Sleeping Beauty Awakens On Blu-Ray And Platinum Edition DVD

The Disney Vault is open again and you know what that means; another animated classic is coming to DVD and Blu-ray. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is releasing the 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition of Sleeping Beauty for a limited time only on October 7th. Disney boasts that this new medium will allow you to see more than ever before of your favorite animated classic.

This will mark the first time a Blu-ray release will include a bonus standard definition DVD in the same package. You might be asking yourself, why include the standard definition disc when you already have the pristine picture of the Blu-ray version? Well, Disney is figuring that families who do not have Blu-ray capabilities yet can enjoy the SD version until they are prepared to upgrade. Not a bad marketing strategy, I guess.

Maybe I’m just not enough of a diehard Disney animation fan, but I most certainly won’t be first in line for this one. I know there are a number of Star Wars fans that would jump on the opportunity to get their hands on any version of the sci-fi series that hit the shelves, but can’t say the same for Sleeping Beauty. For the kiddies out there I’m expecting the main purchase factor to be the bonus material. Both the DVD and Blu-ray versions are packed with games and extra songs. I know that if I were young again, I’d be forcing my parents to drop the extra bucks to buy me the Blu-ray version considering it comes with even more extras, most importantly, the BD-Live elements. Movie chat, movie mall, movie challenge and Disney movie rewards live; who wouldn’t be excited about that? The BD-Live portion of the disc even reaches out to adults. The Movie Chat application allows the user to chat with other via their remote control, Blackberry or iPhone while watching the movie. But, then again, what are the odds that two Blackberry users would even admit to each other that they’re enjoying a night in watching Sleeping Beauty?

I, for one, appreciate the traditional look of this 1959 Disney classic. But, I have to admit, if I had children to spoil I’d certainly be excited to spend the $35.99 on the Blu-ray edition. Even if the DVD version is only $29.99, handing over the additional cash would most certainly make me the cooler mom on the block. I just hope Sleeping Beauty remembered to put some extra foundation on. You know what Blu-ray high def can do to the complexion.

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• DVD Bonus Materials (Standard Definition DVD) ?
• Original Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Walk-Through Attraction With Walt Disney Imagineering – A fascinating fully-immersive 3-D experience recreating the original Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-Through that Walt supervised over 50 years ago. Viewers can choose to tour the attraction in “Auto Mode,” where you get to experience it the way it was originally intended, or choose to view the experience with “Commentary” by Disney’s famed “Imagineers” and take a look behind the magic of these detailed dioramas.?
• Alternate Opening – Recently discovered storyboards from 1952 reveal that the original opening of Sleeping Beauty was planned as a big musical production number. Using all of the existing color storyboard art, this alternate opening is recreated with a new demo recording of the song - “Holiday.”
• All New Documentary “Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty” – an exciting and inspiring behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the final fairy tale to be produced by Walt Disney himself.
• A New DVD Game, “Briar Rose’s Enchanted Dance Game” – Relive this magical moment and help Briar Rose’s animal friends to dance, and take lessons to learn to waltz.
• Four Deleted Songs – Four new musical numbers that were not used in the final film are presented using original storyboard art and demo recordings.
• Grand Canyon (Featured in HD on Blu-ray™) – This Academy Award® winning short accompanied Sleeping Beauty in its release in theatres.
• The Peter Tchaikovsky Story (Featured in HD on Blu-ray) – An episode of Walt Disney’s legendary TV series in which Walt previews the Studio’s upcoming release of Sleeping Beauty which uses the Tchaikovsky score as the source of its music. Also included is a dramatic re-enactment of how Tchaikovsky came to write his score for the ballet.
• Four Artists Paint One Tree (Featured in HD on Blu-ray) – This featurette looks at one tree interpreted by four distinguished Disney artists, including Eyvind Earle, the well respected American painter who served as stylist for Sleeping Beauty.
• Fun with English Game – Help the 3 fairies prepare for Briar Rose’s 16th Birthday and learn English by playing a series of innovative DVD games.

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• Blu-ray Bonus Features
  ? Everything on the DVD, plus …
• Maleficent’s Challenge – Go head to head with one of Disney’s most infamous villains. Think of anything in the world and Maleficent will read your mind. Keep your wits about you, for that is the only way to defeat her.
• Dragon Encounter – The ultimate audio experience utilizing Blu-ray high-definition 7.1 or 5.1 audio quality. Explore Maleficent’s dungeon in a fully-immersive audio sensory adventure like you’ve never experienced before. Deep in the bowels of Maleficent’s dungeon a dragon encounter awaits.
• Cine-Explore – An all new Cine-Explore experience with full motion Picture-in-Picture featuring commentary by John Lasseter, Andreas Deja & Leonard Maltin.
• Restoring The Sound Track – This featurette will cover the creation of the all new 7.1 mix of the score of Sleeping Beauty that was done exclusively for this Blu-ray release using the source tapes from the original recording sessions resulting in an audio experience of superior quality with greater detail and fidelity than you have ever heard before.
• Customized Living Menu – This menu is exclusive to Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray Disc owners only. It is a “real time” virtual castle that magically changes based on the viewer’s location, time of day and current weather forecast (requires Live enabled players). If preferred, viewers will also have the ability to manually change the castle's weather to match any of the Magic Kingdom Castles around the world.
• Movie Chat – Communicate with your remote friends on-screen while in a synchronized viewing party using your remote control or any text enabled device such as a laptop, desk top or any PDA device such as a Blackberry, iPhone or most other regular cell phones. Your chat session will appear over the movie and occur in real-time while watching the movie together.
• Movie Mail – Blu-ray owners will be able to record a personalized video message of themselves, superimpose that capture onto one of many pre-selected clips of the movie, and send it off to a friend, colleague, or relative. This specific feature enables the Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray Disc owner to personalize a very special greeting as never before.
• Movie Challenge – Users will be able to test their skills against other players in a synchronized, real-time, online trivia game while watching Sleeping Beauty with anyone online. Movie Challenge is always active no matter what time of the day it is, and there will always be a game in progress.
• A DVD of Sleeping Beauty –Blu-ray owners will also receive a special bonus DVD of the movie! ?