French

Over 60 years after its release, Walt Disney's 1959 animated fairy tale Sleeping Beauty continues to enchant audiences with its lush colours and magical grandeur. Following the success of Cinderella in 1950, Disney launched into another adaption of a female centred fairy tale with Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, featuring a score based on Tchaikovsky's ballet and two-dimensional paper-cut style figure animation set against beautifully rich and detailed backgrounds, imitating the look and feel of a medieval tapestry or illuminated manuscript. Almost eight years in the making, with a $6 million budget making it the most expensive Disney production up to that point, the film failed to recoup its costs on initial release. As a result, Sleeping Beauty would be the last Disney feature to be made with costly hand-inked cels and the last adaptation of a princess fairy tale until 1989’s The Little Mermaid. Like many Disney archive features however, the film's successful reissues have ensured it now ranks as the second most commercially successful film released in 1959, behind Ben-Hur. With a full cast of characters including the slumbering Aurora amongst her woodland friends, the evil witch Maleficent and a sprinkle of fairy dust from the three good fairies, this charming poster for the film's original French release La Belle au Bois Dormant features the same artwork as the US Style A One Sheet.

Condition

Very good (B+)

Conservation backed on linen. Backing has smoothed and diminished one vertical and three horizontal manual folds (the vertical fold double creased), minor nicks and creases to corners and edges, and two small ½in. tears to left edge which are now virtually invisible. Minor colour touching to folds and slight discolouration to central horizontal fold, typical with French posters. Image and colours otherwise excellent.