Even though I already own the film, it looks like Disney has put a lot of great new bonus features on this release that I can justify getting the film again. Now having bought every classic Disney film released since 2002, I've noticed that there usually tends to be some sort of free gift with purchase, so I've been trying to figure out what the various free gifts would be.
Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store had a free pin with pre-order, but while I collect pins, I didn't have much interest in a pin featuring only the forest animals pretending to be Briar Rose's Prince, so that was a pass. Best Buy has an internet exclusive free lithograph, but you also had to order The Tinkerbell Movie and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, neither one of which holds any remote interest for me, so I hope that Best Buy does something in stores that I just haven't heard about yet. But then the other day I found what I was looking for.
A random search on ebay revealed that the Disney Store is giving out 4 lithographs when you order the movie. Now this sounds great to me, so yesterday I made the 25 minute drive to my nearest Disney Store to pre-order the film. Now, while I normally wouldn't do this, I haven't been inside a Disney Store in 5-6 years so I wanted to check one out and I figured that going to get the lithographs here would be much simpler than going the ebay route plus there was a pin I knew about from the Disney Store and wanted to see if they still had it.
The first thing I noticed was how the store is obviously hyping Halloween right now, but the pleasant surprise is that the front of the store is loaded with costumes for pirates, princesses, and pooh characters. You actually have to walk into the store for a few feet before you find the obligatory costumes for the latest tween fad on the Disney Channel(hereafter until such time as they actually consistently show programming featuring Walt created characters and/or movies to be called the Channel Bearing Walt's Name). So that was a nice surprise. Not that any of this effects me at this point in my life, but I'm still glad that there was a lot more classic Disney costume options than current fad options.
Then I found the Sleeping Beauty section. It was nice. At least for the present time when they're focused on the 50th anniversary of the film it looks like Disney is paying attention to the fact that Aurora wears the blue dress for most of the film. It was also nice to see a Briar Rose plushie there. I know that Princess Aurora stuff will sell more for the company than Briar Rose, but it's nice to know that for the 50th anniversary at least, they're acknowledging Aurora's full history. They also had a store exclusive doll, but I passed on it. It was somewhat tempting as it actually had a Briar Rose peasant dress in addition to the standard pink and correct blue, but I already have an Aurora action figure(she used to be a doll until I gave her a blue lightsaber to match her dress) and I already have some very nice Briar Rose collectibles, so that's the end of that. All that said, if you want a Sleeping Beauty doll that features all 3 dresses, this may be right for you.
It was also quite nice to find a sword and shield set for aspiring Prince Phillip wannabes, complete with sound effects on the sword. Of course the shield featured Maleficent instead of the cross on Phillip's actual shield, so this wasn't really tempting for me. Of course, if we ever see a high quality replica of Phillip's sword and shield, I'll be pre-ordering the first day possible. And given Disney's lack of quality male heroes for little boys, sword and shield toys are welcome additions. After all, I suspect that part of my boyhood interest in the film had to do with the fact that Phillip was a hero like the Jedi Knights of my imagination(and now you understand why my Aurora action figure has a lightsaber, even if my sister still wonders why Aurora has a lightsaber).
I soon found the pin I had been looking for, and it was on sale, so things worked out quite well here. With that, it was up to the checkout to pre-order the blu-ray and pick up the lithographs. I think the lithographs are quite nice. They may be somewhat tricky to frame as they're in a widescreen format, but I think the scenes chosen are perfect. The scenes are the good fairies looking into Aurora's cradle, Phillip and Aurora dancing in the forest, Phillip fighting Maleficent, and Phillip and Aurora dancing in Stefan's castle. As an added bonus, Aurora is in blue.
Just a little over a week now until the DVD release. I plan to immerse myself in the bonus features before watching the movie. I'm looking forward to it, though part of me will feel sad seeing it on the small screen again considering that I caught it twice at the El Capitan Theatre.
