Back in August The Deadbolt had the good fortune of going back in time with one of the original Sleeping Beauty animators who worked on the creation of the timeless villain Maleficent. At the time of the 1957-1959 production, Burny Mattinson was assistant animator to legendary Disney artist Marc Davis. Although he might not have known it back then, Mattinson ended up being a vital part of the legendary animation team when he created one of the most memorable villains in all of cinema with the evil Maleficent, who curses a young princess to an indefinite sleep until she's awoken by a handsome prince. As we all know, the rest is history...

With Mattinson off in a far away land, we met the now legendary animator online for a virtual roundtable discussion to celebrate the release of the visually stunning 50th Anniversary Edition of Sleeping Beauty, which hits stores shelves on October 7.

Although we got the goods on Maleficent, we can safely say the new 50th Anniversary Edition DVD looks magnificent.

THE DEADBOLT: How has animation at Disney changed since you first worked on Sleeping Beauty?

BURNY MATTINSON: When we first worked on Sleeping Beauty we were trying to do a more classic approach to our animation. We were trying to be more exacting in the design aspects - that was strongly influenced. We were trying to learn our 'straights' against 'curves' to fit within Eyvind Earle's stylized backgrounds. This was a slow process. Later on we went to a looser approach on 101 Dalmatians, where we could speed up the process but we were also trying to get back into the classic style of animation. Even today, we still try to keep a classic approach - perhaps not as designed as on Sleeping Beauty, but we still try to keep a classic approach to our contemporary titles.

THE DEADBOLT: What was the deciding factor on settling on the final look of the character [Maleficent]?

MATTINSON: Again, it would be Walt - Walt had several designs put before him and he made the choice going through these designs and he chose the final design - with the horns and so forth. That's why Marc [Davis] made a variety of designs to show to Walt and to let him make the choices. Marc spent a lot of time with his designs and he spent a lot of time with Eyvind checking his designs - which is why he made her [Maleficent] such an elongated figure to work with the horizontal and vertical backgrounds that Eyvind designed.

THE DEADBOLT: What is your favorite Disney animation that you didn't work on?

MATTINSON: Pinocchio - I wasn't able to work on it since I was just a little kid, but it had the biggest impact on me because it's why I wanted to work here at Disney.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Burny Mattinson on whether there are elements of Maleficent in any other Disney villians:

"Cruella was again, Marc Davis and I believe the voice was Betty Lou Gerson and she was a classic radio actress and she had the same things that Eleanor had in her voice and Marc really had a lot of fun with that character. She was bombastic all the time. Every animator loves to have a character move - not be very stilted. Again, Marc wanted a more controlled character in Maleficent that was very close with very little movement. He wanted to save the shock value for when she suddenly exploded. Her movement was used for shock value."

On working with the nine legendary men of animation:

"It was wonderful! Marc was an absolute gentleman with total confidence in what he did. He took an interest in a very naive, young aspiring artists (me). He took me under his wing and taught me practically everything I know in animation. In fact, he looked at my work early on and he said I should go down to Chaunard's Art School and he'd let me sit in his classes. He taught me how to draw the human figure."

On whether anything of Maleficent made it into Ratigan in Basil? Or whether Vincent Price enough of a lead:

"Actually Vincent Price's performance in 'Champaigne for Ceaser' influenced us in getting Vincent Price to do it. We showed that to all the animators and they said - 'that's our Ratigan.' Actually, to begin with, Ratigan was a really small, very crotchety type of character. But, when we saw the performance of Vincent Price in that film, he was very broad shouldered and very eccentric in that character and we knew we had our character. When we went on the stage to record him for Ratigan he asked 'How should I do this?' and we said, 'like Champaigne for Ceaser!'"

Mattinson on who he was thinking of when he started Maleficent:

"I think we were very influenced by Eleanor Audley - she had done the voice and reference work for the stepmother in Cinderella. Everyone thought that was such a strong character - she was so controlled and evil in her acting and we wanted someone of that stature for this character, so Eleanor really set the style."

Mattinson on whether high definition is worrisome to animators since the minute details are now so vivid:

"No. I think quite the contrary. We want to see the image as beautiful as it was originally intended to be. Blu-ray, I love it!

Burny Mattinson and the advice he'd give to a someone who dreams of becoming an animator:

"Do lots of quick sketching and watch people in restaurants or wherever, and just do quick drawings of their poses. Make them very expressive. I didn't go to art school I came to Disney with desire to draw. I drew all my life and when I came to the studio I was lucky enough to work with Marc and he taught me so much, but I would encourage anyone to focus on getting as much art education as you possibly can get."