Aurora, also known as Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose, is a fictional character who appears in Disney Animation's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty. Voiced by Mary Costa, Aurora is the only child of King Stefan and Queen Leah. An evil fairy named Maleficent seeks revenge for not being invited to Aurora's christening and curses the newborn princess, foretelling that she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle and die before sunset on her sixteenth birthday. Merryweather, one of the three good fairies, weakened the curse so Aurora would only sleep. Determined to prevent this, three good fairies raise Aurora as a peasant in order to protect her, patiently awaiting her sixteenth birthdaythe day the spell can only be broken by a kiss from her true love, Prince Phillip.
Aurora is based on the princess in Charles Perrault's fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty". Some elements, such as her name, are derived from the ballet The Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. For several years, Walt Disney had struggled to find a suitable actress to voice the princess and nearly abandoned the film entirely until Costa was discovered by composer Walter Schumann. However, Costa's southern accent nearly cost her the role until she proved that she could sustain a British accent for the duration of the film. In order to accommodate the film's unprecedentedly detailed backgrounds, Aurora's refined design demanded more effort than had ever been spent on an animated character before, with the animators drawing inspiration from Art Nouveau. Aurora wears an off-the-shoulder pink or blue ball gown with a triangular peplum, a ruffled white petticoat, long triangular sleeves, a golden necklace, a golden tiara, and blue or pink high heels. Animated by Marc Davis, Aurora's slender physique was inspired by actress Audrey Hepburn. With 18 lines of dialogue and equally few minutes of screen time, the character speaks less than any speaking main character in a feature-length Disney animated film.
When Sleeping Beauty was first released, the film was both a critical and commercial failure, discouraging the studio from adapting fairy tales into animated films for three decades. Aurora herself received negative reviews from both film and feminist critics for her passivity and similarities to Snow White, and would remain Disney's last princess until Ariel debuted 30 years later in 1989. However, Costa's vocal performance was praised, which inspired her to pursue a full-time career as an opera singer to great success. Chronologically, Aurora is the third Disney Princess in the lineup after Cinderella. Actress Elle Fanning portrayed a live-action version of Aurora in the film Maleficent (2014), a retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the title character. Fanning returned to portray Aurora in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019), which is set five years later.
Sleeping Beauty Castle is an attraction at Disneyland. Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (French for "The Castle of the Beauty in the Sleeping Forest", but known more roughly in English as "Sleeping Beauty Castle") was built at Disneyland Park Paris. The castle was replaced by the Castle of Magical Dreams in Hong Kong Disneyland; however, the new castle still pays tribute to Aurora and the other Disney Princesses. Along with Cinderella Castle, the castle is a main symbol of the Walt Disney Company.
Development Conception and writing Filmmaker Walt Disney had long been struggling to adapt the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" into a full-length animated film for several years, intending to base the project on both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm's versions of the story. Disney was considering abandoning work on the film altogether until singer Mary Costa was discovered, the casting of whom as the film's heroine finally allowed the project to graduate from development to production. At the time Aurora was conceived, there had only been two prior Disney princesses: Snow White and Cinderella, the heroines of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Cinderella (1950), respectively. Disney wanted his third princess to be as different from Snow White as possible, but several strong similarities remain between the two characters and their respective stories. Gary Susman of Moviefone observed that both films feature "an evil witch jealous of a young and beautiful princess, the princess hiding out in a woodland cottage with a group of comic-relief caretakers... and the witch putting the princess into a deathlike sleep, from which only true love's kiss can awaken her."
In the original fairy tale, the princess actually sleeps for 100 years before she is finally awakened by the prince's kiss; this detail was adjusted for the film in favor of having Prince Phillip introduced earlier, and thus Aurora is awakened much sooner. In the Grimm version, the princess is destined to prick her finger at the age of 15, while Disney decided to age the character by one year. Tchaikovsky named the princess "Aurora" in his ballet, whereas "Briar Rose" is the name of the character from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.Jacob and Wilheim Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales,"Little Briar-Rose" Disney utilized both names in the film, with the princess's birth name being Aurora, and her assumed name while living as a peasant being Briar Rose. Aurora was the last princess in whose conception Walt Disney himself was directly involved prior to his death.
Voice Aurora is voiced by American singer Mary Costa, who was 22 years old when she was cast as the character in 1952. Costa had grown up a fan of Disney films, the first of which she saw was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As a child, Costa adored the film so much that she would imitate Snow White by parading around her house wearing a bath towel as a makeshift cape. Costa described herself garnering the role of Aurora as simply "being in the right place at the right time." The filmmakers had long struggled to cast Aurora, having been searching for the right voice for the character for three years. Disney himself had been considering to shelving the project unless a suitable voice actress was found, insisting that the same performer provide both the character's speaking and singing voices. Costa was attending a dinner party for the entertainment industry, to which she had been invited by a friend who was hoping to introduce her to some influential people, where she performed the popular standard "When I Fall in Love". The performance was heard by film composer Walter Schumann who, impressed by her vocals, approached Costa about possibly voicing Aurora and inviting her to audition the following morning. Despite doubting that she would be cast, Costa agreed to audition mostly because she wanted to meet Walt Disney. Upon arriving at the studio the next day, composer George Bruns welcomed Costa by asking her to perform a bird call, which she did successfully. However, being from Knoxville, Tennessee, Costa's strong southern accent nearly prevented her from being cast until she proved that she could sustain a fake British accent for the entire film. The filmmakers likened the situation to English actress Vivien Leigh successfully feigning a southern accent for her role as Scarlet O'Hara in the film Gone With the Wind (1939). Within hours of her audition, Walt Disney himself contacted Costa via telephone to offer her the job, which she immediately accepted. Aurora became Costa's first major film role.
Costa communicated with Walt Disney at least twice a week for nine months, but almost exclusively via telephone because the producer feared that her personality or physical appearance would influence his vision of Aurora if they were to meet in person too soon. They first met when Costa was recording "Once Upon a Dream", Walt's favorite song in the film. When Costa asked Walt why he decided to cast her as Aurora out of all the actresses who auditioned, the producer explained that it was because her singing voice sounded "like an extension of speech." Walt advised Costa to "paint with [her] voice", as well as refuse to let anyone demonstrate her lines for her. Walt also instructed Costa to avoid catching a cold, eat a warm meal two hours prior to her recording sessions, exercise her vocal cords, and get nine hours of sleep every night. Walt and Costa developed a special father-daughter relationship. Aurora's supervising animator Marc Davis would often observe and sketch Costa while she worked in order to incorporate her mannerisms into the character. Costa worked closely with actresses Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen and Barbara Luddy, the voices of Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, respectively, with whom she became good friends, while declaring the utmost respect for actress Eleanor Audley, voice of Maleficent. She also recorded with actor Bill Shirley, voice of Prince Phillip, admitting to having had a crush on him. Costa cites the scene in which Aurora and Phillip meet as her favorite. Schumann, the composer responsible for discovering Costa, eventually departed the project due to creative differences with Disney, and ultimately died before the film was completed.
Costa's singing voice is a combination of classical and pop singing. Aurora's songs were recorded within the first year of production. Costa would practice her songs live with the orchestra before recording them. After working on the film for three years, Costa finally finished recording in 1955, long before the film was completed; it would take the animators another several years to complete the footage to accompany Costa's vocals and dialogue. Costa would often return to the studio to re-record lines as the story changed and evolved, which she described as a "painstaking" process. However, with only 18 spoken lines, Aurora speaks less than any other main character in a full-length Disney animated featureaside from Dumbo, who is completely silentand has absolutely no dialogue once she is awakened from her deep sleep. Ultimately, Costa's performance in Sleeping Beautyand Walt Disney himselfinspired her to pursue a full-time career as a professional opera singer, advising her "Mary, just remember the three Ds... Dedication, Determination, and Discipline, and you'll achieve your Dreams!". Costa's salary was $250 per week.
Personality and design Aurora's blurb on the Disney Princess website once cited the character as "gentle and loving". Walt Disney introduced Aurora to Costa as "a very layered character", describing her as "different. She's calm, yet she's playful. She has a sense of humor, and she has an imagination." Despite popular opinion that Aurora is a very passive character, Costa believes that the princess is actually "very strong", citing her urge to defy her guardians as an example of her strength, while referring to the character as "a beautiful personification of femininity." Raised exclusively by three women in a very sheltered environment, Aurora had never been exposed to a man prior to meeting Phillip. Costa believes that, because of this, Aurora is "innately romantic" as opposed to simply lonely, explaining, there "was a certain part of her that maybe she didn't realize that was just so romantic and maybe expecting something that she didn't even know what", and credits the fact that she was raised by three older women as opposed to her parents with making her "a little bit older, and yet, she ... had this young outreaching spirit." A very loving character, Aurora enjoyed her lonely life as much as she did because she had never experienced anything else. Additionally, the character's close companionship with woodland creatures is used to demonstrate that she is a loving individual.