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The Lion King
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Fairy Tales
The Lion King
Sleeping Beauty
Rated G
1994, 1959, Buena Vista
A plush DVD release of Walt Disney's extravagant 1959 animated feature, Sleeping Beauty, based on the classic Brothers Grimm folklore tale about pretty Princess Aurora and the sleeping spell she suffers at the hands of the evil fairy, Maleficent, is noteworthy for numerous reasons, both good and troubling.
Regarding animation technique, Sleeping Beauty continues to dazzle with its elaborate backgrounds and lifelike characters, all boosted by the Technirama 70 process used to give the film its wide-screen effect.
What's troubling about Sleeping Beauty is the narrative rut it signifies for Disney. Like its superior companions Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty offers a familiar storybook package featuring a pretty princess, an evil villainess, comical supporting characters, a handsome male savior and an assortment of tuneful songs, although with less spark than its predecessors.
Despite an avalanche of publicity and boosted ticket prices, Sleeping Beauty was enough of a box-office failure for Disney to decide that fairy tales were no longer a popular film format. The focus shifted towards comical stories featuring colorful animals; films much like the current animated hit, Finding Nemo. The legacy of Sleeping Beauty is that Walt Disney Pictures, long after Disney's death in 1966, stayed away from fairy tales until 1989's The Little Mermaid.
Finding Nemo might be a smash hit but, in terms of heartfelt storytelling and timeless characters, the top animated feature film in recent memory is The Lion King.
The Lion King's story, about a young lion cub who watches his father perish in a stampede, leaves his home in shame and grows up to reclaim his rightful spot on the throne, has worldwide notoriety thanks to its successful adaptation as a Broadway musical.
Animation buffs will appreciate the abundant storyboard galleries on The Lion King two-disc DVD. Kids will enjoy the games. The best highlight of each DVD, whether Sleeping Beauty or The Lion King, are the films themselves.
The Lion King answers the fairy tale ban Disney initiated after the release of Sleeping Beauty, proving that the public will respond enthusiastically to folklore stories, as long as they're done well.
The Lion King grade: A
Sleeping Beauty grade: B
And the rest
The speedy Mini Coopers enjoy the best scene in director F. Gary Gray's rollicking remake of the caper film The Italian Job (Paramount), an exciting underground Hollywood chase through the Los Angeles subway at the film's climax. Mark Wahlberg plays the leader of a gang of thieves desperate to retrieve their stolen gold. Wahlberg is wooden, but the Mini Coopers more than compensate.
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