The running gag of Flora and Merryweather arguing about whether Aurora's dress should be pink or blue originated from the filmmakers' problem as to deciding just that.

In the German version of this fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Sleeping Beauty is named Briar Rose. In the Tchaikovsky ballet, her name is Aurora. The film incorporates both names by having Princess Aurora use the name "Briar Rose" while in hiding. In the traditional Italian version of the story, the character's name is Princess Talia.

Princess Aurora's long, thin, willowy body shape was inspired by that of Audrey Hepburn.

The last fairy tale produced by the studio until The Little Mermaid (1989) 30 years later.

Eleanor Audley--one of Walt Disney's favorite voice artists, most memorably as Lady Tremaine in Cinderella (1950)--initially turned the part of Maleficent down, much to Disney's surprise. As it later transpired, Audley was in the midst of battling a bout of tuberculosis and did not want to tax her voice too much. Fortunately, she recovered and accepted the part.

Continuity

Flora and Fauna's eyes are brown. However, Fauna's eyes are depicted as green when the fairies are crying in Aurora's tower, and Flora's eyes are depicted as pink when they realize Phillip was captured by Maleficent after finding his hat on the floor of the cottage.

The tiara given to Aurora by the three fairies has no jewels, but later on, when Maleficent shows the sleeping Aurora to the fairies, the tiara has rubies in it. They disappear when Prince Phillip and Aurora are descending the stairwell before they start waltzing, and they never return.

While preparing for Briar Rose's birthday party, the three fairies lock the front door. When Briar Rose returns from picking berries, she opens the door easily.

The door of the room Maleficent lures Aurora into has a barred window, but in the shot where Aurora is approaching the room, the window is gone. The number of window bars also changes from scene to scene with them being either 1, 2, or 3.

After King Hubert attacks King Stefan with a fish, he sheaths the fish in his belt. In the next shot of King Hubert, seconds later, the fish has vanished.



Factual errors

At the beginning credits, the copyright year is show to be MCMXLIX in roman numerals. These numerals represent the year 1949. Sleeping Beauty was released in 1959.

The fairies first attempt to make a birthday cake by hand goes awry, because apart from such errors as not cracking the eggs, the resulting mixture is iced without having been baked. However when the second cake is produced using magic, and the mixture is prepared quite properly, yet again it is iced without being baked.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

The three fairies have been living with Aurora in the cottage for 16 years, seemingly self-sufficient. But in all this time, Flora has NO idea how to sew, and Fauna can't even follow simple directions for a cake. This is because there are three of them -- it isn't that none of them knew how to do either of these things, but rather that Flora and Fauna were using the occasion to try their hand at things they had never done before.



Anachronisms

King Hubert and Prince Phillip both remark at certain points in the movie that it's the 14th century. In another scene, we see fireworks being set off. Fireworks were not used for entertainment until the 16th century.

In this story, set in 14th century France, the fairies are drinking tea, which was not imported from China to Europe until the 16th century.

Aurora and Phillip dance the waltz during the forest scene and at the end of the film. However, the film takes place in the late 14th century, and the waltz was not invented until the early 18th century.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

(At 48:10) When Aurora lays her head down and cries after being given a tiara by Flora, the crying noises are clearly not by her voice actress. Instead, they're reused from when Dopey (voiced by Eddie Collins) was crying in Disney's "Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs".

After the fairies use their magic change into peasant clothes, Merryweather does not speak the first half of her line, "And we can use our magic to help us."

When Aurora is singing in the forest and when the little blue bird "kisses" her on her cheek, we hear her voice start singing a split-second before her mouth moves.



Character error

King Hubert and Prince Phillip are announced as "Their royal highnesses" by Lord Duke. This would be the proper styling for a prince or princess, but not for a king, who would be styled "His royal majesty".

When Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are flying quickly back to the cottage, they are glowing in their respective colors (red, green, and blue). However in a close-up, Flora is glowing green, while Fauna is glowing red.

When Prince Phillip is caught in the thorns, Merryweather uses her magic to untangle him. A split second after she has freed him, Flora and Fauna arrive and use their magic on the branch, even though he is uncaught.

Despite being French, Aurora has a British accent, done by Mary Costa, and Lord Duke has a high pitched Mid-Atlantic accent, possibly provided by Hans Conried. On the other hand, while the setting was implied to be set in France, most of the characters have American accents such as Prince Phillip, Flora, Merryweather, Fauna, and King Hubert while King Stefan and Maleficent have Mid Atlantic accents, done by Taylor Holmes and Eleanor Audley.