'Sleeping Beauty' Proposal Is Real-Life Fairy Tale In Brookline

BROOKLINE, MA — It took him the better part of a year and the help of internet strangers, friends, family and the Coolidge Corner Theatre, but Lee Loechler made a proposal his high school sweetheart — or anyone else who was in on it — won't soon forget.

A video of the surprise proposal from inside the Brookline movie theater, posted Thursday online, has captured the attention of hundreds on the Boston Reddit page, bringing tears to strangers and raising the bar for anyone who ever hopes to propose in fairy-tale fashion.

"This guy just went and rewrote theatrical history, broke the 'fourth wall,' made a fourth dimensional joke and timed it perfectly, made a highbrow doctors joke, conspired with the internet, and filled a theater with family and friends," a Reddit user named ooooopium posted.

Movie aficionado Loechler grew up in Brookline on Beals Street, around the corner from the Coolidge. He and his girlfriend, Sthuthi David, both graduated in 2008 from Brookline High School, where they were sweethearts. The two went to college out of state and then went on to work, landing on separate sides of the U.S. Loechler is working in LA, and David is in Virginia finishing her residency while they date long distance.

Loechler, who works in film — and, yes, interned for both the mock news site "The Onion" and Walt Disney Studios — got the idea to create a proposal that centered on David's favorite movie, "Sleeping Beauty."

He planned to pop the question when they were both visiting their families in Brookline for the holidays. Things went just as planned: He took David to a packed theater to see her favorite movie, and they settled in to watch. She had no idea the room was filled with family and friends.

It wasn't until near the very end of the 1 hour and 16 minute film that something seemed weird. The prince and the princess were altered to look like her and Loechler — and as the prince leaned in to kiss Sleeping Beauty, the storyline changed.

In a split-screen video of the proposal, you can see David's confused expression as the prince in the movie opens up a box with a ring. Then, Loechler's cartoon self tosses an engagement ring toward the audience, and the real-life Loechler "catches" the ring and gets down on one knee.

"It's not every day you get to propose to your high school sweetheart. So I just wanna take my time," he told his then-girlfriend on bended knee, and sweet-talked her with cardiological references.

The months of planning to this end went over well with both David, and pretty much everyone else.

Back in April, Loechler sent animator Kayla Coombs an email after seeing her work on Instagram, asking if she'd be interested in doing some Disney-style artwork for a proposal to his long-term girlfriend.

"Initially I thought he just meant a cartoon couple's portrait, but it turned out he had much bigger plans," she told Patch.

It just so happened that Coombs is a sucker for romance and all things Disney. So from the moment he told her about his elaborate idea to animate himself and Sthuthi into "Sleeping Beauty," she was all in.

The two had several Skype chats and emails over the next few months to plan the scene and figure out the details of the animation. And in July, she put pencil to paper and started hand-drawing each frame to animate it like the old-school movie, drawing more than 40 individual eyes to create the blinking sequences alone in one section. She would illustrate frames and email them to Loechler, who would slot them into the original film.

By about September, it was really starting to come together, she said.

Then in October, Loechler reached out to the Coolidge Corner Theatre in the hopes that it would go for his plan and let him rent one of the small screening rooms.

Mark Anastasio, the theater's director of programming, was sold.

"The scope of the proposal is what got it through," he told Patch.

Marriage proposals happen at Coolidge Corner, but they don't happen too often — maybe once a year, Anastasio said.

"They're not all this grand," he said, noting that he's anticipating an influx of proposal rental inquiries.

But thanks to Loechler, the bar to rent some space to do that has just gone up.

"They'll have top what Lee did," Anastasio said. "I'm only half kidding."

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).