Highly regarded as the most artfully crafted and visually intricate animated feature, Walt Disney's fairytale spectacular returns.
t was Walt Disneys intent that each [: the animated features have its own visual style. Certainly Dumbo looks nothing like Snow White, just as Lady and the Tramp is distinctly different from Alice in Wonderland. Particularly striking, though, are the extraordinarily detailed backgrounds by artist Eyvind Earle which were created for the 1959 Disney retelling of the classic Perrault fairytale, Sleeping Beauty.
Earles highly individualistic painting style with its intricate two-dimensional patterns of color, so impressed Disney that the films character designs were deliberately altered to blend with Earles rich tapestry of color and line. The result is a very formal, angular look, which, though appropriate for a 14th century medieval fantasy, was in stark contrast to the Disney tradition for well-rounded, softly formed characters.
To compensate for this stylized angularity, the Disney animators were instructed by Walt to make "the characters as real as possible, near flesh and blood, and sympathetic." Accordingly, a complete live action film was shot, using actors, costumes, horses and props for the animators to study and use as a guide.
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