''Sleeping Beauty'' (alternatively: ''Cannon Movie Tales: Sleeping Beauty'') is a 1987 American/Israeli fantasy film, part of the 1980 film series

Cannon Movie Tales ''Cannon Movie Tales'' is the collective name for a series of live-action films created in the late 1980s by Cannon Group producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, associate producer Patricia Ruben, and executive producer Itzik Kol. Filmed princi ...

. It is directed by David Irving and stars

Tahnee Welch Latanne Rene "Tahnee" Welch (born December 26, 1961) is an American model and actress and is the daughter of the late actress Raquel Welch. Biography Welch was born on December 26, 1961, in San Diego, California, the daughter of actress Raquel ...

Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild (born Patsy Ann McClenny; February 3, 1950) is an American actress. She began acting in the early 1970s and has had roles in several television series since. Fairchild began her career on the CBS daytime soap opera ''Search for T ...

Nicholas Clay Nicholas Anthony Phillip Clay (18 September 1946 – 25 May 2000) was an English actor. Early life Clay was born in Streatham, London on 18 September 1946, the son of a professional soldier in the British Army's Royal Engineers. The famil ...

and

Sylvia Miles Sylvia Miles (née Scheinwald; September 9, 1924 – June 12, 2019) was an American actress. She was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969) and ''Farewell, My Lovely ...

. It is a contemporary version of the classic tale of

Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...

of the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...

and

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...

. Like the other Cannon Movie Tales, the film was filmed entirely in Israel.

Synopsis

A childless Queen (

) and her King (

David Holliday David Holliday (August 4, 1937March 26, 1999) was an American Broadway actor and television voice actor. He is best known as the voice of Virgil Tracy, pilot of ''Thunderbird 2'', in the first series (26 episodes) of '' Thunderbirds'' (1965&nda ...

), are given a magical potion by a kindly

elf An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

( Kenny Baker). When the beautiful Princess Rosebud is born, all the

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...

in the land are invited to a christening to bestow their gifts upon the child. However, the evil Red Fairy (

) is left off the guest list because there are only eight golden dinner plates and nine fairies in the kingdom. Enraged, she crashes the christening ceremony and

curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

s the Princess on her sixteenth birthday to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. The wise White Fairy (

Jane Wiedlin Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician and singer, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave music, new wave band The The Go-Go's, Go-Go's. She has also had a successful ...

), who was tardy and therefore unable to bestow her gift, softens the curse into a magic spell in which the Princess will fall asleep for one hundred years and be awakened by the kiss of true love. The King, finding very little comfort in the White Fairy's promise, orders that all the spinning wheels in the kingdom to be destroyed, except for one which is hidden and seemingly forgotten, to try to save his daughter from the Red Fairy's fearsome curse. Many years later, all the people in the kingdom are upset because their clothes have dissolved to rags due to the absence of spindles and sewing needles. The King and Queen travel to the far reaches and bring back reams of fabrics. During their absence, the Red Fairy, disguised as an old woman, lures Princess Rosebud (

) into a secluded old tower room and tricks her into pricking her finger. The evil curse is complete, and Rosebud falls into a deep sleep. The White Fairy uses her magic to put everyone in the castle to sleep and cover the castle in thick vines. One hundred years pass, and a handsome Prince comes to the castle and wakes Rosebud with a kiss, breaking the enchantment. The entire kingdom celebrates their awakening, and Princess Rosebud and her Prince are married and live happily ever after.

Cast

as the Queen *

as the Princess Rosebud *

as the Prince Charming *

as the King *

as the White Fairy *

as the Red Fairy * Kenny Baker as the Elf *

Shaike Ophir Shaike Ophir ( he, שייקה אופיר; November 4, 1928 – August 17, 1987) was an Israeli film and theater actor, comedian, playwright, screenwriter, director, and the country's first mime. Early life Yeshayahu (Shaike) Goldstein-Ophir was b ...

as the Elf Master

Reception

Richard Scheib from ''Moria.co'' gave it two stars and wrote: "All of the

were cheaply shot and made. Some of them occasionally emerged okay but the majority did not. Sleeping Beauty is a dreary by-the-numbers run through of the Charles Perrault fairytale. The film pads the original story out somewhat, notably with the introduction of the character of the elf played by Kenny Baker. On the other hand, when it comes to the guts of the fairytale – ie. everything that happens after Rosebud goes to sleep – the film seems indifferent and hurried. It is hard, for instance, to understand what killed all the other heroes trying to rescue the princess when all that prince Nicholas Clay’s quest consists of is brushing through some creepers."

References

External links

* * *
''Sleeping Beauty''
on Lovefilm.com {{Cannon Movie Tales 1987 films 1987 fantasy films Films about elves Films about curses Films about fairies and sprites Films about royalty Films based on Sleeping Beauty Films set in a fictional country Films shot in Israel Golan-Globus films Films produced by Menahem Golan Cannon Movie Tales Films produced by Yoram Globus 1980s English-language films