Welcome to the second installment! I am, for those of you who missed the last one, defending the relevance of Disney Princesses to modern women and girls, and saying that they are not just ninnies and waifs who have no thoughts or personality apart for waiting to be saved by their Prince. They do not just sit around and do nothing until he comes.
Many think Sleeping Beauty would be hard to defend thusly. Granted, she is in a coma for the last half of the movie. But she is well-characterized before, and one can guess from the context at the politics of her world, that She is highly defendable.
The movie begins, of course, when she is born and the whole kingdom turns out to celebrate. There is no lack of celebration because she was not born a boy--the people are so happy at the birth of an heir, a child for their monarchs. One gets the idea that King Stefan and his wife--we never do learn the Queen's name, do we?--rule jointly, like Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. But it is assumed that Aurora will take the throne, that when she marries Prince Phillip and both of their parents are dead, they will jointly rule the newly-joined kingdoms.
Anyway, she goes through and is blessed by two out of the three good fairies, Flora and Fauna, and just as the third, Merriweather, is about to give her gift, the party is crashed. We meet Maleficent, "The Mistresss of All Evil!" (as she styles herself. Incedentally, in case you were not aware, the fortune-teller head on the Haunted Mansion Ride and Maleficent are the same person--both are voiced by the impeccable Eleanor Audley)
Maleficent is so ticked that she didn't get an invite--yeah, let's think, would a law-abiding king and queen conceivably invite the mistress of all evil to the baby shower?--that she basically curses the uninvolved baby to die by spindle-prick.
Aurora is taken into hiding by the three fairies to live in a cottage in the woods, where they raise her to be a good worker and a kind person. While the fairies get her out of the house to plan her 16th birthday surprise, Aurora discusses her dreams of moving out and falling in love with a Prince.
Now, this is where Aurora (now called "Rose" by the fairies) is often shunted into the category of fainting, fawning, irrelevant Disney Princess. But the naysayers are wrong here too.
I watched "Sleeping Beauty" less than a month before coming to college--you know those nights where you just can't sleep because "Once Upon A Dream" is stuck in your head? It was one of those. She talks about how Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather never let her out to associate with people other than themselves. She reminded me of myself, a girl who wanted to move out of the house and meet new people.
While out in the woods, Aurora develops her talent--her lovely voice. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with a woman being a lovely, talented singer who sings for fun and the enjoyment of others. How many girls do you know who randomly sing when they don't necessarily have to? Exactly.
Well, then she meets Phillip and they fall quite in love after singing and dancing to "Once Upon A Dream"--beautiful piece of music! And, let's be honest girls: is it not attractive and a fantasy of ours to randomly sing/dance with a guy?
She goes back to the cottage and finds her surprise--who wouldn't love a three-layer cake and custom couture? On the other hand, she finds out her entire life up to that point is a lie, that she has to pack up and be the Princess again, and that she will never see Phillip again. And she has about five minutes to take this in.
Yes, women should be happy to have power as she did, but all that in five minutes must have been a wee bit of a shock for her.
She goes back and is put under Maleficent's spell for most of the rest of the movie. Phillip and the fairies have to carry the movie until Phillip kisses her, but the movie is just as much about the fairies as her.
Now, Sleeping Beauty's biggest critique perhaps is the fact that she literally has to be saved by a man, in a manner similar to Snow White--"True Love's Kiss."
I may have said this before, but at some time in every Woman's life, no matter how strong she may be, she will, at some point, need a man's help with SOMETHING. And there is nothing with a strong woman falling in love with a man, and there is nothing wrong with a man letting his girl--whether she be his girlfriend, fiancée, or wife--be loving and also strongly independent.
Anyway, freed from Maleficent's spell by Phillip's kiss, Aurora attends Phillip to her welcome ball, and nobody is any the wiser. At least for now; Aurora will probably tell her parents eventually!
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