Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty song) Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty song) "Once Upon a Dream" is a song written for the 1959 animated musical fantasy film "Sleeping Beauty" produced by Walt Disney. Its lyrics were written by Jack Lawrence, and its music by Sammy Fain. The song's melody is based on the "Grande valse villageoise" (nicknamed "The Garland Waltz"), from the 1890 ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. "Once Upon a Dream" serves as the film's main theme, and as the love theme of Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. It is performed in the film by a chorus as an overture and
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film) preceding three Disney animated features: "Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan", and "Lady and the Tramp". The high production costs of "Sleeping Beauty", coupled with the underperformance of much of the rest of Disney's 1959–1960 release slate, resulted in the company posting its first annual loss in a decade for fiscal year 1960, and there were massive lay-offs throughout the animation department. Like "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), which was not initially successful either, "Sleeping Beauty" was never re-released theatrically in Walt Disney's lifetime. However, it had many re-releases in theaters over the decades. The film was re-released theatrically in 1970, where