Summaries

Synopsis

With her husband, the King, away on business of state, a lonely Queen wanders the castle grounds longing for a child, until she discovers a mysterious tower in a remote corner of the palace garden. Unbeknownst to her, this is the home of the Wicked Fairy, who gives the Queen a potion that will let her and the king conceive a child, on the condition that they invite the Fairy to the christening as a fairy godmother. In truth, the child born from that potion will be evil and ugly. But a magical frog statue comes to life and prevents the Queen from drinking it, urging her instead to bathe in an enchanted lake inhabited by the Twelve Good Fairies. The King hurries back home, thinking the Queen is in trouble, but when she emerges from the lake, she proclaims to the King they'll have a baby princess, and the Twelve Good Fairies are invited to the christening. The good fairies are beauties in white robes, each one with a headdress of enormous flowers on her head, and each bring their associated flowers and lay them one at a time in the baby princess's cradle; by contrast, before the Rose Fairy can give her gift, the Wicked Fairy appears, wearing black robes and a headdress decked with dead plants. In her anger at not being invited to the christening, she curses the baby princess to prick her finger on a spindle and die at 16, and for the kingdom to fall into permanent ruin and decay. Before the King's soldiers can arrest her, she cackles and disappears. Then the Rose Fairy blesses the baby. She cannot remove the Wicked Fairy's death curse but can soften it. The princess will still prick her finger, but instead of dying, she'll only fall asleep for 100 years. The Rose Fairy then names the baby princess Briar Rose.

Sixteen years later, the castle celebrates Briar Rose's birthday. Extensive comic relief is provided by a bevy of mischievous little kitchen boys, whom the cook, Mr. Puddingbowl, struggles to keep in line, while also pursuing a romance with the housekeeper Miss Hustlebustle. Meanwhile, the Wicked Fairy disguises herself as an old woman, captures a spindle from a fire, and approaches Briar Rose, inviting her to come to her tower for a special birthday present. Briar Rose declines at first because her party guests are arriving. But at the ball she finds herself courted by a buffoonish suitor, Prince Suchabore, the son of King Bubble and Queen Babble. To get away from him, she sneaks off to the tower, where of course, the old woman is waiting with a spindle. She shows Briar Rose how to spin with a spindle, but when Briar Rose takes it, she pricks her finger on it and lays back on a nearby bed. At that moment, the old woman magically reveals herself as the Wicked Fairy. She declares that Briar Rose will die along with the whole kingdom; however, we see Briar Rose is not dead but falling into her foretold sleep. The Wicked Fairy then stops all activity around the palace grounds. Meanwhile, the Twelve Good Fairies cast their own spell by reminding the kingdom that the Wicked Fairy's curse failed, and that Briar Rose is only sleeping for 100 years, and not dead. Then they conjure a hedge of thorns to grow around the palace until it is completely covered.

At long last, however, Prince Charming arrives, and he learns the story of Briar Rose from a group of peasant children singing a folk song about her. (One based on the real German children's song "Dornröschen war ein schönes Kind," sometimes known in English as "There Was a Princess Long Ago"). Then from an old man, he acquires a flute to summon the Twelve Good Fairies. When he makes his way through the briars and is led by the magic frog to the tower, the Wicked Fairy conjures up a herd of hideous monsters to stop him. But the Prince's sword and the Twelve Good Fairies' magic defeats them and the Wicked Fairy disappears. Prince Charming wakes Briar Rose with a kiss, the royal court unfreezes with no idea that a hundred years went by, and all live happily ever after.