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Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip meet in the forest. As they sing "Once Upon a Dream," they immediatly fall in love.
The wicked Maleficent places a curse on Aurora, stating that she will perish if she pricks her finger on a spindle before sunset on her 16th birthday.
Luckily, a benevolent fairy alters the curse, causing Aurora to enter a profound slumber instead. However, true love's kiss remains the sole means to awaken her. Maleficent tries to stop Prince Philip from reaching Aurora, but ultimately fails.
Disney drew inspiration from Charles Perrault's 'Mother Goose Tales', which, in turn, were inspired by Giambattista Basile's 1634 story 'Sun, Moon, and Talia'.
Princess Talia "died" after a flax fragment gets stuck under her fingernail. Abandoned by her family, she remains alone in a palace. Eventually, a king stumbles upon the palace and enters through a window.
He finds her lying unconscious, as though dead, and is overwhelmed with sadness, but blood coursing through his veins he “gathered the first fruits of love.” As if assaulting an unconscious woman wasn’t enough, throw some necrophilia in there too.
After completing this terrible deed, the king goes back to his kingdom and completely forgets about Talia for nine months.
During this nine-month period, Talia becomes pregnant and gives birth to twins. Surprisingly, two fairies appear and gently place the newborns, Sun and Moon, by their mother's breast. Somehow the fairies are more believable than snoozing through a twin labor.
They couldn't find her nipple, so instead began to suck at her fingers, and one of them managed to suck the splinter of flax out. Talia awoke! Instead of screaming in confusion at her surroundings, she simply started to feed them.
After nine months of never thinking about Talia, the king remembered and decided to go visit her again, giving the excuse of going hunting. You can probably guess his intentions...
To his surprise, he finds Talia and the twins, and overjoyed he recounted what had happened between them. In a big stretch even for fiction, Talia and the king bonded and spent a few days together.
The king plans to bring her back to his kingdom soon, but their arrangement must remain discreet. The reason? Well, it's because the king already has a queen.
After such a long hunting trip, and the king's strange compulsion to repeat Talia and the babies' names out loud, she rightfully grew suspicious. She threatened one of his men, and he told her everything about Talia.
The queen sent after Talia in the name of the king, asking her to send the children because he wanted to see them. Talia, clearly brain-damaged, did as requested
The queen ordered her cook to kill the babies and cook them into tasty dishes for her husband. The cook didn't have the heart, however, and took the babies home to his wife, while using lamb for the meal.
The king continuously expressed his satisfaction with the food, while the queen, in a rather unsettling manner, repeated, "Eat, eat, you are eating of your own.” Her statement was quite subtle. Eventually he got annoyed and said indeed he was eating his own because she doesn't provide anything for him.
She sent for Talia this time, again in the name of the king, and decided she would burn Talia at the stake for what she did to her. Talia tried to explain that the king took her while she was unconscious, but the queen ignored her “excuses.”
Talia asks to remove her clothes before being burned, and the queen agrees because she wants her rich robes. Talia screamed with every garment she removed, making for a genuinely surreal scene.
The noise caught the king's attention and he asked for an explanation. The queen confessed that she had prepared a meal using their children, which left him utterly heartbroken. Consequently, he ordered that she be thrown into the fire.
The cook confessed that he couldn't bring himself to harm the children, and his wife offered the king their twin babies.
Having conquered the villain of the story (the wife of a cheating rapist), the king, his victim, and the kids she gave birth to without her knowledge all lived happily ever after...
The proverb, "Those whom fortune favors / Find good luck even in their sleep."
Disney's 'Sleeping Beauty' was released in 1959 during Disney's "Classic Era" period.
Sleeping Beauty joined the trio of princesses embodying the traditional, obedient, quiet housewife stereotype, prioritizing external beauty above everything.
In 2014, Disney released 'Maleficent', which offered a fresh perspective. This live-action adaptation shifts the focus to Maleficent, revealing her as a character who, although not inherently wicked, commits harmful acts due to betrayal by a beloved man.
Maleficent, though casting the sleep spell on the man's daughter, shows remorse and attempts to undo her actions once she becomes acquainted with her. She leads Prince Philip to comatose Aurora, hoping that his true love's kiss will serve as the antidote.
Prince Philip's kiss proves ineffective, prompting Maleficent to try an alternate approach. With a kiss on the girl's forehead, the princess is awakened, ultimately establishing the notorious villain as her genuine true love.
Aurora's father, the man who sought refuge with Maleficent and then betrayed her by drugging her and cutting off her wings in order to become king, dies in the end. Perhaps this was some degree of penance paid for the behavior of Basile's king.
Source: How Disney princesses have changed radically over the years.
The character of Maleficent undergoes a significant transformation, shifting from a rejected (yet extremely violent) wife to a jealous sorceress with seemingly vague reasons.
Most of us are aware that many fairy-tales have dark origins, and the tale of Sleeping Beauty is no exception. In fact, it surpasses others in terms of its gruesome nature, abuse, and portrayal of humanity's worst traits. While the Disney princess is cursed to sleep until true love's kiss awakens her, the original 17th-century story is far more unsettling.
Click through to uncover the real and twisted tale of Sleeping Beauty. After reading it, you may find it hard to view Aurora in the same innocent light again.
Uncovering the real story behind sleeping beauty
The beginnings of a popular folklore from a chilling tale
LIFESTYLE Disney
Most of us are aware that many fairy-tales have dark origins, and the tale of Sleeping Beauty is no exception. In fact, it surpasses others in terms of its gruesome nature, abuse, and portrayal of humanity's worst traits. While the Disney princess is cursed to sleep until true love's kiss awakens her, the original 17th-century story is far more unsettling.
Click through to uncover the real and twisted tale of Sleeping Beauty. After reading it, you may find it hard to view Aurora in the same innocent light again.