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Sleeping Beauty · This Film is Lit

• 0:04
  Speaker A: This Film Is lit, the podcast where we finally settle the score on one simple Is the book really better than the movie? I'm Brian and I have a film degree, so I watch the movie but don't read the book.
• 0:15
  Speaker B: And I'm Katie, I have an English degree, so I do things the right way and read the book before we watch the movie.
• 0:22
  Speaker A: So prepare to be wowed by our expertise and charm as we dissect all of your favorite film adaptations and decide if the silver screen the or the written word did it better. So turn it up, settle in and get ready for spoilers because this film is lit. Now you shall deal with me, O Prince, and all the powers of hell. It's Sleeping Beauty and this film is lit. Hello and welcome back to this Film is Lit Pockets, where we talk about movies that are based on books. I don't know if that was a good intro quote, but it was so metal that I couldn't not use it. I thought it was super, super badass so I had to include it. But we are talking about Sleeping Beauty today. We have all of no Guess who, right?
• 1:24
  Speaker B: No, no Guess who.
• 1:25
  Speaker A: No Guess who? Because I think it would be pretty obvious. But we do have the rest of our segments, including if you have not read or watched Sleeping Beauty in quite a while, we have a summary of the film in Let me sum up. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. This summary of Disney's Sleeping Beauty is sourced from Wikipedia. In 14th century Europe, King Stephan and Queen Leah welcome their newborn daughter Aurora and proclaim a holiday for their subjects to pay homage to the Princess at her christening, she is betrothed to Prince Philip, the son of Stefan's friend King Hubert. In order to unite their kingdoms, the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, each bless Aurora with one gift. After Flora and Fauna give her beauty and song, the evil fairy Maleficent appears. Angry at not being invited. She places a curse on Aurora. Before the sun sets on Aurora's 16th birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather's magic isn't strong enough to undo the curse, so she uses her gift to change it so that Aurora will instead fall into a deep sleep until true love's kiss breaks the spell. Still fearful, Stefan orders all the kingdom's spinning wheels to be burned. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather devise a plan to hide Aurora in a secluded location and raise her themselves until her 16th birthday. To which Stefan, Stefan. To which Stefan and Leah reluctantly agree. The Fairies move into a forest cottage, giving up magic and living like human peasants. They also rename Aurora to Briar rose. On Aurora's 16th birthday, the fairies send her to gather berries so that they can prepare a surprise party in the forest. Aurora sings to her animal friends, drawing the attention of Philip, now a handsome young man. They fall in love without revealing their names, and Aurora invites Philip to the cottage that evening. Meanwhile, Flora and Merryweather's argument about the color of Aurora's birthday gown attracts the attention of Maleficent's pet raven, Diablo. Aurora returns and tells her guardians that she has fallen in love. They reveal her true identity, which Diablo overhears, and tell her that she must never see the boy again. Meanwhile, Philip tells his father about the girl he met and wants to marry, unaware that she is the princess to whom he has betrothed. King Hubert unsuccessfully tries to dissuade him. Shortly before sunset, the fairies bring Aurora to the castle for her birthday celebration. Maleficent appears as a glowing ball of light and beckons Aurora to a tower room, where Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel that Maleficent conjures and falls into a deathlike sleep. The fairies place the sleeping Aurora in the highest tower and put the entire kingdom to sleep until Aurora is awakened. While doing so, Flora overhears a conversation between Hubert and Stefan and realize that Philip is the boy that Aurora met. The fairies rush to the cottage, only to discover that Philip has been abducted by Maleficent. At her domain, the Forbidden Mountain, Maleficent reveals Aurora's identity to Philip. She plans to lock him away until he is an old man on the verge of death. Before releasing him to meet Aurora, who will not have aged a single day. The fairies rescue Philip and arm him with the magic Sword of Truth and the Shield of Virtue. Maleficent surrounds Stefan's castle with a forest of thorns. The but Philip breaks through it. Outraged, she transforms into a giant fire breathing dragon, overpowering Philip. The fairies enchant Philip's sword, which he throws straight into Maleficent's heart, killing her. Philip finds Aurora and awakens her with a kiss, bringing the rest of the kingdom out of their slumber. The two descend to the ball, to the ballroom, where Aurora reunites with her parents and happily dances with Philip as the good fairies look on with just something.
• 4:51
  Speaker B: Something.
• 4:52
  Speaker A: I guess you didn't get the last word there. Joy, glee, Happiness.
• 4:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, something like that.
• 4:57
  Speaker A: One of the best words I would imagine. All right, that is a summary of the film. Now it's time for me to interrogate Katie and find out what all came from the book. Gaston, may I have my book, please? How can you read this?
• 5:13
  Speaker B: There's no pictures. Well, some people use their imagination.
• 5:17
  Speaker A: So, as I mentioned in the summary, we open up with the birth of Aurora, the new princess, daughter of Stefan and Leah, Queen Leah. And at her christening, we get. Which is kind of when the movie starts, we get like, a little fairy book opening. But when the movie really starts, we get, like, some background. But at her christening, these three fairies show up, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather to give her gifts. And I wanted to know if this premise came from the book. It's obviously very reminiscent of. What is the story called? Of the pageant, the Christmas story. Like, with Jesus being born.
• 5:56
  Speaker B: Oh, what is the name?
• 5:57
  Speaker A: The Nativity. I was like, I couldn't think of the name.
• 6:01
  Speaker B: So they're like the three wise men.
• 6:02
  Speaker A: Yeah. Or whatever. You know, it's pretty.
• 6:04
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 6:04
  Speaker A: So I was wondering if that element came from the book. So.
• 6:11
  Speaker B: Just as a quick reminder, if you didn't listen to our prequel episode on this, I read two versions of Sleeping Beauty to prepare for this episode. One version I read was Charles Perrault's version, and the other was the Brothers Grimm's version.
• 6:27
  Speaker A: And just to clarify, the Perrault version is what the movie cites as.
• 6:31
  Speaker B: Yes. The Perrault version is cited specifically by the film. Did you see it in the credits? I caught it in the credits as we were watching the movie. However, I knew there were some things that were borrowed from Grimm, so I went ahead and read that too. As to our question about the three fairies coming to the christening to give gifts to the baby princess, this is part of the basic premise. Yes. In Pierrot, the king invites seven fairies. In Grimm, he invites 12 wise women, which may or may not be a euphemism for witches. Not sure they can do magic.
• 7:08
  Speaker A: Probably. Then, yeah.
• 7:09
  Speaker B: I'm just gonna refer to them as fairies from here on out. But that's what Grimm says. Wise women. I do think that fewer fairies was a good idea.
• 7:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. I don't get into the hobbit issues. If you start having seven or 12.
• 7:24
  Speaker B: Yeah. I didn't really.
• 7:25
  Speaker A: Or whatever other magic number you want to. It's always something.
• 7:29
  Speaker B: Keep track of that many fairy characters. We would have run out of primary colors to assign them.
• 7:34
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:35
  Speaker B: Plus, I think three is, like a nice, round fairy tale. Ish number.
• 7:40
  Speaker A: Yeah. And again, it echoes the three wise men of the something. People are familiar with that concept. Do they give what are the gifts they give? Is it more.
• 7:50
  Speaker B: If I answered this question.
• 7:50
  Speaker A: Oh, do you answer it later? If you answer it later, we can get to it. I just wasn't sure if you could answer it later.
• 7:55
  Speaker B: I at least confirm later that they do give Aurora, or in the stories, or at least in Pierrot, I think they give her beauty and song. And then there's other stuff that are more fairies.
• 8:07
  Speaker A: Okay. So those elements do come. Okay, cool. Then in the movie, as Merryweather is about to give her gift, after Flora and Fauna give her beauty and song, she's interrupted by Maleficent, who arrives to really mess things up for everybody. Very upset that she was not invited to the party, and then curses Aurora to prick her finger on a spindle and die before the sun sets on her 16th birthday or something like that, basically before she turns 16. And I wanted to know if that was kind of the, you know, the main incident. The main premise of the story is this Maleficent showing up to curse Aurora with the pricking her finger and dying thing.
• 8:55
  Speaker B: So an additional fairy who lashes out because she feels that she's been slighted is also part of the basic premise in both stories. Kind of the inciting incident. In Pierrot, she was not invited because no one had seen her in multiple decades, and they thought she was dead.
• 9:15
  Speaker A: Reasonable.
• 9:16
  Speaker B: Yeah. And in both Pierrot and Grimm's, the reason that she gets upset isn't because she wasn't invited per se, but because she doesn't get the special golden place setting that all of the other fairies have because they weren't expecting her, so they didn't have the right number of special gold place settings.
• 9:39
  Speaker A: Gotcha.
• 9:39
  Speaker B: That fairies deserve.
• 9:40
  Speaker A: Mm.
• 9:42
  Speaker B: So Disney straight up says that she wasn't invited because they didn't want her there.
• 9:46
  Speaker A: Yeah. Seemingly because she's evil.
• 9:48
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 9:49
  Speaker A: Which we'll talk more about later. But yes.
• 9:51
  Speaker B: Although I have always felt that this seems like a bad mistake to make. I feel like if they had just invited her, she might have rewarded them with, like, a crazy good gift.
• 10:01
  Speaker A: Potentially. Yeah.
• 10:02
  Speaker B: Potentially. I mean, you're rolling the dice either way. I guess.
• 10:05
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 10:07
  Speaker B: But I don't know what they thought was gonna happen. Like, maybe they were hoping she wouldn't find out.
• 10:11
  Speaker A: No. Yeah. I don't know.
• 10:13
  Speaker B: But honestly, the reaction to Curse the Baby in the fairy tales feels even more petty to me because I feel like the slight is less.
• 10:24
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 10:25
  Speaker B: Like, it is an actual slight. I think in the movie, like, especially if we're talking about, like, medieval court manners.
• 10:33
  Speaker A: Right. Yes. They clearly just didn't invite her.
• 10:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, they clearly just did not invite her. But in both iterations of the fairy tale, she does state that the princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die.
• 10:45
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 10:45
  Speaker B: And Grimm's specifies that this will happen during her 15th year.
• 10:50
  Speaker A: After this happens, I think, she leaves, I believe. And then Merryweather, who hasn't given her gift yet in the film, goes, well, I can't undo the curse. Like, her magic isn't powerful enough or whatever. But what you can do instead is basically transform the curse or alter it so that instead of if she pricks her fist finger, she will die. It's that if she pricks her finger, she will fall into an eternal slumber that is only broken by true love's kiss. And I wanted to know if that element of one of the fairies pulling a switcheroo on the curse came from the book.
• 11:24
  Speaker B: It does. In both, there's like one last good fairy who steps up and partially undoes the curse after the evil fairy lays it down.
• 11:37
  Speaker A: That's interesting, because I actually would have thought that might be a book or movie addition. To me, I almost felt like maybe that in the original fairy tale, it was like the death. Well, I guess she would. It wouldn't be Sleeping Beauty if she doesn't fall asleep. I don't know. But for some reason I was like, maybe dead beauty. Yeah, I guess it doesn't really make sense. So never mind. But.
• 11:55
  Speaker B: So in Pierrot, the good fairy says, the princess will indeed prick her hand with a spindle, but instead of dying, she shall merely fall into a profound slumber that will last a hundred years. At the end of that time, a king's son shall come to awaken her. And in Grimm's she says, it shall not be her death. The princess will only fall into a hundred years sleep. Okay, so obviously Disney nixed the hundred year sleep.
• 12:24
  Speaker A: Yeah, they didn't put a finite stipulation.
• 12:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. And I imagine because they wanted Aurora and Philip to meet during the movie and be able to have that meet. Cute.
• 12:38
  Speaker A: Why would that relate to the 100 years, though?
• 12:40
  Speaker B: Because if she had to sleep for a hundred years, then Philip wouldn't be alive by the time that was up.
• 12:47
  Speaker A: Oh, right. Okay. In the book, the only way she can wake up is after a hundred years.
• 12:55
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 12:56
  Speaker A: Okay. Sorry. I didn't know if they somehow. So that makes sense then. Cause I thought we were saying. I was like, well, they meet before she falls asleep, so that wouldn't matter either way. You're saying that in the Book the only way she just does wake up after 100 years.
• 13:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:10
  Speaker A: Okay, well, that's.
• 13:11
  Speaker B: It's a hundred years later, so no way she could have met the guy beforehand. Beforehand.
• 13:16
  Speaker A: Gotcha.
• 13:16
  Speaker B: But I think Disney wanted to have that meet cute and the song and dance and I'll talk more about the true love's kiss bit later. And I know it seems like Pierrot also stipulates that the curse will be ended by a prince, but more on that later.
• 13:32
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 13:33
  Speaker B: I do think that losing the Hundred year thing is a good idea, like, just based on all of the other changes that they make around, like the curse and how that works in the movie. But the Hundred year sleep stipulation also cracks me up because it feels like the exact kind of detail that you end up with when you're telling a story out loud and people keep interrupting you to ask questions about things that you haven't thought all the way through.
• 14:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:03
  Speaker B: She's going to go to sleep instead. For how long? 100 years? I don't know.
• 14:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. But then we move forward a little bit, and they're trying to figure out what they're going to do because they know that Maleficent, you know, that she won't just.
• 14:17
  Speaker B: She's not just going to let sleeping dogs lie.
• 14:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So they start coming up with a plan to. Or what they need to do about Maleficent, basically. And one of the exchanges that they have I like a lot, and I assume it's not in the book. It doesn't sound like a fairy tale line to me. It sounds like a more modern line, but maybe it's not. I don't know. They're talking about, like, what they can do. And I believe Merryweather or somebody. I think it's Meriwether.
• 14:41
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:42
  Speaker A: Says like, well, what if we. And I don't remember the lead into this, she says something like, what if we.
• 14:47
  Speaker B: She's like, I want to turn her into a fat old hop toad.
• 14:51
  Speaker A: Yes. Basically, like, what if we go after kind of thing and Flora Orfana, one of the other fairies, responds and says, you know, our magic can only be used for good, to bring happiness. Basically saying, well, that won't work. And Merryweather's response is, well, that would make me happy. Which I thought was very funny. And I wanted to know if it came from the book.
• 15:10
  Speaker B: No, it doesn't. This is not from either version. I had a feeling it is a movie edition. I also like that line because I identify a lot with Merryweather in that moment. And Otherwise.
• 15:24
  Speaker A: So instead, what they do is they come up with a plan to hide her in a cabin in the woods. Essentially, they say, like a log woodsman.
• 15:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, the woodsman's cottage.
• 15:34
  Speaker A: Cottage or whatever, which is, like, literally built into a tree. And I wanted. And they're gonna raise her there alone in order to stop Maleficent from finding her. And they're gonna do it, like, as humans, basically just go undercover and hide from Maleficent to raise Aurora. And I wanted to know if that whole plot, that whole plan was an element of the story.
• 15:53
  Speaker B: No. This is also a movie addition. In both versions that I read, the princess just lives at home. She lives in the castle as a princess. I guess the king and queen feel safe because they destroyed all of the spindles in the land.
• 16:07
  Speaker A: They did.
• 16:08
  Speaker B: But, yeah, there's no attempt to go undercover or hide her away.
• 16:13
  Speaker A: I will say that that felt a little. Not contrived, I don't know. But I was like, well, if you did the destroying all the spindles thing, like, I guess it's a good redundancy, but it felt like a. It felt like a big step. It just felt like in the movie, I was like, I don't know if the king and queen would agree to that since they already destroyed all the spindles. Like, that's like their big action. I don't know if they're going to also agree to, like, let their daughter go live without them for 16. You know what I mean? It just felt kind of like a big ask for them to agree to. And the movie just kind of like, well, they were thrilled about it, but they did it. And I'm like, I guess. I don't know.
• 16:52
  Speaker B: I mean, I agree with you. I think it's a little bit of a gimme. I do like that we get the whimsical cottage in the woods setting.
• 17:01
  Speaker A: Yes. I like what it results in, I guess. But it's just. Yeah. Like, the. I don't know. It felt a little unnecessary. And just like they would. The king and queen wouldn't go for it. To me, that they would be like, well, why did we destroy all the spindles if we're also gonna go hide her in the foot? I don't know. I just.
• 17:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, I guess you can't be too safe when you're dealing with the mistress of all evil, I guess.
• 17:21
  Speaker A: And again, it's not like it's completely outlandish. It's just my brain had that thought while I was reading it. Like, well, they already. Okay. Yeah. She goes and Lives in the woods as a baby. We cut to 15 years later, whatever, 16, 15 and 11 months later or whatever, to where Aurora is now a young girl who are about to turn 16. On her birthday is when we rejoin, I believe. And the fairies send her out for the day to go collect berries so that they can prepare for her birthday and make her cake and stuff. And while she's out wandering through the woods, we see that she is friends with all the woodland creatures and she talks to them and sings with them and all the classic Disney princess stuff. And I wanted to know if that came from the book.
• 18:08
  Speaker B: Alas, it does not. There are no woodland creature friends in either story, obviously. I love this change, though, because it is just so whimsical.
• 18:21
  Speaker A: So I haven't seen like Snow White or Cinderella in a long time. They also talk to animals, right? Yes. Okay, so this isn't the.
• 18:27
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, the orange. This is a continuation on a theme.
• 18:30
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:32
  Speaker B: And I have always hoped that after the end of the movie that she and Philip periodically go back and take little vacations in the woodland cottage, because it makes me really sad to think about her animal friends not knowing where she went.
• 18:46
  Speaker A: That's true. I imagine they go riding through the woods or what. You know, they're right. Yeah, they can do that. They're the king and queen. Well, I guess prince and princess, whatever. So we move forward quite a bit. I say go to it. The movie is very short. It's like a 60 minute, 75 minute movie.
• 19:02
  Speaker B: So all of 45 minute run time.
• 19:04
  Speaker A: Real brisk pace, which I enjoyed. But it is later that day and they're working on making a dress for Aurora. Briar Rose, as they call her. This is what they. Her undercover name. Which is also a reference to the fairy tales, correct?
• 19:20
  Speaker B: Yes, that is a reference to Grimm's.
• 19:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. But they're making this dress for. And two of them cannot decide whether the dress should be pink or blue or red or blue. Pink or blue.
• 19:30
  Speaker B: Pink or blue?
• 19:31
  Speaker A: Yeah, pink or blue. And so they keep changing it back and forth. Also, they haven't been using magic this whole time, but now they got their wands back because they suck at sewing and baking, apparently after 16 years, somehow, but they suck at that. So they get their wands back out so that they can magic all of that to happen. And they're fighting over what color the dress would be and they're shooting spells at it. And then these spells start, like going up the chimney. They did close all the windows and doors, but they forgot about the Chimney. And it's the magic is exploding out of the chimney which draws the attention of Diablo, who is Maleficent's raven or.
• 20:04
  Speaker B: Crow raven, according to Wikipedia.
• 20:07
  Speaker A: Okay. Raven. Pet raven. It is her familiar seemingly. And he then is able to find them. And so really all of this gets revealed and their plan gets blown at the last minute because they're fighting over the color of the dress. And I wanted to know if it's the fairies fault that the evil fairy finds them. I assume the evil fairy doesn't have a name in the.
• 20:30
  Speaker B: No, none of the fairies do. And this is a movie edition. I do think it's a really fun scene though.
• 20:38
  Speaker A: It's fun. I was like, you guys are idiots.
• 20:42
  Speaker B: They're not fine. Yeah, they're not the brightest bull.
• 20:45
  Speaker A: Yes, that's true. That is true. So while Aurora is out in the woods, I mentioned in the summary that when she was a baby or whatever, she was betrothed to Prince Philip, who's a prince from another royal family or whatever. So they're gonna combine their families once they're old enough to wed. So she's betrothed to Philip, but she's out in the woods and she stumbles across. She tells all the animals about how she has this dream of meeting this dashing man and them dancing together. And she runs into some a man in the woods who she immediately falls in love with. And I wanted to know if that came from the book. And the kind of surprise reveal that this man who she falls in love with in the woods turns out to be Prince Philip himself. And kind of the like mistaken identity or lack of mistake. I don't even know the way. It's like an inverted mistaken identity almost or something. I don't even know what the. There's got to be a name for the trope where you meet somebody. This kind of trope. You know what I mean? There's gotta be like a. Where they meet somebody and they think they're a stranger, but it turns out they're actually somebody they know or you know, like.
• 21:50
  Speaker B: Or they're like connected in some way.
• 21:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, there's got to be some name for that. Anyways, does any of that like the relationship dynamics come from the book?
• 22:01
  Speaker B: No. As I mentioned in both the princess sleeps for 100 years, so obviously she isn't going to have previously met the prince who's there when she wakes up. Yeah, I do think that this is a really good change. I also have a big soft spot for Once Upon a Dream. Like the dance sequence that they do. I also kind of think this movie doesn't deserve all the flack that it gets for the kind of like anti feminist, like, True Love's Kiss stuff. I also kind of feel that way about all of the classic.
• 22:38
  Speaker A: Yeah, you feel that way about fairy tales and stuff, which I don't disagree. Agree with. I think with. Taken with. I think there's merit to the criticisms, but it's also like, I think there's.
• 22:49
  Speaker B: Merit to the criticisms and it can be important to discuss. Yeah, but it's also kind of, I think, just a tiresome thing to discuss. I think it's been kind of beat to death at this point.
• 23:02
  Speaker A: Yes, well, and I. The thing that sucks about it is when people don't do it in good faith, which is most of what it is.
• 23:07
  Speaker B: Which is most of what it.
• 23:08
  Speaker A: You know what I mean? It's one thing to be like, there's, you know, having an actual discussion about the problematic elements of like Sleeping Beauty and some of the weird patriarchal stuff and the context in which the story was written obviously makes sense to talk about and have that understanding when consuming the story. But the kind of flippant, like, you know, dismissal of it as a story because it, you know. Yeah, because of.
• 23:33
  Speaker B: I think that's the part that's annoying and really like, you know, we're doing comparisons here and I think, you know, Disney did change a major element of the story in order to have the love interests meet and spend a little bit of time together before the whole True Love's Kiss thing.
• 23:50
  Speaker A: Right.
• 23:50
  Speaker B: And like, maybe that should count for something. Like, is it insta love? Sure. But I'm gonna be honest that that doesn't bother me in a 75 minute fairy tale film where the process of them falling in love isn't really the point of the story. Yeah, like, it's something that needs to happen to get from the beginning of the story to the end, but it's not the point. So, like, I'm okay with them falling in love immediately.
• 24:15
  Speaker A: Right. Right. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's totally fine as like a story with give if you have the context of understanding a lot. I mean, it's undoubtedly a like weird. I don't know if problematic's even the right term, but like kind of like weird patriarchal trope of like the woman just instantly falls in love with the first man she sees and you know what I mean? But again, within the context of what the story is and understand, if you understand that that's not good, don't immediately fall in love with the first man you see because. You know what I mean?
• 24:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 24:59
  Speaker A: But it's also. I don't know. Yeah. I'm having a hard time explaining what I'm saying, but I think it's true that that's bad. Right?
• 25:07
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head with a lot of the criticisms of these older Disney films are just kind of done in bad faith and they're just annoying to engage with because of that reason.
• 25:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 25:24
  Speaker B: I don't think it's not worth talking about.
• 25:26
  Speaker A: Right, right. So she gets back to the cottage. They're like, hey, surprise, you're a princess. That guy you met in the woods, can't ever see him again because you're betrothed to a prince. Got to get you to the castle for your birthday. Surprise.
• 25:40
  Speaker B: Let's go.
• 25:41
  Speaker A: Yeah. Big, big reveal there. They just kind of handle in like five seconds, just move right on. And so they take her to the castle. And it was cracking me up that I assume it's just kind of a. A quirk of the animation at the time. But if you look at, like, Sleeping Beauty's face the whole time they're, like, going into the castle, it's like, frozen in this weird.
• 26:04
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 26:05
  Speaker A: Like, stare. And I think it's just because, like, again, the, like, for ease of animation and stuff, a lot of characters, anything that doesn't absolutely have to move in these animations are not moving because it just adds that much more, you know, time and work.
• 26:21
  Speaker B: And we know this one ran in development, right?
• 26:24
  Speaker A: It was in development and was, like, over budget and blah, blah, all these things. But I just thought that was funny because it also looks. It actually tripped me up later for this scene that I'm about to talk about is that Maleficent then shows up. They get her into her room and they're like, we'll be back or whatever. Maleficent shows up as a floating ball of light and lures her into a different room, like, into the tower of the castle. And that scene is really creepy and felt to me very like following, like, this glowing orb felt very, you know, Fae fairy tale kind of thing. And also the lighting on her when that happens, like, her skin is like, on Sleeping Beauty, like, her Aurora, her skin is all, like, green from the light. And she looks. She almost looks like a zombie or something. But I was then, like, I was just thinking about this because one of the things I really liked about the scene is the way she follows it. It almost looks like she's like, in a trance. Like, she's moving very. But then I was like. But she was also moving. Like that kind of when they're, like, bringing her into the castle and I'm like, I'm wondering how much of that was an intentional choice with the fairy ball versus just like, not animating as little as. You know what I mean? Like, her. I don't know. It felt like an intentional choice, but.
• 27:29
  Speaker B: I feel like that was a happy.
• 27:35
  Speaker A: Coincidence of, like, wow.
• 27:37
  Speaker B: Because I think it really works. Like, I have always interpreted her as being in a trans.
• 27:42
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it looks like. But I just. Like I said, it's funny because, like, if you look at her face the whole time the fairies are leading her into the castle, she looks very similar. And I was like, okay, maybe it's just a quirk of the animation, I don't know. But I did like that scene anyways, and I wanted to know if that came from the book. Maleficent showing up as a floating glowing orb and luring her away.
• 28:03
  Speaker B: No, that is a movie addition. Okay. I do agree with you, though, that it feels very like fae, like the glowing orb and everything. But in both tales that I read, the princess, who, again, is living in the castle because she never went to live in the woods, and she is just, like, exploring in the castle one day and happens upon an old woman in an old part of the castle who still has a spinning wheel. Her spinning wheel did not get destroyed.
• 28:31
  Speaker A: Is there ever, like, any. Is there any inclination or not inclination implication that that's like the evil fairies doing or something or.
• 28:41
  Speaker B: So I know I've read at least one retelling where the old woman was like the evil fairy in disguise.
• 28:50
  Speaker A: Okay. Because that's kind of what the movie is like it.
• 28:52
  Speaker B: Yeah, kinda. But that doesn't seem to be the case in either Pierrot or Grimm's.
• 28:57
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 28:57
  Speaker B: Like, she's just an old woman who had no idea what was going on, which is really unfortunate for her.
• 29:03
  Speaker A: Yeah. It's amazing that they got all the spindles in the entire kingdom, except for one in the castle right under their nose the whole time.
• 29:13
  Speaker B: Obviously, I think this is better in the movie. I think it's a super creepy scene. I also think it's a good decision to have Maleficent be a more active player in making sure that the curse comes to fruition, especially given how hard everyone else is, like, trying to circumvent it.
• 29:34
  Speaker A: So she pricks her finger, falls asleep. The fairies then discover her immediate. Well, they. They Come into the room and see Maleficent there and she's like, haha, I win. And they see Sleeping Beauty asleep, they take her to a bed and they're like, well, what are we going to do? I know, let's put everybody to sleep until Aurora wakes up to like, cover our trap. Like, I don't know, like in the movie, it's not entirely clear their motivation, but it kind of almost seems like so that they don't know that we messed up or whatever. And I was like, I'm really starting to think that these ladies are the real villains of this story. They literally just euthanize every. Well, not euthanize, but you know, what's. They roofie everybody in order to cover their tracks. It's like that scene from Community where they get caught and they just start like ethering, like everybody that comes into the room and then. Yeah, and then they like pretend to pass out and wake up at the same time. Like, oh, I don't know what happened. Anyways, does that element come from the story of the good fairies putting everybody to sleep to kind of like smooth things over?
• 30:42
  Speaker B: So in Grimm's, everyone else in the castle falls asleep at the same time the princess does. And it's not explained, but it's just kind of implied that like, oh, this is part of the magic spell. Everybody's going to sleep in. Pierrot, the fairy who originally altered the curse, comes back when she hears what happened and puts most of the castle's inhabitants to sleep, so. So that the princess won't be alone when she wakes up. Interestingly, the king and the queen do not get put to sleep for 100 years. Like, the text specifically denotes that they like, kiss their daughter and leave the castle and then the fairy puts everyone else to sleep. So I guess they have to keep ruling the country.
• 31:31
  Speaker A: Right?
• 31:31
  Speaker B: You can't go to sleep for 100 years when you have responsibilities.
• 31:34
  Speaker A: I guess.
• 31:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, I just thought that was like a very funny stipulation.
• 31:39
  Speaker A: Well, it's also crazy. It's just like they really just like damned all of those people.
• 31:45
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 31:46
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's crazy.
• 31:47
  Speaker B: They were really like, we don't want the princess to be lonely when she wakes up.
• 31:51
  Speaker A: Sorry. All of you, your life is over now. You're waking up in 100 years.
• 31:55
  Speaker B: It's like a pharaoh killing all of their servants and animals and things.
• 32:00
  Speaker A: Pretty much, yeah.
• 32:01
  Speaker B: So that they could go to the afterlife with them. Yeah, I'm kind of neither here nor there on like changing this. I don't think it's a huge change. But I do think, like you said, that it's kind of funny that the reason the three good fairies put everyone to sleep seems to be so that they don't get caught in their fuck up.
• 32:21
  Speaker A: Seemingly seems to be. Yeah. So then the fairies rush out after they put everybody to sleep to go find Philip because Merryweather, somebody overhears the two kings, specifically Hubert, who is Philip's dad, chatting about how Philip met some woman in the woods.
• 32:40
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 32:41
  Speaker A: That he's in love with and that he wants to marry. And they realize that it is Aurora. And so they rush to find Philip because they know he was coming to their cabin that evening for the birthday or party or whatever. But when they get to the cabin, it's revealed that Maleficent has already kidnapped Philip. And so the fairies have to stage this big rescue mission. They go to her, whatever. The evil mountain. What was it called?
• 33:03
  Speaker B: The Forbidden Mountain.
• 33:04
  Speaker A: The Forbidden Mountain, which is Maleficent's like, lair, which actually looked a lot like. And you may have mentioned this, but in one of this. Was it the Last Unicorn or there was some animated film we did from like the 70s or 80s that had like a big evil castle in it. It was like Black Cauldron or Last Unicorn or one of those. And after looking at it now, or.
• 33:30
  Speaker B: That might have been the Black Cauldron, I feel like I might have talked about the castle being reminiscent of this.
• 33:35
  Speaker A: One because I was like, that looks like something I've seen before in one of the other movies we did. And then I had a vague memory of you being like, oh, yes, it looks like. Of me being like, oh, that's a cool looking castle. And you being like, oh, it looks like the castle from Sleeping Beauty or Malevolent.
• 33:50
  Speaker B: I mean, that could have easily been either of those movies. Honestly, I don't know.
• 33:54
  Speaker A: Anyways, they go to this big castle, so they have to stage this rescue. So I want to know if the rescue of. The rescuing of Philip by the fairies comes from the book. And also if Maleficent, she explains to Philip while he's locked in her dungeon, that she plans to release him in a hundred years, essentially when he's about to die so that he can go wake her up, but he dies immediately. Kind of like the ultimate torture or whatever. And I wanted to know if either of those elements came from the book.
• 34:22
  Speaker B: All of this is a movie edition. I do think it's a good addition. I like it. I think since we've already introduced Philip as Aurora's true love and we've already made Maleficent an active participant in the story, then it makes sense to me that she would try to prevent him from getting to her.
• 34:42
  Speaker A: Right.
• 34:44
  Speaker B: And I also think that her plot to hold him captive for a hundred years is both diabolical and a fun nod to the fairy tale.
• 34:52
  Speaker A: It works.
• 34:53
  Speaker B: So there's no capturing, there's no rescue mission.
• 34:55
  Speaker A: Gotcha.
• 34:56
  Speaker B: None of that.
• 34:56
  Speaker A: So then I assume this next question would be no, but I'll ask it because I guess there could be some parallel is after Philip is released by the fairies, he then rushes to the castle, but Maleficent gets there just in time to stop him. And in order to stop him, she turns into a giant dragon that Philip must slay with his sword. And I wanted to know if the dragon battle came from the book.
• 35:21
  Speaker B: It does not. And this is yet another thing that I like better about the movie. Because who doesn't love a giant fire breathing dragon?
• 35:28
  Speaker A: I mean, honestly.
• 35:29
  Speaker B: And also the dragon design in this iconic, great design.
• 35:34
  Speaker A: I don't have a question about this, but I'm gonna add it here because I think it. I don't know where else it would go. Is there any sort of confrontation or anything with the evil? You know what I mean? Like, is there anything that they have to do with the evil fairy? Or is it just like after a hundred years she wakes up and that's that?
• 35:50
  Speaker B: After a hundred years, she wakes up and that's that, and then.
• 35:54
  Speaker A: Well, you know, the equivalent of Maleficent just. Yeah, fucks off and doesn't.
• 35:58
  Speaker B: Well, no, no. And I swear. I swear I had this note in here and I don't see it now, but in. In both stories, the evil fairy curses the princess and then just vanishes from the narrative. We never see. We never see her again.
• 36:13
  Speaker A: Okay, you say in both of them or.
• 36:15
  Speaker B: Yeah, in both of them.
• 36:16
  Speaker A: Interesting. So, yeah, she doesn't show back up. Well, that makes sense then, I guess. All right, and my last question is, after he slays the dragon, obviously he gets up into the castle and in order to wake Sleeping Beauty up, he kisses her. She wakes up. And I wanted to know if Philip kisses Sleeping Beauty and she wakes up. It's like the whole point of the movie.
• 36:38
  Speaker B: Complicated question. Okay, so you will recall that in Pierrot, the good fairy says the princess will indeed prick her hand with a spindle, but instead of dying, she shall merely fall into a profound slumber that will last a hundred years. At the end of that time, a king's son shall come and awaken her, which to me, felt like it implied that there needed to be a prince there.
• 37:06
  Speaker A: Right.
• 37:06
  Speaker B: In some capacity.
• 37:07
  Speaker A: Sure, yeah.
• 37:08
  Speaker B: However, the end of that story, when the prince does arrive at the princess's bedside, Perrault states, quote, trembling in his admiration, he drew near and went on his knees beside her. At the same moment, the hour of disenchantment having come, the princess awoke. Which to me implies that no kiss was required.
• 37:30
  Speaker A: Well, clearly no kiss, but it also implies even that his presence.
• 37:32
  Speaker B: Even that his presence was not required. Yeah. She was going to wake up at the end of 100 years no matter what.
• 37:37
  Speaker A: Because the way you. The quote that you read originally kind of sounds like his presence. Again, there's no mention of a kiss. At the end of that time, a king's son shall come to awaken her. His presence or something, or touching her, whatever. Something would awaken her. But it is.
• 37:55
  Speaker B: It's the clock runs out on 100 years.
• 37:57
  Speaker A: Yeah. By its wakes up. Yeah. By it saying the time of disenchantment having come, the princess awokes. Does it doesn't say the prince having arrived in her chamber, the princess awake, you know? Yeah, yeah. It talks about the mechanism being the time passing. So, yeah, it's interesting.
• 38:13
  Speaker B: So in Grimm's, there's also no mention of a kiss in the good fairies spell. However, the end of the story goes like this. There she lay and was so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her. He bent over and gave her a kiss. When he touched her with the kiss, little Briar Rose opened her eyes, awoke, and looked at him kindly, which kind of seems to imply that maybe the kiss was what woke her up.
• 38:40
  Speaker A: I mean, it definitely correlated, if not causated.
• 38:46
  Speaker B: It's not super clear. So all this to say Disney did not invent this element out of thin air. But since they completely got rid of her sleeping for a hundred years, which is maybe what wakes her up in the original, like in the Pierrot story, at least they had to put a different concrete way for the cursed sleep to end. Hence making true love's kiss an explicit part of the spell.
• 39:16
  Speaker A: Right.
• 39:17
  Speaker B: Which is like, that's the way that I figure it anyway. And I feel confident that they were trying to harken back to their success with Snow White by doing that specific.
• 39:27
  Speaker A: It is interesting because we talked about in the prequel how much of a directive it was from Walt himself that this movie not just be a retread of elements from Snow White and Cinderella.
• 39:40
  Speaker B: But like a lot of it kind.
• 39:41
  Speaker A: Of is, but it still kind of is. And yeah, apparently they threw out, like, the whole first storyboards because it was too similar. And then they still ended up with something that has some similar elements.
• 39:50
  Speaker B: And it's interesting to me, too, because we've never covered Snow White on this show.
• 40:00
  Speaker A: And I realize now that I think my brain just conflates the two constantly. Like, what elements come from what? You know what I mean? Yeah.
• 40:08
  Speaker B: But actually, there are plenty of versions of Snow White, of the folktale, where there's no kiss.
• 40:18
  Speaker A: Right. And we can skip this completely. Is one of these stories the one that I swear I saw a thing, or I've seen a thing on the Internet of somebody being like, did you know? Which I know is not whenever somebody says, did you know? In the original version, like, whatever, but that one of either Snow White or Sleeping Beauty that, like, the idea was that, like, she had to be, like, impregnated while she was asleep or something. Does that ring a bell? Or do you know what I'm talking about earlier?
• 40:44
  Speaker B: So we talked about that in the prequel.
• 40:45
  Speaker A: Did we remember? Okay, now I don't remember.
• 40:49
  Speaker B: So we talked about that There was a different version.
• 40:56
  Speaker A: Maybe I'm just remembering you saying that now.
• 40:58
  Speaker B: Of the Sleeping Beauty story. Scroll, scroll, scroll. And find this. An Italian variation by Giam Battiste Basile.
• 41:11
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 41:12
  Speaker B: Sun, Moon, Intalia, which is where the prince impregnating the princess while she's still asleep.
• 41:20
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 41:20
  Speaker B: Comes from.
• 41:21
  Speaker A: Okay, so that is where we did discuss that.
• 41:23
  Speaker B: Yes, we did talk about that.
• 41:25
  Speaker A: Good. Good tip for how fallible memory my brain turned that into. I heard that somewhere on the Internet when it was, in fact a thing, a discussion we had, like, a week ago in here. Cool. Great. Don't trust your memory, people. Anyways, those are all my questions for was that in the book? But I do have one thing that I want to talk about and discuss in Lost. An adaptation.
• 41:48
  Speaker B: Just show me the way to get.
• 41:49
  Speaker A: Out of here, and I'll be on my way. Was it last? Yes, yes.
• 41:54
  Speaker B: And I want to get unlost as soon as possible.
• 41:57
  Speaker A: Was Maleficent's whole deal. So, like, I know that's the plot of the movie Maleficent, I assume. I have not seen it. Yes, Maleficent. But I wanted to know if any of that came from the fairy tale or if you get any additional background on why, how, and in what way. Because in the movie, they say, like, they call her an evil, not a queen, but they address her with some sort of royal title, don't they?
• 42:17
  Speaker B: They refer to her as your excellency yeah.
• 42:20
  Speaker A: Where that kind of seems like she's some form of royalty or something. And I was wondering if. If, again, I assume that is at least covered in Maleficent, but I was wondering if any of that came from the book or what's going on there. Or you can either explain to me what goes on in Maleficent or what comes from the fairy tales or whatever. I'm just asking for any information.
• 42:38
  Speaker B: I have some information. None of it comes from Pierrot or Grimm, because there's really nothing in either of those stories that explains this in depth. Like I said, the wicked fairy tales vanishes from the narrative after she curses the princess. So I think she's just supposed to be, like, a cranky, petty old woman.
• 42:58
  Speaker A: Right. Which is pretty classic for those older fairy tales.
• 43:01
  Speaker B: It's just like, misogyny. Be misogyny.
• 43:03
  Speaker A: Evil, weird woman. Obviously, that's her motivation. We don't need to know the backstory. She's evil and old and a woman.
• 43:11
  Speaker B: And, you know, jumping forward in time, not a whole lot has changed. I think that in this movie, she's just supposed to be evil with a.
• 43:18
  Speaker A: Capital E. That's what it's like.
• 43:20
  Speaker B: I don't feel like she's the mischief mistress of all evil. I don't. I don't think there's. There was meant to be, like, a complicated backstory.
• 43:27
  Speaker A: There's no implicit. There's no implication of a backstory.
• 43:30
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 43:31
  Speaker A: It's just there's more. So the words that, like I said, when they call her, like, your highness or whatever I was like, that implies some sort of world, you know, or something that in the movie doesn't go into.
• 43:40
  Speaker B: She does live in a castle. Maybe she's supposed to be, like, the queen of the realm of evil or something like that, or like a fairy queen of some sort of.
• 43:49
  Speaker A: So I guess Maleficent doesn't explain that, or.
• 43:51
  Speaker B: I assume so. I saw Maleficent in theaters in 2014, and I have not seen it since. I remember thinking it was fine.
• 44:00
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 44:01
  Speaker B: Personally, I don't consider it, like, canon in relation to this film because I remember feeling like it didn't actually track with her animated depiction. Like, it's an interesting reimagining, but if you were to watch them back to back, I don't think it would actually work.
• 44:19
  Speaker A: Right. Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah. I don't know. I haven't seen it, so I have absolutely no idea. But it would not surprise me if it didn't really.
• 44:26
  Speaker B: And there is a backstory for like, why she is the way she is in that movie. I don't remember if there's anything explaining, like, her title.
• 44:38
  Speaker A: All right, that was my only question. I guess I'll just have to watch Maleficent to get the non canon answers, but that'll work for now. All right, it's time to find out what Katie thought was better in the. The book Fairy Tales.
• 44:53
  Speaker B: You like to read. Oh, yes, I love to read. What do you like to read? Everything. I do have some fun little tidbits here. Starting out with. In Pierrot's version, he tells us specifically that the reason the king and queen invited fairies to the christening is because they wanted those sick fairy gifts. And that was the only reason they did it.
• 45:22
  Speaker A: So they literally.
• 45:23
  Speaker B: They literally just wanted.
• 45:25
  Speaker A: They did the. Hey, let's invite your.
• 45:26
  Speaker B: Let's invite our rich relative.
• 45:28
  Speaker A: We don't really like all that much to the wedding. So that we.
• 45:31
  Speaker B: But they're gonna give us a good gift.
• 45:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, fantastic.
• 45:36
  Speaker B: Speaking of the movie, I do think that the little songs about the fairies gifts for Aurora drag a little.
• 45:45
  Speaker A: I mean, like, when it goes into the, like the.
• 45:47
  Speaker B: Into the, like, fantasy sequence and it's like, very 1950s looking, it's forgettable because I already forgot about it. I say drag a little. They're not very long, so I guess that's not super fair. I think forgettable is a better criticism.
• 46:02
  Speaker A: Probably unnecessary. It just doesn't feel.
• 46:04
  Speaker B: Yeah, but they had to make it to at least 75 minutes.
• 46:09
  Speaker A: True, true.
• 46:10
  Speaker B: You kind of mentioned this earlier, but I also wondered throughout the years how the three good fairies made it 16 years without learning to cook or sew.
• 46:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. Seems crazy.
• 46:21
  Speaker B: What were they eating?
• 46:22
  Speaker A: What were they.
• 46:22
  Speaker B: What were they wearing?
• 46:23
  Speaker A: I think they do imply that, like, the one who tries to make the dress is better at cooking than the other one. Like they. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought in the movie there's kind of that. There's like some dialogue or something to the effect of, like, the one who's making the dress is actually better at cooking, but she really wants to make the dress and maybe vice versa or something like that.
• 46:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, maybe that's supposed to be.
• 46:44
  Speaker A: I can't remember. I would have to go back and watch this scene again. But I thought there was something where they. Cause they, like, chastise what's her name? About not being able to cook when she tries to make the cake. And I thought there was an implication that I'm the one who cooks. Walter White. Yeah.
• 47:07
  Speaker B: Anyways, we also already kind of touched on this, but what an objectively terrible way to break the news to Briar Rose. Happy birthday. Your entire life is a lie.
• 47:20
  Speaker A: They don't even seem to really understand that might be.
• 47:23
  Speaker B: That. That might be upsetting to have to leave the home that you've lived in your entire life and go live in a castle.
• 47:30
  Speaker A: Yeah. They're just like, yeah, she'll get over it. She's about to be the richest person in the world, so, like, she'll be fine.
• 47:37
  Speaker B: A little thing from Paros, specifically. It's mentioned that the good fairy rides around in a chariot of flames pulled by dragons, which is the one who alters the curse.
• 47:50
  Speaker A: Oh, okay. So the equivalent of Merryweather, I guess. But are the other ones not good fairies? I don't.
• 47:56
  Speaker B: No, they are. They just don't ever come back into the narrative.
• 47:59
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 48:00
  Speaker B: But chariot of flames pulled by dragons is pretty dope.
• 48:04
  Speaker A: Crazy. Yeah.
• 48:05
  Speaker B: In Grimm's, the forest of thorns that surrounds the castle where the princess is sleeping is full of bones and corpses of princes who tried to get through and failed.
• 48:15
  Speaker A: Oh, so the. The thorn. Yes, that all comes from the book. It's only. It only shows up briefly in the movie.
• 48:21
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 48:21
  Speaker A: Very brief as, like, a way to stop Philip from getting there. But. So, like, when she goes to sleep, that happens or, like, grows up.
• 48:29
  Speaker B: Yeah, it grows up around the castle.
• 48:30
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. It wouldn't really make sense in the movie because it pops up, like, immediately, but it's.
• 48:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, but it feels very grim to have it be full of bones and corpses.
• 48:40
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 48:42
  Speaker B: And my last note here is a little thing that cracked me up. When the prince wakes the princess up, or when she does wake up in Perrault and he's there, he notices that her clothes are, like, something his grandmother would have worn, but he tactfully decides not to mention it.
• 49:01
  Speaker A: He doesn't hit her with a. What are those? That would have been funny, though. That's a sketch right there is Prince Philip waking her up with true love's kiss, and she's, like, under a sheet. And then she gets out, and he gets the ick from what she's wearing. And, like, he's like, ooh, never. Never mind. What is. What are you wearing? Dressed like my grandma. That's. That's a fun premise. All right, let's go ahead and find out what Katie thought was better in the movie. My life has taught me one lesson, Hugo, and not the one I thought it would. Happy endings only happen in the movies.
• 49:44
  Speaker B: The face that young Prince Philip makes when he looks down at the baby has always cracked.
• 49:50
  Speaker A: I must have been taking a note. I did not see.
• 49:53
  Speaker B: It's like the christening scene and the voiceover, whatever is talking about how they're betrothed to be married. And he's supposed to be like, I don't know, maybe five or so in this scene or maybe younger. I don't know. I don't know what animated kids ages look like. I don't think any older than five.
• 50:11
  Speaker A: So then we have a very problematic age gap. Means he's like 21.
• 50:15
  Speaker B: When she's 16, maybe he's three, I don't know. But he like looks down at the baby and makes like stink face. Maleficent might have the best entrance of any Disney villain.
• 50:29
  Speaker A: My opinion, I would have to compare. It's a good one.
• 50:32
  Speaker B: It's a good entrance.
• 50:33
  Speaker A: I would have to compare.
• 50:34
  Speaker B: There's like lightning and flames and everything. It's good.
• 50:38
  Speaker A: I feel like Jafar has a pretty good entrance from my memory. That's like similar. Maybe not. I don't know. Know. It's been a long time since I've watched Aladdin.
• 50:47
  Speaker B: Yeah. I don't remember how he shows up exactly. A little exchange in the movie that I love. When the fairies are working on the dress and Merryweather is like the stand in for the mannequin. She looks down at it and goes, it looks awful. And Flora says, that's because it's on you, dear.
• 51:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. Brutally mean. Also not the reason.
• 51:11
  Speaker B: No.
• 51:12
  Speaker A: It's just hideous.
• 51:14
  Speaker B: I love the interactions between Prince Philip and his horse, Samson.
• 51:19
  Speaker A: Reminds me of another movie, Rapunzel. Yes. That's what it was. I was like, there's another movie with John.
• 51:25
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 51:25
  Speaker A: It's like, yeah, yeah.
• 51:26
  Speaker B: Tangled is deliberately referencing this movie. I also love King Stefan and King Hubert's little wine song that they get drunk and they sing a little song and then almost start a war, but then don't.
• 51:41
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 51:42
  Speaker B: Also an incredible line. Might be the best line in the whole movie.
• 51:47
  Speaker A: IMDb agrees. This is the number one quote. Like the number one line on the quotes section.
• 51:52
  Speaker B: Now, Father, you're living in the past. This is the 14th century.
• 51:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. Classic. That is for people who don't know. That's in reference to the idea that.
• 52:02
  Speaker B: That he should have to marry a magician. Arranged marriage. And I love that the good fairy's magic wands become welding equipment.
• 52:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. When they're free and foam, they like free the horse or what? And it's like. Because his like, hoof is chained to a thing, and they're like. And, yeah, just weld or cut. It's not even welding. It's a cutting torch.
• 52:21
  Speaker B: Yes. I guess it's the opposite of welding.
• 52:22
  Speaker A: Cutting torch. Yeah.
• 52:25
  Speaker B: All right, so I mentioned in our prequel episode that Perrault's version of the story has two parts and that some folklorists believe that it was two or, like, originally two separate stories that got tacked together somewhere along the line. And after reading all of it, but, boy, do I agree with that. Okay, so in Pierrot, after the princess wakes up, his story continues into an entirely separate tale where it's revealed that the prince's mother is actually an ogre. And while the prince, who's now the king, is away at war, she tries to cook and eat her grandchildren, only to be thwarted when the prince comes back just in the nick of time.
• 53:14
  Speaker A: Okay, well, that seems very obvious that it is two different stories.
• 53:17
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 53:18
  Speaker A: Pieced together is. When you read that originally in the prequel, I remember talking about that, and my brain went, oh, I wonder. That's fascinating, because I assumed it was a. That the story was basically the same as the movie and that, like, there's somewhere in the middle of that narrative was, like, where the two pieces came together.
• 53:36
  Speaker B: No.
• 53:36
  Speaker A: Finding out. It's basically after the whole plot of the movie. It's just a whole different story. Like. Well, yeah, okay. Obviously, that's a different. Doesn't really track or, like, seem to connect in any way whatsoever.
• 53:50
  Speaker B: So, I mean, I read the whole thing just in case. Yeah, just in case there was some kind of weird little tidbit they pulled out of that. I don't think there was.
• 54:00
  Speaker A: Makes sense. All right, let's go ahead and talk about what the movie nailed. As I expected.
• 54:09
  Speaker B: Practically perfect in every way. Story starts with a king and queen who finally have a baby after wanting one for a really long time. Both Pierrot and Grimm start with that. This isn't really a. Nailed it, but it is kind of a fun nod. The movie says that they named her Aurora after the dawn. And in Perrault, the princess names her daughter Dawn.
• 54:30
  Speaker A: Oh, okay. When you say the princess. The princess being Aurora.
• 54:34
  Speaker B: Yes, the princess being the sleeping Beauty to you. The king does destroy all of the spinning wheels in the kingdom. I had kind of alluded to this earlier, but that does happen in, I believe, both texts. They destroy all of the spinning wheels in the kingdom, probably completely destabilizing the local textiles.
• 54:54
  Speaker A: When that scene happened in the movie, I was like, I wonder if there's going to be any reference, any fallout from that. We can't make clothes, you know, like textiles anymore.
• 55:03
  Speaker B: We get back to the castle and it's now a king kingdom of nudists.
• 55:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. That I literally, I was like, what are they gonna. Is there some or explanation or like their clothes are made out of different things? Like I was trying to figure out, because I don't know. I don't know enough about sewing or textiles to know, like, if there's an alternative process you can use for the, you know, because the spindle, that part's for like combining and making thread.
• 55:24
  Speaker B: It's for making thread.
• 55:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. So there are probably other ways maybe to do it.
• 55:28
  Speaker B: Maybe.
• 55:28
  Speaker A: I don't know, spindle like the same. I don't know. I was just. I thought that. Because I had that thought, I was like, how are you gonna make clothes and stuff up now?
• 55:37
  Speaker B: Briar Rose is what she's called in the Grimms version. And the thorn of the forest of thorns around the castle also appears in both iterations.
• 55:46
  Speaker A: Fantastic. All right, we have quite a few odds and ends to get to before the final verdict. When the movie opens. I don't know if you noticed this, but the. We see the. The Sleeping Beauty, like, book, which I believe is live action video. It looks like it.
• 56:11
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 56:11
  Speaker A: It doesn't look like animation. I'm pretty sure it's like live action footage. And we see the Sleeping Beauty, like, fairy tale book. Then it opens. But the COVID of that book, I could not get over how much it's. It's like. And it has a bunch of these, like, gems and stuff embedded on the front of it. Because it's like a gilded, you know, like a, whatever, illuminated manuscript.
• 56:31
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
• 56:32
  Speaker A: But we see the COVID of it and this is a super random thing, but recently, two years ago, I made a prop book of the dead from the film the Mummy for a thing at work. And I needed something to decorate the COVID of it with to kind of look like the ornamental stuff that's on there. But that was easy to do really quickly. And we found these stick. Gem sticker things at like Dollar Tree or something. Whatever. Yeah. And those, the gems and stuff on the COVID of this book makes me look so similar to those stickers we found that it makes me think that they almost had to have designed those stickers based on the COVID of this book. Like, it blew my mind. How similar. Look from my memory. How similar. Those stickers. I'll see if I can find a photo of those stickers and then we can put them next to a photo of the book cover. Because I was like, duh. That's the same thing. And I don't know. I just thought it was really interesting.
• 57:30
  Speaker B: I really love the. I. I love everything about the way this movie looks. And we have more stuff about that later that's like the. This opening scene where everybody's coming into the christening. I actually, like, fully credit this movie for my early interest in medieval aesthetics.
• 57:50
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 57:51
  Speaker B: And, like, the, like, the kind of costuming.
• 57:55
  Speaker A: For whatever reason, my brain never, like, put together that this is, like, a medieval story set. I don't know why. Like, I guess I knew it was, but my brain never attached. And I. I think it's becoming more and more clear. I don't know if I've ever seen this movie.
• 58:10
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 58:10
  Speaker A: Or if I did. I was, like, a little, like, younger than, like, not forming memories young or something like that. I. Yeah. Because I. I did not remember any of the, like, visuals of this film.
• 58:21
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 58:21
  Speaker A: Like, at all.
• 58:22
  Speaker B: It's also, like, maybe the only Disney princess movie that we actually have, like, a concrete time that it takes place.
• 58:33
  Speaker A: Does it say the 14th century? It's the 14th century. Yeah. Yeah. I don't. Yeah. I mean, you can guess based on context with other stuff like Beauty and.
• 58:42
  Speaker B: The Beast or whatever.
• 58:44
  Speaker A: No. Doesn't Beauty and the beast say, like, 15th century? Maybe not. We've had this discussion.
• 58:48
  Speaker B: I think, like, you can guess other ones based on, like, the costuming and things like that or, like, events that are happening. But I think this might be the only one that, like, explicitly states a time frame.
• 59:03
  Speaker A: And it might be the only one that's explicitly set in, like, medieval times. Right. And maybe Snow White. Maybe. I don't know. But do we ever see. I haven't seen Snow White since I was a little kid. Do we see much outside of, like. Do we see much of, like, the general people in the castles and stuff? I don't remember anything about Snow White.
• 59:21
  Speaker B: I'm trying to think. I think the way that you would date that one would be by the inspiration behind the clothes. But I don't know enough about Bavarian historical fashion to know where to put that.
• 59:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then Cinderella. Is that even supposed to be set historically, or is that just completely fantas. Fantastic?
• 59:45
  Speaker B: I mean, it's set in a vague time period.
• 59:50
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 59:51
  Speaker B: I mean, like, they all are set in, like, vague time periods.
• 59:56
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 59:57
  Speaker B: I'm just saying. I think this is the only one where the text of the film literally states.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker A: I agree. But I'm also wondering no, yeah, obviously. I think. Yeah, I'm wondering, too. Like, I just don't. I legitimately do not remember enough about the aesthetics of, like, Cinderella and Sleep or Snow White and stuff to know if those are supposed to take place in a similar, like, medieval time period or if they're supposed to be later or earlier. You know what I mean?
• 1:00:23
  Speaker B: I mean, I would say maybe Snow White.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker A: That's what I was thinking, is that.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker B: Snow White feels like a similar time period. I think Cinderella is supposed to be, like, much later because all I can.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker A: Think of with Snow White is, like, the main character, like, the Dwarves and Snow White and what they look like. And it's hard. I can't place how much those are supposed to be related to actual, you know, historical costuming and stuff like that. I don't remember how much we see of, like, other people and stuff like that. I just don't remember because I don't remember anything.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker B: Also, I'm very wrong because the Princess and the Frog takes place in the 1920s, specifically.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker B: In my defense, I think I've only seen that movie, like, twice.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker A: That makes sense. Yeah, that one definitely has a. And there's probably other. I bet other later ones might have more like 101 Dalmatians, you might know. But. But.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker B: Well, I mean, I meant princesses specifically.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay, okay. Yeah.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker B: But on that topic, I also want to call out Maleficent's costume because I think it's really clever. It looks appropriately demonish.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker B: But it echoes some actual historical clothing, like the horns. There was a headpiece called a double hennin that. That is a reference to. And then, as well as, like, her sleeves and the way that her dress is constructed is based on, like, actual medieval court fashion, for sure.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. We mentioned them burning all of the spindles earlier, all the spinning wheels, but that was one of the first moments. And I say one of the first moments. It was one of the first big moments that I was like, holy shit is cool as hell looking. It's this nighttime shot with fire coming up, and it looks just gnarly as hell. And I was like, yeah, I don't think I watched this since I was old enough to form memories, because I don't remember any of this. And it's all gorgeous. And in my brain, Sleeping Beauty was bland. Like, again, in my brain, we'll talk more about it. But in my brain, my brain went Sleeping Beauty. Like, it's like a generic lead. Animated, I think. I don't know why people remember that is how A lot of people. And I think I'll get to it later. But I think it's because of the character designs.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker A: And you always see the characters out of context.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker B: Yes, out of context of the rest of the film. But the backgrounds and the animation, they were doing really cool things with a lot of.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, I just jumped to that. Yeah. Because, like, I had a note too about the shot of her walking in the woods where she's walking over that tree and then behind her in the distance, the prince is like riding his horse through. The background is so cool. And the. Specifically the background and the design of like the earth and stuff and like the ravine. It's all very geometric kind of. And then all the trees are super weird and gnarly. Again, it's all inspired by like.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's all meant to look like a medieval town tapestry, which is like an objectively cool art style.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker A: But it's even cooler. They take like the inspiration of, like the tapestries and that art style, but then like refines it into a modern sensibility. Because if you look at those, they don't look that cool. You know what I mean?
• 1:03:24
  Speaker B: No. I think it's really interesting because it's also giving like, medieval revival, like mid century medieval revival.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker A: And it also has. To me, it had elements of almost like some like MC Escher, like, elements to it. Again, I legitimately had no idea that the animation in this was so compelling because I remember having discussions about, like, I think it was the Last Unicorn talking about, like, the backgrounds and how cool they were. And I was like, disney doesn't do stuff like that. And then I was like, just because I haven't watched some of these, I guess because this is legitimately one of the more gorgeous Disney movies I think I've seen. And I did not remember that.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker B: It's stunning, like, the level of detail and like the layering on all of the backdrops, like every single frame goes insanely.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker A: And just how weird it is, like, how unique it. More so than anything. Like, there's a ton of detail as well, but it's just like the. The artistic sensibility behind it is so singular and unique and again, obviously inspired by all the stuff we talked about. But I was just. I. And I think the reason. And again, I said it, but I think the reason is that. That I never kind of realized that the movie looked like that. Is one, I haven't seen it since either I was a little kid or not at all, maybe. But two is my brain only remembers the characters like I said, who in comparison are fairly plain and generic looking.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker B: Not bad.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker A: They're not bad. They just look like other Disney characters. They look like Cinderella or you know what I mean, they look like. And I think that's part of why my brain just kind of rolls them all together and goes, yeah, it all looks like that era of Disney when this does not look like. At least from I haven't seen Snow, but maybe it does. Maybe. I don't know.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker B: But I. Aurora looks more like Cinderella than Snow White in my opinion.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker A: Sleeping Beauty, I mean, looks more.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker B: Yeah, Sleeping Beauty looks more like Cinderella than Snow White, in my opinion.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker A: Yeah. And you're talking about the movies, not the princesses specifically.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker B: No, the princesses specifically.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker A: Well, I was talking about the movies.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker B: Well, I mean, talking about like the character designs.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker B: In Sleeping Beauty, I think.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker A: Sorry, yes, yeah.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker B: Is more reminiscent of Cinderella and like the style that they had in the 50s in general. Because if you look at, like, if you look at all of the movies that Disney put out during the 1950s and you line up all of the female characters, they're like all the same model.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker A: Right. What I was getting at wasn't the character design. I switched from talking about characters to talking about the overall aesthetic midst sentence. Kind of my point was that in my brain, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty all look generically similar. The movies, not the characters. The movies look generically similar. In my brain. Before we watched this and then after watching it, I was like, oh, no, now I don't know because I don't remember what Cinderella or what Snow White the movies look like, but I don't think they look like this movie. Right?
• 1:06:21
  Speaker B: No, they don't.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that was where I was like, oh, my brain just assumed they all looked the same and that. And I don't know which one it is. Maybe that my brain is going, eh, that it's kind of like forgettably not forgettable, but just like not nearly as cool as this. As like the backgrounds of this movie are. And I think my brain just kind of combined them all together and just didn't realize that this movie. And I think again, because the character designs are kind of similar throughout the movies, not that they look like the same characters, but the style of the character designs are similar between the three movies. My brain just went, ah. All the movies look the same from this era look the same. Whereas this movie looks like a weird almost again, surrealist like, yeah, elements of it, like where the trees and stuff look like stuff out of like a surrealist painting and it's super cool. It's just. I was blown away.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker B: All right, where do we leave off?
• 1:07:15
  Speaker A: Three middle aged women.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker B: Yes. Something that I love about this movie, and I know we kind of ragged on the three good fairies, but something that I think is really interesting about this movie is that the main characters are three middle aged women.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker B: Which you don't see a lot in children's animation.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And they're ostensibly good guys, quote unquote, but they're also not traditionally beautiful. You know what I mean? Which I think they're allowed to be because they're more comedic and like.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker B: Right. Yeah. They are also kind of filling in as comedic characters.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker A: Yeah. So.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker B: But yeah, they're like little old ladies. They're like kind of short and squat.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker A: Yeah. I liked the little detail. Just when the one was. I don't know which one, Flora or fauna. One of them was baking the cake and she's reading the directions and it says, pour three cups of flours or use three cups of flour. And so she gets three different sized.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker B: Cups to pour in the mix and bakers everywhere cringe.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. And then she like folds in the egg. Eggs. And it was the. It's the scene from. From Schitt's Creek.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker A: What do you mean, fold it in? Because she like literally just puts whole eggs in and like folds it.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker B: It's a crazy level of not knowing how to cook.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker A: It is.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker B: It is living without magic for 16.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker A: Years, 15 years or whatever. Yeah.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker B: Okay, so the next note. This is my Aurora aesthetic tangent, which it's something that I want to talk about because these are the kinds of things that I think about. And I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this or think of this, but something that's interesting to me is that if you look specifically at the style of, like, Aurora's character design and like the way that she is built and like her hair and like the clothes that she wears, she was very, very clearly inspired by the Dior new look, which was really popular in the 50s.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. I'd say she looks like a 50s.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. She looks like a 50s movie star. Like the teeny, tiny little waist and then the full skirts. And part of me wonders because this movie took so long to make, like the new look was really, like, at its heights, like Post World War II, into the first half of the 50s. And this didn't come out until 59.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker B: And I wonder if part of the reason why people didn't like it so much was because it looked dated. By the time it came out, it could be.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker A: And then now. Far. We're far enough removed that it all.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, it all just looks old or whatever.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker A: We don't even, like, attach it to it. Yeah, that could be. That'd be interesting. Yeah. I hadn't thought about that, but that makes sense.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker B: The scene where she's walking through the woods singing operatically is how I imagined myself when I tromped through the woods as a kid. That was me in my head at 10 years old in the woods.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker A: Speaking of that, I was like, man. Because I checked the time. Because that's, like, when she sings the first song. I was like, we're 25 minutes into the movie. Which felt really late for the first song in a Disney movie, even from this time period. I could be wrong. I don't know.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker B: I feel like this one isn't a musical. Musical, like, other.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker A: It's not. There's. There are a few songs. There's a couple songs, but this is much of a. It's mainly just a dream. Whatever.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker B: The Once Upon a Time.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker A: Let's kind of recurs several times.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker A: There's at least one other.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker B: There are a couple other little, like, ditties.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. There's the ones with, like, the villains or whatever. Like, don't. The.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker B: There's the wine song. There's the wine that they sing. They're the little songs that play when they're. When they're giving her the gift.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. I didn't even count those because they didn't even feel like songs really, to me. They're just like, very short, little.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:11:09
  Speaker B: And they're.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker A: I thought there was one later with, like, not the. Her, like, pig guys. Did they not have a song?
• 1:11:16
  Speaker B: No, there's no villain song in this.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker A: Yeah, I. I know Maleficent. Maleficent didn't have a song, but for some reason I thought. Was there not one other song somewhere? Maybe not. I could have swore there was at least one other song.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker B: She sings, like, a brief, very short song. Like, right before the Once Upon a Dream sequence. She sings like, I wonder.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker A: I don't know. I thought there was one later in the movie, but. Yeah, I guess you're right. So I guess it didn't make sense that there's. When I'm like. Because my. I wrote that note when she starts singing that first song, which I knew. I knew that song and I knew it was in the movie. And then I guess if there isn't another one, then. Yeah. It just isn't really.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's really kind of just the centerpiece. There's a song and, like, a couple other ditties. It's not really a musical like. Like any of the other ones are.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker B: Speaking of the music, though, I realized this while we were watching, and I thought it was interesting, you know, how the modern Disney princesses have an I Want song. I feel like the classic Disney princesses have I Wish songs because we have Snow White has Someday my prince will Come, Cinderella has a dream is a wish your heart makes, and Sleeping Beauty has Once Upon a Dream.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's the premise for a thesis right.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker B: There, by the way. Yeah.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker A: I'm trying to come up with the title off the top of my head. The overly long academic title that this.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker B: Would be is I Wish to. I want. Yeah, sorry, Second Wave feminism in Disney Princess films or something.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker A: It needs to be more complicated, but. Yeah, it needs to be longer and more complicated, but something along those lines. Yeah. There's a really good thesis title about, you know, that covers the transition from I Wish songs to I Want songs and what that says about feminist discourse.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker B: In Disney movies or whatever, the way that we depict female heroines in children's movies. The wine that the two kings drink falls into animated foods I want to eat. For me, it looks like the tastiest grape juice.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker A: Cause it doesn't look like any real wine. It's, like the weirdest.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker B: It's kind of magenta, purplish, like this weird.
• 1:13:29
  Speaker A: Very, like, vibrant.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. And it's kind of got like a foam on it, like bubbles.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker A: Yeah, I was.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker B: I want to taste it.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker A: I don't know what it tastes like. Definitely doesn't look like any wine I've ever seen, but it looks dmi. I will say I hate. I. I hate to agree with their self. Their negative self talk, but I gotta say, the fairies are right when they're like, we're all to blame for, like, everything that goes down. Like, you kind of are. You kind of blew this, like, multiple times. Like, you give away the position by.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker B: You did really good for, like, 16 years.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker A: And then you blew it continuously for, like, a day. You just really biffed it on the final day because they. They have the magic fight that gets them revealed and then have a screaming. Not a screaming match, but they. They explain with the door open to Aurora what, her whole backstory, and then they just leave her alone for no reason in the castle for an hour and then are like, oh, crap, it is all your fault, kind of.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker B: Yeah. So they had to put everybody to sleep to just cover that up.
• 1:14:30
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I also cracked me up where when they go to rescue Philip, they. They give him this sword and the shield and then for like most of the time they just do everything anyway.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker A: Like, they still like, fight the dragon and like, and, and like they, they're the ones that turn the raven into stone. And like, they do all this. And they like, they do all this stuff. It's like, well, he has his sword and shield. Oh. Because then they're like shooting arrows at him and he has this shield. They turn them into flowers and it's like, well, he's not even using the tools.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker B: They're trying to make up for how bad they fucked up earlier. Okay.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker A: Yeah, it must be. It's true.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker B: Speaking of Prince Philip, I'm just gonna exposit for a minute because Prince Philip is and always will be my favorite Disney prince.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker B: He's dreamy. Does he look like a 1950s James Dean type heartthrob? Yes, he does. He's got a 50s look to him. Is he extremely charming also? Yes. But most importantly, this man goes hard. He met this girl once and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get back to her, no questions asked. Dangerous escape from the dungeons of an evil castle. Yes. Huge forest of thorns. No problem. Fight a giant fire breathing dragon. Say no more. He is willing to go the distance. Okay.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker A: With the help of some fairies.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker B: I think he still would have done it. He would have done it on his own.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker A: I think he would have tried it least.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker B: I also think it's interesting that he has much more in common with like, modern Disney princesses than he does with the other classic princes. Like, he has a name, he has a personality. He's an active participant in the story. I think Aurora may arguably be like a step backward for princess portrayal. I think Cinderella is a more compelling character than she is, I would say.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker A: So she's definitely kind of just a.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, she's just kind of there.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker B: But Philip is like leaps and bounds ahead of the other classic princes. Like, he paved the way for characters like Prince Eric and Aladdin and Flynn Rider and all those other guys.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker A: Yeah. I also think, you know, retrospectively having watched this movie now and it like, I think, not that they shouldn't have called it Sleeping Beauty. Like, that is the story. You know what I mean?
• 1:16:46
  Speaker B: Like, that is. That's the story we're telling.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker A: It's not really.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker B: It's not about her at all.
• 1:16:51
  Speaker A: Like, and a lot of of the movie is. Is way more compelling. And I think, I think that even, even is probably for dumb, weird patriarchal reasons. Part of my negative association with the film. Not that I had, I like thought the movie was bad or anything but like I just never have had any desire to watch it because my brain just goes, I'm sleeping. I don't know, it's like she falls asleep and then he kisses her and she. You know what I mean? Like.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker A: But it's, it's. Most of the movie is like a guy riding around on a horse fighting a dragon or like, you know, like the, the backstory setup in the beginning with me. Like there's not much that's really like about. Because Aurora doesn't really do much in the movie. Like she's not that important of a character. It's almost not really a movie about her in any real.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker B: I don't think it is really.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker A: And so calling it Sleeping Beauty almost does a disservice to like what the movie is. I think it's the right name for it, but it just. I don't know what else I would call it, I guess.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker B: Well, I mean I think if they were making it now in, in the titling fashion that Disney has currently, it would be called like sleep or something.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker A: Right?
• 1:17:52
  Speaker B: Or curse. It would have like a single name, a single word title.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker A: Yeah. But yeah, it just, I don't know, it just doesn't really like Sleeping Beauty is like, yeah, that's a part of the story, but it just doesn't really encapsulate like what the story is at all. It's like the central thing, I guess. But for some reason it feels like, I don't know, like it undersells the movie or something. It's weird. I don't know. I thought this was very funny. Is that when he does finally in the film, kiss her and she wakes up, he kisses her, she wakes up. But she gives this very mouth only smile in reaction to it. Her eyes don't move at all. And I assume again this is almost like, like I get what they were going for with the animation here of like this very subtle smile as she sees him. But she has this like dead eyed mouth only smile that looks. It was so unintentionally hilarious when she did it that I. It. I'm trying to think of what even it compared to. It just looked so silly. Like it does. It doesn't. It almost looked like something out of like a horror movie or something. I don't know. The way she smiles at him after he kisses her. I understand what the animation or what the animators were going for. I don't know if they succeeded, though, because to me, it just looks very silly. And then my final note, because I know this is a big controversy as it is in the movie, which is why they added this whole thing to the movie where the two fairies are constantly changing the dress back and forth between pink and blue, because in the production process, they could not decide whether they wanted the dress to be pink or blue. My final verdict on that is I preferred the pink dress when it wasn't on her. And I realized as they were arguing over it at the beginning of the movie, I didn't remember what color it ended up being. Which spoilers. It's because it doesn't, in the movie end up being one color. The movie literally ends with it changing colors.
• 1:19:49
  Speaker B: Yes, it is blue for most of the time.
• 1:19:52
  Speaker A: Sure. Yes. Like when she walks in and stuff. But then the final shot of the movie is her color, her dress changing colors as the storybook closes. So it's like they kept that joke going to the very, very final moment. But I preferred the way it looked when it was pink. When it was like earlier in the film when they were in the cabin changing it back and forth, I'm like, oh, the pink dress looks better. But then when it was on her, I thought the blue dress looked better. It was very random. But that was my. That's my final note on the dress debate.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker B: I believe in blue dress supremacy. I like the blue dress. She wears the pink dress in official Disney princess merch because whatever marketing team was in charge of that thought that kids would confuse her with Cinderella if she wore the blue dress.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker A: I think that's a reasonable choice.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker B: Honestly, it's a whole thing. I'm not saying that it's a whole thing. And it's. And the part of the reason that it is a whole thing is that Cinderella doesn't even wear blue in her movie. Her dress is silver.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker A: Oh.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker B: And they changed it to blue for the merch line.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker A: In my opinion, what they should have put her in was neither of those dresses. They should put her in what she wears for most of the movie, which.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker B: Is, like, her peasant outfit, her PE.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker A: Outfit, which is, like, way more. To me, what I think you have.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker B: To have a princess dress.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker A: When I think of Sleeping Beauty, that's the image I think of is her in that.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker B: Yeah. The little, like, corseted dress. Yeah, for sure.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker A: That's what her toys should be in. But what I get. I get it. She's got to be the princess at the end Whatever. But anyway.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker B: Anyway, but for me it's the blue dress.
• 1:21:21
  Speaker A: There you go. Answered that question. One more question to answer, but we'll get to that in just a second. Before we do, we wanted to to remind you you can do us a favor by heading over to Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Goodreads, any of those places interact with us. We'd love to hear what you have to say about Sleeping Beauty. You can also help us out by heading over to Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to our show. Drop us a little five star rating, write us a nice review. It's always very helpful. And finally, you can support us monetarily by heading over to patreon.com thisfilmislit Support us for 2, 5 or 15 bucks a month. Get access to different things at different levels. Read all about that on our Patreon Katie it's time for the final verdict.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker B: Sentence passed, Verdict after. That's stupid. Despite all the differences we just discussed, I think this comparison may be the closest of any fairy tale adaptation that we've covered so far. I thought that both Perrault's and the Brothers Grimm versions were fun and interesting to read. Both offered details that I wasn't expecting, as well as similarities to the movie that I didn't see coming. While I think that both are well worth the time it takes to read them, even the crazy second half of Pierrot was pretty interesting and fun. I do think that the movie is the superior take on the tale. In particular, I think the film's best choices were to focus on the good fairies as main characters, to have Aurora and Philip meet before she falls victim to the curse, and to expand the wicked fairies role in the storm. And it doesn't hurt that we got maybe the most iconic Disney villain of all time as a result of that. I also have always been in love with this movie's overall aesthetic. The backdrops are so lush and gorgeous, and while the character models aren't groundbreaking or anything, I still think they work well within the world of the film, particularly Maleficent's medieval inspired costume. And as for those reasons, primarily that I'm gonna give this one to the movie.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker A: All right, not that I don't know, but Katie, what's next?
• 1:23:27
  Speaker B: Up next, we are closing out our 2025 Summer Series and we're gonna be talking about Maze the Death Cure.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker A: The Death Cure.
• 1:23:39
  Speaker B: The Death Cure.
• 1:23:40
  Speaker A: Yep. Can't wait. Most I have nothing to say.
• 1:23:45
  Speaker B: The most Cringy emo movies Middle school.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker A: Name for a book not a great title. I haven't started reading it, so I have no opinions yet. But we will get to that in the next prequel episode and then in two weeks time we'll be talking about the death cure. Until that time, guys, gals, not binary pals. And everybody else keep reading books, keep watching movies, and keep being awesome. Sam.