“ Throughout
the course of this Blog I will be reviewing the history of Hollywood
past, present and maybe even the future.”
Mr.
Bee August of 2014
That
was what I said to introduce you to my blog, about my blog, on my
blog (that sentence sounded kind of redundant)... and here we are one
year later, and still alive and breathing (well to be fair, a couple
of people are dead). It has been one year ago today that I started
up my blog!
Since
we started with a Don Bluth movie, that being The Land Before Time, I
have spent the entire year on the series and fell like I'm going
“nuts” (if I haven’t already). I would like to point out a
differences between this movie and the last Don Bluth movie we looked
at (other than the story line): 1. The Land Before Time was a movie
Don Bluth made by himself. Sleeping Beauty. on the other hand, was a
movie made by Disney. 2. The Land Before Time was a movie Don Bluth
directed; Sleeping Beauty was a movie he had very little involvement
with. He was a background artist (which means he just did the
backgrounds. In live action films he would have been considered a
scenic designer). Before we get into the actual review of this
movie, I would like to point out something-- this movie is the first
movie Don Bluth made (or the first professional movie he ever made).
And before we get into this, if anybody is wondering what I think of
the recent blockbuster hit, Maleficent: it was bad. As for the
recent Disney Channel movie Descendants, it was what you would expect
from a Disney Channel movie.
Background
The
production of this movie started around 1949 with the entire
storyboard completed in 1952. Walt was not happy with the end result
of the storyboard as he thought it was too similar to past Disney
movies such as Snow White and Cinderella. Walt Disney hired Eyvind
Earle to design the entire movie (and he has been declared a Disney
Legend and the ceremony is taking place today). Sleeping Beauty was
a major gamble for Walt Disney and this gamble did not pay off. It
was a dismal success at the box office, but unfortunately, Walt
Disney never lived to see Sleeping Beauty make back its profit.
However, when it was re-released after his death, it did become a
success and a Disney classic.
Plot
This
movie is about a princess under a spell cast by a wicked fairy, known
as Maleficent (sound familiar?) and to protect her, she was raised by
fairies for 16 years. She fell in love with a prince, the fairies
take her back to the kingdom and then (spoiler
alert)
she pricks her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel and falls
into a deep sleep and then (spoiler
alert) she
gets woken up the kiss of her prince.
Opinion
Let's
start with the animation-- the animation is wonderful! The story is
about average for a princess movie, but this is what you expect when
you make a movie out of Sleeping Beauty. The characters-- the two
kings are hysterical and the three good fairies are funny as well. I
have always laughed when Flora and Merriweather do the pink a blue
fight and when Flora makes the cake the wrong way. The princess and
the prince are not that good of characters; their in love with being
in love and pretty average for a prince and princess.
Maleficent
is the best Disney villain of all times. She mean business. The
mistress of all evil. And I never forget the big elephant in the
room now-- can you see where Don Bluth might have influenced-- well
not necessarily... but you can see where Don Bluth was influenced by
the movie because if you look at the style of animation you can see
an element of Don Bluth movies later on. All in all it is quite a
good movie- if they developed the prince and princess a bit more, it
would be have been a much better movie. As for my rating, just to
let you know Maleficent has a gun to my head right now, so I guess I
will give it 5 stars so I don't have to end my blog immediately.
Well
thank you to everyone that has read my blog this year. I will be
forever grateful!
Goodnight and Bee Happy!™
copyright
2015 Mr. Bee Studio International All rights belong to Mr. Bee
and webmaster Wesley M. and if anybody breaks this copyright they
will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for
your understanding.
images courtesy of The Walt Disney Company and Harmony Healthcare International
