Dear Straight Dope,
Years ago I ran across a fascinating story - In the late 1950s, Disney was possibly planning to make a full-length animated film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. According to the story, Disney’s *Sleeping Beauty * (1959) was something of a test, to see if the public had an appetite for medieval fantasy. When *Sleeping Beauty * failed at the box office, the LOTR project was scrapped.
Is there any truth to this story?
*Sleeping Beauty * contains several internal clues which tend to support the story.
(1) The look of the film is radically different from that of previous Disney fare. It looks very “Tolkien-esque” to me, but that is purely subjective. Art director Eyvind Earle purportedly took his inspiration from Russian folk art (or perhaps Gothic/Renaissance French art). If the story is true, he may have been trying to develop an art style which would be suitable for an animated Tolkien film.
(2) In the original story by Charles Perrault, Maleficent is merely a bad fairy, but, in the Disney version, her character is considerably beefed up. Now she is a mighty sorceress, a figure of towering evil - fit consort for Sauron himself.
(3) It is easy to see a parallel between Maleficent’s castle in the Forbidden Mountains and Sauron’s tower in Mordor.
(4) Maleficent’s minions look suspiciously like diminutive, cartoonish orcs - “orclings”, as I like to call them.
(5) The final, thunderous battle between Prince Phillip and the dragon is not found in Perrault at all. It owes everything to Nordic mythology - Tolkien’s principal source of inspiration.
In conclusion, it is easy to believe that Disney’s *Sleeping Beauty * was a “dry run” for a possible LOTR film.
But is it TRUE?
Respectfully,