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The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Sleeping Beauty is one of those animated Disney movies with some of the best elements ever created by them and at the same time it has drawbacks which stick out like sore thumb. But the greatness of the good stuff is so overwhelming and magical that you would be an asshole not to judge its greatness. Along with Bambi, Sleeping Beauty has the most gorgeous forest landscapes and a colour palette which demonstrates how much colour adds to the mood and impression of differen places, from the green and black of Maleficent's lair and her minions to the pastel colours of Aurora's castle. Speaking of Maleficent, she is bloody brilliant in almost every way. Of the fantasy based Disney villains she and The Horned King are my favourites. The Horned King's design surely is based on her's ;) About the characters: that's one of the movie's most polarising aspect, because the fairy godmothers are great and have the best lines in the movie along with Maleficent. The prince and Aurora are so boring! Our main characters barely say anything through out the movie, Aurora is put to sleep so she is forgiven, but the prince doesn't even utter a single line after saying "goodbye father" and goes out to fight Maleficent. Yeah, that's a major drawback, but everything else is so amazing that it outweighs the obvious flaws. If you like exeptional artwork, great music, entertaining side characters and all power of hell brought to you by The Queen of Darkness herself then you definitely must see Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

At the time of its initial release, "Sleeping Beauty" not only got a somewhat unenthusiastic response from critics, its box office gross was not enough to recover its extremely high costs. However, the movie almost certainly has made a profit over the years, and critics today have a more positive viewpoint towards it. It's an interesting movie in several regards, being that it was made right between the classic animation style and the more modern style that was coming out around that time. The animation and art design is very striking, with strong colors (see this movie on Blu-ray - it looks fantastic.) It's also a more serious-minded animated movie compared to most other Disney movies before (or since), and this gives the movie a more mature feel (though the tone will still seem palatable to children.) However, there is a notable flaw that holds back the movie from true greatness - the script. For example, while the movie only runs 75 minutes long, there is some obvious and considerable padding. Another problem is that the characters are somewhat thin - the princess hardly gets a chance to say anything or to make herself a multi-dimensional character. And Maleficent also doesn't get much of a chance to show motivation or any other real character traits. But kids probably won't mind about such problems, and their parents will still be reasonably entertained.

The most beautiful Disney movie (later parodied in Rapunzel, which itself, with all its hilariousness and high spirits, is a movie meme). One of the most beautiful Disney princesses, as well: chaste, kind, delicate (if one can say so about a cartoon character - but I think one can!) The noble king's daughter, which at the same time is a simple barefoot peasant girl, both charming and modest. (Only in the 60th, I guess, could such a character emerge onto the big screen). Not to mention the dreadful Queen of Darkness, her devils, which are truly ugly and frightful... And the moment when she grows up into something incredibly dark and enormous, up to the very clouds (you want, in spite of yourself, to close the eyes and not to see). But the Sword of Truth will not fail prince Philip; the hard-to-win evil Thing shall be destroyed. It's a shame the legendary movie was later duplicated and even multiplicated in tasteless fakes ('The Swan Princess', with an awkward queen Huberta, for instance). But The Sleeping Beauty remains with us. It can be watched and re-watched. I think it will be. For long...

As my aunt's personal favorite Disney movie, I have absolutely no idea what to say about Sleeping Beauty other than the fact that I merely enjoyed it. The magic is stellar as always, and the action is satisfactory, but I didn't feel the "THIS IS THE BEST Disney MOVIE EVER!" vibe that I felt with Mary Poppins after seeing both of them. It might be a result of fantasy (as I mentioned, magic plays a major role, like the argument over a dress color) and action (Maleficent vs. Philip) that, in the style that it was executed, wasn't a particular trigger of my animation taste buds. The animation is just what we'd expect from Disney, but one case in particular caught my eye: Aurora. Specifically, Aurora was animated predominantly by Iwao Takamoto, who you Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. fans might recognize as the creator of Scooby-Doo. The style that Aurora was drawn in gave me flashbacks to when I loved The Scooby-Doo Show, and so even though that came 10 to 18 years after Sleeping Beauty, I enjoyed the film slightly more when I made that connection. If you're unfamiliar with Scooby-Doo and its style, then you might want to consider seeing that before viewing Sleeping Beauty. Not my personal favorite, but nevertheless worth a view.