Sleeping Beauty is my favorite Disney films and one if my top 5 film favorites. So I was delifhted to come across this book. It's an excellent behind the scenes look at the evolution of the tale through to Disney's film adaptations. This oversized book covers a lot of material from folk lore, to Perrault's defining first-written version, through the ballet set to Tchaikovsky's classic music. Disney's animated movie pulled a majority of the melodies from that famous score, adapted and rearranged to suit Disney's new take on the story. A vision brought to life by Eyvind Earle.

The book describes how Walt was dusappointed how prior films had lost the initial style concept by the time they were completed. He was adamant that would not happen with this one, and everyone from the animators to the directors, to actors had to keep to Earle's style.

One of the highlights of this book is an exploration of the animation work: the challenge of drawing for a 70mm wide screen format (the only Disney animated film to use it); the role of clean-up artists; and which animators created the definitive version of each character. I found it hilarious that "nobody wants to do the prince"!! Straight characters are the hardest characters to draw and make come to life. Unlike stretchy, squishy comic character. Aurora and Philip came to life thanks to Milt Kahl and Marc Davis. One million drawings and five years later Disney had his Sleeping Beauty.

This book is beautiful, with thick paper suited to showcasing a lot of full color artwork, including historical paintings used as research/inspiration and a wealth of concept art for both films. And, every piece has a citation. There are also a lot if film stills.

One of my favorite sections covers Maleficent's dargon form in the animated film. How they kept so much of her within the drafon so viewers knew it was Maleficent; how the eagon is snake-like in movement and pupil-less eyes. It made for a frightening sequence.

One minor quibble I had qas tgat some wuestions were left unexored, like why Fauna's color changed from yellow to green or Maleficent's from red to purple.

This is an oustanding book for fans of the Disney films, but also for art aficionados. Highly recommended. ( )