Writer of Pop Culture

1959: The Disney Cartoon that Snoozed at the Box Office

Based the Brothers Grimm tale, Sleeping Beauty was Disney’s 16th animated film, the first to be photographed in Super Technirama 70mm widescreen process and the last princess film the studio put together before 1989’s The Little Mermaid.

Much of the music from the film was taken directly from Tchaikovsky’s 1890 ballet of the same name. The movie also inspired Disneyland’s castle. Originally, the castle was going to be called “Snow White’s Castle”, but since the park was opening a few months before the release of the new movie, it was dubbed “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle” instead.

Sleeping Beauty was the first animated film to be photographed in the Super Technirama 70 widescreen process although it was released to theaters in both 35mm and 70mm prints. Production costs for the movie came to about $6 million, making it Walt’s most expensive film up to this point. (It cost twice as much as the studio’s three previous films, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp.)

Despite positive reviews from critics, this beautiful film didn’t bring in enough money to make up for the losses of the rest of that year’s releases (which resulted in massive layoffs for the animation department).

The is almost more Prince Philip’s movie than Aurora’s, since she sleeps during a large portion of it. Philip has more screen time than other princes featured in previous Disney movies too.

Disney later released a live-action version of the story called Maleficent in 2014. That movie starred Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning. That film’s sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, opened in theaters in October of 2019. (Image: Disney)

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