111 Sleeping Beauty Facts You Might Not Know About The Story

'Sleeping Beauty' is a famous fairy tale about a 16-year-old princess named Aurora who sleeps for many years because of an evil curse.

Aurora is the only daughter of sovereign Stefan and Leah, who have been childless for many years. The neighboring kingdoms' kings, Hubert, and Stefan, wanted to combine and rule both kingdoms, so they decided to conduct the childhood marriage of Aurora with Hubert's son, Prince Phillip.

Let's learn about the story and the important characters of 'Sleeping Beauty'.

If you enjoyed reading this article, you must also read our Aladdin facts and Bambi facts here at Kidadl.

Fun Facts About The 'Sleeping Beauty'

'Sleeping Beauty' is a fairy tale and an American animated film produced by Walt Disney, based on Charles Perrault's version. 'Cinderella', and 'Snow-White' are also creations of Walt Disney. Though Walt Disney officially announced 'Sleeping Beauty in 1950, the film was released in 1959.

There was always a comparison between Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, so Walt Disney worked hard to redefine and style the Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty resembles 'The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood', written by Charles Perrault, and the main difference is the seven fairies are down to three fairies.

When paired up with the 'Grand Canyon' (a short film), the film 'Sleeping Beauty' grabbed an Academy Award.

Still, the sad part is that the original 'Sleeping Beauty' film was a huge disaster at the box office in 1959 and a great loss to Walt Disney, which led to the layoff of employees in the animation department.

But the re-release in 1969 proved to be a profitable movie. 'Sleeping Beauty' was the last animated fairy tale film produced by Walt Disney until 'The Little Mermaid'.

Phillip's character was inspired and originated by the Duke of Edinburgh, who was very famous among Americans. It is the first Walt Disney film where a name is given for the Disney prince character.

Facts About The Characters In 'Sleeping Beauty'

You might have noticed the castle in Disney World. It is assumed by many that it is Snow White's castle. But it is the Sleeping Beauty castle. The film's creators used the Sleeping Beauty Castle as a promotional tool during its release.

Aurora is the main character, around whom the story revolves. She is one of the prettiest Disney princesses, with golden blonde hair, violet eyes, and supple pink lips.

Though Aurora shares less screen time in the movie, she exhibits positivity, softness, and shyness at the same time. She obeys her aunt's words and their instructions. Mary Costa worked as a voice assistant for 'Sleeping Beauty'.

She is an opera singer by profession and got a chance to voice Aurora's character after accidentally meeting the composer of the film, Walter Schumann, at a dinner party. When he heard Mary Costa singing 'When I Fall in Love' at the party, he offered this job.

Prince Phillip is the film's hero, a handsome guy with a unique slim body, fair skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. His character depicts love for her sweetheart and how brave he is. He was at a pre-adolescent age when Aurora was born.

He wears a tunic paired with a black shirt and brown pants when he comes to dressing. He is sometimes seen wearing a red cape or hat.

The three fairies gifted him a blue shield and a sword to kill the evil Maleficent. Bill Shirley gave voice to Prince in the Walt Disney movie. Both Mary Costa and Bill's voices were auditioned for the movie together to suit it aptly.

Maleficent, who got angry because the king, neglected her among the other fairies, and because of this, she cursed the king's daughter to sleep for 100 years. Her anger became her enemy.

She searched for Aurora for 16 years, with the help of her pet raven, Diablo. Her ugly appearance, with yellow fingers, raven on her shoulders, and sharp angular frame, resembles this character's pure evil features in the movie 'Sleeping Beauty'.

Merryweather, Flora, and Fauna, fairy godmothers, are life saviors of Aurora and are committed to saving her in every situation and raising her as her child. When the evil fairy kidnapped Prince Phillip, they helped him rescue and kill the evil fairy.

The character of the princess's father, Stefen, felt blessed at the birth of his daughter, Princess Aurora. When he heard about the evil curse, he ordered his soldiers to burn and remove all the spinning wheels in the entire kingdom.

He decided to live away from his daughter to safeguard her from evil curses. Prince Phillip's father, King Hubert, was King Stefen's best friend, and they betrothed their respective children to unite both kingdoms.

Summary Of 'Sleeping Beauty'

The main idea of 'Sleeping Beauty' is that love wins at the end. With true love, we can conquer hate and the world.

However, evil rules the world temporarily, and it is good deeds that win at the end of the story. 'Sleeping Beauty' took place in Germany in the 14th century. The castle mentioned by Walt Disney is Neuschwanstein Castle, located in the southern part of Germany, in the Bavaria region.

Aurora's birth brought immense joy to King Stefan and his queen's lives.

They were so happy that they arranged a christening ceremony where the good fairies, Fauna, Merryweather, and Flora, were invited to shower wishes on the child.

But because of the good fairy Merryweather's rude remark, the evil fairy, Maleficent, curses the child to die on her 16th birthday before sunset, and the cause of her death will be hurting her finger in a spindle.

But fortunately, because of Merryweather's cast spill, the Princess is granted a wish where she goes to deep sleep for a hundred years and will wake up only when her betrothed wakes up with a kiss.

To save Aurora from the curse, the fairies take the girl to the woods, change their appearances, and raise her as their child with Briar Rose's name by convincing her that they are her aunts. The princess grew up to be a beautiful lady.

She meets the handsome Prince Phillip in the woods, where both eventually fall in love at first sight.

As her 16th birthday approached, the three good fairies decided to return to the kingdom and Aurora.

The whole kingdom was eagerly waiting to meet the beautiful princess. To keep the witch at bay, the three fairies transport the princess through the secret door.

In the king's castle, both Stefan and Hubert start speaking about the future and the marriage proposal of the kids.

In the meantime, Prince Phillip arrives and tells his father about the girl he met in the woods. But when Hubert gets upset, he reminds him of his betrothal in his childhood with Princess Aurora.

Hearing this, Phillip gets upset and rides to a cottage in the woods where Aurora lives.

The good fairies leave Aurora alone for some time as she thinks about Phillip. But the witch, waiting to execute her plan, tricked the princess and ordered her to put her finger in the spinning wheel (where the witch turned the green orb into the spinning wheel).

Aurora did what the witch ordered in the trance stage, and soon the Princess went into sleep mode before the three good fairies could do anything.

In the tower room, the three fairies decided to keep the entire kingdom asleep till Aurora woke up, so that no one would be hurt after knowing the sleeping phase of Aurora. They cast a spell and put the people of the kingdom to sleep.

During that course, Flora listens to Hubert's words about the girl Phillip mentioned. From their conversation, she understood that it was Phillip that Aurora met in the woods.

So they decided to reach the cottage where they could meet the Prince. But upon reaching the cottage, they realized that the witch had already captured him.

The film ends with Phillip killing the witch with the Sword of Truth in her heart. Aurora wakes up when the Princess kisses her, and soon the entire kingdom wakes up. 

Facts About 'Sleeping Beauty''s Writer

The original version of 'Sleeping Beauty' is in narrative one, Perceforest. This first tale was first published in 'The Pentamerone' by Giambattista Basile in his collection of tales.

Later, Charles Perrault adapted Basile's version and published it in 'Histoires ou contes du temps passé' (1967). The Brothers Grimm later collected and printed the Perrault version of the tale. In Perrault's story, seven fairies bless the princess with special talents such as dance, beauty, song, music, wit, and grace.

In the story's original version ( Giambattista Basile version, 17th century), the sleeping Princess gives birth to the king's children whilst she sleeps.

A team of writers, including Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, and Ted Sears, started working on Perrault's version in Disney style. The writers decided to work hard on the story element and the romantic part.

They worked hard to recreate the scene where the Prince and Princess meet at first sight. The name of the princess in Perrault's version is Aurora, and in the Brothers Grimm's version it is Briar Rose, so both names are used for princess characters.