1959: Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Comes to Theaters for the First Time

Sleeping Beauty was Walt Disney’s 16th animated feature which was released on this day in 1959. Based the Brothers Grimm tale, it was the last fairy tale that the studio created before 1989’s The Little Mermaid. Much of the music of the film was taken from Tchaikovsky’s 1890 ballet of the same name. The movie also inspired Disneyland’s castle which was to named Snow White’s castle, but since the building of the park was taking place at the same time as the building of the movie, it was dubbed Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

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 to make the film came to about $6 million, making it Disney’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, the sleepy princess didn’t bring in enough money to make up for the losses of the rest of that year’s releases resulting in massive layoffs for Disney’s animation department. Walt Disney Pictures later released a live-action version of the story, Maleficent, in 2014 that starred Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning. That film’s sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, opened in theaters in October of 2019. (Image: Disney)