"Gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red red rose"
And to think the song was intended for a comical scene with puss in boots and the white cat... what the hell kind of sick humour is that!
It's probably my most memorable childhood film experience because it had everything you could want from a fairytale, and more than a decade later I found myself knowing enough of the lyrics to sing along to Once Upon A Dream --not in pitch but whatever, screw you old Hollywood and your impossible, self esteem crushing standards. It's what I think to be the ultimate fairytale, there is sorcery, a beautiful princess with a curse, a dashing prince charming, countless musical scores that are all so amazing, epic dragon slaying, a happily ever after and all the while being orchestrated perfectly to Tchaikovsky's ballet score of the same name (had to google that) and then some. Having said that, this movie freaked me out so much as a kid it still scares me when Maleficent lures Aurora into the spindle room, I was on the edge of my seat during that scene despite knowing what happens next.
I read that the characters had real life models their appearances and parts of their movements were based on, Princess Aurora bore a resemblence to the Audrey Hepburn herself, with her slender neck and frame, big brown eyes and graceful springtime in her walk and I don't know if she really did model for them or if she were just inspiration for character design but uncanny! Prince Phillip was based on Ed Kemmer. I've always found Sleeping Beauty's characters to be the most good looking of all the Disney fairytales, Snow White's voice was so high pitched, Ariel looked like a child so that sort of creeps me out, Aladdin's hippie hair pissed me of, wow I feel like a 70s military dad right now. I mean the characters who weren't caricatures like Prince Phillip's father or other less significant characters like the owl in the woods were gaaaawjus, even Maleficent had that sinister beauty much like Snow White's witch queen before she turned warty and gross and the evil stepmother in Cinderella. If everyone had that one fictional character they were crushing on as a child, mine would be Prince Phillip. He slayed a bloody dragon for a girl whom he met for 3 minutes and sang a perfect duet with her, tell me that's not a romantic gentleman!
Story wise, it probably was pretty 2-dimensional but it was a simpler time and from a feminist standpoint, let's just say we've all heard all the feminist hate. It was a nice movie experience, to reminisce the time when we didn't need explosions and spinning tops to keep us entertained. If you watch this and end up disappointed then you're living in the future, it was the 14th century!
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