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals – Nominated[207]
• 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
  • Nominated Animation Film[208]