Aurora (Disney)

"Yes, it's only in my dreams. But, they say if you dream a thing more than once, it's sure to come true. And I've seen him so many times."

- Aurora

"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream..."

- Aurora singing

Princess Aurora (also known as Sleeping Beauty or by her alias Briar Rose) is the main, later secondary protagonist of Disney's 16th full-length animated feature film, Sleeping Beauty.

She is the daughter of King Stefan and Queen Leah. One day on her birthday when she was a baby, the evil sorceress Maleficent put a curse on her saying that when she pricked her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, she would die. Luckily, Prince Phillip with the help of the three good fairies, saved her. She is the third Disney Princess in the official lineup.

She has been voiced by Mary Costa, Erin Torpey, Jennifer Hale and Kate Higgins.

Personality
Aurora is often described as extremely kind, gentle, elegant, shy and sophisticated, as well as a pure and hopeless romantic. At first, she is seen as a slightly naive and carefree young woman as a result of being sheltered for most of her life. She's very loyal to her "aunts" and usually obeys their rules respectfully, although she may she disagree with them. She was raised not to talk to strangers, so she is startled when the handsome Prince Phillip appears in the forest. She feels drawn to him before remembering that she's not allowed to talk to strangers. She then compromises to talk to him by arranging to meet him at her cottage, under the supervision of her aunts. In later media, she is shown to have matured and become more self-assured, independent and confident in her opinions and abilities.

Physical appearance
Aurora is an extraordinarily beautiful young woman, magically blessed with curly and wavy waist-length golden hair like sunshine, violet eyes, a tall yet petite figure, and lips that shame the red rose. Her complexion is fair and pale.

In her peasant guise of Briar Rose, she wears a gray skirt with a white petticoat, a black bodice over a light gray blouse and goes barefoot. After discovering her status as a princess, she wears an evening gown that changes from blue to pink and back due to Flora and Merryweather's disagreeing on the color.

Abilities
In Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, Aurora was given a magic wand from Merryweather to use, and Aurora was able to wield its magical powers such as making two stacks of papers pick themselves up, transforming her nightgown into a ballgown with a dazzling necklace, matching earrings, and a jeweled tiara. She summoned chickens and cows and temporarily turned a man into a duck. Later in the story Aurora fixed her problems and gave away the cows to peasants. At the end of the story she returned the wand to Merryweather.

In the original film, despite Aurora having been enchanted by Maleficent, a powerful sorceress, Aurora's will power combined with shouts from the fairies temporarily gave her the strength to regain control of herself for a few seconds.

My Disney Experience Official Description
Awakened by Maleficent's spell, Princess Aurora believes that dreams do come true, and true love conquers all.

Behind the Scenes
The original design for Aurora has developed by Tom Oreb, who based figure of Aurora on Audrey Hepburn's thin frame and graceful demeanor. Later, Marc Davis worked on sketches of Oreb, improving the appearance and clothing of the heroine so that they were combined with angular forms of background images.

Designs costumes for Aurora worked Marc Davis' wife, Alice. According to the designer, this was her first job at the Walt Disney Studios, during which she became the wife of the Marc in 1956.

As it was with other Disney films, was hired actress for processing of the game scenes as a guide for the animators. Live-action model for the heroine became Helene Stanley. She already worked on this posts, fulfilling the role of Cinderella.

According to Christopher Finch: "Disney insisted that all scenes involving human characters should be shot first in live-action to determine that they would work before the expensive business of animation was permitted to start. The animators did not like this way of working, feeling it detracted from their ability to create character. [...] [The animators] understood the necessity for this approach and in retrospect acknowledged that Disney had handled things with considerable subtlety."

- Christopher Finch

Redesign
Aurora did not receive many changes in her late 2012 redesign. Her bangs no longer sport the distinctive curl in the front, and are now combed and curled more to the side like a typical hair parting. Her tiara is no longer as pointy, and the rubies that used to be studded in it have been replaced with pink rose quartz. The white shoulders of her dress are now more refined and streamlined, and no longer as sharp and pointed-looking. The entire dress itself is now decorated with swirly designs of climbing flowers and vines. This reworking of Aurora's look is carried over to the Disney Parks.

In her early redesigns, she had a long sash beneath her hips instead of the triangular cutouts, but in the current redesign, the cutouts remained in her dress.

Trivia

 * Princess Aurora is the third Disney Princess, after Snow White in 1937 and Cinderella in 1950.
 * Aurora is often considered second-in-command (with Belle) of the 13 Disney Princesses to Cinderella.
 * Her film did not originally do well at the box office nor was it ever re-released in Walt Disney's lifetime. Sleeping Beauty was also the last princess film made in Disney's lifetime, and the fairy tale genre was not returned to until The Little Mermaid in 1989.
 * However, the film developed a following in later years and Aurora has gained much popularity when the Disney Princess franchise was created.
 * Aurora is the first female to possess violet or purple eyes, second was Vanessa (Ursula's alter-ego) and third was Megara.
 * In the sequel books, she has a palomino horse named Mirette.
 * Princess Aurora is the second Disney Princess to be involved with "true love's kiss", after Snow White in 1937. Though in Snow White the kiss was called "Love's First Kiss", well in Sleeping Beauty the kiss was called "True Love's Kiss". In The Little Mermaid, Ariel needed another version of the kiss as well called "The Kiss of True Love" to stay human under Ursula's deal.
 * Aurora is the third youngest Disney Princess, with Snow White being the youngest at 14 and Jasmine being the second youngest at 15, but she turns 16 at the end of Aladdin. Aurora turns 16 in her feature film and a majority of the movie takes place on her birthday. The fourth youngest is Ariel who was already 16 in her feature film as well for sometime before the events of her movie took place.
 * Princess Aurora's alias is Briar Rose, which is also the title of the Brothers Grimm version of the tale.
 * The name Aurora is the daughter's name of the Sleeping Beauty in the version of Charles Perrault and is the name for the titular character in the ballet.
 * Princess Aurora is the first Disney Princess to have an official alias.
 * Aurora means "sunrise" or "dawn" in Latin.
 * Princess Aurora is the first Disney Princess to have both parents present during her film, the second being Mulan and the third being Rapunzel. Tiana could count as the third, as both parents were present when she was a child, but she may not because she becomes the first, and so far only, Disney Princess to have only her mother, since her father dies in war.
 * Princess Aurora is one of the eight Disney Princesses to be royal by birth, second after Snow White.
 * Princess Aurora's dress is constantly changed from blue to pink and back again as a running gag during her film. The constant color change is due to Flora and Merryweather's disagreement on what the color should be. Although it is most commonly seen as pink in publicity photos, it hasn't yet been made official whether her dress is blue or pink. It is likely that she owns dresses of both colors. She may be seen in pink because of the fact that her original dress color when it was being made by Flora is pink, not blue as Merryweather wanted thus makes her commonly seen in pink. Another possible reason she's mostly seen dressed in pink is so she won't be confused with Cinderella, who (often) has blonde hair and wears a dress that is displayed as blue in franchise products.
 * Aurora is the first Disney Princess to be initially unaware of her identity as a princess, the second being Rapunzel. She also inspired other traits, such as their desire to be "free" and see the world, look very much like their birth mothers, and and are barefoot for most of their films.
 * Aurora has been selected as the #2 most attractive Disney heroine, the #5 most popular Disney princess and the #5 favorite Disney heroine.
 * Her real name, Aurora, which is mentioned few times in the film, is often unused or even unknown by some people, by them she is only called "Sleeping Beauty".
 * Aurora is the first Disney Princess in which she has to deal with an unwanted marriage as a major or minor source of conflict. (Belle is the second as she has to deal with Gaston's intent to marry her), Jasmine is the third in that her father is trying to marry her off before her next birthday, and Pocahontas is the fourth in that her father is trying to marry her off to Kocoum).
 * Aurora is the tallest out of the 11 Disney Princesses.
 * Though she is supposedly the main protagonist, Aurora has only 18 minutes of screen time, making her have the least amount of screen time than any other Disney Princess. Conversely, Tiana has the second least amount of screen time as a human. (19 minutes).
 * Aurora made a brief cameo appearance in the Mickey Mouse Works cartoon Mickey's April Fools.
 * Technically she is the first female character to have known her love interest since childhood as Phillip was present for her birth, though she was much too young to remember it so it may not count. She is followed by Faline, Maid Marian, Nala and Kiara. She is also the only human female to be so.
 * Aurora is the second Disney Princess to be sung to by her respective love interest. Snow White being the first.
 * Aurora is the second Disney Princess to participate in a dance with her respective love interest after just meeting him. The first being Cinderella.
 * Aurora is the third Disney Princess to run away from her respective love interest without telling him her name. She was preceded by Snow White and Cinderella, and later followed by Ariel and Pocahontas. However unlike the first two Aurora told Phillip where he could find her.
 * The final scene of Sleeping Beauty with her and Prince Phillip dancing and going off into the clouds was an abandoned concept from both Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella.
 * Aurora, along with Cinderella and Belle, are the only Disney Princesses to have songs sung about them. Additionally, Aurora has two songs sung about her.
 * Aurora is the first Disney Princess to ever get involved with political issues, as seen in her sequel, she is seen signing papers for her father.
 * A modernized Aurora can be seen walking down a street in Oliver and Company, just right after Oliver and Fagin's dogs (Dodger, Rita, Einstein, Francis and Tito) finish singing "Streets of Gold", but before raiding the Foxworths' limousine resulting in Oliver being found and subsequently adopted by Jenny Foxworth.
 * Aurora is normally seen with Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and Jasmine than the other princesses.
 * Sun, Moon and Talia is the Italian Sleeping Beauty version written by Giambattista Basile in which the protagonist is named Talia and was born a great lord's daughter, not a king's.
 * In the ballet, her father is named King Florestan the XXIVth, the Prince is named Désiré or Florimund and the evil fairy is called Carabosse. There are five fairies named Candide (Candor),Coulante, Fleur de farine (Flowing, Wheat flour), Miettes qui tombent (Falling breadcrumbs), Canari qui chante (Singing canary) and Violente (Force). The Lilac Fairy is the final and 6th good fairy, and is considered the most powerful.
 * Aurora is one of six Disney Princesses to use magic for she used Merryweather's wand. The other five are Ariel who used her father's trident, Cinderella who used her Fairy Godmother's wand, Pocahontas who has the ability to control the wind, Rapunzel whose magic came from her hair before it was cut, and Elsa who has power over ice and snow.
 * Aurora is the first Disney Princess to frown in merchandise.
 * Aurora is the first princess to have her love-interest at the beginning of her life.
 * Aurora's actress, Mary Costa, is the only actress alive of the first three princesses because both Ilene Woods and Adriana Caselotti passed away.
 * Strangely, in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Aurora's bed vanishes, as does Aurora herself when completing Terra's and Ventus's scenarios in her world, when she should be asleep in her bed. Though more than likely for the story of the world, it means that Aurora is awake due to Aqua helping Prince Phillip rescuing her.
 * According to Disneystrology, Aurora's birthday is on March 20.
 * Kate Higgins, the latest voice actor for Princess Aurora, also voices Briar Beauty, the daughter of Sleeping Beauty in the Mattel webisode series, Ever After High.
 * Aurora is the third and last Disney Princess to have her story open with a fairy tale book, the first being Snow White and the second being Cinderella.
 * Aurora was originally to be a playable character for the Disney Infinity video game series, She appears in concept art drawings, but was dropped.
 * Aurora is one of a few Disney Princesses that will eventually become the Queen Regnant (active ruler) of her kingdom, rather than the Queen Consort.