Walt Disney's Spectacular "Sleeping Beauty" Quiz

Answer: Medieval or Renaissance Europe

The knights, the horses, the flags, the castles, the fairies are all evocative of late Medieval and Renaissance Europe. As a matter of fact, art designer and creative director Jon Hench, with Walt Disney's approval, based the artistic style for "Sleeping Beauty" on the Flemish Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries (c. 1495) in The Cloisters museum, Fort Tyron Park, Washington Heights, New York City (managed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which received the tapestries in 1938).

Hench's concept was developed by Kay Nielsen, who had made the initial sketches for the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment in "Fantasia" (1940). Eyvind Earl further developed the styling, colors, and background for "Sleeping Beauty" before leaving the project before its completion. Over their objections, animators were ordered by Walt Disney to conform to the realistic and flat and ironically modernist style, in a departure from earlier animated features.

Answer: Technirama

Alongside the rich Technicolor process long used by Disney, the opening titles and the posters of the movie's initial run boasted of using the Technirama screen process, an anamorphic widescreen technology yielding a 2.35:1 ratio when projected, identical in size to CinemaScope, but much sharper. To be more accurate, however, "Sleeping Beauty" employed the "Super Technirama 70" process, meaning it was done on 70-mm film rather than 35-mm film. From "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) through the mid-1980s, none of Disney's animated features used widescreen but rather the standard Academy ratio (roughly the same aspect as used in pre-digital television), with the exception of "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Lady and the Tramp", both in widescreen. With the release of "101 Dalmations" (1961), the next feature film after "Sleeping Beauty", the Disney company reverted to the smaller aspect ratio. Not until "The Black Cauldron" (1985) did Disney return to widescreen for animated movies, which has been the company's standard since.

"Sleeping Beauty" makes excellent use of Technirama, taking full advantage of the extra space for panoramic vistas. It is especially effective for taking the viewer through the dark corridors of the castle, for example, during the opening scenes.

Answer: Clyde Geronomi

In reality, three supervising directors shaped the production of "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), although only one, Clyde Geronomi, would ultimately get the official credit as such on screen, and aside from Disney, had the final say.

First is Wilfred Jackson, who had worked on the original Mickey Mouse cartoons and "Silly Symphonies" of Disney's early days and the animated segments of "Song of the South" (1946) and the "Bald Mountain" segment of "Fantasia" (1940) and ended up leaving "Sleeping Beauty" following a heart attack. Second is Eric Larson, who animated none of the characters but directed all of the Forest sequences and was briefly supervising director before he was fired; he remains listed in the credits, however, as a sequence director. Lastly was Clyde Geronomi, who became supervising director until the film was finished; he conflicted with artist Eyvind Earl (credited with "Color Styling") over the backgrounds, and simplified them when Earl left Walt Disney for a more favorable work environment.

Answer: Tinkerbell

King Stefan and Queen Leah present their infant daughter (and only child) Princess Aurora to the kingdom in the Great Hall of their magnificent castle. They betroth her to Prince Philip, the young son of King Hubert (whose queen does not appear in the film, nor is she mentioned by name). Three fairies are invited to attend: Flora, dressed in red (or arguably a deep pink) and the tallest, presents Aurora with the gift of beauty. Fauna, donned in green and the kindest, gives the princess singing ability. Merryweather, adorned with blue and the shortest, is interrupted by an evil fairy, angered at not being invited to the ceremony, before she can bestow her gift to the infant princess.

To protect the Princess Aurora from the evil fairy, the three good fairies raise her in isolation in the forest and rename her Briar Rose. In this way, Walt Disney combines the name of protagonist in both the German or Brothers Grimm's version of the tale (Briar Rose) and the French or Charles Perrault's version (Aurora).

The three good fairies and the princess Aurora make their second appearance in the poorly-received direct-to-video cartoon "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams" (2007), during the first segment, called "Keys to the Kingdom".

Tinkerbell, of course, was the fairy in "Peter Pan" (1953).

Answer: Maleficent

The wicked fairy is not named in either the Grimms' version or in Charles Perrault's version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, but Walt Disney insisted upon a name. The word "maleficent" means "harmful or evil in intent or effect" or "baleful or malicious", being the opposite of "beneficent". True to her name, Maleficent curses Princess Aurora to prick her finger on a spindle and die.

Most of the characters for "Sleeping Beauty" had different visual models and voice actors. Maleficent, however, was voiced and modeled by Eleanor Audley (1905-1991), who also voiced Lady Tremaine in "Cinderella" (1950). Audley additionally gave voice to spirit medium Madame Leota in "The Haunted Mansion", when the attraction was built in Disneyland in 1969. (She also played Eunice Douglas, Oliver's disapproving mother in CBS's "Green Acres" (1965-69), although she was all of five months older than actor Eddie Albert!) Audley initially turned down the role of Maleficent as she was suffering from tuberculosis when first offered the part. Maleficent herself was originally drawn variously as an old hag and as a figure strongly resembling the Wicked Queen of Disney's "Snow White" (1937) before her final green-skinned and horned sinister glamor was settled upon.

Answer: Skumps

When Princess Aurora (or Briar Rose as she called in hiding) turns 16, King Stefan and Queen Leah await the return of their daughter. Stefan and King Hubert, father of Prince Philip, get into a quarrel over the children and where they will live, as Stefan and Leah have not seen their daughter since she was a baby. Stefan mistakenly grabs a fish instead of a sword, and the two men end up laughing together.

The minstrel who was supposed to entertain them, meanwhile, becomes falling-down drunk. This short scene and the rivalry between Flora and Merryweather over the color of Briar Rose's dress are among very sparse bits of comic relief in a very sombre picture.

Answer: Raven

The good fairy Merryweather had not given her gift to Aurora when Maleficent interrupts her with the curse of death. Merryweather cannot negate the curse, but she changes death to slumber (in more modern terms, suspended animation). Although the three good fairies raise Aurora in the forest to hide her from Maleficent, Aurora is discovered when Flora and Fauna carelessly use their magic in a quarrel over Aurora/Briar Rose's dress (whether to dye it blue or pink). The raven named Diablo, familiar to the evil fairy Maleficent, espies the evidence of their magic and reports it to his mistress. Aurora is subsequently made to prick her finger on a spindle to fulfill the curse.

Merryweather was voiced by radio actor Barbara Luddy (1908-1979), who also voiced Lady in "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), Rover in "101 Dalmations" (1961), both Mother Rabbit and the churchmouse Mother Sexton in "Robin Hood" (1973), and Kanga in the "Winnie-the-Pooh" films from 1966 to 1977.

Answer: thorns

When Aurora falls into her 100-year slumber (or coma) after pricking her finger on a spindle, the fairies likewise make the entire kingdom sleep. Thorns and briars grow around the kingdom to protect it from outsiders.

"Sleeping Beauty" (1959) was the Disney Studio's last feature cartoon to be inked and painted by hand, the subsequent films using Xerography, the photocopying technology of the Xerox Corporation. During the scene in which the briar forest erects itself, however, the animators did employ Xerography to save time and money. After "Sleeping Beauty", there were massive layoffs in the ink and paint department, which had been mostly occupied by women, who had generally been forbidden, both formally and informally, from being actual animators and sketchers, the more desirable and to Walt Disney's mind important job. (Kay Nielsen was one exception to this unwritten rule, which came from Walt himself.) Connoisseurs of animation have noted a striking visual contrast between the hand-painted and outlined animation cels of the movies through 1959 and the ones in "101 Dalmations" (1961), which mechanically outline the actual sketches and irrevocably alters the classic Disney animated look and feel.

It should be noted that the animators used photocopying for the growth of the thorns in "Sleeping Beauty" without telling Walt Disney himself, but he later stated that he had noticed that shortcuts were taken. Unhappy with the changes taking place, he grew increasingly alienated from the animation studio and most of his energy was focused on television and on the new Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.

Answer: Dragon

There was no photocopying used here, but rather painstaking inking and painting in this stunning scene, in which Maleficent morphs into a gigantic fire-breathing dragon. Prince Philip and his steed Samson are imprisoned by Maleficent and her goons in Forbidden Mountain. The three good fairies rescue Philip and his Samson, and they arm the Prince with the Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue. He cuts through the briars and faces the dragon, who knocks the shield from his hand. But before the dragon can strike again, Philip hurls the sword and slays the dragon.

Philip is then able to reach Aurora and kiss her awake, and the rest of kingdom awakens as well (including Philip's father King Hubert, who had been visiting when the spell was cast, but no mention is made of the fate of Philip's mother.)

Answer: Once Upon a Dream

George Bruns adapted the music for the memorable "Once Upon a Dream" from the "Grande valse villageoise" (literally "The Great Village Waltz" but better known as "The Garland Waltz" in English), from Tchaikovsky's second ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" , or "Spyashaya krasavitsa" (1890), Op. 66. The lyrics ("I -- know -- you; I walked with you once upon a dream...") were written by Jack Lawrence and Sammy Fain. During the dance scene in the forest between Prince Philip and Princess Aurora they are reflected in water as they glide across the full width of the screen, taking advantage of the Super Technirama 70 field of view in what is perhaps the most memorable scene of the movie, other than the climactic final battle. Eric Larson directed the entire forest sequence, including the dance. During this dance, neither of them knows that the other is actually royalty and his/her betrothed, and they fall in love with each other at first sight. When each is told that they are already betrothed to another, each reacts with anger and dismay.

During the final scene, as "Once Upon a Dream" is reprised and the Prince and Princess dance among the clouds, Flora and Merryweather continue their battle for the color of Princess Aurora's dress, changing it during the dance from blue to pink to blue again, back and forth until the very end.