The Other Sleeping Beauty Castles

Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Centerpieces on Collectible postcards

Jun 20, 2008

The original Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland was so popular it was only natural to copy it in Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Before the construction of Disneyland Paris (originally called Euro Disneyland) began it was apparent that something different was needed for the centerpiece castle. According to Tony Baxter, the executive director of Walt Disney Imagineering; "This European influence was fine for building a castle in Anaheim, but the fact that castles exist just down the road from Disneyland Paris challenged us to think twice about our design".

The Imagineers set to work designing a new castle taking existing structures such as Mont Saint Michel and pictures from Book of Hours for inspiration. The castle is known by its French name Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant and takes some of its landscaping from the 1959 feature film, Sleeping Beauty with its surrounding square trees. (Card 1 - the first Euro Disneyland postcard).

When the park was opened on April 12, 1992 the completed castle bore little resemblance to Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland. Only the front turrets on either side of the drawbridge were similar, the rest was different from every other Disney park castle. One of the most striking features is the stained glass window, done by Peter Chapman who had worked on restoring Notre Dame Cathedral. (Card 2).

Standing in the center of Disneyland, the 45 meter tall castle’s basement is the home of the world’s largest audio-animatronic dragon. In addition to this 27 meter long beast is a Christmas shop (la Boutique du Château) and a shop selling handmade glass figures (Merlin l'Enchanteur). The story of Sleeping Beauty is told in an upstairs display gallery featuring figures, stained glass and ornate tapestries.

Over the years the castle has received a number of different overlays to celebrate various occasions. For the first anniversary the castle became a huge cake with strawberries, icing and candles. For the fifth anniversary the decorations promoted the upcoming feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame with masks, jester hats and other frills. A simple gold scroll with the number ‘10’ marked the tenth anniversary in 2002. The fifteenth anniversary saw golden Disney characters and candles on the spires with a prominent ‘15’ on a plaque on the front.

Hong Kong Disneyland

The latest Disney theme park opened in Hong Kong on September 15, 2005. The smallest of the Disney parks is located on reclaimed land in Penny’s Bay on Lantau Island. The design of the original Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland was used for the Hong Kong version. It has the same size and the paint scheme is the same as that used on the 1955 castle. In order to avoid any cultural backlash, Disney adhered to the rules of Feng Shui when designing the park and its buildings. (Card 3).

According to the publicity "Beyond the drawbridge that leads into a fairy tale castle, classic stories are magically brought to life." The castle is smaller than most of the theme park castles as Walt Disney felt that a small castle would be less imposing and threatening as a fairy tale building rather than a defensive structure for war.

Sleeping Beauty Castle is the focal point for a magical nightly fireworks display similar to that in other Disney theme parks. The Disney in the Stars pyrotechnics is coordinated to music and songs from Disney musical classics.

Bibliography

The copyright of the article The Other Sleeping Beauty Castles in Antiques & Collectibles is owned by William Silvester. Permission to republish The Other Sleeping Beauty Castles in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.