Barbie Sleeping Beauty (1999)
Cast under the spell of a bad fairy, Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger on a spindle and falls into a deep sleep for a hundred years.
One day, her true love, Prince Ken, comes and wakes her with a kiss! They marry and live happily ever after!
A playline Barbie line themed around the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, released in 1999.
Sleeping Beauty Barbie dolls feature a gimmick where if Barbie’s arm is lowered, her eyes will close and “fall asleep”. When her arm is raised, her eyes will open and Barbie “awakes”. The dolls also come with a musical pillow that plays a short chime of the Grande Valse Villageoise, or Garland Waltz, from Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty.
A Prince Ken was also released to pair with Barbie, however no African-American Ken was produced.
A horse and carriage set was also released.
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Simplified versions of the Sleeping Beauty Barbies were also produced exclusively for sale through KB Toys.
These dolls have normal head molds with painted eyes and no sleeping mechanism, less accessories, and no pillow.
Barbie as Sleeping Beauty – The Cancelled Film?
In 1999 a short film was released as a TV commercial to promote the dolls and CD ROM game, clips of this also appear in other TV commercials for the dolls.
A full length Barbie as Sleeping Beauty movie has long been speculated to have been in production by Mattel, either tying into the 1999 doll line, or for release in 2009.
Mattel has never officially acknowledged the film and there has never been any official reason stated for cancellation of the film, however it is widely theorised that Mattel ceased production due to Disney’s trademarking of the name “Princess Aurora” in 2007 covering live and recorded media. If originally planned for the 1999 doll line however, this reason would not have applied, so it may simply be that Mattel decided to scrap the film for unrelated reasons.