Once Upon A Dream

My second Top Pick is probably the most personal for me. I started watching this when I was very young, thanks to my mum. While she worked from home, and with a video recorder that would automatically stop and rewind a video when it reached the end, I would sit and watch this one over and over and over again. As with many of the films I watched when I was young, it was Disney.

This was Disney’s last film to use hand-inked cels for its animation process and was inspired by medieval art, stylised to match the period that the film was set. It was also the last adaptation of a fairytale for many years within the Disney roster. And although there are many more amazing Disney movies out, of which many people believe are superior to this one, through rose-tinted glasses perhaps I will always believe this one to be the best.

I Know You...

Almost 10 years in the making and the most expensive Disney film up to that point, Sleeping Beauty was released in 1959. Based partly on Charles Perrault’s ‘La Belle au bois dormant’ (‘The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood’), titular character Princess Aurora is transformed into a true Disney princess. It’s a romantic princess story with a truly magnificent villain to be defeated, animated with love in a beautifully colourful and luxuriant world of fantasy.

To be fair, I will not be taking into consideration Disney’s latest live action version of Maleficent’s story, released May 2014, as they appeared to take the animated version and turn it on its head much to my horror and/or awe (see more on that here).

For this one, the young daughter of happy King and Queen is cursed at birth by the evil and wicked Maleficent, to die upon her sixteenth birthday. To ensure her safety, the baby is whisked off and hidden away until after said birthday. Brought up unaware of her noble birthright, by her fairy godmothers in a cottage in the woods, she becomes the beautiful, kind and sweet girl as always planned. In true Disney style, a song brings her together with her true love.

As with most films, the path of true love never runs smooth. Altering the cutesy, friendly plot to an all out, sword and sorcery adventure movie, with an idealistic promise of true love to spur on the protagonist and a chance for the baddie to really show off her powers.

The Mistress of All Evil

To this day, Maleficent is still one of the best villains on film, not just within the Disney realm but across film. Within Sleeping Beauty it is still unclear what her reasoning is for being so evil which is perhaps why she is so effective, something must have driven her to the point where she is willing to end this young girl’s life without remorse. A villain who cannot be trusted to see her own wickedness is the most dastardly. Her dialogue is also the best – powerful, poised and dramatic, as only a truly gracious villain could be.

“She is indeed, most wondrous fair. Gold of sunshine in her hair, lips that shame the red red rose. In ageless sleep, she finds repose. The years roll by, but a hundred years to a steadfast heart, are but a day.”

All the Powers of Hell

The scene at the end where Maleficent turns into a dragon to fight the prince is still one of my favourites, the cackle, the music, the gnashing, the fire – not only was it beautiful to watch but exciting too. This is one of the only death scenes that is ‘graphic’, most deaths were only implied throughout Disney, but this was a full-on sword in the heart, fall to their death scene. Prince Phillip was a hero.

The only fear I have is the feminists are going to pop out the woodwork and crush the unadulterated romanticism of this fairytale – ‘women should stand on their own two feet’, ‘we’re no longer just damsels in distress’. My love of this film is as pure of heart as Princess Aurora and as steadfast as Prince Phillip’s will to defeat Maleficent, no matter my current outlook on love and relationships. Compounded by the fact that I used to tell people my name was Aurora when I was younger!