What Walt Taught Me: Sleeping Beauty

Last updated on: August 14, 2015 at 5:03 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

What Walt Taught Me: Sleeping Beauty 2015-08-14T17:03:15-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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No film is more beautiful than Sleeping Beauty. There are different approaches to beauty, but the Disney artists under Walt’s indulgence made the most beautiful film they were capable of making. The “story” is not great, but the look is beyond compare.

You don’t go to the Magic Flute to follow the story (God bless the luckiest hack writer to ever live, Emanuel Schikaneder), but to hear Mozart’s sublime music. You should watch Sleeping Beauty, listen to the music, and let the story roll over you. The tale is satisfactory, but the experience is sublime.

What did Walt teach me?

Walt reminds me that the tale is not the only reason to go to the movies: there are the sound and sights of the film, each having its own value. Just as an object can simply be beautiful without needing a message, so this film is simply sublime without any reference to the “meaning” or message. What does The David mean? Something, but first look at the beautiful statue.

When I was a little boy, a common school project was the tableau in a shoe-box. One took a shoe box, sat it on its side, and created a still image of an event. Many a tableau was created of the Erie Canal in seventh grade Social Studies in New York state. When a tableau works, one can enter into a world that is static in presentation, but unleashes the imagination. The very smallness of the scene, strongly framed by the shoe box, makes the image endearing. Like the illumination inside the letter of a medieval manuscript, the very smallness of the scene is what makes it work. When Walt built Disneyland, at the time of Sleeping Beauty, he understood that tiny can be fascinating. The castle (Sleeping Beauty castle) is small because like a toy, the building does not loom over a guest. You want to play with the castle, not defend the fortress. When Disneyworld was built, this lesson was forgotten and gigantism replaces beauty in the park Walt did not build.

The story did teach me a few things and the first is that government will always take ineffectual means to avoid problems. Hear your daughter will suffer from a spinning wheel? Destroy all the spinning wheels in the Kingdom. This is so stupid that if the government were not doing it, nobody would believe it. Dear King Stefan: tell your daughter to beware of spinning wheels. Sadly, because the government is involved, banning a thing instead of educating people about the use of the thing is quite plausible. Basic fairy tale truth: if something bad might happen, tell everyone about the bad thing, do not take an indirect means to avoid “fate.”

Oddly, much is made of Aurora’s “rescue” by “true love’s kiss” as if Aurora were just a passive object. Aurora is strong, independent, and curious. She is worth loving or a hero like Philip would not love her. It is true that he does the fighting in this film to rescue her from a spell, but this is necessary since it is the only things the film allows him to do. If he did not fight the dragon, he would not be worthy of a clever, beautiful, witty, artistic charming young lady. Joan of Arc used such weaponry as swords and shields successfully, but generally the warfare of the Middle Ages and Renaissance was a man’s game . . . and not even for all men! Safe to say in that era, I would have been . . . defenseless.

Prince Philip rescues the Sleeping Beauty using the Shield of Virtue and the Sword of Truth. Virtue fails him, as most human virtue does, but Truth slays the dragon and enables the Prince to enter the castle. Virtue in human hands does generally fail against the Dragon. We are not good at wielding virtue, but if we hurtle the Truth at the Enemy, the Truth has a way of striking at the heart of the matter. Never trust a person or organization afraid of the Truth.

Finally, Walt made such a great movie that it did not make money immediately. Of course in the end it made great pots of money and reached critical acclaim. . . here I am in 2015 still thinking about the film. . . but it made the accountants nervous. After Walt died, the accountants would prevail and it would be decades before a film like Little Mermaid would be made. Accountants are necessary, but they cannot be allowed to run creative projects, hospitals, schools, or anything where profit is not the major consideration. Too easily forgotten is this lesson: long term money making may require short term loss. As CS Lewis points out: most things worth doing cannot be run for profit.

If Prince Philip is in love with Aurora as a career move, then he is not in love with Aurora. If a teacher is working for her paycheck, she is a mercenary not a teacher. If the administration wants to pay the teacher as little as possible, then the administrator should work in a new area. If a hospital sets up “death panels” to determine who should live and who should die based on economics, then something has gone wrong. Human life and civilization have no monetary value. How much is the David worth? To ask is to fall into inhumanity or to work for the insurance company in Florence that must cover the priceless object. There must be a number, but the David cannot actually be replaced by that sum. Ask any Florentine.

Walt made a work of art with Sleeping Beauty and in the end the art paid. This was good. He did well by doing good. Walt understood that some lesser projects (see any film with flubber in it) would pay for greater films. Nothing wrong with this method of financing until somebody confused the flubber films with the goal of the company. Walt made money to make movies, he wanted to make money, but so he could make movies and do awesome things. Pardon me, but this is a good thing. Making money merely to make money is not a good thing.

Thanks for caring about human things, Uncle Walt.

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