Rankin Bass' The Sleeping Beauty

OK, let’s get this royal pain out of the way with Rankin Bass’ Sleeping Beauty.

An evil witch Zelda- I mean Glenda has cast a spell on needle and pins for when the princess touches it on her 20^th birthday, she dies.

“Only bad witches are ugly!”

-Glenda from Wizard of Oz, 1939 MGM version.

Glenda’s good sister, Fairy Godmother- I mean Cecilia (Kacilia?) has altered the spell her and the entire kingdom will sleep in suspended animation but only awaken by true love’s first kiss.

The king has banished all sowing implement in the entire kingdom. One couple hid their spinning wheel in the castle attic tower. 20 years later, their princess Cinderella- I mean Trophi- I mean Melody- I MEAN BEAUTY is safe from the spell. (Oh god, I’m having a Goodtime Beauty and the Beast flashback with Crazy Old Man.)

Out of curiosity, Beauty was looking for more books to read, but she has pricked her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel, and she and the entire kingdom fall asleep for 100 years. (She only she had her nose stuck in a book.)

Not worth to spoil here. Glenda guards the entire sleepy kingdom with thorny vines. 100 years later, Prince- I mean Prince Daring and the Messenger- I mean his squire swing their sword to the rescue. Glenda is defeated by not by Prince Daring, because he was frozen today, not by a sword to the chest, not even a flaming sword, but by the squire’s kiss. It’s one thing to say Prince Daring didn’t defeat the villain, but it’s another thing when Princess Beauty awoken from his presence, even though it’s a kiss that supposed to wake her up. Meaning Prince Daring did nothing but simply stood there!

“He’s completely useless!”

-         Crazy Old Man from Goodtimes’ Beauty And the Beast, voiced by Phelous in his review of the film.  

Out of all of the Rankin Bass films so far, this is by far the laziest I’ve seen in design. I’m not saying Paul Coker Jr. is lazy, I meant the choice of reusing earlier designs from earlier episodes within the year as a “different character” is lazy.

The witch is from Jack O’ Lantern, The godmother, princess, messenger, the queen, trumpet players, and prince from Cinderella,

This was based on the book by Charles Perrault, the same author who did Cinderella and Puss In Boots. Would that explain the excuse of designing Beauty to look identical to Cinderella? I was going to compare Princess Trophi from Puss In Boots, but at least the eyes and dress were drawn different, and she had huge.. Tracks of Land. Beauty’s minor difference is having a pink dress and Trophi’s eye shadow. It’s debatable if the entire princesses are voiced by Peg Dixon, who also voiced Mrs. Donner, who I can be convinced voice the queen or witch.

This is pretty bad when the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty is more original in design, and the fewest recycling they use was the Headless Horseman’s animation from Sleepy Hallow, the Evil Wicked Queen’s scream from Snow White, and the pluck sound from Toot, Pluck, Whistle, and Boom. Yes, the classic Disney film that I didn’t like entirely has done more originality than the Rankin Bass! OK, that was expected comparing, but Rankin Bass usually do films of different characters to stand out while having most of their same characters connected. (Santa Claus is the rare exception.)

Yes, the story they’re using is mostly based from the original story, but even Disney knows better when to change to fit better. The prince that rescues the beauty is in the same time period than 100 years later. The 3 fairies protect the beauty from the witch and a spinning wheel than have the princess remain in the castle as an easy target and have the spinning wheel hidden where royalty have access to. Maleficent is a unique witch villain in design and magic to stand out from the design that the Wicked Witch of the West owned more than her original book design. Even the music actually uses the Sleeping Beauty ballet than Rankin Bass' standard music they played since Cricket On The Hearth. Yes, I know, the music is limited for TV shows for non-serialized episodes, which prevent from doing a better version of any previous stories in public domain.

George Pal did their Sleeping Beauty in the similar story, except the Witch simply put the Beauty and kingdom to sleep by magic powder, they showed other people try to break through the vines, and beauty was awaken by Phillip Radio, because most of the Puppetoons at the early times were partly serving as commercials. It’s just a coincidence that the Phillip in name wakes the beauty, unless it’s a nickel.

The only character that stands out from this special is the Bell Ringer as a Grump who notices the flaw in the system of his job such as ringing every waking moment at night. Somehow there’s more relief to know he made it alright than the entire kingdom. That’s an extreme minor positive to say for a Lazy Negative Film in design. I almost have a theory that Festival of Family Classic was supposed to be fewer than 15 episodes, but was demanded by ABC to make a little more, but not enough it would almost end Mushi Production for America, or no one was on board. Unsure the reason for this episode to exist, but for the time being, I’m going to sleep away from this version, and dream something more original visually.