Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle


Max Fan, D&M contributor and Dlrp Welcome webmaster came back last week-end with great pictures of DLP Sleeping Beauty Castle and it gave me the idea to do a special tribute to what is for many the most beautiful Magic Kingdom castle of all Disney Parks - and certainly the most "fairy tale" castle. We'll have a look today at the outside only, the inside of the castle will come in another article.


It's WDI Imagineer Tom Morris who was in charge of DLP Fantasyland - and of course Sleeping Beauty castle - when they built the park, and everyone agree that Tom did a fantastic job on it whether it's outside or inside the castle. On the picture below, Tom Morris stands with the castle model, a picture we shot at WDI in 1995.


As usual WDI Imagineers did preliminary artworks and models, like the ones below and of course a great attraction poster, the one at the top of the article...



The aerial picture below was shot at the end of the 1990's by the great photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand at the request of the park.


But how is the castle looking today, almost 21 years after Disneyland Paris opened its gates? Pretty good i must say. The castle has been repainted several times since opening day and even its color was changed a bit, but for the most as you will see with Max pictures below, all shot at sunset,  it looks always magical.









But last week-end was also the celebration of St David's  Day at Disneyland Paris, as the park now also celebrate this great welsh event. A short but special fireworks happened, and Max had the good idea to shoot for us the video of it! But first, some pics of the castle at night with its great lighting.



Here is Max video of St David fireworks.




All my thanks to Max for his castle pictures and he'll be back soon with a new update. Please also note that the above pictures were shot before the new snow fall that is currently happening in all the north of France! Yes, we're March 12 and DLP is - again, and at least for the third time this winter! - under a major snow fall! And if you are in Paris and wish to go today at DLP with the RER train you can't even do it as, because of the snow, all trains were cancelled! Unbelievably harsh winter this year - not to mention freezing temperatures - and we just wonder when all this snow nightmare is gonna end!

That said, i have  a good news for those of you who are interested by the great "Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality" book - from which some of the pics of this article came from - as to celebrate the Walt Disney Studios 11th Anniversary - which is on March 16 - i'm doing a special offer on the book at 85€ instead of 120€ thanks to which you can save up to $45 on the book normal price. You can have a look at the presentation article on the book web site HERE. And you can order the book with the $45 / 35€ special discount by using the one click Paypal button below! Note: Price on the Paypal button include the 15 euros shipping.

Important Note: We're running low of the ENGLISH collector's edition copies of the book and we know that soon the english collector's edition will be sold out. If you don't own the book yet and wish to order a copy please do it now while it is available!

Watch also below the video showing the whole book!


Choose quantity and enjoy additional discount!



Pictures: copyright Disney or Agence Altitude, or Dlrp Welcome

1 comment:

Jones said...

That castle is, and will always be, the most beautiful of them all (Shanghai? Don´t make me laugh, everyone can build a huge castle - the trick is to build a beautiful one...) Personally, I think the "new" pink tones are a bit over the top, I liked it better when the colours were a little more subdued, but that may be just my taste. What annoys me more is what they have done to Central Plaza, which, for me, has always been crucial to the overall sightline ending with the castle. I used to be such a charming spot, perfectly in (forced perspective) sync with the castle - then came that horrible stage, and then lots of concrete and broader walkways... Maybe somewhat necessary for "Dreams", but a lot less charming and pleasant to look at. I can only hope that this is as far as they will go (sometimes I have nightmares that somebody will build a steel coaster around the castle, to keep it "relevant and fresh for today´s audiences"... the horror,the horror (I´m just kidding, i don´t think that will ever happen).
Let´s just hope that they will realize that the castle is probably going to need more maintenance, now that the "Dreams" fountains are up and running...