Walt Disney Book Scans - Sleeping Beauty: My Side of the Story (Princess Aurora)

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey muis to Hercules by
John Grant

Walt Disney Character beschrijving of Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959)

Of all the characters in Sleeping Beauty, the one that everyone remembers, even decades later, is the wicked fairy Maleficent. She is one of the finest creations ever to come out of the Disney studio - and the brilliant transformation of her into the Dragon to fight Phillip merely adds to the strength of the characterization. Even her name - a wonderful combination of "malice" and "malevolent" - testifies to her pure evil....

The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey muis to Hercules by
John Grant

Although she is the central character of the movie, the part of Princess Aurora/Briar Rose is in fact a very small one - smaller, for example, than that of Prince Phillip (in marked contrast with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs whose Prince hardly made an appearance, but whose heroine occupied a fair deal of screen-time). In fact, her functions in the movie are three: (a) to be cursed; (b) to meet and fall in love with Phillip; and (c) to prick her finger and fall into a death-like sleep. Over (a)...