Sleeping Beauty (1951 version)

In January 1950, anticipating the success of Cinderella, Walt Disney began developing an animated adaptation of another Charles Perrault's tale, Sleeping Beauty. The earliest known story treatment was written by April 1951 and was significantly different from the final film; notably, in this version, Aurora (who was then simply referred to as the Princess) was raised in the castle, growing up discontent with her royal pedigree and dreaming to see the outside world, much like Jasmine from Aladdin over 40 years later. Development of this version of Sleeping Beauty was concluded in June 1952, when Disney rejected the full storyboard presentation, finding this story approach too similar to his previous films (such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella). The story team had to start all over again, although several story ideas introduced in this version remained in the final film, which was released on January 29, 1959.
The full text version of the 1951 story outline was included as a bonus feature on the film's 2003 Special Edition DVD.
==Plot==
Once upon a time, the King and Queen give birth to a daughter and proclaim a holiday throughout the kingdom. On the day of her christening, the little princess is bestowed with various gifts, including a silver spinning wheel decorated with gems. The holiday is attended by the Three Good Fairies, who were invited to be godmothers to the Princess and bless her with magical gifts. Fernadell (the Fairy of the Forest) gives her the beauty of the wild flowers and the voice of the nightingale; Merryweather (the Fairy of the Elements) gives her a sunny disposition and the gentleness of spring rain. As Tranquility (the Fairy of Beautiful Dreams) is about to grant her wish, the celebration is interrupted by the appearance of Maleficent (the Fairy of Darkness). Furious at not being invited, she curses the Princess to die when she pricks her finger with the spindle of a spinning wheel before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. Tranquility softens the curse, declaring that instead of dying, the Princess will fall into a deep slumber until true love breaks the spell. By the King's command, all spinning wheels in the kingdom are burned, but the silver spinning wheel turns out to be indestructible. After all attempts to destroy it fail, the King sends it away, but Maleficent (being the one who created it) returns the spinning wheel with her magic and hides it in the Dark Woods. One night, the King hears a strange whining sound coming from the forest, and the next morning, the tracks of the spinning wheel are found outside the castle walls. The King commands the walls to be heightened and orders that his daughter must never leave the castle grounds until the curse expires.
Fifteen years later, the Princess grows up discontent with her life in the castle; not wanting to alarm her, the King has not told her about Maleficent's curse and the indestructible spinning wheel, so she does not understand why she is not allowed to go outside. Despite the attempts of the King and the Three Good Fairies to shower her with jewels and magical gifts, the Princess becomes melancholic and dreams of seeing the world beyond the castle. One day, she comes up with the idea of changing clothes with her maidservant and secretly leaving the castle for a while. The next morning, the disguised Princess slips out of the castle and goes to Hummingbird Hill nearby, accompanied by birds and animals. Merryweather soon discovers her absence and causes rain all over the kingdom in a panic. Searching for shelter, the Princess comes across a handsome young wayfarer, who turns out to be a prince, and they fall in love with each other. The Prince reveals that he is going on a journey to a faraway land, and the Princess (whom he believes to be a maidservant) promises to wait for his return; to seal the pledge, the Prince gives her a locket with insignia engraved on it. Unbeknownst to them, the encounter has been observed by Maleficent's pet falcon, who then flies away to warn his mistress. On her way home, the Princess is chased by a mysterious creature, but she manages to get to the castle and escape, while the royal guards capture the creature (which turns out to be Maleficent's spinning wheel) and immure it in a small room in the castle's highest tower. Later that night, Maleficent's falcon informs her of this. Meanwhile, the Princess, dreaming of her secret love, behaves more happily, much to the delight and surprise of her father.
On the day of the Princess' sixteenth birthday, the King arranges a grand celebration, while Fernadell encompasses the castle within a magical protective circle, realizing that Maleficent will undoubtedly make a last attempt on the life of the Princess; unbeknownst to them, Maleficent enters the castle disguised as a fish caught by a pantry boy. In the midst of the party, the Princess notices a ball of yarn and follows its thread into a room at the upper most part of the castle, where she meets Maleficent (disguised as an old crone). She uses the silver spinning wheel to create a magical garment, and suggests that the Princess do the same, but she politely refuses and is about to leave. Maleficent pretends to accidentally drop the spinning wheel, and the Princess helps her put it back in place, pricking her finger on the spindle in the process. Upon discovering her absence from the party, the Three Good Fairies find the Princess just as she is falling asleep, and carry her to the bedroom, where they notice the locket with insignia around her neck. Tranquillity casts a spell on the castle, putting everyone inside into a deep sleep until the Princess is awakened. As the good fairies leave the castle, Maleficent surrounds it with an impenetrable forest of vines and thorns.
In the next few years, the story of the sleeping princess becomes a legend, and the cursed spinning wheel settles in the Dark Woods, haunting the simple folk with its sinister whining sound every night. Tempted by the royal riches hidden in the castle, several young men tried to get through the impenetrable forest, only to perish on its thorns. One day, the Three Good Fairies are informed that a cavalcade of knights has returned from a mission in a distant land, with their leader being the Prince whom the Princess has fallen in love with. Also alerted by her falcon, Maleficent tries to stop him, but the Prince breaks through the forest of thorns with the help of the good fairies. When they reach the castle, Maleficent raises the drawbridge and taunts the Prince, prompting Merryweather to strike her in the temple with a little lightning bolt. As Maleficent falls from the castle's parapet. Fernadell's birds lower the drawbridge; the Prince and the fairies enter the courtyard, where they discover Maleficent's dead body with the spindle in her heart and the shattered spinning wheel (indestructible as long as its mistress was alive). After seeing what happened to her, Maleficent's falcon dies as well. Realizing that she and the maidservant he met in the forest years ago are the same person, the Prince finds the Princess and kisses her on the forehead, waking her and the rest of the inhabitants of the castle. In the following days, the Prince and the Princess got married, with the Three Good Fairies as the bridesmaids.
==Gallery==
File:SleepingBeauty1959PrincessAuroraCharacterDesign12.png|Early concept design of the Princess by a Disney Studio Artist (1).
File:SleepingBeauty1959PrincessAuroraCharacterDesign13.png|Early concept design of the Princess by a Disney Studio Artist (2).
File:SleepingBeauty1959MaleficentCharacterDesign17.png|Early concept design of Maleficent by a Disney Studio Artist (1).
File:SleepingBeauty1959MaleficentCharacterDesign16.png|Early concept design of Maleficent by a Disney Studio Artist (2).
File:SleepingBeauty1959MaleficentCharacterDesign15.png|Early concept design of Maleficent by a Disney Studio Artist (3).
File:SleepingBeauty1959MaleficentCharacterDesign3.jpg|Early concept design of Maleficent and her falcon by a Disney Studio Artist.
File:SleepingBeauty1959MaleficentCharacterDesign4.jpg|Early concept design of Maleficent by a Disney Studio Artist (5).
File:SleepingBeauty1959TheThreeGoodFairiesConceptDesign3.jpg|Early concept design of the Three Good Fairies by a Disney Studio Artist. Left to right: Merryweather, Fernadell, Tranquility.
File:SleepingBeauty1959TheThreeGoodFairiesCharacterDesign7.png|Early concept design of the Three Good Fairies and the Princess by a Disney Studio Artist.
File:Fxbeauty-CST-100714-2.png|Story sketch of Maleficent's vulture and Cyril the Bluebird by a Disney Studio Artist.
File:SleepingBeauty1959StorySketch116.png|Story sketch of the Princess following a thread of yarn by a Disney Studio Artist.
==Trivia==
*At this stage of the story development, the titular heroine and her love interest were simply referred to as the Princess and the Prince. Apparently, they were named Aurora and Phillip much later in the film's production, as existing sources cannot prove otherwise.
*In a later version of the story, Maleficent's falcon was rewritten as a more comically incompetent vulture; this version also introduced the character of Cyril the Bluebird, one of the Princess' animal friends.
*In a later version of the story, the Princess meets the Prince at the country fair; the same version included a scene of another encounter between the Princess and Maleficent (disguised as a gypsy).
==References==
Category:Unused concepts
Category:Sleeping Beauty