I don't know how many of you know this since I don't talk about animation that much but Sleeping Beauty is my favorite Disney classic. I love the color palette, the villain, the Prince (hubba hubba), and Briar Rose herself: keeper of the tiniest waist since Mammy cinched Scarlett O'Hara up tight by the bedposts.
I also enjoy "their most honored and exalted excellencies, the three good fairies"... or as Maleficent memorably dubs them, "the rabble."
Each fairy can give one gift to Princess Aurora (she's renamed for this movie for some reason). Flora the lead fairy, her name drawn from plant life, is first... "Little Princess, my gift shall be the gift of beauty" and then we get trippy visuals of flowers and the cosmos and a creepy choral number, too
Fauna gives the gift of song... though I'm not sure how that correlates to animal life... oh yes, birds! Merryweather gives... well Merryweather isn't really about anything other than comic relief and her love for the color blue. But blue is better than pink, so I always take Merryweather's side.One gift, beauty rare,
Gold of sunshine in her hair,
Lips that shame the red, red rose,
She'll walk in springtime wherever she goes!
To escape Maleficent's curse, Flora suggests turning Aurora into a flower. Fauna likes the idea "Oh, she'd make a lovely flower!" But Merryweather (the best fairy, remember) warns that Maleficent will send a frost "she always ruins your best flowers." Maleficent manages to curse the girl anyway.
Cut to the tail end of the movie, this rare beauty with golden sunshine in her hair is awoken by love's true kiss. She holds a rose to her bosom. It wasn't shamed to be seen with her red red lips.
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