The Girl Who is Famous for Sleeping
Film Analysis Written By: Adam Cheifetz, Laura Parrish, Hannah Higgins
Sleeping Beauty, Directed by Clyde Geronimi 1959
Briar Rose by the Grimm Brothers
Summary of the film: A princess is born and three good fairies are invited to celebrate. The princess is betrothed to Prince Philip, the king’s friend’s son. The fairies give her gifts of beauty and song. Then the evil fairy Maleficent arrives, angry that she wasn’t invited, and curses the girl to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die before sunset on her sixteenth birthday. The last good fairy can’t undo the curse but changes it so that Aurora will only fall asleep, and be woken up by true love’s kiss. After that, Aurora lives in a hidden house in the forest with the fairies, who hide their magic and that she is a princess. On her sixteenth birthday, Aurora is out picking berries and Prince Philip hears her singing. They talk and fall in love immediately, without knowing who the other person is. Aurora tells the fairies that she loves this man in the forest, and they reveal that she is a princess and is betrothed to a prince. Prince Philip tells his father he wants to marry the peasant girl instead of the princess. The fairies take Aurora to the castle to be reunited with her parents, but Maleficent tricks Aurora into pricking her finger on the spindle and falls asleep just before the sun sets. The fairies set a spell to put everyone in the kingdom to sleep, but Prince Philip is out in the forest looking for Aurora. The fairies overhear from the kings that Philip is the man that Aurora met in the forest, and they fly away to find him. He is captured by Maleficent, so they free him and give him a sword and shield. He fights off Maleficent and rushes to the palace, where he kisses Aurora and everyone wakes up. They come into the palace together and are married.
While Aurora is sleeping after pricking her finger on the spindle, the film focuses on her appearance instead of her actual state. The fairies make sure that her hair and dress are laid out nicely around her, waiting for true love’s kiss. The iconic image of Aurora, while she is cursed, is that her lips are red, she is wearing her crown and dress, her golden hair is spread around her, and she is holding a rose. This imagery portrays her as a pure object that is waiting for the prince to rescue her. The fairies know that Prince Philip will come for her, but they still set her up ready to be seen. Because she is most valued because of her beauty, this sends a negative message to kids today. She is objectified throughout the film, and this image supports that more. Today, we try to send more messages to kids that women should be treated better. Kids still watch this film which does not support equal views on women.
Sleeping Beauty has done something that blows me away. She successfully has an entire movie about her, yet she is only awake and in the action for roughly 15 minutes of the entire movie. I find it really interesting how the main character, the character that the movie is named after, does practically nothing throughout the entire movie. The movie is prioritizing the male character. He is prevalent throughout the entire story. He is the one who saves the day by awakening Sleeping Beauty. It also portrays women in a light that they “need to be saved”. It is saying that women can’t do it themselves, which is not true. Sleeping Beauty is also portrayed as a “damsel in distress” rather than a heroine.
The plot of the film adaptation of Sleeping Beauty remains close to the original text that inspired the retelling, while also referencing the original story in other ways throughout the movie. One way that the film adaptation is related to the original text is through the fairies calling Aurora ‘Rose’ for a portion of the film while they are hiding from Maleficent. This is an allusion to the original story that the movie is based on, Briar Rose. There is a close relationship in the plot line between the film and the original text and the main points of the story remain the same, however, some of the more controversial topics were changed for the story to be more suitable for children. Since the Disney version of the story is intended for children, the ending is changed from the original and focuses on ‘true love’s kiss’ and does not include the birth of a child that was a result of rape. While this version is slightly more progressive through emitting the section of the story that does not show consent when the Prince sleeps with Aurora, the film “Sleeping Beauty” is still not up to today’s standards on what children should learn as acceptable. The movie version still includes the Prince kissing a sleeping girl which is not a message that should continue to be shown to children, which is why this version is still not very progressive.
