Sleeping Beauty Battle Royale

In just a few short days (11/04), the alternate version of Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent, will be released on home video. It has been a long time since a movie has been so polarizing with an audience as Maleficent is to Sleeping Beauty. If you have not seen this new telling, then I urge you to go ahead and get ready by picking up a copy of the original Disney classic first.

In fact, just recently, Disney released for the first time on Diamond Edition Blu-ray, Sleeping Beauty from the vault. Sleeping Beauty tells the wondrous tale of a princess cursed by an evil fairy, protected by three loving fairies and, ultimately, saved by true love’s kiss. Featuring the voice talents of renowned opera singer Mary Costa as Sleeping Beauty and Eleanor Audley as the evil fairy, Maleficent, the film’s vibrant visuals were created by a team that included Milt Kahl and Ollie Johnston, two of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men and an Academy Award-nominated score, 1959, adapted from the incandescent music of Peter Tchaikovsky. Sleeping Beauty is the sixteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon and was the last animated feature produced by Walt Disney to be based upon a fairy tale. It is the tenth film released as part of Disney’s prestigious Blu-ray Diamond Collection.

The 2-Disc Blu-ray Superset with Digital Copy (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) includes several bonus featurettes about the work at the Disney Parks to include fairy tale lore, the work that went into restoring the classic and the Generations of Disney Villains. It also contains never before seen deleted scenes and a sing along video. One of the most interesting alternate scenes is the Arrival Of Maleficent. This alternate scene obviously had an impact on the film, Maleficent, and is very similar to the live action movie.

I highly recommend adding Disney’s 2-Disc Diamond Edition Blu-ray Superset of Sleeping Beauty to your collection and picking up Maleficent to complete the set on November 4th.