We fast forward to the princess at 6 years old. She's an active girl who does not like 'girly' things. In fact, she wants to be a knight herself. She and her family are well aware of the curse and she tries to arm herself against sleep with countless alarm clocks. Her mother also gives her a necklace with a key on it. She puts this key in her mouth periodically when she faces obstacles throughout the film, and after that act a window of opportunity opens. The fateful day of her 'pricking' comes on the day of her ballet recital and she accidentally stabs herself on a hair ornament. She then travels to some underworld place where she must beat a boil-covered gatekeeper at some skull bowling, which she of course does and progresses on to a house with a mother and a son living in it. The mother takes her in, clothes and feeds her, and essentially adopts her for a time. The son is enamoured of her. He seems so fascinated by her and wants to always be near her, until he meets the ice queen who fills his heart with ice. He then seems to hate the very sight of her and eventually runs away. The princess goes on a journey to find him and comes to a kingdom of small people. After some initial danger, she meets with the king and queen of the land, who have unfortunately not seen her friend. They wish her well and send her on her way in a carriage dressed up like a little princess with some treats from the land. Unfortunately, the carriage is attacked by a group of gypsys. Before anything bad happens, a young gypsy girl comes forward and halts the attack, claiming the young princess as hers. She takes the princess home and they bond. Once understanding that the princess is looking for her lost friend, the gypsy girl gives the princess a deer to ride and tells her where she might find her lost friend. At this point in the story, the princess comes to a teepee in a barren winter plain with a mystic in it. The mystic tells her that her friend is a prisoner of the snow queen, but is very happy. The princess is unhappy with this and asks if there is anything that can be done. The mystic says no, but tells her how to get to a bush with red berries on it, saying that here her friend will return to her. The princess finds this bush with poisonous berries and, reasoning that to die in a dreams means to wake up in the real world, she eats the berries. She then wakes up at 16 to find a young man near her bed. We find out that this young man in the great-grandson of the friend she was looking for, and they develop a sort of relationship, but he leaves the castle where she lives periodically and does not take her with him. Her gypsy friend also finds her there and they... explore their relationship further. When her prince charming returns and they have relations, she asks to be taken out into the world with him, but he refuses. So, as in the past, she takes matters into her own hands and leaves by herself.
The princess in this story played a much more active role than other variations of this story. She was a very strong protagonist, and constantly refused to be the girly stereotype people assigned to her. In fact she puts herself to sleep by pricking her own hand because she doesn't want to be in the girly ballet. And never mind a prince, she wakes herself up too, by killing herself in her dream world. She actually takes it upon herself to go on a quest to save the prince. She is fearless and heroic and just what I would want my sleeping beauty to be. She takes matters into her own hands and doesn't take nonsense from anyone. This story is almost reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, as she's going through a dream world, and really, the two stories are quite relatable. Actually now that I think about it, I don't know why this connection hasn't been made sooner.
I really loved this film. It is beautiful to look at and engaging all the way through. There is some nudity at the end, but for the most part it's an innocent tale of discovery and adventure. If you can see it I recommend that you do.
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