Review: "Sleeping Beauty" Not an Exceptional Disney Animated Feature

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 (of 2014) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Running time:  75 minutes (1 hour, 15 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Clyde Geronimi (supervising director), Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman,
WRITERS:  Erdman Penner (story adaptation) with additional story by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta (based on “La Belle au bois dormant” by Charles Perrault, “The Sleeping Beauty” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and “Little Briar Rose” by The Brothers Grimm)
PRODUCER:  Walt Disney
EDITORS:  Roy M. Brewer Jr. and Donald Halliday
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY with elements of comedy   

Starring:  (voices) Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 animated musical fantasy film from Walt Disney Productions.  It is the 16th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, but it was the last animated Disney film based on a fairy tale until The Little Mermaid in 1989.

Sleeping Beauty is based on two similar fairy tales:  “La Belle au bois dormant” by Charles Perrault and “Little Briar Rose” by The Brothers Grimm.  The film also features adaptations and arrangements of musical numbers from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1890 ballet, The Sleeping Beauty.  In Disney's Sleeping Beauty, three good fairies protect a princess from a malevolent fairy who placed a curse on her when she was an infant.

Sleeping Beauty opens in the 14th century in an unnamed kingdom, where King Stephan (Taylor Holmes) and the Queen (Verna Felton) have been childless for years.  Then, they welcome the birth of a daughter, Aurora, and they proclaim a holiday so that their subjects can celebrate her birth.  At that celebration, the infant Aurora is betrothed to young Prince Phillip, the son King Hubert (Bill Thompson).  Three fairies:  Flora (Verna Felton), Fauna (Barbara Luddy), and Merryweather (Barbara Jo Allen) arrive to bless the child with gifts.

However, an welcomed visitor, the evil fairy queen, Maleficent (Eleanor Audley), arrives, furious that she has been snubbed by King Stephan and Queen Leah (who is only called “the Queen” in the film).  So she places a curse on baby Aurora that will killer her on her 16th birthday.  However, the fairies are able to temper the curse, and later, they spirit the child away in order to protect her.  Sixteen years later, Aurora, now named “Briar Rose” (Mary Costa), meets a handsome young man (Bill Shirley) and falls in love with him, while unaware of the death curse hanging over her sixteenth birthday.

Sleeping Beauty is not one of Walt Disney's better animated feature films, but it features one of Disney's most memorable villains, Maleficent, a classic animated character because of her unique look.  In fact, the overall look of Sleeping Beauty is something that makes it stand out, in large measure because of the work of Disney production designer regular, Ken Anderson, and Disney artist, Eyvind Earle, who was Sleeping Beauty's color stylist and chief background designer.  Chuck Jones, the legendary Looney Tunes and Warner Bros. Pictures animation director, was a layout artist for Sleeping Beauty, but did not receive a credit in the film.  The musical score and the songs in the film are also a hallmark of this film and are also Disney musical favorites.

Another thing about Sleeping Beauty is that it is also a bit irregular as fantasy films go.  People may remember it as a fairy tale romance with its happily-ever-after ending about a Disney princess finding her prince.  However, Sleeping Beauty is also a comic fantasy with a generous amount of humor, some of it involving even Maleficent.  Sleeping Beauty is an oddity in the Disney animated feature film pantheon, but there are reasons to remember it.  Like most Disney films, those reasons are why it is shared from one generation to the next.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, October 29, 2014


NOTES:
1960 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture” (George Bruns)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

2014 Austin Film Festival Winners Announced

Austin Film Festival Announces Winners of 2014 Screenplay & Teleplay Competition, Film Competition, and Audience Awards

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Austin Film Festival (AFF) announces its 2014 Jury and Audience Awards. A record number of scripts were received and Finalists were reviewed by an industry jury.

Screenplay and Teleplay Awards:

    Drama Screenplay Award presented by the Writers Guild of America, East: Dead River Girl, Morris Long

    Comedy Screenplay Award: Three Months, Jared Frieder

    Enderby Entertainment Award: Suicide Boy, Laura Hainke

    Fade to Black Award: I Fucked James Bond, Josh Hallman

    Darkwoods Productions Horror Award: The 700 Year Itch, Molly Stein & Moon Unit Zappa

    Darkwoods Productions Sci-Fi Award: The Incomparable Donald Strange, James Fant & Zach Cannon

    AMC One-Hour Teleplay Pilot: Ascension, Wes Brown

    Sitcom Teleplay Pilot: Great Points Park, Danny Sullivan

    One-Hour Teleplay Spec: The Americans: Barium Meals, Adam Turner

    Sitcom Teleplay Spec: Bob’s Burgers: Mr. Whiskers, Damir Konjicija & Dario Konjicija

The 2014 Jury award-winning films included the inaugural Comedy Vanguard Award. AFF’s competition juries include talented filmmakers and notable industry insiders Dan Guando (The Weinstein Company) and Tom Skerritt (founder, The Film School), among others. Animated, Documentary, and Narrative Short Jury Winners are eligible for Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences nomination.

Jury Awards:

    Narrative Feature: The Kings Surrender, Philipp Leinemann

    Documentary Feature Jury Award: Once Upon a Crime: The Borrelli-Davis Conspiracy, Sheldon Wilson

    Dark Matters Feature: One Eyed Girl, Nick Matthews and Craig Behenna

    Comedy Vanguard Feature: Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero, Maz Jobrani & Amir Ohebsion

    Narrative Short: Skunk, Annie Silverstein

    Documentary Short: The Next Part, Erin Sanger

    Animated Short: Between Times, Ru Kuwahata & Max Porter

    Narrative Student Short: Luke, Conor Hamill

    Young Filmmakers Program Competition: Special Is Just a Word, Abby Thompson

During the Festival, audiences scored each film, resulting in 2014 Audience Award Winners.

Audience Awards:

    Narrative Feature: Terrible Love, Luke Helmer & Christopher Thomas

    Documentary Feature: The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young, Annika Iltis & Timothy Kane

    Dark Matters Feature: The Suicide Theory, Michael J. Kospiah

    Comedy Vanguard Feature: Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero, Maz Jobrani & Amir Ohebsion

    Narrative Short: Mimi & Me, Marly Reed

    Documentary Short: Albert, Daniel Jaffe

    Animated Short: TIE The Dam Keeper, Robert Kondo & Dice Tsutsumi | The Last Resort, Gillian Park

    Student Short: Luke, Conor Hamill

    Heart of Film: Popovich and the Voice of the Fabled American West, Mike Thompson, Jerry Thompson, & Gregory Popovich

    Stories From Abroad: Taking it Back, Andreas Schmied

    Texas Independents: Flutter, Eric Hueber

    Marquee Feature: Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, James Keach


About Austin Film Festival
Austin Film Festival is funded and supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Austin Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division.

VIZ Media Announces Neon Alley Updates for November 2014

VIZ MEDIA DELIVERS SUBSTANTIAL NOVEMBER UPDATE FOR NEON ALLEY ANIME FREE STREAMING PLATFORM
Premieres For COPPELION And NARUTO SHIPPUDEN SPIN OFF: ROCK LEE, New SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL Subtitled Episodes, And Updates For BLEACH, NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, RANMA ½ And More!!

VIZ Media opens November with a new update for its Neon Alley free anime streaming platform that features a wide array of exciting new additions and episodes.

Notable new additions this month include the complete post-apocalyptic sci-fi action series COPPELION (Episodes 1-13), English dubbed for the first time, which will join the already available subtitled complete series on November 27th and will be available in the U.S. via Neon Alley, Hulu and Hulu Plus for a limited time. COPPELION takes place in the not-so-distant future as a catastrophic event has turned the old capital of Japan into a wasteland, forever changing the lives of its people. Decades later, three schoolgirls set foot into the now forsaken city. They are the Coppelion, genetically engineered humans created by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces to operate under the lethal conditions of the contaminated city. Trained since birth, the girls must use all of their skills and resources to carry out their one and only mission: to rescue those left behind.

Also making its exclusive Neon Alley English dub debut will be the NARUTO SHIPPUDEN anime spin-off comedy series, ROCK LEE AND HIS NINJA PALS (Episodes 1-13), available on November 28th to join the already available subtitled complete series consisting of 13 episodes. Welcome to the Hidden Leaf Village, home to the famous Naruto Uzumaki, star of NARUTO/NARUTO SHIPPUDEN. Here, ninja train day and night to be able to carry out important missions. But wait! This show isn’t about Naruto, the mightiest ninja! It’s about Rock Lee, the one who can’t use ninjutsu at all!

Ninja action fans are also invited to catch the simulcasts of the latest subtitled NARUTO SHIPPUDEN episodes every Thursday. Visit www.NeonAlley.com for complete episodic details and airdates.

SAILOR MOON and SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL fans can look forward to new episodes throughout November. SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL subtitled simulcast Episode 9, “Serenity Princess,” premieres on November 1st, followed by Episode 10, “Moon,” on November 15th. Two brand new subtitled episodes of SAILOR MOON will be added every Monday!

The latest Neon Alley monthly update is also augmented by nearly 100 additional episodes from other top-rated VIZ Media anime series including:

ACCEL WORLD

    Season 1, Set 2 (Episodes 13-24) of the edgy series launches on Neon Alley beginning on November 1st and blends a highly imaginative online game with real world impact that adds a new twist to one teen’s solution to being bullied.
    The entire series, Episodes 1-24, is also available subtitled on Neon Alley.

BLEACH

·         English dubbed episodes 243–255 will be added to the current library of episodes of this action-packed series!

·         Fans also can catch the entire series subtitled on Neon Alley (366 episodes total)!

NARUTO

·         Neon Alley adds dubbed Episodes 53-65 of the original NARUTO anime series.

·         With the newest addition, check out a total of 65 English dubbed episodes and the complete subtitled anime (all 220 episodes) series!

NARUTO SHIPPUDEN

·         Don’t miss simulcasts of the latest subtitled episodes of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN every Thursday in November beginning with Episode 385 on November 13th.

·         Also enjoy the action-packed additions of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN English dubbed Episodes 13-18 bringing the total of available dubbed episodes of the series to over 100.

NURA RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN
·         Catch Season 2, Episodes 14-26 available beginning on November 20th which now means you can watch the entire series dubbed!

·         The entire series comprising of two seasons with a total of 52 episodes, is now available subtitled on the streaming platform.

RANMA ½

·         Enjoy the addition of 2 new dubbed RANMA ½ episodes each week throughout November beginning with Season 5, Episodes 111-112 on November 7th and every Friday thereafter.

Neon Alley is VIZ Media’s consolidated online destination for FREE streaming anime content in the U.S. with over 3,200 subtitled and English dubbed episodes and movies from more than 36 series! Neon Alley also reaches an expansive on-demand U.S.-based audience on the free, ad-supported Hulu and Hulu Plus subscription service, which enables viewers to watch shows anytime, anywhere across devices including Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 (PS3®) or PlayStation®4 (PS4™) systems Roku, Chromecast, and mobile devices. A full list of Hulu and Hulu Plus-enabled devices can be found at http://www.hulu.com/plus/devices.

Additional information on Neon Alley is available at: www.NeonAlley.com.

Grumble #1 (Chapter 1) is Back; See Page 1

Read PageOne of the comic: http://www.comicbookbin.com/grumbleonepage001.html

New SpongeBob Movie Trailer and Poster

To save their world, they must come to ours.

Watch the new trailer now: http://youtu.be/y92uvN9VFdY

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in theaters February 6, 2015

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpongeBobMovie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpongeBobmovie
Instagram: http://instagram.com/SpongeBobmovie

#SpongeBobMovie

Sailor Moon Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Due November 11, 2014

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE HOME MEDIA RELEASE OF SAILOR MOON SEASON ONE PART ONE

Celebrated Anime Released For The First Time Uncut, Re-mastered And In High Definition; Limited Edition Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack Packed With Extras Fit For A Moon Princess!

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, delivers one of the most legendary anime series of all time with the home media release of SAILOR MOON Season 1, Set 1 as a Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack and on DVD on November 11th.

SAILOR MOON has been completely re-mastered and is presented uncut and with a brand new English voice cast. The Standard Edition DVD and first-ever Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack each contain 23 episodes along with a wealth of bonus features and premium packaging. English dubbed as well as Japanese subtitled dialogue options are available on both formats. The limited edition SAILOR MOON Season 1, Set 1 Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack will carry a MSRP of $79.98 U.S. / $93.99 CAN; the DVD edition will have a MSRP of $44.82 U.S. / $51.99 CAN.

The stunning SAILOR MOON Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack offers a deluxe, 6-disc collection (3 DVDs & 3 Blu-rays), housed in a beautiful shimmery holofoil chipboard box with specialty printing, and contains an array of exclusive extra features along with an 88-page full-color booklet filled with artwork, character profiles, an episode guide, lyrics, and more! Blu-ray episodes are presented in full 1080p High Definition video.

Fans also can enjoy a bevy of bonus material available exclusively on the Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack such as an interactive, full-color SAILOR MOON video art gallery, the original series trailers, a ‘signs and songs’ subtitle track, analogue closed captions for the deaf and hard of hearing, and exclusive all-new behind the scenes footage of the English dub sessions as well as special SAILOR MOON convention announcement panel footage, and more!

The SAILOR MOON Season 1, Set 1 Standard Edition DVD features 3 discs with beautifully illustrated variant O-card packaging featuring embossed holofoil printing. Episodes are presented in 480p standard video format. Bonus features include the ‘signs and songs’ subtitle track, VIZ Media SAILOR MOON convention highlights and panel announcements as well as the original series trailers and analogue closed captions for the deaf and hard of hearing. Uncut English dubbed as well as Japanese subtitled dialogue options are available.

SAILOR MOON depicts the adventures of Usagi Tsukino, a cheerful 14-year-old schoolgirl who often finds herself in unwanted trouble. One day, she saves a talking cat named Luna from some mean kids, and her life is changed forever. Luna gives Usagi a magic brooch that transforms her into Sailor Moon, guardian of love and justice! Now Usagi must work with Luna to find the other Sailor Guardians and the Moon Princess, whose Legendary Silver Crystal is Earth’s only hope against the dark forces of the evil Queen Beryl!

“After being out of print and unavailable in North America for over ten years, the return of SAILOR MOON makes this set a truly historic anime release and one that should be a part of every collection,” says Charlene Ingram, Senior Manager, Animation Marketing. “The Limited Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack is an especially noteworthy collection and offers the debut season of this treasured series for the very first time in crisp High Definition, uncut and re-mastered, and with a brand new English dub cast. Join the Pretty Guardians of Love and Justice, and catch all their early adventures in these forthcoming home media releases that are fit for a Moon Princess!”

The smash hit SAILOR MOON anime series is inspired by the bestselling manga (graphic novel) series created by Naoko Takeuchi (published in North America by Kodansha). In the series, Usagi Tsukino is a clumsy but kindhearted teenage girl who transforms into the powerful guardian of love and justice, Sailor Moon. Meeting allies along the way who share similar fates, Usagi and her team of planetary Sailor Guardians fight to protect the universe from forces of evil and total annihilation! 

For more information on SAILOR MOON, or other award-winning anime titles from VIZ Media, please visit www.VIZ.com.

About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan.  Owned by three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and ONE PIECE, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages.  VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products.  Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.

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Negromancer's November 2014

Another November (2014) to remember! Welcome to Negromancer 2.0.  This is the rebirth of Negromancer, the former movie review website as a new movie review and movie news site.

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