Who was the supervising director of Sleeping Beauty?

Clyde Geronimi was the supervising director of Disney’s 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty.

Geronimi oversaw the feature’s production and coordinated the work of its three sequence directors: Les Clark, Eric Larson, and Wolfgang Reitherman. This makes “supervising director” more precise than simply calling him the film’s sole director, since the animation was divided among several directing units.

The production had a long and difficult development period. Disney first considered the project in the late 1930s, and active production began in the early 1950s. Geronimi took over the supervising-director role after earlier changes in the project’s leadership, helping guide the film toward its final structure and visual style.

Geronimi’s job was distinct from Walt Disney’s role as producer and from the work of the sequence directors. He also had to negotiate with visual stylist Eyvind Earle, whose highly geometric, medieval-inspired backgrounds shaped the film’s distinctive appearance. Sleeping Beauty premiered on January 29, 1959, after nearly a decade of development.