Sleeping Beauty DVD Spec.s

[Sarangel]

From the Disney Web Page - regarding the Sleeping Beauty DVD release on September 9, 2003:

DVD BONUS MATERIALS

Sleeping Beauty Special Edition - 2 Disc Collector's Edition DVD

"Once Upon A Dream: The Making Of Sleeping Beauty" art.
Featured are recollections from Walt Disney; veteran animators Ollie Johnston and Marc Davis; the speaking and singing voice of Princess Aurora, Mary Costa; and insights from film historian Leonard Maltin. They reveal Walt Disney's desire to make Sleeping Beauty a "moving illustration," and give it a look that distinguished it from his earlier fairy tale features Cinderella and Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. One technique was to create the film in a widescreen format, Technirama 70, which had never been attempted in a full-length animated film. To create the desired look of Sleeping Beauty, Walt Disney called upon the late Eyvind Earle, a renowned artist whose unique and modern style served to create the strong graphic backgrounds and stylized human characters. Earle himself offers his recollections of the process. After six years in production, the longest for any Disney animated film at the time, and the addition of music adapted from Tchaikovsky's celebrated score, Walt's dream became a reality. Today, animators continue to draw inspiration from Sleeping Beauty and strive to equal its level of craftsmanship and originality. Also presented is a rare look at early storyboards, live-action reference footage and character development and design.

Sleeping Beauty 3-D Virtual Galleries
Enter the halls of King Stefan's castle and walk through the many galleries to view rarely-seen preliminary concept art and designs by renowned artist Eyvind Earle, character designs, storyboard drawings, layouts and backgrounds, animators at work. One unique gallery presents a series of paintings by Eyvind Earle for the original walk-through attraction at the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland. You can also flip through the pages of the actual Sleeping Beauty storybook used in the film.

Story Reel: "The Capture Of The Prince"
View the original story sequence in which Maleficent captures Prince Phillip.

Story Reel: "The Fairies Put The Castle To Sleep"
View the original story sequence in which Flora, Fauna and Merryweather put everyone in the castle to sleep.

Widescreen-To-Fullscreen Comparison
Sleeping Beauty was produced in widescreen, a first for Walt Disney and his team of animators. Here, the same scene is compared in widescreen and fullscreen formats.

The Design
Film historian Leonard Maltin, original Sleeping Beauty artists Eyvind Earle and Ollie Johnston, and Pocahontas co-director Eric Goldberg among others share their thoughts on the design of the film. In particular, they discuss the unique style of the backgrounds and the way Disney artists, led by Earle, designed the characters to fit within those environments.

Creating The Backgrounds
Eyvind Earle recalls how he taught other artists working on Sleeping Beauty at the time how to paint backgrounds in his style.

Helene Stanley Dance Reference
This live-action reference footage features Helene Stanley serving as a model dancing as Princess Aurora while Disney animators sketch her elegant movements.

Live Action Reference (Prince Phillip)
Reconstructed from surviving still photographs, this segment features an actor serving as a model of Prince Phillip with shield and sword, who's on his way to battle Maleficent.

The Music
Mary Costa, the singing and acting voice of Princess Aurora, shares how Walt Disney adapted Tchaikovsky's score for the film, and how the song "Once Upon A Dream" influenced her life.

Trailers:
1) Original Teaser Trailer
2) Original Theatrical Trailer
3) 1995 Trailer

The Restoration
In 1998, a highly-sophisticated computer-aided restoration of Sleeping Beauty was undertaken similar to that of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs in 1994. Sleeping Beauty was only the second Disney animated film to undergo such an extensive process, which involved meticulously restoring each of 118,000 frames to reverse the effects of dirt, scratches and fading.

"The Peter Tchaikovsky Story"
Originally broadcast in 1959 on the "Disneyland" TV show, "The Peter Tchaikovsky Story" is a live-action dramatization of the life of the gifted composer, whose composition for the ballet Sleeping Beauty was adapted for Walt Disney's animated masterpiece. Born in 1840 in a small town in Russia, Tchaikovsky was performing Mozart, whom he idolized, from as early as age six. Though his parents guided him toward a life of civil service, his love for music led him to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied under the great pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Though his first ballet, "Swan Lake," was considered a disappointment at the time, Tchaikovsky fulfilled a lifelong dream of composing ballet music for a favorite story from his childhood, Sleeping Beauty.

"Grand Canyon" Film Short
This Academy Award-Winning* CinemaScope Live Action Short was a companion piece to Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty in its premiere theatrical engagements in 1959. Listen to American composer Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite" while viewing breathtaking vistas of the Grand Canyon and its animal life.

*Best Live-Action Short Subject, 1959.

Four Artists Paint One Tree
Walt Disney hosts this special look at the techniques of four of the artists who worked on Sleeping Beauty. Profiled are Eyvind Earle, Marc Davis, Josh Meador and Walt Peregory, each of whom had to blend their individual approaches into one unified style for the film. As a demonstration of how each artist approaches their work, they are taken on an outing to a Southern California hillside and asked to paint the same a tree, a live oak.

"Rescue Aurora" Set-Top Adventure Game
You have an urgent task -- help Prince Phillip get to the castle quickly to break Maleficent's spell and awaken the sleeping Princess Aurora. The three Good Fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather will offer help along the way, but expect to encounter the evil Maleficent, who'll do everything in her power to stop you!

Sleeping Beauty Ink And Paint Game
With Merryweather as your guide, you can be a Disney artist and paint your favorite characters from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

 

[WDWHound]

Wow! I'll certainly be grabbing a copy as soon as it hits the shelves.

 

[d-r]

i feel compelled to say a cynical thing here, and I'm sorry for that.

But, I think anyone should be cautious in interpreting the Sleeping Beauty release as a sign of trends in Disney DVD. You may remember that there was some discussion of Disney "slimming down" the dvd releases. The logic went something like this. For most studios, it has become fashionable or profitable or whatever to pack in bonus material in multiple dvd releases. The thinking is, these materials will encourage people to buy the dvd, rather than just renting it, catching it on HBO, etc. Disney, on the other hand, seemed to decide that people were buying dvds only for their kids to wath anyway, so these extra bonus features were a waste of their time and money. People will buy lilo and stitch, for example, and be more happy with a singel disc for their kids to be babysat with, than a packed double edition.

Now, my cynical point is that you shouldn't take Sleeping Beauty or 20K LOTS as indicators that this isn't going to be the continued trend. I say this because the material had already been put together before this was decided. For example, 20K LOTS will be released as a stand alone "Special Edition," rather than as a part of the "Vault Disney" series, along with "So Dear to My Heart" etc. The extra material, menu work, etc. had already been done for 20K leagues, when it was to be part of the vault disney series, so even the end of the vault disney series didn't preclude it from being released as a 2-disc set. Same with Sleeping Beauty. Remember that SB isn't one of the named "Platinum edition" titles, but it will get a 2-disc set as a "Special Edition" (when was the last time you saw anything released as "Gold Edition?" A year ago?). This is because this is the same disc that was already released in Europe and the UK, and is of material that already existed for the previous Laser Disc release - so no new development went in to this. Roger Rabbit is a third example of a great release, where the work had already went into it before the slim down decision.

I'm just saying this as a caution not to get excited about the direction of future dvd releases. Or see this, or the other two releases, as a sign of good things to come or the general current direction of disney dvd. Don't go looking for a two-disc version of Lilo and Stitch, or TP, etc. I'm sure that Pixar will do it up with Finding Nimo, though, because they are Pixar and that is what they do.

That said, I think it is wonderful that we are getting such nice versions of Sleeping Beauty, 20K LOTS, and Roger Rabbit, and so many of the classics, and not-really classics, have gotten fairly decent releases in the past.

DR

 

[HB2K]

I'm sure that Pixar will do it up with Finding Nimo, though, because they are Pixar and that is what they do.

Or as I like to say

The Walt Disney Company of our Generation!

 

[Sarangel]

you shouldn't take Sleeping Beauty or 20K LOTS as indicators that this isn't going to be the continued trend. I say this because the material had already been put together before this was decided.

On the other hand, the footage & menu work had already been done for a Lilo & Stitch 2-disk set and they seem to have cancelled it. There was part of me that was rooting for L&S at the Academies because I thought that might give Disney the impetus to release the 2-disk version they have in the can. I have still not bought the single disk of L&S in protest, even though I love the movie.

It is my hope that Disney will eventually get a clue about their DVD releases, but I expect that it will take a while (as it did with their VHS releases).

Sarangel