I have added two new Disney movies to my collection of favorite Disney movies. Man, having a kid was a great way to rediscover how good the old animated Disney movies were.
First, Sleeping Beauty is the most unutterably gorgeous animated film ever, and I should know, because I’ve seen near all of the really pretty ones. I mean the ones that take five or ten or fifteen years to make — I’ve seen most of them, and they’re all really gorgeous, and the Thief and the Cobbler is the best, but Sleeping Beauty is the prettiest.
It utterly changed the way I look at composition. Expect a lot more strong horizontals and verticals from me in the future. Expect a lot more reason behind me using diagonals.
The story, sadly, isn’t much. It’s Snow White but slightly better.
I’m also into the Rescuers, which is the apex of the Silver Age. The story’s at least a little better; it’s chock full of pathos at least. It’s about innocence and the defense of innocence and the power of the powerless and etc. But it’s also gorgeous. It was the last movie that Disney’s Nine Old Men worked on and boy did they put their hearts and souls into it. Madame Medusa is an utterly unforgettable villain, even creepier and more off-putting than Cruella De Ville. Actually, neither one is worse than the other, it’s just a terrifying world that contains both of them.