Sleeping Beauty (1959 movie)

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Sleeping Beauty
Directed bySupervising Director
Clyde Geronimi
Sequence Directors
Eric Larson
Wolfgang Reitherman
Les Clark
Written byErdman Penner
Story by
Based onSleeping Beauty
by Charles Perrault
Produced byWalt Disney
Starring
Narrated byMarvin Miller
Edited byRoy M. Brewer, Jr.
Donald Halliday
Music byGeorge Bruns (adapted from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Ballet)
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • January 29, 1959 (1959-01-29)
[1]
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million[2]
Box office$51.6 million[3]

Sleeping Beauty (1959) is an American-French animated movie produced by Walt Disney Productions and released to movie theaters by Buena Vista Distribution. It is based on the 1697 fairy tale "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" by Charles Perrault. The movie was directed by Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman, under the supervision of Clyde Geronimi. Additional story work was provided by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta.

The movie's musical score and songs are arrangements or adaptations of material from the 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Buena Vista Distribution released the movie to theaters on November 11, 1959. It was the first animated movie to be photographed in the Technirama widescreen process. The movie was presented in Super Technirama 70 and 6-channel stereophonic sound in first-run engagements.

Reception[change | change source]

The movie generated mixed reviews from critics. They thought the movie was slow-paced and lacked character development. Sleeping Beauty earned approximately $7.7 million in box office rentals.[4] Its production costs totaled $6 million,[5] making it the most expensive Disney movie to that date.[6] The high production costs of the movie resulted in the company posting its first annual loss in a decade for fiscal year 1960,[5] and many animators were laid off.[7]

References[change | change source]

  1. Solomon 2014, p. 97.
  2. Thomas 1976, pp. 294–5.
  3. "Sleeping Beauty". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  4. Barrier, Michael (2008). The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 268. ISBN 978-0-520-25619-4.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Thomas, Bob (1976). Walt Disney: An American Original (1994 ed.). New York: Hyperion Press. pp. 294–295. ISBN 978-0-7868-6027-2.
  6. Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. New York.: Oxford University Press. pp. 554–559. ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0.
  7. Norman, Floyd (August 18, 2008). "Toon Tuesday : Here's to the real survivors". Jim Hill Media. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2010.