Moviefan

Hello & welcome back to The Magic of Storybrooke and after a long hiatus, I have returned and today, we learn why it’s not easy being green.

Episode Title

It’s Not Easy Being Green

I think we all know, where the show got it’s title from.

I remember, when I first learned of this episode’s title, it made me chuckle. However, you can look deeper into this episode title and see it as a reference to Zelena’s struggles and how her foster father never loved her or that, she felt betrayed by Cora and her jealously of Regina, led to her becoming, hence it’s not easy being green.

The Plots

We open on Neal’s funeral and while this is a touching moment, I do have one minor complaint with this scene. Everyone from Hook to Emma truly show their emotions as they bury Neal and I’ll admit I was bawling when I watched this scene, the first time but anyways, my complaint is that I wish that this scene and that’s I wish that there had been no music. I don’t know the background music for this scene kinda took me out of the funeral, the second time I watched this episode. I think that this scene would’ve played better if the entire scene had been silent.

This scene just gets to me, Emma having to bury her first love and the father of her child and oof, Henry still doesn’t remember that this father was a good great man. Look, I may be a Captain Swan shipper but I didn’t hate Neal. While this is going, we see The Wicked Witch taunting Rumple and asks him if casting the curse was worth it and Rumple says that he’d do it all over again. We later see the townsfolk at Granny’s for the wake and Zelena make her grand entrance and we find out that she is there to see her little sister, Regina. Where we get this good but corny exchange between Zelena and Regina.

I’ll admit it is a little jarring to go from Neal’s funeral to this. Later on, at her vault, Regina finds a letter from her mother that she had always believed to be about her. It was from Rumple stating how talented her first born. Ooh, that stings. Later, Regina is tracked down by Robin and pickpockets the letter and reads it aloud. And Regina admits that she is nervous because if Rumple thinks that Zelena is more powerful than her, there’s no hope for her win in the ensuing fight. Meanwhile, our other heroes discuss a way to try and get through to Gold and Belle through to her beloved without using the dagger but it’s to no avail as that crafty little witch still has the imp under her control. With all of this going on, Hook and Henry had been spending some time together as Hook thinks he can help the boy to know what his father like at his age. It’s a minor but rather touching subplot.

And then it’s time for the showdown but first, we have this great line.

Zelena: Out of my way, Munchkin.

Sneezy: I’m a dwarf.

Zelena: That’s even worse.

This line was used in the trailer for this episode and even there, it made me laugh but that trailer was just awful. The duel between the sisters was intense and a lot of fun to watch

The fight ends up in the clock tower and when it looks as though, Zelena may come out the victor and get Regina’s heart but no, Cora taught her one useful thing, Never take your heart to a witch fight. Zelena promises that she’ll get Regina’s heart and destroy her. We learn later from Zelena that what she’s planning isn’t a curse but a second chance. Let’s move onto the Fairy Tale plot.

We open in Oz, where a woodcutter and his wife come across a baby that had been dropped into Oz via cyclone and the wife wants to take the baby home but the woodcutter is scared of her because of what she can do. The wife decides to name the baby, Zelena. Some years later, we see a now grown Zelena with her foster father has grown to despise his daughter. Okay, this gave me a Wicked vibe in how Elphie’s dad never loved either. (BTW Elphie is 100% cooler than Zelena).

Zelena decides to leave her father, who had only treated her poorly and never truly loved her and goes to see the one person, that can actually help her, The Wizard of Oz. Which this sequence reminded me a lot of Oz: The Great and Powerful. Another Disney take on the works of Baum. Albeit, much better than what the show did here.

Small tangent but I don’t get the hate for that movie. I think it’s a great little prequel and it has one of the best Disney villains with Evanora and that’s more than I can say for Zelena. Anyways back to the review, The Wizard reveals to Zelena that she came from The Enchanted Forest and that Cora was her biological mother and that Regina is her younger sister and that Rumple is training her. The Wizard gives her, the silver slippers that she uses to go to The Enchanted Forest.

And when there, she comes across Rumple and she asks him to teach her and he at first, he agrees and things seem to rather swimmingly until Rumple refuses to let her be the one to cast The Dark Curse and he leaves to go teach Regina because he realizes that the thing that Zelena loves most is himself and he can’t allow himself to be sacrificed as he needs to cast the curse to find his son. Rumple tells Zelena that unless he can take her to a land without magic, she’s of no use to him. Zelena bitterly says that she did referencing the slippers and teleports away before Rumple can get his hands on them.

You shouldn’t have taught me all your tricks. And the next time, you will choose me.

Zelena uses the slippers to return back to Oz and demands that The Wizard take her back in time to stop Cora from abandoning her. The Wizard reveals that is even beyond his control and Zelena grows suspicious and tears the curtain and The Wizard is revealed to be Walsh aka the flying monkey that Emma was dating in New York City Serenade.

Speaking of which, we see that transformation take place in this episode and wait a minute, Walsh has been a flying monkey for centuries and yet his human form never aged. Okay, I’m over thinking this but do flying monkeys not age because Walsh in New York City Serenade looked exactly the same as he did here. Anyways, Zelena apparently got inspiration to do this from the flying monkey poster hanging behind Walsh. And there is one line of dialogue that Walsh that think sums up Once’s Wizard pretty well.

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses and today, we take a look at Tiana. And joining me is T-kun. Now, I cannot understate how important Tiana is bringing back the princesses. Yes, she’s also important for being the last hand-drawn princess as Disney had given up on hand-drawn until her film came along but perhaps, it is just me over thinking but I feel like without Tiana, we may not have gotten Rapunzel, Elsa or Anna but those are future articles. Now just as a reminder, we will be looking at Tiana’s Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Favorite Moments, Later Appearances, and finally, answer the question, Is Tiana a Good Character? T-kun, it’s a pleasure to have you here again.

Read the rest of this entry →

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and after a long hiatus, Power of The Princesses is back. Now alas, I had to go solo because of scheduling conflicts with my partner for Mulan. Anyways, just as a reminder, here is what, we will be looking at. Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment, Later Appearances and again, both Kingdom Hearts and Once Upon A Time will get their own section, and finally , Is Mulan A Good Character? We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get down to business.

Read the rest of this entry →

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses and I have to be honest and say that the next two ladies in the line-up leave me scratching my head as I don’t recall them being princesses in their respective films. Today, I’ll be taking a look a Pocahontas and will be joined by T-kun, making her first appearance on A Look at Disney. Welcome. Now per usual, this’ll be broken down into Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment, Later Appearances (the first one that does not include a Kingdom Hearts appearance), and finally Is Pocahontas A Good Character.

T-kun: Sweet! Let’s get this show on the road than!

Read the rest of this entry →

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses and I have to be honest and say that the next two ladies in the line-up leave me scratching my head as I don’t recall them being princesses in their respective films. Today, I’ll be taking a look a Pocahontas and will be joined by T-kun, making her first appearance on A Look at Disney. Welcome. Now per usual, this’ll be broken down into Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment, Later Appearances (the first one that does not include a Kingdom Hearts appearance), and finally Is Pocahontas A Good Character.

T-kun: Sweet! Let’s get this show on the road than!

Read the rest of this entry →

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses and I have to be honest and say that the next two ladies in the line-up leave me scratching my head as I don’t recall them being princesses in their respective films. Today, I’ll be taking a look a Pocahontas and will be joined by T-kun, making her first appearance on A Look at Disney. Welcome. Now per usual, this’ll be broken down into Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment, Later Appearances (the first one that does not include a Kingdom Hearts appearance), and finally Is Pocahontas A Good Character.

T-kun: Sweet! Let’s get this show on the road than!

Original Voice Actress

Irene Bedard

Moviefan12: Irene Bedard to me has to be one of the more forgettable presences, when it comes to Disney voice actresses. It’s not that she’s bad but nothing about her work as Pocahontas really stood out for me. You did get the sense of that she was trying to portray her character as being strong-willed and as a free spirit but I don’t know at points, Pocahontas felt monotone. Now like Jasmine before her, Pocahontas’ singing voice was provided by a different voice actress as her singing voice was provided by Judy Kuhn. And I think that Kuhn brought more life to the character of Pocahontas through her singing than Irene Bedard did voicing the same character.

Yeah, you are going to notice that I’m not going to be overly positive in this article. It’s not that I hate this character like I do Aurora but rather, this film, when I re-watched it was just so boring and while I thought Pocahontas was a good character before this, but now I’m not so sure but she is perhaps the only interesting character in the film.

T-kun: Irene Bedard, I would say does okay, as someone who is part Native America, there are times where emotions could not get the best of us when speaking of higher power or that of the unknown, sign of weakness if you will. It may be monotone in some ways, but in a spirit lighting, protecting the soul is another matter of it’s own.

Moving onto her singer’s voice. It’s wonderful and breath taking. Right amount to pull you into the world of spirit world, the language of the rivers and forest. If I saw the singer at a bond fire for a awaken of spirits, I would say good blessing for crops to bountifully.

But that’s just me.

First Appearance

Moviefan12: Pocahontas was first seen in the 1995 film of the same name

And this film is often considered the downfall of the Disney Renaissance but it had one thing working against it, that it came out directly after The Lion King and the hype for The Lion King was still pretty big, when this film hit theaters and I’m not saying that hurt the film’s chances but it certainly didn’t help and that is akin to what is going on with Frozen right now and has many people are anxious about Big Hero 6 and that film is going to be the next Pocahontas. Another thing, I find fascinating is that according to the documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, which is about the Renaissance, everyone at the animation studio thought Pocahontas was going to be Disney’s next big hit while The Lion King would just be another Disney film, clearly that’s not what happened. And it’s not to hard see why people don’t look back fondly on this film as while it’s okay, it doesn’t seem like much effort was put into it

T-kun: Well that is true, if there wasn’t that always comparing of what is good and what’s not. Pocahontas would have a fair chance, but what I think really failed it, was that of what the movie was loosely based on, and had a lot of true history lovers on the mean and green side. It might have not have been the greatest movie of all time, but there are there moments, that Disney was falling and getting back on it’s feet, again though, it just took time to do so

I find Pocahontas was more of testing the waters, again for Disney.

Personality

Moviefan12: I don’t know if this should bug me as much as it does but I find the fact that Disney played fast and loose with the story of a real person, troubling. Now, this is not the first time, they did so as the short, The Brave Engineer, which was about Casey Jones had him survive, when that wasn’t what happened at all.

But even in my review of that short, I pointed out that I didn’t like that they didn’t go for the truth and with Pocahontas, I have the same issue. It’s hard for me to look at her as just a Disney character, when she is based on a real American historical figure and from what I’ve read, her personality in the Disney film does not reflect who she truly was and so much of her story was twisted around to fit to the style of a Disney film. As for the Disney version of Pocahontas, she is presented, a brave, noble and a free spirit. That’s another thing I noticed with Pocahontas, it felt like they were trying to make her an amalgamation of the princesses that had come before her and even some of the non-princess character and completely missed the point of what made those characters work and again, choosing not reflect who the real Pocahontas was. I would argue that Disney wouldn’t give us female characters that broke the mold of what we expected until the following year with Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and again in 1997 with Meg in Hercules.

T-kun: I will agree that Disney came nowhere close to what the story was based on. But looking at some other stories that they did, change it and made them work. It’s a 50/50 on her.

But I will say there were small moments where she was true to what she was and to who she was to in others eyes, though coming in small doses.

Taking the point as she was brave into helping saving a life, she bearly knew, and was from a world unlike hers, but took time to see that John was more friend than foe, in seeing that the unknown may not the most welcome feeling, does not mean on doing inertly what is right.

In the last moment in saving a life, in a split moment of losing her own, it shows to at least the viewer that all should been seen as equal and giving a chance. No being or spirit different from another, they make a sign of life of difference.

To me, at least in this scene of the movie is where I see it . . .

Human or spirit on what lies on the unknown lies within the choice. To step side and understand the change or let the fear infest on one forever, never knowing what could have been.

Other matters of what is only skin deep, is none and void.

Favorite Moment

Moviefan12: Now to look at our favorite moments and for me, it has to be If I Never Knew You.

Am I cheating by including something that wasn’t a part of the movie until 2005 and is technically a cut song,? Yeah, I am but I can back this up. It’s the best song from this movie and this is one of the only two times, I ever felt anything for Pocahontas and captures the relationship of Pocahontas and John Smith, but this romance is made a little weird, when you find out that real Pocahontas was only 9, when the settlers came to the new world but looking on it as it’s own song, this song perfectly shows the relationship between these two characters.

T-kun: Huh? I thought you were going to say credits, but this works just as well. And I agree when re seeing this, it’s a wonderful piece to the film, and has every right to be know for it.

But when coming down to it, as one my favorite moment(s), would have to be near the ending and no it’s not the credits.

There are certain reasons I love the ending overall. And I’ll try my best to break down why that is.

1) It was the (First? I am not fully sure of it) princess that stayed behind to help her people, than going after love.

2) How the spirit of her mother within winds sends calming messages that all she did was in the right, even sending a moment for John, that in someway soon, they could meet again.

3) The still moment of it before it ends within a picture frame is breathe taking, with the warmth colors of sadness, joy, and promising new starts.
4) The subtle tones of music that ends the scene is so peaceful to ears.

Oh yes there are other parts in the film that come close it, such as your choice Moviefan, the color of the wind song, the talks with her willow tree mother, and the brink of war scene, but that still moment near the end, is what gets me and has me looking forward through the whole film.

Later Appearances

Moviefan12: Now, we’ve got a few appearances to get through but not too many. Pocahontas did appear in a sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey To a New World, where she fell in love with John Rolfe, who she ended up marrying in real life.

I guess in that regard, they were trying to rectify some of the historical fallacies from the first film. Pocahontas also did make a few appearances on House of Mouse and later, this season, will appear on Sofia The First. No images have been released for that yet. (The Sofia appearance has not been confirmed).

And in Aladdin and The King of Thieves, Genie at one point turns into her.

Pocahontas can be seen all over the parks, why my very first trip to Disney World, when I was about six years old included a character breakfast featuring the characters of Pocahontas and Song of The South. Looking back on it, that’s odd pairing. She can be found in the Disney World version of Fantasminc .

You can also find for meet and greets at the various parks, though she’s usually found in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

And from 1998 – 2008, Animal Kingdom had a show titled Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, which was about various forest animals and respecting nature.

Now, I never actually saw this show and I can live with that. In Hong Kong Disney, you can find her on It’s A Small World

On the Disney Cruise line, her and John Smith can be seen in The Golden Mickey’s.

And there’s one last thing, I need to talk about, back when the movie was released, there was a game for it on the Sega Genesis and I only remember this game because I think it was the VHS tape for this film or The Lion King included an ad for the game. I’ve never played it but I remember that ad vividly. And thankfully, I found that ad on YouTube. Here it be. Edit: Turns out it was on the VHS for A Goofy Movie and this game was also on the SNES but for some reason, I remember the Sega version more.

Do you have anything to add, T-kun before we move on to the final part?

T-kun: Oh, how the world has turn for this princess. As I didn’t know much after most of this, besides the bad, bad, evil, turning in your grave sequel, and very glad I didn’t. So, please carry on.

Moviefan12: Alright, it’s now time to answer the question, Is Pocahontas A Good Character?

Is Pocahontas A Good Character?

Moviefan12: I have a very hard time answering this question. I don’t hate Pocahontas but I don’t believe that she is one of the stronger characters. There is truly nothing memorable about her. Again, not a character I hate but she’s at best forgettable.

T-kun: On thinking of it, it is a hard way of saying if she is a strong character or not. I wouldn’t call her a forgettable one though, for mostly that if she wasn’t made, would we get any of the others movies after her? She shows a few gems, but it can’t save her.

On a scale? She’s a 3/10. Needs a lot of work, but there are moments, though rare, that she’s in the right mind set.

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses and I have to be honest and say that the next two ladies in the line-up leave me scratching my head as I don’t recall them being princesses in their respective films. Today, I’ll be taking a look a Pocahontas and will be joined by T-kun, making her first appearance on A Look at Disney. Welcome. Now per usual, this’ll be broken down into Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment, Later Appearances (the first one that does not include a Kingdom Hearts appearance), and finally Is Pocahontas A Good Character.

T-kun: Sweet! Let’s get this show on the road than!

Original Voice Actress

Irene Bedard

Moviefan12: Irene Bedard to me has to be one of the more forgettable presences, when it comes to Disney voice actresses. It’s not that she’s bad but nothing about her work as Pocahontas really stood out for me. You did get the sense of that she was trying to portray her character as being strong-willed and as a free spirit but I don’t know at points, Pocahontas felt monotone. Now like Jasmine before her, Pocahontas’ singing voice was provided by a different voice actress as her singing voice was provided by Judy Kuhn. And I think that Kuhn brought more life to the character of Pocahontas through her singing than Irene Bedard did voicing the same character.

Yeah, you are going to notice that I’m not going to be overly positive in this article. It’s not that I hate this character like I do Aurora but rather, this film, when I re-watched it was just so boring and while I thought Pocahontas was a good character before this, but now I’m not so sure but she is perhaps the only interesting character in the film.

T-kun: Irene Bedard, I would say does okay, as someone who is part Native America, there are times where emotions could not get the best of us when speaking of higher power or that of the unknown, sign of weakness if you will. It may be monotone in some ways, but in a spirit lighting, protecting the soul is another matter of it’s own.

Moving onto her singer’s voice. It’s wonderful and breath taking. Right amount to pull you into the world of spirit world, the language of the rivers and forest. If I saw the singer at a bond fire for a awaken of spirits, I would say good blessing for crops to bountifully.

But that’s just me.

First Appearance

Moviefan12: Pocahontas was first seen in the 1995 film of the same name

And this film is often considered the downfall of the Disney Renaissance but it had one thing working against it, that it came out directly after The Lion King and the hype for The Lion King was still pretty big, when this film hit theaters and I’m not saying that hurt the film’s chances but it certainly didn’t help and that is akin to what is going on with Frozen right now and has many people are anxious about Big Hero 6 and that film is going to be the next Pocahontas. Another thing, I find fascinating is that according to the documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, which is about the Renaissance, everyone at the animation studio thought Pocahontas was going to be Disney’s next big hit while The Lion King would just be another Disney film, clearly that’s not what happened. And it’s not to hard see why people don’t look back fondly on this film as while it’s okay, it doesn’t seem like much effort was put into it

T-kun: Well that is true, if there wasn’t that always comparing of what is good and what’s not. Pocahontas would have a fair chance, but what I think really failed it, was that of what the movie was loosely based on, and had a lot of true history lovers on the mean and green side. It might have not have been the greatest movie of all time, but there are there moments, that Disney was falling and getting back on it’s feet, again though, it just took time to do so

I find Pocahontas was more of testing the waters, again for Disney.

Personality

Moviefan12: I don’t know if this should bug me as much as it does but I find the fact that Disney played fast and loose with the story of a real person, troubling. Now, this is not the first time, they did so as the short, The Brave Engineer, which was about Casey Jones had him survive, when that wasn’t what happened at all.

But even in my review of that short, I pointed out that I didn’t like that they didn’t go for the truth and with Pocahontas, I have the same issue. It’s hard for me to look at her as just a Disney character, when she is based on a real American historical figure and from what I’ve read, her personality in the Disney film does not reflect who she truly was and so much of her story was twisted around to fit to the style of a Disney film. As for the Disney version of Pocahontas, she is presented, a brave, noble and a free spirit. That’s another thing I noticed with Pocahontas, it felt like they were trying to make her an amalgamation of the princesses that had come before her and even some of the non-princess character and completely missed the point of what made those characters work and again, choosing not reflect who the real Pocahontas was. I would argue that Disney wouldn’t give us female characters that broke the mold of what we expected until the following year with Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and again in 1997 with Meg in Hercules.

T-kun: I will agree that Disney came nowhere close to what the story was based on. But looking at some other stories that they did, change it and made them work. It’s a 50/50 on her.

But I will say there were small moments where she was true to what she was and to who she was to in others eyes, though coming in small doses.

Taking the point as she was brave into helping saving a life, she bearly knew, and was from a world unlike hers, but took time to see that John was more friend than foe, in seeing that the unknown may not the most welcome feeling, does not mean on doing inertly what is right.

In the last moment in saving a life, in a split moment of losing her own, it shows to at least the viewer that all should been seen as equal and giving a chance. No being or spirit different from another, they make a sign of life of difference.

To me, at least in this scene of the movie is where I see it . . .

Human or spirit on what lies on the unknown lies within the choice. To step side and understand the change or let the fear infest on one forever, never knowing what could have been.

Other matters of what is only skin deep, is none and void.

Favorite Moment

Moviefan12: Now to look at our favorite moments and for me, it has to be If I Never Knew You.

Am I cheating by including something that wasn’t a part of the movie until 2005 and is technically a cut song,? Yeah, I am but I can back this up. It’s the best song from this movie and this is one of the only two times, I ever felt anything for Pocahontas and captures the relationship of Pocahontas and John Smith, but this romance is made a little weird, when you find out that real Pocahontas was only 9, when the settlers came to the new world but looking on it as it’s own song, this song perfectly shows the relationship between these two characters.

T-kun: Huh? I thought you were going to say credits, but this works just as well. And I agree when re seeing this, it’s a wonderful piece to the film, and has every right to be know for it.

But when coming down to it, as one my favorite moment(s), would have to be near the ending and no it’s not the credits.

There are certain reasons I love the ending overall. And I’ll try my best to break down why that is.

1) It was the (First? I am not fully sure of it) princess that stayed behind to help her people, than going after love.

2) How the spirit of her mother within winds sends calming messages that all she did was in the right, even sending a moment for John, that in someway soon, they could meet again.

3) The still moment of it before it ends within a picture frame is breathe taking, with the warmth colors of sadness, joy, and promising new starts.
4) The subtle tones of music that ends the scene is so peaceful to ears.

Oh yes there are other parts in the film that come close it, such as your choice Moviefan, the color of the wind song, the talks with her willow tree mother, and the brink of war scene, but that still moment near the end, is what gets me and has me looking forward through the whole film.

Later Appearances

Moviefan12: Now, we’ve got a few appearances to get through but not too many. Pocahontas did appear in a sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey To a New World, where she fell in love with John Rolfe, wh o she ended up marrying in real life.

I guess in that regard, they were trying to rectify some of the historical fallacies from the first film. Pocahontas also did make a few appearances on House of Mouse and later, this season, will appear on Sofia The First. No images have been released for that yet.

And in Aladdin and The King of Thieves, Genie at one point turns into her.

Pocahontas can be seen all over the parks, why my very first trip to Disney World, when I was about six years old included a character breakfast featuring the characters of Pocahontas and Song of The South. Looking back on it, that’s odd pairing. She can be found in the Disney World version of Fantasminc .

You can also find for meet and greets at the various parks, though she’s usually found in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

And from 1998 – 2008, Animal Kingdom had a show titled Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, which was about various forest animals and respecting nature.

Now, I never actually saw this show and I can live with that. In Hong Kong Disney, you can find her on It’s A Small World

On the Disney Cruise line, her and John Smith can be seen in The Golden Mickey’s.

And there’s one last thing, I need to talk about, back when the movie was released, there was a game for it on the Sega Genesis and I only remember this game because I think it was the VHS tape for this film or The Lion King included an ad for the game. I’ve never played it but I remember that ad vividly. And thankfully, I found that ad on YouTube. Here it be. Edit: Turns out it was on the VHS for A Goofy Movie and this game was also on the SNES but for some reason, I remember the Sega version more.

Do you have anything to add, T-kun before we move on to the final part?

T-kun: Oh, how the world has turn for this princess. As I didn’t know much after most of this, besides the bad, bad, evil, turning in your grave sequel, and very glad I didn’t. So, please carry on.

Moviefan12: Alright, it’s now time to answer the question, Is Pocahontas A Good Character?

Is Pocahontas A Good Character?

Moviefan12: I have a very hard time answering this question. I don’t hate Pocahontas but I don’t believe that she is one of the stronger characters. There is truly nothing memorable about her. Again, not a character I hate but she’s at best forgettable.

T-kun: On thinking of it, it is a hard way of saying if she is a strong character or not. I wouldn’t call her a forgettable one though, for mostly that if she wasn’t made, would we get any of the others movies after her? She shows a few gems, but it can’t save her.

On a scale? She’s a 3/10. Needs a lot of work, but there are moments, though rare, that she’s in the right mind set.

Moviefan12: Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses and today, I am joined by pbmiranda from Old School Lane as we take a look at Jasmine. Boy, this feels familiar as I just did an Aladdin Week, over a month ago. Anyways, here’s the usual rundown, Original Voice Actress, First Appearance, Personality, Favorite Moment, Later Appearances, which again will include DisneyOtoko covering Jasmine’s appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series of games and finally, Is Jasmine A Good Character. pbmiranda, thanks for joining me and I can’t believe that it’s taken us this long to do another cross over. Anyways, I’m glad to have you on board for this magic carpet ride.

pbmiranda: Thanks for trusting me to come on board.

Moviefan12: My pleasure, let’s get started.

pmiranda: Let ‘s do this!

Original Voice Actress

Linda Larkin

Moviefan12: I mean no disrespect to Linda Larkin but when compared to who came before her, with Jodi Benson and Paige O’Hara. I must admit that her voice acting work as Jasmine does not stay with me as much. She’s not bad but I think this is in part because Jasmine was the first princess character to have two different actresses for her speaking and singing roles. Her singing voice was provided by Lea Salonga and if I’m to be honest, Lea Salonga’s voice work singing as Jasmine has stayed with me more than Larkin’s speaking role as Jasmine.

I mean no disrespect to Larkin as she does a good job with the role but at best, I just found it serviceable, when compared to many of the other actors in the film such as Johnathan Freeman as Jafar. Again, she’s not but for some reason, when I think of Jasmine, my mind goes to Lea Salonga’s singing talents before Linda Larkin.

pbmiranda: I agree. While Linda did an admirable job of portraying as Jasmine, she had stiff competition when compared to the last two voice actresses who played as their respected princesses. Jodi Benson and Paige O’Hara were Ariel and Belle and people still remember them as these roles to this very day. But Lea put in a lot of passion, kindness, and emotion with her singing role as Jasmine that I didn’t get from the rest of the movie. Lea would carry the same singing charisma doing Mulan years later, but that’s another story.

First Appearance

Moviefan12: Jasmine debuted in the film, Aladdin and she is an interesting princess in this line up of the official 13 as she is the only princess that is not the main character but rather, she is the love interest that our hero wanted to be with. Of all the films starring the official princesses, Jasmine is the only one, where these roles are reversed and oddly enough, it seems Disney nowadays pays more attention to Jasmine because of her princess status and ignore Aladdin. Whereas in the ’90s, they fully embraced the character of Aladdin. Now this is not completely true with the new Broadway musical that just opened but looking at the animated characters, it almost feels like Disney now treats Jasmine as if she were the main character and that is not the case at all.

pbmiranda: With Jasmine, it’s easier to portray her as a Princess than the others due to the fact that she was a Princess and not a protagonist. It’s a lot more marketable for the people at Disney to feature. I guess they don’t feature Aladdin anymore because the times have changed on gender roles. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, shows and movies featured male protagonists and if they were females, they were mostly one dimensional stereotypes being nothing more than the token chick (with the exception of Belle). Now the tables have turned with females being written much better and giving girls the role models they need. Either that or Aladdin was already marketed enough with 2 sequels and an animated series.

Moviefan12: I would argue that Ariel was also more than just a token chick but I’m biased as she’s in my second favorite princess after Rapunzel.

Personality

Moviefan12: Going by the DisneyWiki , Jasmine is described as being one of the princesses that falls into the trope of being a “Rebellious Princess” in that she doesn’t want a royal life and feels trapped within her life and to a certain extent, I can agree wit that but keep in mind, that she is also very assertive and willing to stand up for herself. Jasmine is perhaps the most assertive of the Disney princesses. She is very clear on what she wants and how she feels as she does not want to be treated like a prize to be won by the princes that come to win her hand in marriage. If she feels that someone is mistreating her, she will let them know such as when she call out Prince Ali about his lie that he isn’t the street rat that she met earlier in the film. Jasmine seems to be the princess I remember that had the easiest time standing up for herself and every time, she would do that. I could not help but feel that she was in the right to do so.

pbmiranda: Agreed. Jasmine was a princess that stood up for what she wanted and not what she was told to do. This was the beginning of a new era of princesses that were more assertive and less damsels in distress like the previous ones. While Belle started it first, Jasmine influenced it a little bit more that gave her the reputation of being a rebellious princess. But at the same time, she’s kind, sweet, an smart, which makes the character a lot more developed. This attitude is something that little girls had always found so great about her that made Jasmine one of their favorites. My cousins are huge Jasmine fans because of that.

Moviefan12: Now let’s move onto our favorite moments.

Favorite Moments

Moviefan12: Now as for my favorite moment, it comes early in the film and is this moment.

Aladdin: Wow. The palace looks pretty amazing, huh?
Princess Jasmine: [disappointed] Oh, it’s wonderful.
Aladdin: I wonder what it’d be like to live there, and have servants, and valets.
Princess Jasmine: Oh, sure. People who tell you where to go and how to dress.
Aladdin: That’s better than here. You’re always scraping for food and ducking the guards.
Princess Jasmine: You’re not free to make your own choices.
Aladdin: Sometimes you feel so.
Princess Jasmine: You’re just.
Aladdin, Princess Jasmine: Trapped.

Something about this line always struck as Jasmine finally opening up to someone and revealing how she truly feels and plus I like how Aladdin and Jasmine say the same thing without realizing and comparing their lives unknowingly. This is the moment that Jasmine pretty defines who she is and what she wants in life as she’s felt trapped for years and now she feels a bit free and it is just a small taste of freedom. Because she’s always felt trapped in her royal life.

pbmiranda: I love that scene as well, but the scene that I love from Jasmine was riding the magic carpet with Aladdin singing “A Whole New World”. She felt free and saw the different countries around the world such as Egypt and China. She’s ecstatic and amazed of all the places that’s not the palace that she was raised in her whole life. The song was a perfect way to express her experience of seeing a new world with someone she loved. It’s still regarded to this day as one of the greatest Disney moments of all time and one of the best songs ever.

Later Appearances

Moviefan12: Per usual, we have a lot of appearances to go over but this is the first princess to not appear on Once Upon A Time, which is odd considering that Jafar was the main villain of the spin-off series, Once Upon A Time In Wonderland. Seriously, how can you have Jafar but not bring in Aladdin or Jasmine.

Anyways, let’s continue, now like most of the princesses, Jasmine did fall into the cheapquel trap and not once but twice. First with The Return of Jafar, which was a pilot for the Aladdin TV series and Aladdin and The King of Thieves, where Aladdin and Jasmine finally got married. Of course, this was after they met Aladdin’s dad and stopped his thieves from robbing the wedding.

And now as for the animated series, Jasmine did have a few episodes that centered around her such as one where one of the villains turned into a rat and another where she was made a Street Rat.

Aladdin also had a cross over with Hercules: The Animated Series and while Aladdin, Jasmine did play a part in it and it takes place after the third film as Phil hits on Jasmine and Jasmine informs him that she’s married.

Now just like Ariel and Belle before her, Jasmine did appear in comic books published by Marvel and also on House of Mouse.

Jasmine also appeared on the DVD, Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, where she wants to prove that she can handle more responsibility and wants to be taken seriously, so she tries teaching and at first, it doesn’t work but she proves to her father that she can handle by taming a horse that no one but Sultan can approach. This short isn’t bad but there isn’t much to it but I will give them credit as the short lets Jasmine stand on her own as Aladdin and Genie do not appear in it at all. The only supporting characters in the film are Abu and Iago.

Jasmine also appeared on Sofia The First in the episode, Two To Tangu, where she helps Sofia and Sofia’s big sis tame a wild carpet by showing them how to by using Carpet and through the song, The Ride of Our Lives. This song isn’t bad but I’d argue that it’s the most forgettable Sofia song.

Jasmine can also be found in the parks in both Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, and Mickey’s PhillarMagic.

And in TokyoDisney, the Magic Carpet ride is called Jasmine’s Flying Carpets

You can also find Jasmine at various areas of the parks for meet and greets.

And just this year, Jasmine along with the rest of the characters from Aladdin made her Broadway debut and is currently being played by Courtney Reed.

Anything to add to this, Patty before I hand it over to DisneyOtoko to cover Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts.

Jasmine In Kingdom Hearts

DO: Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts is one of the more underused characters. It’s nice to see her and nice to interact with her, but there’s not much for her to actually do.

Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts 1

When Jafar stages a coup with the Heartless to take over Agrabah Jasmine barely escapes the palace with Aladdin’s help. Jasmine has to stay on the move because Jafar, Maleficent and the Heartless are searching for her because she is a Princess of Heart. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter the area where she’s hiding she reveals herself to seek help and brings the travelers up to speed on what’s happening and Jafar has caught up. Sora and company keep Jafar busy and tell Jasmine to run for it. While Sora and company explore the city Jasmine continues to play cat and mouse with Jafar, but her luck runs out and he corners her at the palace gates. Sora and company now joined by Aladdin try to stop Jafar and Al wishes for Genie to save her, but Iago steals the lamp and the rescue fails and Jasmine is taken by Jafar to the Cave of Wonders where the Keyhole resides. Jasmine has been unconscious during the boss battles and the heroes jump into the pit to fight Genie Jafar. While the heroes are busy Riku kidnaps Jasmine and Sora promises Aladdin that he will find Jasmine (Aladdin can’t go with Sora to protect the World Order) and Genie agrees to go as a summon.
Sora eventually finds Jasmine in Hollow Bastion with all the other princesses and when the hearts of the Princesses are freed she works with the others to hold the Darkness back and growing in strength and will also encourage Sora to be extra careful when the secret boss becomes available. She also tells Sora to not tell Aladdin what has happened because she doesn’t want him to worry and she will tell him about it when she returns to Agrabah.

Jasmine is seen in the credits reuniting with Aladdin.

Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Jasmine in Chain of Memories is just there. I don’t even think she says anything! While I like the story and individual world stories of Chain of Memories Jasmine has nothing to do in this she is just there.

Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

While Jasmine along with all the Disney characters have smaller roles Jasmine is seen during Roxas’s missions and she works with Aladdin and the people of Agrabah to rebuild the city after the constant barrage of sandstorms related to the Heartless.

Jasmine in Kingdom Hearts 2

Alas Jasmine still doesn’t have very much to do. She brings Sora, Donald and Goofy up to speed and when Iago proves his worth she allows him to stay. In the second story of Agrabah she is damsel in distress. I like the story. I don’t blame Square for this because there are a lot of characters in this world and Aladdin, Genie and Jafar all have game play applications with Genie being a summon, Aladdin a party member and Jafar a boss. Also the source material is the film Return of Jafar and Iago is a big part of the story. So Jasmine just simply doesn’t have enough room to have that big of an impact or role. Still the scenes she is in are nice and it’s always a pleasure to be around the Princess of Agrabah.

Is Jasmine A Good Character?

Moviefan12: It’s now time to answer the question, Is Jasmine a good character? And while she’s not one of my favorites, she is a good character as she continued the trend set by Ariel and Belle by being more than just a princess and being a character first. And while, she was the object of affection for Aladdin, she was more than just a pretty face to be won over. She made Aladdin earn her love and prove his worth as she wanted someone that loved her for her and I applaud that.

pbmiranda: Agreed. Jasmine was never one of my favorite Disney princesses. While she may not be as assertive as Tiana or Belle or as beloved as Cinderella or Ariel, Jasmine is still a good princess. She wasn’t willing to marry any man that she didn’t like, she was outspoken to her thoughts and beliefs, and she had a determination to broaden out what the typical princess had to endure in honor of tradition and the laws of royalty. That’s what makes her still a renoun princess even to this day.

Moviefan12:  Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses.  And well, I knew that this character was coming.   Let’s get this over with, joining me today to look at who I consider to be the worst Disney Princesses, as Ingonyama70  joins  t me to look at Princess Aurora and he defends her while I’ll be slamming her. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

 

Original Voice Actress

Mary Costa

Moviefan12: I will be fair and say that Mary Costa did a serviceable job as the voice for Aurora/Briar Rose.  I was able to believe that believing her heartbreak after she learned that she was a princess and could not be the person, she loved.  Stupid misunderstanding.  And now Mary is still affiliated with the Disney company as in ’99,  she was given the prestigious honor of Disney Legend and she did promotional  material for the upcoming Blu-Ray release of Sleeping Beauty.  And from what I’ve read in interviews,  Costa  seems to be rather protective of  her character, so much so that when asked about Aurora’s segment in the  Disney Princess: Enchanted Tales segment, Aurora segment had this to say in an interview with dvdizzy.com 

Oh, goodness sake. And they’ll never do it again because it didn’t work, and they got a lot of criticism. You know, with a fairy tale like this, your imagination takes over. And I think it spoils it because everyone knows what their imagination does and where they want to take them – that’s what a fairy tale is all about, that’s the magic of it.

Now, while I do not like the character personally,  I can respect how Mary Costa feels about Aurora and how Disney misused her character. Because this is just my belief but the VA’s   should be allowed to have a say on what is done with their characters.  As we will see next week, Jodi Benson had to fight to keep  Airel’s rebellious nature in Airel’s Beginning. And it is interesting to note that  Walt personally chose Mary Costa and called only hours after she auditioned.

I70: Far and away the best things about the character of Aurora are her character design, which was modelled after Audrey Hepburn, and her voice. Her voice actress, Mary Costa, is the most technically beautiful voice out of all the Disney princesses, to my way of thinking. It helps that she was a trained opera singer and sang in that style throughout the film. Costa’s speaking voice for Aurora is light and airy without going into being shrill (unlike her predecessor Snow White), and she puts a lot of feeling into the few lines she has. She would go on to enjoy a wildly successful opera career and win many well-deserved awards for her performances, both as Aurora and later.

First Appearance

Moviefan12:  The film opens on the birth of Princess Aurora, with everyone celebrating the birth of the new princess but we do see her as as an adult eventually as a 16 year old.  Though I do have to bring  up one of 200 issues I have with this awful awful terrible film.  This does tie into Aurora but is more about Phillip.  We see at the start of the film that Phillip is betrothed to Aurora, when she is first born and  he is a little boy.

What’s my issue here?  Well,  this is kinda of indicative of problems of the early princess films that the lovers really  never got to know  each other and the worst part here is Aurora never really got to have a say in their relationship and  Phillip and Aurora had the least amount of interaction out of the three early couples in the princess films.   Yes,  I had this same complaint regarding the Prince and Prince Charming in both Snow White and Cinderella but what the films lacks in having interesting male characters in the relationship, it has well rounded and interesting female leads.  Alas, the same cannot say the same for Aurora.

I70:  Aurora, also known as Briar Rose, debuted in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” the last fairy tale Walt Disney ever personally worked on. This film is well known for many things: it’s got gorgeous animation, a beautiful score based off Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet, an amazing visual style based off Renaissance tapestries, the most recognizable and beloved villain in all of Disney, funny protagonists in the Three Good Fairies, a charming male lead in Prince Phillip (the first with a given name in the story no less!), and one of the most pulse-pounding climaxes ever to exist in Western animated film. The dragon fight at the end of this one set the bar for animated films for decades to come.

Personality

Moviefan12:  Let make me one clear,  while I do not like this film,  I find that I cannot hate because the film doesn’t  give me any reason to be invested in Aurora as a character and that’s because she isn’t a character. She is a device, to keep the plot moving. She’s macguffin.  Simple as that, sure, we see that she is nice and sweet,  and maybe a little naive in the first act but she is such a blank slate of a character, that I have to wonder why Walt Disney at one point envisioned this horrid film as his masterpiece.  There is absolutely nothing of interest about Aurora as a character. And yes,  I know her defenders will say that is true to her source material.  But Disney has expanded and tweaked material to put their own stamp on the films and they could’ve done the same thing here but instead, we get a character that is the epitome of the stereotypical complaints that people have with the princesses.  That they don’t do anything and wait for a man to save them.  And that could NOT be truer as Aurora.  She is the worst example of a Disney princess.  To have her in this line-up is a disgrace to the ladies that came before her.  Snow White and Cinderella at least actually interesting and engaging personalities that make them memorable.

I70:  Aurora, being the titular Sleeping Beauty, is asleep for fully half the film, so her personality’s not going to be winning her any “Strongest Disney Princess” awards any time soon. However, that’s not to say that she’s COMPLETELY flat as a character. During the first act, we spend quite a bit of time getting to know her. We learn that Briar Rose is naive thanks to being sheltered and protected by her three “aunts” and that she both resents and dearly loves them. We learn she has a playful, mischievous side, that she truly cares for her friends in the forest, and yearns to be free of the Fairies’ restrictions but would never do anything to let them down or disobey them. She is somewhat fixated on the notion of romance, but both in the time the film was set and the time it was released, romantic aspirations were the most a girl of the era could hope for. We also learn she’s painfully naive, as she’s almost immediately enthralled by Prince Phillip when she meets him. However, she invites him back to her cottage to meet her aunts that night, so it’s not like she’s stupid.

Favorite Moment

Moviefan12:  I don’t particularly like this film and I honestly thought my choice  for Favorite Moment was going to be  Aurora pricking her finger, and that did come mighty close.

This is perhaps the most iconic scene for this character but  the scene that I chose as my favorite moment, which is being generous is Aurora crying after finding out that she after finds out that she cannot be with the one she loves because she is a princess.  Granted, this ties into the stupid misunderstanding that could’ve been avoided, if Phillip had just told Aurora, who he was.  And not just use the stupid line that they had met in a dream.

I chose this scene because this to me is the one scene where Aurora actually feels likes a real teenager whose world  had just come crashing down.  This is the one time, where Aurora felt like a character and not just a device to advance the story.  This scene displayed very real and genuine emotions and I like how Aurora is all quiet throughout this scene as to show that she doesn’t know what to say in this situation.

I70:  The “Once Upon A Dream” sequence is where Aurora has her most character-defining moments, and is one of the most instantly recognizable musical numbers in Disney. Raised alone and sheltered as she had been, Aurora dreams, like Anna would later, of being around people, of meeting someone she can love. This wish comes from a deep, desperate loneliness, which is expressed more subtly than Anna’s, but is still very keenly felt by the way she speaks with the forest animals around her. When the animals decide to do their best to cheer her up by swiping Phillip’s cloak, boots, and hat and dancing with her, she giggles and plays along while singing. Not only is the song itself beautiful, Tchaikovsky’s score and Mary Costa’s one-of-a-kind voice blending perfectly, but it provides the most characterization of Aurora throughout the whole film, both good and bad.

 Later Appearances

I70:  Interestingly, perhaps because of the lack of personality she was given in her original film, Aurora has never appeared in any sequels, prequels, or midquels, not getting a new story until 2007’s “Follow Your Dreams” collection, where she is temporarily given control of Stefan’s kingdom and Merriweather’s magic wand, and hijinks ensue. I have not seen this, so I can’t give any honest criticism of it, but if Disney sequels of the time are anything to go by, it’s probably not very good. From the trailers, the animation quality certainly looks horrid.

One other thing to note was that there was originally another short planned, as part of a collection called “A Kingdom Of Kindness”, which was cancelled due to poor sales of “Follow Your Dreams,” the first Disney Princess collection. In the proposed short, the Three Good Fairies assist Aurora in planning a surprise party, but they continually interfere, meddle, and do her work for her despite her repeated pleas for them to let her do things herself like she wants to. I personally am disappointed, despite the terrible quality of the animation, as I feel this would have been a good chance to make Aurora more decisive and independent, two things she does very badly need. The trailer is on YouTube should you wish to search for it.

Moviefan12:   Now,  besides these two appearances,  Aurora also appeared in the Christmas episode  of  Sofia The First,  just like most the other princesses but she was the first princess to not have a song.  There are varying reports that this was because of her VA’s singing in the short that Ingonyama70 brought up (which  I actually liked as it gave Aurora character) but the more likely scenario and I believe is that they just couldn’t fit a song into the episode as they only had 23 minutes to tell a story.

Aurora also  made her Once Upon A Time debut in the second  season opener, where she  spent most of the season with Mulan.  And in the first half with Emma and Snow as they had been trapped in the Enchanted Forest.

Aurora in this show started out a little ditzy and vain but over time, her adventures grew to make her a more well rounded character over time as she faces adversity such as having Cora take her heart.

And we also learn that she is not the first Sleeping Beauty as many years before,  her mother was put under the same sleeping curse that Maleficent placed on her .   You see during the 28 years that the curse was in effect, the fairy tale characters that remained in Fairy Tale Land were frozen in time but after Emma broke the curse,  Phillip was able to resume his search for his love and during this time, he was aided by the help of Mulan.

Mulan as a character is integral to Aurora’s development as these two characters could not be polar opposite as Aurora is played up as a damsel in distress that has to learn to defend herself and Mulan is depicted as a brave and noble warrior.     And   this’ll be covered more in the Mulan article but there hints of a romantic relationship that was blossoming between Mulan and Aurora.  Granted, this doesn’t work out because Aurora is in love with Phillip, who both the girls were trying to save in the second season, after he let  a Wraith consume his soul.  And  Mulan is told by Robin Hood in a season 3 episode that she should tell the one she loves, how she feels, so she went to do that but it turned out that the Sleeping Warrior ship would not set sail as Aurora and Phillip were with child.

Another interesting thing of note is how Aurora was able to help the residents of Storybrooke know where Emma and Snow were as she went  into this sleep and contacted, Henry (Emma’s son) to try and give him this info.  What the show gave us, looked like fiery hell, that no one should have to endure.  I applaud  Once Upon A Time here as they took a terrible  flat and boring character, who was essentially a blank slate and made her interesting and  one of the most important characters of season 2. They expanded upon Aurora’s template and added to it, so that she would not be the same dull character that she is in that horrid film.  This to me is the best, nay   perfect iteration  of Princess Aurora.  Because she is actually an interesting character, who you can get invested in!!!!!

Also, coming  out this year is Maleficent, a live action fantasy film that seems to be giving the Sleeping Beauty tale the Wicked treatment by showing the story from Maleficent’s point of view.  And Elle Fanning will be playing the role of Aurora in that film.

And  from what I’ve seen thus far from the trailers,  I’m getting an Elphie/Glinda vibe between Maleficent and Aurora in that, it seems like there will be a friendship that blossoms between the two.  Don’t care enough to see the movie though.  Hate the source material and was offended when they called the most overrated villain of all time,  the greatest Disney villain ever. She does NOT deserve that title,  when it should go to someone like The Wicked Queen or Jafar or Ursula or Dr. Facilier.  Sorry,  that just offends me on so many levels because she doesn’t even deserve to be in the top 20 greatest Disney villains list.

Now besides these aforementioned appearances,  just like most of the princesses, Aurora could be spotted on House of Mouse.  Interestingly,  she was usually in her Briar Rose outfit and not one of her princess dresses.

I will say that I do think the ribbon tied on her finger and the sewing machine behind her make for a good joke.

As for the parks,  Aurora’s castle is the castle of Disneyland

And she can be found at Fantasy Faire for Meet & Greets in Disneyland while at Disney World, she can be found at the France pavilion of EPCOT and Magic Kingdom’s Town Square Theater.

1. And  at one point during the planning stages of New Fantasyland, there were plans to add Aurora’s cottage as meet & greet where guests would celebrate her birthday.  However this along with Pixie Hollow and Cinderella’s Chateau were gotten rid of to make way for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

I’m now going to turn this over to DisneyOtoko so that he can fill us in on Aurora’s presence in the Kingdom Hearts games.

Aurora In Kingdom Hearts

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko:  Aurora is probably the most indirectly used character in the whole series. As opposed to reinventing the wheel and possibly making the least developed princess worse Square Enix decided to take a different direction and have the character be very minimally involved yet still to use her presence and her effect on others to the maximum potential. Throughout the campaigns Aurora has already pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and is the castle’s tallest tower awaiting true love’s kiss. The Keyblade Masters arrive at various parts and encounter Maleficent who has her plans to gather the Princesses of Heart.

Terra’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Terra arrives and defeats a pack of Unversed and proceeds to the castle where he finds Maleficent on the Bridge and she asks Terra what his business is. Terra asks the standard questions about Master Xehanort’s whereabouts and Maleficent gives a vague response that he might have been there looking for a Heart of Pure Light and implies Aurora heavily. Terra arrives in the tower and is taken aback at Aurora’s beauty, but also senses the light within her heart and Maleficent appears and explains Aurora’s significance and role (for newcomers to the series) she offers for Terra to join her, but he refuses and Maleficent uses her magic to take control of Terra and Terra steals Aurora’s heart and gives it to Maleficent. When Terra regains control and is ready to put up more of a fight a powerful Unversed monster attacks the castle. Terra rightfully lets Maleficent escape because protecting the castle is a higher priority. After the boss battle he returns to Aurora’s tower where he apologizes to Aurora for what he did and laments his own weakness. He can’t risk being possessed again and vows to return to get her heart back when he’s strong enough to defeat the darkness within himself. What Terra did to Aurora continues to haunt him throughout his campaign and her lifeless shell is a symbol of his failure, inadequacy, guilt and weakness.

Ventus’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Ventus’s ties to Aurora are very limited. Ventus arrives and learns of what happened to Aurora from the 3 Fairies and they agree to get Aurora’s heart back from Maleficent’s castle  and they succeed. Ventus sees a vision of Aurora’s meeting with Prince Philip and it was the Light within Ventus (which is much stronger than usual) interacting with Aurora’s heart of pure light. Even in a cursed sleep Aurora still has something to live for and a dream that needs to be fulfilled. As Ventus and the fairies leave Maleficent is enraged and attacks Ventus and with the help of the Fairies he defeats the Mistress of All Evil. Maleficent slightly injured begins to even further explain Terra’s act and it casts Ventus into even more doubt than before even with Aqua’s reassurance. Ventus leaves Aqua to handle Maleficent and to protect Aurora while he chases after Terra.

Aqua’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Aqua’s story in the Enchanted Dominion is basically the ending of the Sleeping Beauty film. She gets put in the dungeon by Maleficent and she teams up with Prince Philip to bust out of Maleficent’s lair. They get to the castle bridge and Maleficent tries to cast Aqua’s heart into doubt against Terra and it doesn’t work as quickly as it did Ventus and Maleficent turns into the Dragon. The Fairies give Prince Philip the edge and the Sword of Truth defeats the Dragon, but Maleficent is only badly wounded, but not dead! Prince Philip runs to the castle to awaken Aurora and one of my favorite scenes in the game follows where Aqua proclaims that true love defeated Maleficent, but Maleficent scoffs at such a notion. Aqua gives a resonating speech that Maleficent is too blinded by Darkness to understand the happiness that comes from loving another. In defiance of fairy tale convention Maleficent may have lost the battle, but she has NOT lost the war and gives great foreshadowing to the horrible victories she achieves in the Kingdom Hearts mythology. Love may have defeated evil, but COULD NEVER kill it. Maleficent departs Aqua with this hard truth that the forces of good don’t like to admit if at all and has a foreboding ending to Auqa’s story in the world. Standard procedure for Aqua’s storyline where Aurora is a symbol of Light, but also juxtaposed with Maleficent’s hatred towards the kindness of Aurora. I love how Aqua’s story and Birth by Sleep as a whole celebrate fairy tale convention, but also have the harsh reality of evil’s immortality and never ending malice be front and center creating a true understanding of the relationship between good and evil aka Aurora and Maleficent.

After Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko: During the credits Aurora and Prince Philip are seen in a reenactment of the film’s ending scene and Flora and Fauna keep transforming Aurora’s dress and it cuts to outside the castle where Maleficent lurks and awaits her chance to strike at Aurora again. She does when the Heartless are destroying the Enchanted Dominion and Maleficent obviously needs Aurora alive so Maleficent rescues Aurora and they both through corridor of Darkness are transported to the world of Hollow Bastion where Maleficent puts Aurora into suspended animation and plans on gathering followers and controlling the Heartless herself to ravage world after world looking for the other Princesses.

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts 1

DisneyOtoko: After the Princesses awaken and Sora, Beast, Donald, and Goofy return to Hollow Bastion’s Castle Chapel Aurora is there and assists the other sin holding the Darkness back and she in a way tells the cautionary tale of Maleficent’s arrogance thinking she could control the Darkness and cautions Sora to not underestimate the Darkness in one’s heart. Once the secret boss of Final Mix has been unlocked she comments on its foreboding power and wishes us to be careful if we investigate it.

Is Aurora A Good Character?

Moviefan12:  The better question to ask  here “Is Aurora a Character?”  and to that answer is no, she’s not.  Her film never grants her the opportunity to be a character.  We never get to know her or all that much about her. She is the weakest and most uninteresting Disney princess, because her film presents  nothing memorable about her. She just exists to drive the narrative forward.  She is not the worst thing in her film, that’d be the three fairies but she is not a good character either because she is never granted the opportunity to be a character.   And while I may not be looking forward to that Maleficent film, I do hope that they are smart enough to actually take time and develop Aurora into a character.   Because in her film, she’s just a non-entity.  I went in, watching this film, hoping that my opinion of her would improve but alas that was not the case and sad to say,  after re-watching the film, I  believe that my opinion of her has lessened.

I70:   Because of the nature of her story and the viewpoints of the time, it’s unfair to judge Aurora by the same standards as someone like Mulan, or Rapunzel, or Elsa, or Belle. As a character, she doesn’t have much to work with…she’s unconscious for the precise half of the film that all the other ladies come into their own as characters and face their greatest challenges.

The most important thing to remember about Sleeping Beauty is that it is not about its titular character but about the people around her – in the Disney film’s case, the prince, the fairies, and Maleficent. As a main character, yes, she’d be lackluster at best and bland at worst, but the important thing to remember is that she isn’t the main character. The Three Good Fairies are our central protagonists and Maleficent is our central antagonist. True to form, they’re where the movie really shines.

So as a supporting character, Aurora works fine. Speaking as a self-proclaimed feminist, she wasn’t the best role model for young girls, but that was never the point of her character. Her job in the film was to be lovely and have a wonderful voice, and on both those counts, Disney did a fantastic job…she looks like Audrey Hepburn and sings like a trained opera star. She may be one of the most archetypal damsels in distress ever to exist, but at least she’s a likable character whom we want to see rescued by the end of the film.

Aurora was my very first princess, so it’s hard for me to be unbiased about her. I think she’s handicapped as a character both by the sexist era of the time (1959) and by the story’s plot itself, but despite this has still persisted as a memorable character to this day.

She’s not my favorite Disney princess, or even in my top ten, but that’s a long way from saying I dislike her. Rather, I feel sorry for her for being judged in the same category as the later princesses who carried their films and did amazing, heroic things, when the sexism of her time simply would not allow for that kind of female empowerment. The fact that Maleficent and the Fairies are as central to the story as they are is a miracle, but it still takes Phillip, the dashing male Prince, to save the day at the end of the film.

All in all, even if she’s not a good role model, I feel she is a good character who gets a lot of unnecessary flak when her only real crime is to be the Princess in a story where the Princess’s job is to fall asleep for half the story.

Moviefan12:  Ingoyama70,  thanks for joining me on this rather polarizing look at Aurora.

Moviefan12:  Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses.  And well, I knew that this character was coming.   Let’s get this over with, joining me today to look at who I consider to be the worst Disney Princesses, as Ingonyama70  joins  t me to look at Princess Aurora and he defends her while I’ll be slamming her. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

 

Original Voice Actress

Mary Costa

Moviefan12: I will be fair and say that Mary Costa did a serviceable job as the voice for Aurora/Briar Rose.  I was able to believe that believing her heartbreak after she learned that she was a princess and could not be the person, she loved.  Stupid misunderstanding.  And now Mary is still affiliated with the Disney company as in ’99,  she was given the prestigious honor of Disney Legend and she did promotional  material for the upcoming Blu-Ray release of Sleeping Beauty.  And from what I’ve read in interviews,  Costa  seems to be rather protective of  her character, so much so that when asked about Aurora’s segment in the  Disney Princess: Enchanted Tales segment, Aurora segment had this to say in an interview with dvdizzy.com 

Oh, goodness sake. And they’ll never do it again because it didn’t work, and they got a lot of criticism. You know, with a fairy tale like this, your imagination takes over. And I think it spoils it because everyone knows what their imagination does and where they want to take them – that’s what a fairy tale is all about, that’s the magic of it.

Now, while I do not like the character personally,  I can respect how Mary Costa feels about Aurora and how Disney misused her character. Because this is just my belief but the VA’s   should be allowed to have a say on what is done with their characters.  As we will see next week, Jodi Benson had to fight to keep  Airel’s rebellious nature in Airel’s Beginning. And it is interesting to note that  Walt personally chose Mary Costa and called only hours after she auditioned.

I70: Far and away the best things about the character of Aurora are her character design, which was modelled after Audrey Hepburn, and her voice. Her voice actress, Mary Costa, is the most technically beautiful voice out of all the Disney princesses, to my way of thinking. It helps that she was a trained opera singer and sang in that style throughout the film. Costa’s speaking voice for Aurora is light and airy without going into being shrill (unlike her predecessor Snow White), and she puts a lot of feeling into the few lines she has. She would go on to enjoy a wildly successful opera career and win many well-deserved awards for her performances, both as Aurora and later.

First Appearance

Moviefan12:  The film opens on the birth of Princess Aurora, with everyone celebrating the birth of the new princess but we do see her as as an adult eventually as a 16 year old.  Though I do have to bring  up one of 200 issues I have with this awful awful terrible film.  This does tie into Aurora but is more about Phillip.  We see at the start of the film that Phillip is betrothed to Aurora, when she is first born and  he is a little boy.

What’s my issue here?  Well,  this is kinda of indicative of problems of the early princess films that the lovers really  never got to know  each other and the worst part here is Aurora never really got to have a say in their relationship and  Phillip and Aurora had the least amount of interaction out of the three early couples in the princess films.   Yes,  I had this same complaint regarding the Prince and Prince Charming in both Snow White and Cinderella but what the films lacks in having interesting male characters in the relationship, it has well rounded and interesting female leads.  Alas, the same cannot say the same for Aurora.

I70:  Aurora, also known as Briar Rose, debuted in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” the last fairy tale Walt Disney ever personally worked on. This film is well known for many things: it’s got gorgeous animation, a beautiful score based off Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet, an amazing visual style based off Renaissance tapestries, the most recognizable and beloved villain in all of Disney, funny protagonists in the Three Good Fairies, a charming male lead in Prince Phillip (the first with a given name in the story no less!), and one of the most pulse-pounding climaxes ever to exist in Western animated film. The dragon fight at the end of this one set the bar for animated films for decades to come.

Personality

Moviefan12:  Let make me one clear,  while I do not like this film,  I find that I cannot hate because the film doesn’t  give me any reason to be invested in Aurora as a character and that’s because she isn’t a character. She is a device, to keep the plot moving. She’s macguffin.  Simple as that, sure, we see that she is nice and sweet,  and maybe a little naive in the first act but she is such a blank slate of a character, that I have to wonder why Walt Disney at one point envisioned this horrid film as his masterpiece.  There is absolutely nothing of interest about Aurora as a character. And yes,  I know her defenders will say that is true to her source material.  But Disney has expanded and tweaked material to put their own stamp on the films and they could’ve done the same thing here but instead, we get a character that is the epitome of the stereotypical complaints that people have with the princesses.  That they don’t do anything and wait for a man to save them.  And that could NOT be truer as Aurora.  She is the worst example of a Disney princess.  To have her in this line-up is a disgrace to the ladies that came before her.  Snow White and Cinderella at least actually interesting and engaging personalities that make them memorable.

I70:  Aurora, being the titular Sleeping Beauty, is asleep for fully half the film, so her personality’s not going to be winning her any “Strongest Disney Princess” awards any time soon. However, that’s not to say that she’s COMPLETELY flat as a character. During the first act, we spend quite a bit of time getting to know her. We learn that Briar Rose is naive thanks to being sheltered and protected by her three “aunts” and that she both resents and dearly loves them. We learn she has a playful, mischievous side, that she truly cares for her friends in the forest, and yearns to be free of the Fairies’ restrictions but would never do anything to let them down or disobey them. She is somewhat fixated on the notion of romance, but both in the time the film was set and the time it was released, romantic aspirations were the most a girl of the era could hope for. We also learn she’s painfully naive, as she’s almost immediately enthralled by Prince Phillip when she meets him. However, she invites him back to her cottage to meet her aunts that night, so it’s not like she’s stupid.

Favorite Moment

Moviefan12:  I don’t particularly like this film and I honestly thought my choice  for Favorite Moment was going to be  Aurora pricking her finger, and that did come mighty close.

This is perhaps the most iconic scene for this character but  the scene that I chose as my favorite moment, which is being generous is Aurora crying after finding out that she after finds out that she cannot be with the one she loves because she is a princess.  Granted, this ties into the stupid misunderstanding that could’ve been avoided, if Phillip had just told Aurora, who he was.  And not just use the stupid line that they had met in a dream.

I chose this scene because this to me is the one scene where Aurora actually feels likes a real teenager whose world  had just come crashing down.  This is the one time, where Aurora felt like a character and not just a device to advance the story.  This scene displayed very real and genuine emotions and I like how Aurora is all quiet throughout this scene as to show that she doesn’t know what to say in this situation.

I70:  The “Once Upon A Dream” sequence is where Aurora has her most character-defining moments, and is one of the most instantly recognizable musical numbers in Disney. Raised alone and sheltered as she had been, Aurora dreams, like Anna would later, of being around people, of meeting someone she can love. This wish comes from a deep, desperate loneliness, which is expressed more subtly than Anna’s, but is still very keenly felt by the way she speaks with the forest animals around her. When the animals decide to do their best to cheer her up by swiping Phillip’s cloak, boots, and hat and dancing with her, she giggles and plays along while singing. Not only is the song itself beautiful, Tchaikovsky’s score and Mary Costa’s one-of-a-kind voice blending perfectly, but it provides the most characterization of Aurora throughout the whole film, both good and bad.

 Later Appearances

I70:  Interestingly, perhaps because of the lack of personality she was given in her original film, Aurora has never appeared in any sequels, prequels, or midquels, not getting a new story until 2007’s “Follow Your Dreams” collection, where she is temporarily given control of Stefan’s kingdom and Merriweather’s magic wand, and hijinks ensue. I have not seen this, so I can’t give any honest criticism of it, but if Disney sequels of the time are anything to go by, it’s probably not very good. From the trailers, the animation quality certainly looks horrid.

One other thing to note was that there was originally another short planned, as part of a collection called “A Kingdom Of Kindness”, which was cancelled due to poor sales of “Follow Your Dreams,” the first Disney Princess collection. In the proposed short, the Three Good Fairies assist Aurora in planning a surprise party, but they continually interfere, meddle, and do her work for her despite her repeated pleas for them to let her do things herself like she wants to. I personally am disappointed, despite the terrible quality of the animation, as I feel this would have been a good chance to make Aurora more decisive and independent, two things she does very badly need. The trailer is on YouTube should you wish to search for it.

Moviefan12:   Now,  besides these two appearances,  Aurora also appeared in the Christmas episode  of  Sofia The First,  just like most the other princesses but she was the first princess to not have a song.  There are varying reports that this was because of her VA’s singing in the short that Ingonyama70 brought up (which  I actually liked as it gave Aurora character) but the more likely scenario and I believe is that they just couldn’t fit a song into the episode as they only had 23 minutes to tell a story.

Aurora also  made her Once Upon A Time debut in the second  season opener, where she  spent most of the season with Mulan.  And in the first half with Emma and Snow as they had been trapped in the Enchanted Forest.

Aurora in this show started out a little ditzy and vain but over time, her adventures grew to make her a more well rounded character over time as she faces adversity such as having Cora take her heart.

And we also learn that she is not the first Sleeping Beauty as many years before,  her mother was put under the same sleeping curse that Maleficent placed on her .   You see during the 28 years that the curse was in effect, the fairy tale characters that remained in Fairy Tale Land were frozen in time but after Emma broke the curse,  Phillip was able to resume his search for his love and during this time, he was aided by the help of Mulan.

Mulan as a character is integral to Aurora’s development as these two characters could not be polar opposite as Aurora is played up as a damsel in distress that has to learn to defend herself and Mulan is depicted as a brave and noble warrior.     And   this’ll be covered more in the Mulan article but there hints of a romantic relationship that was blossoming between Mulan and Aurora.  Granted, this doesn’t work out because Aurora is in love with Phillip, who both the girls were trying to save in the second season, after he let  a Wraith consume his soul.  And  Mulan is told by Robin Hood in a season 3 episode that she should tell the one she loves, how she feels, so she went to do that but it turned out that the Sleeping Warrior ship would not set sail as Aurora and Phillip were with child.

Another interesting thing of note is how Aurora was able to help the residents of Storybrooke know where Emma and Snow were as she went  into this sleep and contacted, Henry (Emma’s son) to try and give him this info.  What the show gave us, looked like fiery hell, that no one should have to endure.  I applaud  Once Upon A Time here as they took a terrible  flat and boring character, who was essentially a blank slate and made her interesting and  one of the most important characters of season 2. They expanded upon Aurora’s template and added to it, so that she would not be the same dull character that she is in that horrid film.  This to me is the best, nay   perfect iteration  of Princess Aurora.  Because she is actually an interesting character, who you can get invested in!!!!!

Also, coming  out this year is Maleficent, a live action fantasy film that seems to be giving the Sleeping Beauty tale the Wicked treatment by showing the story from Maleficent’s point of view.  And Elle Fanning will be playing the role of Aurora in that film.

And  from what I’ve seen thus far from the trailers,  I’m getting an Elphie/Glinda vibe between Maleficent and Aurora in that, it seems like there will be a friendship that blossoms between the two.  Don’t care enough to see the movie though.  Hate the source material and was offended when they called the most overrated villain of all time,  the greatest Disney villain ever. She does NOT deserve that title,  when it should go to someone like The Wicked Queen or Jafar or Ursula or Dr. Facilier.  Sorry,  that just offends me on so many levels because she doesn’t even deserve to be in the top 20 greatest Disney villains list.

Now besides these aforementioned appearances,  just like most of the princesses, Aurora could be spotted on House of Mouse.  Interestingly,  she was usually in her Briar Rose outfit and not one of her princess dresses.

I will say that I do think the ribbon tied on her finger and the sewing machine behind her make for a good joke.

As for the parks,  Aurora’s castle is the castle of Disneyland

And she can be found at Fantasy Faire for Meet & Greets in Disneyland while at Disney World, she can be found at the France pavilion of EPCOT and Magic Kingdom’s Town Square Theater.

1. And  at one point during the planning stages of New Fantasyland, there were plans to add Aurora’s cottage as meet & greet where guests would celebrate her birthday.  However this along with Pixie Hollow and Cinderella’s Chateau were gotten rid of to make way for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

I’m now going to turn this over to DisneyOtoko so that he can fill us in on Aurora’s presence in the Kingdom Hearts games.

Aurora In Kingdom Hearts

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko:  Aurora is probably the most indirectly used character in the whole series. As opposed to reinventing the wheel and possibly making the least developed princess worse Square Enix decided to take a different direction and have the character be very minimally involved yet still to use her presence and her effect on others to the maximum potential. Throughout the campaigns Aurora has already pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and is the castle’s tallest tower awaiting true love’s kiss. The Keyblade Masters arrive at various parts and encounter Maleficent who has her plans to gather the Princesses of Heart.

Terra’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Terra arrives and defeats a pack of Unversed and proceeds to the castle where he finds Maleficent on the Bridge and she asks Terra what his business is. Terra asks the standard questions about Master Xehanort’s whereabouts and Maleficent gives a vague response that he might have been there looking for a Heart of Pure Light and implies Aurora heavily. Terra arrives in the tower and is taken aback at Aurora’s beauty, but also senses the light within her heart and Maleficent appears and explains Aurora’s significance and role (for newcomers to the series) she offers for Terra to join her, but he refuses and Maleficent uses her magic to take control of Terra and Terra steals Aurora’s heart and gives it to Maleficent. When Terra regains control and is ready to put up more of a fight a powerful Unversed monster attacks the castle. Terra rightfully lets Maleficent escape because protecting the castle is a higher priority. After the boss battle he returns to Aurora’s tower where he apologizes to Aurora for what he did and laments his own weakness. He can’t risk being possessed again and vows to return to get her heart back when he’s strong enough to defeat the darkness within himself. What Terra did to Aurora continues to haunt him throughout his campaign and her lifeless shell is a symbol of his failure, inadequacy, guilt and weakness.

Ventus’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Ventus’s ties to Aurora are very limited. Ventus arrives and learns of what happened to Aurora from the 3 Fairies and they agree to get Aurora’s heart back from Maleficent’s castle  and they succeed. Ventus sees a vision of Aurora’s meeting with Prince Philip and it was the Light within Ventus (which is much stronger than usual) interacting with Aurora’s heart of pure light. Even in a cursed sleep Aurora still has something to live for and a dream that needs to be fulfilled. As Ventus and the fairies leave Maleficent is enraged and attacks Ventus and with the help of the Fairies he defeats the Mistress of All Evil. Maleficent slightly injured begins to even further explain Terra’s act and it casts Ventus into even more doubt than before even with Aqua’s reassurance. Ventus leaves Aqua to handle Maleficent and to protect Aurora while he chases after Terra.

Aqua’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Aqua’s story in the Enchanted Dominion is basically the ending of the Sleeping Beauty film. She gets put in the dungeon by Maleficent and she teams up with Prince Philip to bust out of Maleficent’s lair. They get to the castle bridge and Maleficent tries to cast Aqua’s heart into doubt against Terra and it doesn’t work as quickly as it did Ventus and Maleficent turns into the Dragon. The Fairies give Prince Philip the edge and the Sword of Truth defeats the Dragon, but Maleficent is only badly wounded, but not dead! Prince Philip runs to the castle to awaken Aurora and one of my favorite scenes in the game follows where Aqua proclaims that true love defeated Maleficent, but Maleficent scoffs at such a notion. Aqua gives a resonating speech that Maleficent is too blinded by Darkness to understand the happiness that comes from loving another. In defiance of fairy tale convention Maleficent may have lost the battle, but she has NOT lost the war and gives great foreshadowing to the horrible victories she achieves in the Kingdom Hearts mythology. Love may have defeated evil, but COULD NEVER kill it. Maleficent departs Aqua with this hard truth that the forces of good don’t like to admit if at all and has a foreboding ending to Auqa’s story in the world. Standard procedure for Aqua’s storyline where Aurora is a symbol of Light, but also juxtaposed with Maleficent’s hatred towards the kindness of Aurora. I love how Aqua’s story and Birth by Sleep as a whole celebrate fairy tale convention, but also have the harsh reality of evil’s immortality and never ending malice be front and center creating a true understanding of the relationship between good and evil aka Aurora and Maleficent.

After Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko: During the credits Aurora and Prince Philip are seen in a reenactment of the film’s ending scene and Flora and Fauna keep transforming Aurora’s dress and it cuts to outside the castle where Maleficent lurks and awaits her chance to strike at Aurora again. She does when the Heartless are destroying the Enchanted Dominion and Maleficent obviously needs Aurora alive so Maleficent rescues Aurora and they both through corridor of Darkness are transported to the world of Hollow Bastion where Maleficent puts Aurora into suspended animation and plans on gathering followers and controlling the Heartless herself to ravage world after world looking for the other Princesses.

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts 1

DisneyOtoko: After the Princesses awaken and Sora, Beast, Donald, and Goofy return to Hollow Bastion’s Castle Chapel Aurora is there and assists the other sin holding the Darkness back and she in a way tells the cautionary tale of Maleficent’s arrogance thinking she could control the Darkness and cautions Sora to not underestimate the Darkness in one’s heart. Once the secret boss of Final Mix has been unlocked she comments on its foreboding power and wishes us to be careful if we investigate it.

Is Aurora A Good Character?

Moviefan12:  The better question to ask  here “Is Aurora a Character?”  and to that answer is no, she’s not.  Her film never grants her the opportunity to be a character.  We never get to know her or all that much about her. She is the weakest and most uninteresting Disney princess, because her film presents  nothing memorable about her. She just exists to drive the narrative forward.  She is not the worst thing in her film, that’d be the three fairies but she is not a good character either because she is never granted the opportunity to be a character.   And while I may not be looking forward to that Maleficent film, I do hope that they are smart enough to actually take time and develop Aurora into a character.   Because in her film, she’s just a non-entity.  I went in, watching this film, hoping that my opinion of her would improve but alas that was not the case and sad to say,  after re-watching the film, I  believe that my opinion of her has lessened.

I70:   Because of the nature of her story and the viewpoints of the time, it’s unfair to judge Aurora by the same standards as someone like Mulan, or Rapunzel, or Elsa, or Belle. As a character, she doesn’t have much to work with…she’s unconscious for the precise half of the film that all the other ladies come into their own as characters and face their greatest challenges.

The most important thing to remember about Sleeping Beauty is that it is not about its titular character but about the people around her – in the Disney film’s case, the prince, the fairies, and Maleficent. As a main character, yes, she’d be lackluster at best and bland at worst, but the important thing to remember is that she isn’t the main character. The Three Good Fairies are our central protagonists and Maleficent is our central antagonist. True to form, they’re where the movie really shines.

So as a supporting character, Aurora works fine. Speaking as a self-proclaimed feminist, she wasn’t the best role model for young girls, but that was never the point of her character. Her job in the film was to be lovely and have a wonderful voice, and on both those counts, Disney did a fantastic job…she looks like Audrey Hepburn and sings like a trained opera star. She may be one of the most archetypal damsels in distress ever to exist, but at least she’s a likable character whom we want to see rescued by the end of the film.

Aurora was my very first princess, so it’s hard for me to be unbiased about her. I think she’s handicapped as a character both by the sexist era of the time (1959) and by the story’s plot itself, but despite this has still persisted as a memorable character to this day.

She’s not my favorite Disney princess, or even in my top ten, but that’s a long way from saying I dislike her. Rather, I feel sorry for her for being judged in the same category as the later princesses who carried their films and did amazing, heroic things, when the sexism of her time simply would not allow for that kind of female empowerment. The fact that Maleficent and the Fairies are as central to the story as they are is a miracle, but it still takes Phillip, the dashing male Prince, to save the day at the end of the film.

All in all, even if she’s not a good role model, I feel she is a good character who gets a lot of unnecessary flak when her only real crime is to be the Princess in a story where the Princess’s job is to fall asleep for half the story.

Moviefan12:  Ingoyama70,  thanks for joining me on this rather polarizing look at Aurora.

Moviefan12:  Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses.  And well, I knew that this character was coming.   Let’s get this over with, joining me today to look at who I consider to be the worst Disney Princesses, as Ingonyama70  joins  t me to look at Princess Aurora and he defends her while I’ll be slamming her. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

 

Original Voice Actress

Mary Costa

Moviefan12: I will be fair and say that Mary Costa did a serviceable job as the voice for Aurora/Briar Rose.  I was able to believe that believing her heartbreak after she learned that she was a princess and could not be the person, she loved.  Stupid misunderstanding.  And now Mary is still affiliated with the Disney company as in ’99,  she was given the prestigious honor of Disney Legend and she did promotional  material for the upcoming Blu-Ray release of Sleeping Beauty.  And from what I’ve read in interviews,  Costa  seems to be rather protective of  her character, so much so that when asked about Aurora’s segment in the  Disney Princess: Enchanted Tales segment, Aurora segment had this to say in an interview with dvdizzy.com 

Oh, goodness sake. And they’ll never do it again because it didn’t work, and they got a lot of criticism. You know, with a fairy tale like this, your imagination takes over. And I think it spoils it because everyone knows what their imagination does and where they want to take them – that’s what a fairy tale is all about, that’s the magic of it.

Now, while I do not like the character personally,  I can respect how Mary Costa feels about Aurora and how Disney misused her character. Because this is just my belief but the VA’s   should be allowed to have a say on what is done with their characters.  As we will see next week, Jodi Benson had to fight to keep  Airel’s rebellious nature in Airel’s Beginning. And it is interesting to note that  Walt personally chose Mary Costa and called only hours after she auditioned.

I70: Far and away the best things about the character of Aurora are her character design, which was modelled after Audrey Hepburn, and her voice. Her voice actress, Mary Costa, is the most technically beautiful voice out of all the Disney princesses, to my way of thinking. It helps that she was a trained opera singer and sang in that style throughout the film. Costa’s speaking voice for Aurora is light and airy without going into being shrill (unlike her predecessor Snow White), and she puts a lot of feeling into the few lines she has. She would go on to enjoy a wildly successful opera career and win many well-deserved awards for her performances, both as Aurora and later.

First Appearance

Moviefan12:  The film opens on the birth of Princess Aurora, with everyone celebrating the birth of the new princess but we do see her as as an adult eventually as a 16 year old.  Though I do have to bring  up one of 200 issues I have with this awful awful terrible film.  This does tie into Aurora but is more about Phillip.  We see at the start of the film that Phillip is betrothed to Aurora, when she is first born and  he is a little boy.

What’s my issue here?  Well,  this is kinda of indicative of problems of the early princess films that the lovers really  never got to know  each other and the worst part here is Aurora never really got to have a say in their relationship and  Phillip and Aurora had the least amount of interaction out of the three early couples in the princess films.   Yes,  I had this same complaint regarding the Prince and Prince Charming in both Snow White and Cinderella but what the films lacks in having interesting male characters in the relationship, it has well rounded and interesting female leads.  Alas, the same cannot say the same for Aurora.

I70:  Aurora, also known as Briar Rose, debuted in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” the last fairy tale Walt Disney ever personally worked on. This film is well known for many things: it’s got gorgeous animation, a beautiful score based off Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet, an amazing visual style based off Renaissance tapestries, the most recognizable and beloved villain in all of Disney, funny protagonists in the Three Good Fairies, a charming male lead in Prince Phillip (the first with a given name in the story no less!), and one of the most pulse-pounding climaxes ever to exist in Western animated film. The dragon fight at the end of this one set the bar for animated films for decades to come.

Personality

Moviefan12:  Let make me one clear,  while I do not like this film,  I find that I cannot hate because the film doesn’t  give me any reason to be invested in Aurora as a character and that’s because she isn’t a character. She is a device, to keep the plot moving. She’s macguffin.  Simple as that, sure, we see that she is nice and sweet,  and maybe a little naive in the first act but she is such a blank slate of a character, that I have to wonder why Walt Disney at one point envisioned this horrid film as his masterpiece.  There is absolutely nothing of interest about Aurora as a character. And yes,  I know her defenders will say that is true to her source material.  But Disney has expanded and tweaked material to put their own stamp on the films and they could’ve done the same thing here but instead, we get a character that is the epitome of the stereotypical complaints that people have with the princesses.  That they don’t do anything and wait for a man to save them.  And that could NOT be truer as Aurora.  She is the worst example of a Disney princess.  To have her in this line-up is a disgrace to the ladies that came before her.  Snow White and Cinderella at least actually interesting and engaging personalities that make them memorable.

I70:  Aurora, being the titular Sleeping Beauty, is asleep for fully half the film, so her personality’s not going to be winning her any “Strongest Disney Princess” awards any time soon. However, that’s not to say that she’s COMPLETELY flat as a character. During the first act, we spend quite a bit of time getting to know her. We learn that Briar Rose is naive thanks to being sheltered and protected by her three “aunts” and that she both resents and dearly loves them. We learn she has a playful, mischievous side, that she truly cares for her friends in the forest, and yearns to be free of the Fairies’ restrictions but would never do anything to let them down or disobey them. She is somewhat fixated on the notion of romance, but both in the time the film was set and the time it was released, romantic aspirations were the most a girl of the era could hope for. We also learn she’s painfully naive, as she’s almost immediately enthralled by Prince Phillip when she meets him. However, she invites him back to her cottage to meet her aunts that night, so it’s not like she’s stupid.

Favorite Moment

Moviefan12:  I don’t particularly like this film and I honestly thought my choice  for Favorite Moment was going to be  Aurora pricking her finger, and that did come mighty close.

This is perhaps the most iconic scene for this character but  the scene that I chose as my favorite moment, which is being generous is Aurora crying after finding out that she after finds out that she cannot be with the one she loves because she is a princess.  Granted, this ties into the stupid misunderstanding that could’ve been avoided, if Phillip had just told Aurora, who he was.  And not just use the stupid line that they had met in a dream.

I chose this scene because this to me is the one scene where Aurora actually feels likes a real teenager whose world  had just come crashing down.  This is the one time, where Aurora felt like a character and not just a device to advance the story.  This scene displayed very real and genuine emotions and I like how Aurora is all quiet throughout this scene as to show that she doesn’t know what to say in this situation.

I70:  The “Once Upon A Dream” sequence is where Aurora has her most character-defining moments, and is one of the most instantly recognizable musical numbers in Disney. Raised alone and sheltered as she had been, Aurora dreams, like Anna would later, of being around people, of meeting someone she can love. This wish comes from a deep, desperate loneliness, which is expressed more subtly than Anna’s, but is still very keenly felt by the way she speaks with the forest animals around her. When the animals decide to do their best to cheer her up by swiping Phillip’s cloak, boots, and hat and dancing with her, she giggles and plays along while singing. Not only is the song itself beautiful, Tchaikovsky’s score and Mary Costa’s one-of-a-kind voice blending perfectly, but it provides the most characterization of Aurora throughout the whole film, both good and bad.

 Later Appearances

I70:  Interestingly, perhaps because of the lack of personality she was given in her original film, Aurora has never appeared in any sequels, prequels, or midquels, not getting a new story until 2007’s “Follow Your Dreams” collection, where she is temporarily given control of Stefan’s kingdom and Merriweather’s magic wand, and hijinks ensue. I have not seen this, so I can’t give any honest criticism of it, but if Disney sequels of the time are anything to go by, it’s probably not very good. From the trailers, the animation quality certainly looks horrid.

One other thing to note was that there was originally another short planned, as part of a collection called “A Kingdom Of Kindness”, which was cancelled due to poor sales of “Follow Your Dreams,” the first Disney Princess collection. In the proposed short, the Three Good Fairies assist Aurora in planning a surprise party, but they continually interfere, meddle, and do her work for her despite her repeated pleas for them to let her do things herself like she wants to. I personally am disappointed, despite the terrible quality of the animation, as I feel this would have been a good chance to make Aurora more decisive and independent, two things she does very badly need. The trailer is on YouTube should you wish to search for it.

Moviefan12:   Now,  besides these two appearances,  Aurora also appeared in the Christmas episode  of  Sofia The First,  just like most the other princesses but she was the first princess to not have a song.  There are varying reports that this was because of her VA’s singing in the short that Ingonyama70 brought up (which  I actually liked as it gave Aurora character) but the more likely scenario and I believe is that they just couldn’t fit a song into the episode as they only had 23 minutes to tell a story.

Aurora also  made her Once Upon A Time debut in the second  season opener, where she  spent most of the season with Mulan.  And in the first half with Emma and Snow as they had been trapped in the Enchanted Forest.

Aurora in this show started out a little ditzy and vain but over time, her adventures grew to make her a more well rounded character over time as she faces adversity such as having Cora take her heart.

And we also learn that she is not the first Sleeping Beauty as many years before,  her mother was put under the same sleeping curse that Maleficent placed on her .   You see during the 28 years that the curse was in effect, the fairy tale characters that remained in Fairy Tale Land were frozen in time but after Emma broke the curse,  Phillip was able to resume his search for his love and during this time, he was aided by the help of Mulan.

Mulan as a character is integral to Aurora’s development as these two characters could not be polar opposite as Aurora is played up as a damsel in distress that has to learn to defend herself and Mulan is depicted as a brave and noble warrior.     And   this’ll be covered more in the Mulan article but there hints of a romantic relationship that was blossoming between Mulan and Aurora.  Granted, this doesn’t work out because Aurora is in love with Phillip, who both the girls were trying to save in the second season, after he let  a Wraith consume his soul.  And  Mulan is told by Robin Hood in a season 3 episode that she should tell the one she loves, how she feels, so she went to do that but it turned out that the Sleeping Warrior ship would not set sail as Aurora and Phillip were with child.

Another interesting thing of note is how Aurora was able to help the residents of Storybrooke know where Emma and Snow were as she went  into this sleep and contacted, Henry (Emma’s son) to try and give him this info.  What the show gave us, looked like fiery hell, that no one should have to endure.  I applaud  Once Upon A Time here as they took a terrible  flat and boring character, who was essentially a blank slate and made her interesting and  one of the most important characters of season 2. They expanded upon Aurora’s template and added to it, so that she would not be the same dull character that she is in that horrid film.  This to me is the best, nay   perfect iteration  of Princess Aurora.  Because she is actually an interesting character, who you can get invested in!!!!!

Also, coming  out this year is Maleficent, a live action fantasy film that seems to be giving the Sleeping Beauty tale the Wicked treatment by showing the story from Maleficent’s point of view.  And Elle Fanning will be playing the role of Aurora in that film.

And  from what I’ve seen thus far from the trailers,  I’m getting an Elphie/Glinda vibe between Maleficent and Aurora in that, it seems like there will be a friendship that blossoms between the two.  Don’t care enough to see the movie though.  Hate the source material and was offended when they called the most overrated villain of all time,  the greatest Disney villain ever. She does NOT deserve that title,  when it should go to someone like The Wicked Queen or Jafar or Ursula or Dr. Facilier.  Sorry,  that just offends me on so many levels because she doesn’t even deserve to be in the top 20 greatest Disney villains list.

Now besides these aforementioned appearances,  just like most of the princesses, Aurora could be spotted on House of Mouse.  Interestingly,  she was usually in her Briar Rose outfit and not one of her princess dresses.

I will say that I do think the ribbon tied on her finger and the sewing machine behind her make for a good joke.

As for the parks,  Aurora’s castle is the castle of Disneyland

And she can be found at Fantasy Faire for Meet & Greets in Disneyland while at Disney World, she can be found at the France pavilion of EPCOT and Magic Kingdom’s Town Square Theater.

1. And  at one point during the planning stages of New Fantasyland, there were plans to add Aurora’s cottage as meet & greet where guests would celebrate her birthday.  However this along with Pixie Hollow and Cinderella’s Chateau were gotten rid of to make way for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

I’m now going to turn this over to DisneyOtoko so that he can fill us in on Aurora’s presence in the Kingdom Hearts games.

Aurora In Kingdom Hearts

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko:  Aurora is probably the most indirectly used character in the whole series. As opposed to reinventing the wheel and possibly making the least developed princess worse Square Enix decided to take a different direction and have the character be very minimally involved yet still to use her presence and her effect on others to the maximum potential. Throughout the campaigns Aurora has already pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and is the castle’s tallest tower awaiting true love’s kiss. The Keyblade Masters arrive at various parts and encounter Maleficent who has her plans to gather the Princesses of Heart.

Terra’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Terra arrives and defeats a pack of Unversed and proceeds to the castle where he finds Maleficent on the Bridge and she asks Terra what his business is. Terra asks the standard questions about Master Xehanort’s whereabouts and Maleficent gives a vague response that he might have been there looking for a Heart of Pure Light and implies Aurora heavily. Terra arrives in the tower and is taken aback at Aurora’s beauty, but also senses the light within her heart and Maleficent appears and explains Aurora’s significance and role (for newcomers to the series) she offers for Terra to join her, but he refuses and Maleficent uses her magic to take control of Terra and Terra steals Aurora’s heart and gives it to Maleficent. When Terra regains control and is ready to put up more of a fight a powerful Unversed monster attacks the castle. Terra rightfully lets Maleficent escape because protecting the castle is a higher priority. After the boss battle he returns to Aurora’s tower where he apologizes to Aurora for what he did and laments his own weakness. He can’t risk being possessed again and vows to return to get her heart back when he’s strong enough to defeat the darkness within himself. What Terra did to Aurora continues to haunt him throughout his campaign and her lifeless shell is a symbol of his failure, inadequacy, guilt and weakness.

Ventus’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Ventus’s ties to Aurora are very limited. Ventus arrives and learns of what happened to Aurora from the 3 Fairies and they agree to get Aurora’s heart back from Maleficent’s castle  and they succeed. Ventus sees a vision of Aurora’s meeting with Prince Philip and it was the Light within Ventus (which is much stronger than usual) interacting with Aurora’s heart of pure light. Even in a cursed sleep Aurora still has something to live for and a dream that needs to be fulfilled. As Ventus and the fairies leave Maleficent is enraged and attacks Ventus and with the help of the Fairies he defeats the Mistress of All Evil. Maleficent slightly injured begins to even further explain Terra’s act and it casts Ventus into even more doubt than before even with Aqua’s reassurance. Ventus leaves Aqua to handle Maleficent and to protect Aurora while he chases after Terra.

Aqua’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Aqua’s story in the Enchanted Dominion is basically the ending of the Sleeping Beauty film. She gets put in the dungeon by Maleficent and she teams up with Prince Philip to bust out of Maleficent’s lair. They get to the castle bridge and Maleficent tries to cast Aqua’s heart into doubt against Terra and it doesn’t work as quickly as it did Ventus and Maleficent turns into the Dragon. The Fairies give Prince Philip the edge and the Sword of Truth defeats the Dragon, but Maleficent is only badly wounded, but not dead! Prince Philip runs to the castle to awaken Aurora and one of my favorite scenes in the game follows where Aqua proclaims that true love defeated Maleficent, but Maleficent scoffs at such a notion. Aqua gives a resonating speech that Maleficent is too blinded by Darkness to understand the happiness that comes from loving another. In defiance of fairy tale convention Maleficent may have lost the battle, but she has NOT lost the war and gives great foreshadowing to the horrible victories she achieves in the Kingdom Hearts mythology. Love may have defeated evil, but COULD NEVER kill it. Maleficent departs Aqua with this hard truth that the forces of good don’t like to admit if at all and has a foreboding ending to Auqa’s story in the world. Standard procedure for Aqua’s storyline where Aurora is a symbol of Light, but also juxtaposed with Maleficent’s hatred towards the kindness of Aurora. I love how Aqua’s story and Birth by Sleep as a whole celebrate fairy tale convention, but also have the harsh reality of evil’s immortality and never ending malice be front and center creating a true understanding of the relationship between good and evil aka Aurora and Maleficent.

After Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko: During the credits Aurora and Prince Philip are seen in a reenactment of the film’s ending scene and Flora and Fauna keep transforming Aurora’s dress and it cuts to outside the castle where Maleficent lurks and awaits her chance to strike at Aurora again. She does when the Heartless are destroying the Enchanted Dominion and Maleficent obviously needs Aurora alive so Maleficent rescues Aurora and they both through corridor of Darkness are transported to the world of Hollow Bastion where Maleficent puts Aurora into suspended animation and plans on gathering followers and controlling the Heartless herself to ravage world after world looking for the other Princesses.

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts 1

DisneyOtoko: After the Princesses awaken and Sora, Beast, Donald, and Goofy return to Hollow Bastion’s Castle Chapel Aurora is there and assists the other sin holding the Darkness back and she in a way tells the cautionary tale of Maleficent’s arrogance thinking she could control the Darkness and cautions Sora to not underestimate the Darkness in one’s heart. Once the secret boss of Final Mix has been unlocked she comments on its foreboding power and wishes us to be careful if we investigate it.

Is Aurora A Good Character?

Moviefan12:  The better question to ask  here “Is Aurora a Character?”  and to that answer is no, she’s not.  Her film never grants her the opportunity to be a character.  We never get to know her or all that much about her. She is the weakest and most uninteresting Disney princess, because her film presents  nothing memorable about her. She just exists to drive the narrative forward.  She is not the worst thing in her film, that’d be the three fairies but she is not a good character either because she is never granted the opportunity to be a character.   And while I may not be looking forward to that Maleficent film, I do hope that they are smart enough to actually take time and develop Aurora into a character.   Because in her film, she’s just a non-entity.  I went in, watching this film, hoping that my opinion of her would improve but alas that was not the case and sad to say,  after re-watching the film, I  believe that my opinion of her has lessened.

I70:   Because of the nature of her story and the viewpoints of the time, it’s unfair to judge Aurora by the same standards as someone like Mulan, or Rapunzel, or Elsa, or Belle. As a character, she doesn’t have much to work with…she’s unconscious for the precise half of the film that all the other ladies come into their own as characters and face their greatest challenges.

The most important thing to remember about Sleeping Beauty is that it is not about its titular character but about the people around her – in the Disney film’s case, the prince, the fairies, and Maleficent. As a main character, yes, she’d be lackluster at best and bland at worst, but the important thing to remember is that she isn’t the main character. The Three Good Fairies are our central protagonists and Maleficent is our central antagonist. True to form, they’re where the movie really shines.

So as a supporting character, Aurora works fine. Speaking as a self-proclaimed feminist, she wasn’t the best role model for young girls, but that was never the point of her character. Her job in the film was to be lovely and have a wonderful voice, and on both those counts, Disney did a fantastic job…she looks like Audrey Hepburn and sings like a trained opera star. She may be one of the most archetypal damsels in distress ever to exist, but at least she’s a likable character whom we want to see rescued by the end of the film.

Aurora was my very first princess, so it’s hard for me to be unbiased about her. I think she’s handicapped as a character both by the sexist era of the time (1959) and by the story’s plot itself, but despite this has still persisted as a memorable character to this day.

She’s not my favorite Disney princess, or even in my top ten, but that’s a long way from saying I dislike her. Rather, I feel sorry for her for being judged in the same category as the later princesses who carried their films and did amazing, heroic things, when the sexism of her time simply would not allow for that kind of female empowerment. The fact that Maleficent and the Fairies are as central to the story as they are is a miracle, but it still takes Phillip, the dashing male Prince, to save the day at the end of the film.

All in all, even if she’s not a good role model, I feel she is a good character who gets a lot of unnecessary flak when her only real crime is to be the Princess in a story where the Princess’s job is to fall asleep for half the story.

Moviefan12:  Ingoyama70,  thanks for joining me on this rather polarizing look at Aurora.

Moviefan12:  Hello & welcome back to Power of The Princesses.  And well, I knew that this character was coming.   Let’s get this over with, joining me today to look at who I consider to be the worst Disney Princesses, as Ingonyama70  joins  t me to look at Princess Aurora and he defends her while I’ll be slamming her. With that out of the way, let’s begin.

 

Original Voice Actress

Mary Costa

Moviefan12: I will be fair and say that Mary Costa did a serviceable job as the voice for Aurora/Briar Rose.  I was able to believe that believing her heartbreak after she learned that she was a princess and could not be the person, she loved.  Stupid misunderstanding.  And now Mary is still affiliated with the Disney company as in ’99,  she was given the prestigious honor of Disney Legend and she did promotional  material for the upcoming Blu-Ray release of Sleeping Beauty.  And from what I’ve read in interviews,  Costa  seems to be rather protective of  her character, so much so that when asked about Aurora’s segment in the  Disney Princess: Enchanted Tales segment, Aurora segment had this to say in an interview with dvdizzy.com 

Oh, goodness sake. And they’ll never do it again because it didn’t work, and they got a lot of criticism. You know, with a fairy tale like this, your imagination takes over. And I think it spoils it because everyone knows what their imagination does and where they want to take them – that’s what a fairy tale is all about, that’s the magic of it.

Now, while I do not like the character personally,  I can respect how Mary Costa feels about Aurora and how Disney misused her character. Because this is just my belief but the VA’s   should be allowed to have a say on what is done with their characters.  As we will see next week, Jodi Benson had to fight to keep  Airel’s rebellious nature in Airel’s Beginning. And it is interesting to note that  Walt personally chose Mary Costa and called only hours after she auditioned.

I70: Far and away the best things about the character of Aurora are her character design, which was modelled after Audrey Hepburn, and her voice. Her voice actress, Mary Costa, is the most technically beautiful voice out of all the Disney princesses, to my way of thinking. It helps that she was a trained opera singer and sang in that style throughout the film. Costa’s speaking voice for Aurora is light and airy without going into being shrill (unlike her predecessor Snow White), and she puts a lot of feeling into the few lines she has. She would go on to enjoy a wildly successful opera career and win many well-deserved awards for her performances, both as Aurora and later.

First Appearance

Moviefan12:  The film opens on the birth of Princess Aurora, with everyone celebrating the birth of the new princess but we do see her as as an adult eventually as a 16 year old.  Though I do have to bring  up one of 200 issues I have with this awful awful terrible film.  This does tie into Aurora but is more about Phillip.  We see at the start of the film that Phillip is betrothed to Aurora, when she is first born and  he is a little boy.

What’s my issue here?  Well,  this is kinda of indicative of problems of the early princess films that the lovers really  never got to know  each other and the worst part here is Aurora never really got to have a say in their relationship and  Phillip and Aurora had the least amount of interaction out of the three early couples in the princess films.   Yes,  I had this same complaint regarding the Prince and Prince Charming in both Snow White and Cinderella but what the films lacks in having interesting male characters in the relationship, it has well rounded and interesting female leads.  Alas, the same cannot say the same for Aurora.

I70:  Aurora, also known as Briar Rose, debuted in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” the last fairy tale Walt Disney ever personally worked on. This film is well known for many things: it’s got gorgeous animation, a beautiful score based off Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Ballet, an amazing visual style based off Renaissance tapestries, the most recognizable and beloved villain in all of Disney, funny protagonists in the Three Good Fairies, a charming male lead in Prince Phillip (the first with a given name in the story no less!), and one of the most pulse-pounding climaxes ever to exist in Western animated film. The dragon fight at the end of this one set the bar for animated films for decades to come.

Personality

Moviefan12:  Let make me one clear,  while I do not like this film,  I find that I cannot hate because the film doesn’t  give me any reason to be invested in Aurora as a character and that’s because she isn’t a character. She is a device, to keep the plot moving. She’s macguffin.  Simple as that, sure, we see that she is nice and sweet,  and maybe a little naive in the first act but she is such a blank slate of a character, that I have to wonder why Walt Disney at one point envisioned this horrid film as his masterpiece.  There is absolutely nothing of interest about Aurora as a character. And yes,  I know her defenders will say that is true to her source material.  But Disney has expanded and tweaked material to put their own stamp on the films and they could’ve done the same thing here but instead, we get a character that is the epitome of the stereotypical complaints that people have with the princesses.  That they don’t do anything and wait for a man to save them.  And that could NOT be truer as Aurora.  She is the worst example of a Disney princess.  To have her in this line-up is a disgrace to the ladies that came before her.  Snow White and Cinderella at least actually interesting and engaging personalities that make them memorable.

I70:  Aurora, being the titular Sleeping Beauty, is asleep for fully half the film, so her personality’s not going to be winning her any “Strongest Disney Princess” awards any time soon. However, that’s not to say that she’s COMPLETELY flat as a character. During the first act, we spend quite a bit of time getting to know her. We learn that Briar Rose is naive thanks to being sheltered and protected by her three “aunts” and that she both resents and dearly loves them. We learn she has a playful, mischievous side, that she truly cares for her friends in the forest, and yearns to be free of the Fairies’ restrictions but would never do anything to let them down or disobey them. She is somewhat fixated on the notion of romance, but both in the time the film was set and the time it was released, romantic aspirations were the most a girl of the era could hope for. We also learn she’s painfully naive, as she’s almost immediately enthralled by Prince Phillip when she meets him. However, she invites him back to her cottage to meet her aunts that night, so it’s not like she’s stupid.

Favorite Moment

Moviefan12:  I don’t particularly like this film and I honestly thought my choice  for Favorite Moment was going to be  Aurora pricking her finger, and that did come mighty close.

This is perhaps the most iconic scene for this character but  the scene that I chose as my favorite moment, which is being generous is Aurora crying after finding out that she after finds out that she cannot be with the one she loves because she is a princess.  Granted, this ties into the stupid misunderstanding that could’ve been avoided, if Phillip had just told Aurora, who he was.  And not just use the stupid line that they had met in a dream.

I chose this scene because this to me is the one scene where Aurora actually feels likes a real teenager whose world  had just come crashing down.  This is the one time, where Aurora felt like a character and not just a device to advance the story.  This scene displayed very real and genuine emotions and I like how Aurora is all quiet throughout this scene as to show that she doesn’t know what to say in this situation.

I70:  The “OnceUpon A Dream” sequence is where Aurora has her most character-defining moments, and is one of the most instantly recognizable musical numbers in Disney. Raised alone and sheltered as she had been, Aurora dreams, like Anna would later, of being around people, of meeting someone she can love. This wish comes from a deep, desperate loneliness, which is expressed more subtly than Anna’s, but is still very keenly felt by the way she speaks with the forest animals around her. When the animals decide to do their best to cheer her up by swiping Phillip’s cloak, boots, and hat and dancing with her, she giggles and plays along while singing. Not only is the song itself beautiful, Tchaikovsky’s score and Mary Costa’s one-of-a-kind voice blending perfectly, but it provides the most characterization of Aurora throughout the whole film, both good and bad.

 Later Appearances

I70:  Interestingly, perhaps because of the lack of personality she was given in her original film, Aurora has never appeared in any sequels, prequels, or midquels, not getting a new story until 2007’s “Follow Your Dreams” collection, where she is temporarily given control of Stefan’s kingdom and Merriweather’s magic wand, and hijinks ensue. I have not seen this, so I can’t give any honest criticism of it, but if Disney sequels of the time are anything to go by, it’s probably not very good. From the trailers, the animation quality certainly looks horrid.

One other thing to note was that there was originally another short planned, as part of a collection called “A Kingdom Of Kindness”, which was cancelled due to poor sales of “Follow Your Dreams,” the first Disney Princess collection. In the proposed short, the Three Good Fairies assist Aurora in planning a surprise party, but they continually interfere, meddle, and do her work for her despite her repeated pleas for them to let her do things herself like she wants to. I personally am disappointed, despite the terrible quality of the animation, as I feel this would have been a good chance to make Aurora more decisive and independent, two things she does very badly need. The trailer is on YouTube should you wish to search for it.

Moviefan12:   Now,  besides these two appearances,  Aurora also appeared in the Christmas episode  of  Sofia The First,  just like most the other princesses but she was the first princess to not have a song.  There are varying reports that this was because of her VA’s singing in the short that Ingonyama70 brought up (which  I actually liked as it gave Aurora character) but the more likely scenario and I believe is that they just couldn’t fit a song into the episode as they only had 23 minutes to tell a story.

Aurora also  made her Once Upon A Time debut in the second  season opener, where she  spent most of the season with Mulan.  And in the first half with Emma and Snow as they had been trapped in the Enchanted Forest.

Aurora in this show started out a little ditzy and vain but over time, her adventures grew to make her a more well rounded character over time as she faces adversity such as having Cora take her heart.

And we also learn that she is not the first Sleeping Beauty as many years before,  her mother was put under the same sleeping curse that Maleficent placed on her .   You see during the 28 years that the curse was in effect, the fairy tale characters that remained in Fairy Tale Land were frozen in time but after Emma broke the curse,  Phillip was able to resume his search for his love and during this time, he was aided by the help of Mulan.

Mulan as a character is integral to Aurora’s development as these two characters could not be polar opposite as Aurora is played up as a damsel in distress that has to learn to defend herself and Mulan is depicted as a brave and noble warrior.     And   this’ll be covered more in the Mulan article but there hints of a romantic relationship that was blossoming between Mulan and Aurora.  Granted, this doesn’t work out because Aurora is in love with Phillip, who both the girls were trying to save in the second season, after he let  a Wraith consume his soul.  And  Mulan is told by Robin Hood in a season 3 episode that she should tell the one she loves, how she feels, so she went to do that but it turned out that the Sleeping Warrior ship would not set sail as Aurora and Phillip were with child.

Another interesting thing of note is how Aurora was able to help the residents of Storybrooke know where Emma and Snow were as she went  into this sleep and contacted, Henry (Emma’s son) to try and give him this info.  What the show gave us, looked like fiery hell, that no one should have to endure.  I applaud  Once Upon A Time here as they took a terrible  flat and boring character, who was essentially a blank slate and made her interesting and  one of the most important characters of season 2. They expanded upon Aurora’s template and added to it, so that she would not be the same dull character that she is in that horrid film.  This to me is the best, nay   perfect iteration  of Princess Aurora.  Because she is actually an interesting character, who you can get invested in!!!!!

Also, coming  out this year is Maleficent, a live action fantasy film that seems to be giving the Sleeping Beauty tale the Wicked treatment by showing the story from Maleficent’s point of view.  And Elle Fanning will be playing the role of Aurora in that film.

And  from what I’ve seen thus far from the trailers,  I’m getting an Elphie/Glinda vibe between Maleficent and Aurora in that, it seems like there will be a friendship that blossoms between the two.  Don’t care enough to see the movie though.  Hate the source material and was offended when they called the most overrated villain of all time,  the greatest Disney villain ever. She does NOT deserve that title,  when it should go to someone like The Wicked Queen or Jafar or Ursula or Dr. Facilier.  Sorry,  that just offends me on so many levels because she doesn’t even deserve to be in the top 20 greatest Disney villains list.

Now besides these aforementioned appearances,  just like most of the princesses, Aurora could be spotted on House of Mouse.  Interestingly,  she was usually in her Briar Rose outfit and not one of her princess dresses.

I will say that I do think the ribbon tied on her finger and the sewing machine behind her make for a good joke.

As for the parks,  Aurora’s castle is the castle of Disneyland

And she can be found at Fantasy Faire for Meet & Greets in Disneyland while at Disney World, she can be found at the France pavilion of EPCOT and Magic Kingdom’s Town Square Theater.

1. And  at one point during the planning stages of New Fantasyland, there were plans to add Aurora’s cottage as meet & greet where guests would celebrate her birthday.  However this along with Pixie Hollow and Cinderella’s Chateau were gotten rid of to make way for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

I’m now going to turn this over to DisneyOtoko so that he can fill us in on Aurora’s presence in the Kingdom Hearts games.

Aurora In Kingdom Hearts

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko:  Aurora is probably the most indirectly used character in the whole series. As opposed to reinventing the wheel and possibly making the least developed princess worse Square Enix decided to take a different direction and have the character be very minimally involved yet still to use her presence and her effect on others to the maximum potential. Throughout the campaigns Aurora has already pricked her finger on the spinning wheel and is the castle’s tallest tower awaiting true love’s kiss. The Keyblade Masters arrive at various parts and encounter Maleficent who has her plans to gather the Princesses of Heart.

Terra’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Terra arrives and defeats a pack of Unversed and proceeds to the castle where he finds Maleficent on the Bridge and she asks Terra what his business is. Terra asks the standard questions about Master Xehanort’s whereabouts and Maleficent gives a vague response that he might have been there looking for a Heart of Pure Light and implies Aurora heavily. Terra arrives in the tower and is taken aback at Aurora’s beauty, but also senses the light within her heart and Maleficent appears and explains Aurora’s significance and role (for newcomers to the series) she offers for Terra to join her, but he refuses and Maleficent uses her magic to take control of Terra and Terra steals Aurora’s heart and gives it to Maleficent. When Terra regains control and is ready to put up more of a fight a powerful Unversed monster attacks the castle. Terra rightfully lets Maleficent escape because protecting the castle is a higher priority. After the boss battle he returns to Aurora’s tower where he apologizes to Aurora for what he did and laments his own weakness. He can’t risk being possessed again and vows to return to get her heart back when he’s strong enough to defeat the darkness within himself. What Terra did to Aurora continues to haunt him throughout his campaign and her lifeless shell is a symbol of his failure, inadequacy, guilt and weakness.

Ventus’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Ventus’s ties to Aurora are very limited. Ventus arrives and learns of what happened to Aurora from the 3 Fairies and they agree to get Aurora’s heart back from Maleficent’s castle  and they succeed. Ventus sees a vision of Aurora’s meeting with Prince Philip and it was the Light within Ventus (which is much stronger than usual) interacting with Aurora’s heart of pure light. Even in a cursed sleep Aurora still has something to live for and a dream that needs to be fulfilled. As Ventus and the fairies leave Maleficent is enraged and attacks Ventus and with the help of the Fairies he defeats the Mistress of All Evil. Maleficent slightly injured begins to even further explain Terra’s act and it casts Ventus into even more doubt than before even with Aqua’s reassurance. Ventus leaves Aqua to handle Maleficent and to protect Aurora while he chases after Terra.

Aqua’s Story

DisneyOtoko: Aqua’s story in the Enchanted Dominion is basically the ending of the Sleeping Beauty film. She gets put in the dungeon by Maleficent and she teams up with Prince Philip to bust out of Maleficent’s lair. They get to the castle bridge and Maleficent tries to cast Aqua’s heart into doubt against Terra and it doesn’t work as quickly as it did Ventus and Maleficent turns into the Dragon. The Fairies give Prince Philip the edge and the Sword of Truth defeats the Dragon, but Maleficent is only badly wounded, but not dead! Prince Philip runs to the castle to awaken Aurora and one of my favorite scenes in the game follows where Aqua proclaims that true love defeated Maleficent, but Maleficent scoffs at such a notion. Aqua gives a resonating speech that Maleficent is too blinded by Darkness to understand the happiness that comes from loving another. In defiance of fairy tale convention Maleficent may have lost the battle, but she has NOT lost the war and gives great foreshadowing to the horrible victories she achieves in the Kingdom Hearts mythology. Love may have defeated evil, but COULD NEVER kill it. Maleficent departs Aqua with this hard truth that the forces of good don’t like to admit if at all and has a foreboding ending to Auqa’s story in the world. Standard procedure for Aqua’s storyline where Aurora is a symbol of Light, but also juxtaposed with Maleficent’s hatred towards the kindness of Aurora. I love how Aqua’s story and Birth by Sleep as a whole celebrate fairy tale convention, but also have the harsh reality of evil’s immortality and never ending malice be front and center creating a true understanding of the relationship between good and evil aka Aurora and Maleficent.

After Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

DisneyOtoko: During the credits Aurora and Prince Philip are seen in a reenactment of the film’s ending scene and Flora and Fauna keep transforming Aurora’s dress and it cuts to outside the castle where Maleficent lurks and awaits her chance to strike at Aurora again. She does when the Heartless are destroying the Enchanted Dominion and Maleficent obviously needs Aurora alive so Maleficent rescues Aurora and they both through corridor of Darkness are transported to the world of Hollow Bastion where Maleficent puts Aurora into suspended animation and plans on gathering followers and controlling the Heartless herself to ravage world after world looking for the other Princesses.

Aurora in Kingdom Hearts 1

DisneyOtoko: After the Princesses awaken and Sora, Beast, Donald, and Goofy return to Hollow Bastion’s Castle Chapel Aurora is there and assists the other sin holding the Darkness back and she in a way tells the cautionary tale of Maleficent’s arrogance thinking she could control the Darkness and cautions Sora to not underestimate the Darkness in one’s heart. Once the secret boss of Final Mix has been unlocked she comments on its foreboding power and wishes us to be careful if we investigate it.

Is Aurora A Good Character?

Moviefan12:  The better question to ask  here “Is Aurora a Character?”  and to that answer is no, she’s not.  Her film never grants her the opportunity to be a character.  We never get to know her or all that much about her. She is the weakest and most uninteresting Disney princess, because her film presents  nothing memorable about her. She just exists to drive the narrative forward.  She is not the worst thing in her film, that’d be the three fairies but she is not a good character either because she is never granted the opportunity to be a character.   And while I may not be looking forward to that Maleficent film, I do hope that they are smart enough to actually take time and develop Aurora into a character.   Because in her film, she’s just a non-entity.  I went in, watching this film, hoping that my opinion of her would improve but alas that was not the case and sad to say,  after re-watching the film, I  believe that my opinion of her has lessened.

I70:   Because of the nature of her story and the viewpoints of the time, it’s unfair to judge Aurora by the same standards as someone like Mulan, or Rapunzel, or Elsa, or Belle. As a character, she doesn’t have much to work with…she’s unconscious for the precise half of the film that all the other ladies come into their own as characters and face their greatest challenges.

The most important thing to remember about Sleeping Beauty is that it is not about its titular character but about the people around her – in the Disney film’s case, the prince, the fairies, and Maleficent. As a main character, yes, she’d be lackluster at best and bland at worst, but the important thing to remember is that she isn’t the main character. The Three Good Fairies are our central protagonists and Maleficent is our central antagonist. True to form, they’re where the movie really shines.

So as a supporting character, Aurora works fine. Speaking as a self-proclaimed feminist, she wasn’t the best role model for young girls, but that was never the point of her character. Her job in the film was to be lovely and have a wonderful voice, and on both those counts, Disney did a fantastic job…she looks like Audrey Hepburn and sings like a trained opera star. She may be one of the most archetypal damsels in distress ever to exist, but at least she’s a likable character whom we want to see rescued by the end of the film.

Aurora was my very first princess, so it’s hard for me to be unbiased about her. I think she’s handicapped as a character both by the sexist era of the time (1959) and by the story’s plot itself, but despite this has still persisted as a memorable character to this day.

She’s not my favorite Disney princess, or even in my top ten, but that’s a long way from saying I dislike her. Rather, I feel sorry for her for being judged in the same category as the later princesses who carried their films and did amazing, heroic things, when the sexism of her time simply would not allow for that kind of female empowerment. The fact that Maleficent and the Fairies are as central to the story as they are is a miracle, but it still takes Phillip, the dashing male Prince, to save the day at the end of the film.

All in all, even if she’s not a good role model, I feel she is a good character who gets a lot of unnecessary flak when her only real crime is to be the Princess in a story where the Princess’s job is to fall asleep for half the story.

Moviefan12:  Ingoyama70,  thanks for joining me on this rather polarizing look at Aurora.