The voice of Princess Aurora talks about this classic film and the wonderful enhancements for the 50th Anniversary release.
When Mary Costa first signed on to play the voice of a character called Princess Aurora in Walt Disney’s new film called Sleeping Beauty, the year was 1952 and the young singer/actress was just 22 years old. Seven years later, the film, then considered one of the most ambitious projects of all-time, was released and 50 years after that, we’re celebrating this timeless classic for its golden anniversary. To commemorate the event, Disney has brought the film out of the vault and has been restored to its magnificent original aspect ratio of 2.55:1 and the picture and sound quality have been digitally enhanced as well.
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I got to see these wonderful improvements on the big screen, at a screening of the film at the marvelous El Capitan theater in Hollywood a few months back and the film’s picture and sound quality are truly something to behold. Now fans can see these improvements for themselves when the Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary Edition comes back to DVD and, for the first time ever, on Blu-ray as well on October 7. The day after attending that screening, I got to sit down with the voice of Princess Aurora herself, Mary Costa, for a wonderful half-hour conversation that spanned many a topic. Here’s what the actress had to say.
I was at the screening at the El Cap last night.
Mary Costa: Were you? You know, I really hardly slept. I’m anxious to know how you feel because I feel like it’s perfected for the first time.
Absolutely. I’m glad they showed the comparative parts, with the sound and the film clips, because a lot of times when you see that it’s been “remastered and restored”, if you’re just seeing it for the first time or you haven’t seen it in a long time, then you can’t really tell the difference. Now when they showed the new clips with it all cleaned up, it was amazing.
Mary Costa: It felt like there was such a clarity to it, but there was that richness of sound, there was a depth of sound and it felt like… you know at the beginning when they showed those Eyvind Earle paintings? The screen was like the paintings coming to life. I was just absolutely thrilled. I don’t know about you but… have you ever been in music?
Not really.
Mary Costa: Acting?
No. Just writing
Mary Costa: Really? Well that’s fabulous because you’re creative. As a singer, I like to listen to things that have a level of sound. I don’t like to listen to quiet. I mean, the music can be quiet, but I want to hear it. Last night, it was at a point where I just loved it.
