Sleeping Beauty (1949) User Reviews

Princess who slept for a hundred years

[Petey-10 · 4 January 2007]

This is the story of Prinsessa Ruusunen.She is born to the royal parents.When they celebrate her birth, everybody else of the fairy godmothers is invited to the party except for the wicked one.She curses the princess saying she will prick her finger on a spindle and die at the age of 15.But the good fairy changes the curse that, instead of dying, the princess will sleep for a hundred years.You have probably seen the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty or you have perhaps read the original Brothers Grimm book.Well this is the Finnish version of the tale.The novel was written by Sakari Topelius and Edvin Laine is responsible for the direction.This movie works pretty good.Aarne Laine and Mirjam Novero both do a good job as the King and the Queen.Annika Sipilä is really sweet as the Princess at five years old.The 15-year old Princess is wonderfully portrayed by Tuula Usva.Martti Katajisto is great as Prinssi Florestan.Siiri Angerkoski is brilliant as Kunigunda.Jalmari Rinne is terrific as Hovimarsalkka (Lord Chamberlain).The young Birger Kortman gives a memorable performance as Sam.Then there are talents such as Tarmo Manni, Uuno Montonen, Aku Korhonen, Arvo Lehesmaa, Irja Kuusla, Elsa Turakainen and Eeva-Kaarina Volanen.Prinsessa Ruusunen (1949) shows us a magical world where the flowers bloom and the birds sing.This is a fantastic fairy tale that works also in Finnish.Sometimes it's good to flee to the world of fairy tales.