Today, Disney is releasing their 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty on Blu-ray, as part of their Diamond Edition series.  When Princess Aurora (Mary Costa) is cursed by the jealous Maleficent (Eleanor Audley), she is sent to live in the forest with three kind fairies, until her sixteenth birthday when it’s up to Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley) to finally break the curse.

Taking almost the entire 1950s to produce, this was clearly a passion project for the studio, and the love and care that went into the studio’s first 70mm production is still evident after all these years.  From the switching pink and blue dress to the woodland creatures playing prince, this really is quite a charming and lovely little film, and the gorgeous ultra widescreen animation looks spectacular on Blu-ray.

With the iconic villain brought back to life by Angelina Jolie earlier this year in Maleficent, which plays as a darkly fascinating counterpart to the relative innocence of the classic fairy tale, this new edition offers the perfect opportunity for Disney fans to revisit Sleeping Beauty.

The Blu-ray includes three deleted scenes and several old and new featurettes, as well as the previously released documentary Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty.  There’s also a commentary track with film historian Leonard Maltin, supervising animator Andreas Deja and John Lasseter.

Sleeping Beauty is 75 minutes and rated G.

-John Corrado