Why it matters that Aurora isn’t the hero in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty

Of all the Disney films featuring female protagonists passive, Beauty SleepThis is the one that’s most often misunderstood. If you view it at face value — with Aurora, the titular Beauty Sleeping Beauty, as the center character — then Sleeping Beauty This is an unusual movie about a passive Princess. After being lured by a wicked fairy into a trap, Aurora decides to quit her movie. The only thing she does is sing sweetly and then fall asleep. Nearly every plot point is covered. Beauty Sleeping BeautyThis is what happens You can find more information hereShe is not doing something that she doesn’t.

These are the oldest Disney Princess films. Beauty Sleeping Beauty, CinderellaPlease see the following: Snow White and Seven DwarfsMany times, modern critics are harshest on them. None of these movies stray particularly far from their fairy-tale origins, which means the princesses in them don’t have much agency when compared to their modern counterparts. Modern princesses have different quirks than their fairy-tale counterparts. Do more. As part of the Disney Princess brand, the older movies are routinely dismissed as being about women who wait around to be saved by princes, and who don’t actively take control of their stories.

When it comes to Beauty Sleeping Beauty, that description actually isn’t accurate at all. All we need is to be able to recall the purpose of the movie. Even though Aurora is a certified Disney Princess, she isn’t the main character. Phillip, the dashing prince, who comes to her rescue is also not the main character. She is actually the protagonist of this story, along with her fairy godmothers Flora Fauna Merryweather and Fauna.

Image: Disney

Amid all the hullabaloo about the Disney Princess brand, it’s easy to forget that. The three fairies are the ones who volunteer to protect the princess, and ultimately, they’re the ones who have to figure out how to foil the dark fairy Maleficent, who wants revenge on Aurora’s family because she wasn’t invited to Aurora’s christening. Defeating the big bad villain is usually the hero’s job. Aurora has virtually no role in this.

The movie devotes a great deal of screen time to Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather’s adventures. Their personalities are different: Flora can be a little bossy, overbearing and obstinate; Fauna has a more emotional and sentimental personality; Merryweather is stubborn and grumpy. It is difficult for them to raise a teenager ward. After treating her as a child for so many years, they have to deal with the loss of her mother. Eventually, they have to face the worst-case scenario when the fate they’ve been protecting her from does happen. They bounce back and figure out how to put in place the failsafe that they devised years ago. This involves rescuing a prince from a dungeon, then using it as a fallback. HeTo fight the dragon

Image: Disney

Phillip fans (if they actually exist) could certainly argue that they’re just supporting his hero story. Two important facts are worth mentioning: First, Fairies enjoy far more screentime and have a greater personal incentive to save Aurora. And two, for the latter half of the movie, Phillip doesn’t even talk. After she cuts her finger, he and Aurora become silent. As they plot to save their kingdom, all of the conversation comes from the three fairies.

And unlike other Disney Matriarchs who occasionally step in for worldly advice (like Pocahontas’ Grandmother Willow) or to wave their magic wands and solve problems (like the Fairy Godmother in CinderellaThese three fairies stay with the story and fight for the good cause every step of their way. Even though they’re technically waving their wands to get Phillip out of jail, he’s simply the means to their end. They can use him as their avatar to gain the strength and ability they need to take over the castle. Unlike most hero-enabler characters, they don’t disappear after freeing him. While Phillip slashes through a wall of thorny briars, they’re the ones actually dispelling Maleficent’s spells and clearing the obstacles. Phillip is able to poke the dragon with his knife, but it’s actually them who direct him.

Image: Disney

Disney heroines — particularly the princesses — face the burden of rapidly evolving audience expectations when it comes to fulfilling arcs for young women. Ariel and Belle, which were considered to be progressive because they chose their own paths, are now seen as more advanced than their Disney predecessors. They were seen as agents who pursued their goals unapologetically when their first films debuted.

A decade later, however, people were critical of their stories because they were romantically focused and the characters discarded their dream for men. Storylines that were groundbreaking in one time period don’t necessarily carry the same weight in the next generation. Looking back through modern lenses, these older movies understandably don’t hold up. But sometimes they get a lot of flak for problems that don’t actually exist, simply because we’re looking back on them in the wrong way.

Image: Disney

With Beauty SleepWe just need to reevaluate our perceptions of what constitutes a major character. Here, it isn’t the young woman, nor is it the young man. It’s the three older women. Through this lens you can see that the women are not just a. Beauty Sleeping Beauty surprisingly groundbreaking in terms of women’s roles, it also gives the fairy tale an oddly modern edge.

It’s popular now to reimagine fairy tales through different angles, like Enchanted’s playful dismantling of Disney movie tropes, or every modern update of Cinderella that attempts to flesh out the folk tale’s original heroine, to varying degrees of success. 2014’s MaleficentGive it a tryBeauty Sleeping Beauty by telling the story from the villain’s point of view, butBeauty Sleep Itself It is alreadyThey departed from fairy-tale conventions.

Aurora, the main star of merchandise, is not the only one. Beauty SleepThree older women with different personalities are the three main characters. They argue about how to best execute their plans but they are extremely skilled at magic and can save not just a princess but an entire kingdom. Forget about 1959; that’s rare to see in 2023.

Beauty Sleep You can rent or buy on Disney Plus. Amazon, RedboxYou can also visit these other platforms.