Sleeping Beauty

To save money, the Cannon Movie Tales were shot two or three at a time. "Sleeping Beauty" was shot simultaneously with Hansel and Gretel (1988). This wasn't the best of situations in that often the two crews would be competing for limited equipment, costumes, and sets.

Part of the "Cannon Movie Tales" series, nine feature films based on classic fairy tales that were produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus for the Cannon Group in the mid 1980s. All of the films featured well-known actors from the U.S. and U.K. and were shot on-location in Israel. Although the series was originally conceived to have sixteen films, production stopped at nine when Rumpelstiltskin (1987) flopped at the box office, and the remaining films were sent directly to video. Despite their commercial failure, the Movie Tales garnered a cult following after the Disney Channel began airing them as "Storybook Cinema" in 1988. The nine films in the series are: The Frog Prince (1986), Sleeping Beauty (1987), The Emperor's New Clothes (1987), Rumpelstiltskin (1987), Snow White (1987), Beauty and the Beast (1987), Hansel and Gretel (1988), Puss in Boots (1988), and Red Riding Hood (1988).

Page Hannah (sister of Daryl Hannah) was originally cast as Rosebud but was fired after a week of shooting and replaced by Tahnee Welch. The production suffered another setback when all of the fairy costumes were stolen and had to be rebuilt from scratch, including the animatronic wings. Because of this and having only seven days to prepare for shooting after completing principal photography on Rumpelstiltskin (1987), director David Irving went on to describe the project as a "nightmare."

Morgan Fairchild flew to Israel to begin filming on May 6, 1986. She had been scheduled to host the May 10, 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live (1975) but decided to cancel that gig in order to take this role. Despite the film's troubled production, she revealed in an email with a fan that she loved working with director David Irving and that numerous parents of children have approached her through the years praising the film.

A soundtrack recording was issued by Kid Stuff Records & Tapes in the form of a read-along audio book.