I can't believe it!
Ben actually doesn't know something, and I get to inform
him! And
Sleeping Beauty's one of his favorites?
First of all,
Sleeping Beauty will have an all new restoration. The first one was done in-house by Disney, by whoever did
Snow White's. But now a new one was done by Lowry Digital Images. It is listed on their
web site as one the films they have done. They're the ones who did restorations for films like
Bambi and the horribly wrong fiasco of a restoration for
Cinderella. However, from the images (and a Wonderful World of Disney sneak peek of the restoration),
Sleeping Beauty looks good, close to how it was originally but things stand out more.
Furthermore,
Sleeping Beauty will be presented in an expanded ratio from what we've seen so far on home video. Apparently Technirama has different frame areas that can yield different aspect ratios, and the frame area
Sleeping Beauty was shot in yields an aspect ratio of 2.55:1 on the original camera negatives. It shows more picture, on the sides and a little on the top and bottom. While I would like to have as much picture as possible, it isn't the original aspect ratio. Oh well, more background and animation to see!
Here's a comparison of the old DVD to the newly restored and reformatted DVD & Blu-ray, but they're bad examples, only from what I could find:
Many people thought Disney was giving up on DVD, and some suspected they were saving the good stuff for Blu-ray, to help convince people to buy the new format. Well, it seems that's what they have done, as the new Blu-ray will have many more new bonus features than just a new game! Of course the previous DVD was packed and a good release as it was, but Disney hasn't always ported old bonus features over! I'll mark the features that were on the old DVD with a star (*). If it's not starred, it's new (as we know of)!
DISC ONE
- Audio Commentary with John Lasseter, Andreas Deja and Leonard Maltin
- Visual Commentary (Blu-ray only)
- Princess Fun Facts
- Disney Song Selection
DISC TWO:
Backstage Disney
- “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty” (about 43 minutes!)
- “Eyvind Earle: The Man and His Art”
- Build Reel
- “Four Artists Paint One Tree” *
- “The Peter Tchaikovsky Story” *
- Art Galleries * (might be some new art in them, though)
Storyboard Sequences
- Introduction
- The Fairies Put the Castle to Sleep: Split-Screen Comparison
- The Capture of the Prince: Split-Screen Comparison
Live-Action Reference
- Briar Rose Dances
- Prince Philip Fights the Dragon
- The Queen and a Good Mary (probably means Good Fairy)
Publicity
- Original Teaser Trailer *
- Original Trailer *
- Re-Release Trailer *
Music and More
- “Once Upon A Dream” Music Video
- “Holiday” Alternate Opening
- "It Happens I Have A Picture" Version 2 - 1952
- "Riddle-Diddle"
- "Go To Sleep"
- Sequence 8
Fun and Games
- Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-Through Attraction (yes, a virtual recreation of the attraction, including history of the attraction)
- Briar Rose’s Enchanted Dance Game (DVD only)
- Maleficent’s Challenge Game (Blu-ray only)
- Sleeping Beauty Fun With Language Game
- (and possibly something called Dungeon Escape, probably a game)
BD Live
- Virtual Castle Menu Interface
- Movie Mail
- Movie Chat
- Movie Challenge
Missing features that were from the old 2003 Special Edition DVD but did not make it onto this new 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray are as follows, but some of the features sound similar to the new DVD and Blu-ray features, or parts of them will probably be in the new DVD and Blu-ray features, especially the storyboards and live-action references:
- Audio Commentary (with Eyvind Earle, Mary Costa, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis, Frank Armitage, Mike Gabriel, Michael Giaimo, and hosted by Jeff Kurtti)
- Once Upon A Dream: The Making Of Sleeping Beauty
- The Music
- The Design
- Creating The Backgrounds
- Briar Rose Dance Reference
- Prince Phillip And The Dragon Reference (also includes the Queen and a man in drag as a Good Fairy)
- Photographs (of live-action reference)
- The Restoration
- Widescreen to Pan-and-Scan Comparison
- The History of the Story
- The 1951 Outline
- Sequence 15: "The Fairies Put the Castle to Sleep" (it looks like what I would call split-screen, the storyboards on top, the film below)
- Sequence 17: "The Capture of the Prince" (also what I would call split-screen betweeen storyboards and the film)
- "Grand Canyon" (live-action short paired with Sleeping Beauty's first release)
- Disney's Art Project (make a princess and dragon out of household objects)
- Rescue Aurora Adventure Game
- Princess Personality Profile Game
- "Once Upon A Dream" Sing-Along-Song
- "Once Upon (Another) Dream" Music Video
- Sleeping Beauty Ink & Paint Game