Last night was ol' school Disney night for me (every night is potentially ol' school Disney night for me tbh) and I ended with
Sleeping Beauty. I've heard that Walt Disney considered it his masterpiece, and I can see why, but if true I think it's more of a pride thing for him than a self-aware sense of accomplishment. The animation is ****ing stunning. Just watch the use of separate fore-, middle-, and background cel animation to create almost 3-dimensional perspective, even in motion.
Sleeping Beauty's animation can simply put even modern Disney to shame at times.
It also tries way too hard. That opening scene is magnificent, with the level of animation, amount of moving pieces, background details and textures that are damn near photorealistic as far as 1959 is concerned, and dear god those colors are gorgeous... but you can tell that Walt is just bragging about how awesome his studio is, which can be distracting and off-putting throughout the movie, even while you're marvelling at just how good everything looks.
Everything but the characters. The character animation on many early Disney movies are very soft and inviting, but in Sleeping Beauty the linework is much more pronounced and forms shapes that remind me of the more stylized designs from
Hercules. They pop right off the backgrounds, which is the point obviously, but to such an extent that they clash and almost don't seem to inhabit the space they're supposed to be in, only getting worse the more detailed the background (Forests are especially bad for this given the painstakingly detailed bark and leaf designs on the treas that is admittedly one of the best things about the movie.)
Even the story feels detached. The "heroine" does absolutely nothing of consequence beyond being a series of plot devices, the prince has a bit more development than early Disney princes generally did but he literally didn't say a word for the last third of the movie, and there really aren't any other compelling antagonists to latch onto to give the movie more emotional investment.
But of course Maleficent saves the movie from being purely self-indulgent cinema wank with a pretty paint job. She's easily the best Disney villain besides Jafar, and kinda creeped me out at times even at the age of thirty-****ing-one. Her character design is ****ing flawless as well, making her feel evil and threatening while also darkly majestic, and her voice actress only brings this home even further. And the ****ing dragon. And her ****ing castle. Beyond the animation porn this movie really is just an excuse to watch Maleficent be awesome.
I mean it's not a bad movie or anything. The fantasy element is strong and wonderful, the characters aren't the most memorable but they still carry the movie enough so that you enjoy watching them, and the excellent pacing keeps what could have been a slog moving along nicely and constantly changing. And did I mention how beautiful the animation is... usually? I'll probably keep coming back to Sleeping Beauty more for nostalgia and Maleficent than any other reason, but it's still worthwhile to come back to as a whole.