Discover how Aurora, princess from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was defined as the owner of the castle at Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California
When Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, the public was able to see the princess’ castle for the first time with fewer lines from the films DisneyAurora, also known as Sleeping Beauty, designed to occupy the central position of the park, and can be seen from any end of the site.
The curious thing is that the princess’ film would only be released four years after the opening of Disneyland, in 1959, making visitors even more curious about the animation that adapts the tale of Brothers Grimm where a princess is cursed to fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday, only being able to wake up when she receives a kiss from her true love.
If the feature film hadn’t even been released, how could the castle that would be seen in ‘Sleeping Beauty’ be included in the first Disney park? The truth is that, initially, the princess who owned the castle had not been defined.
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The idea of designing a castle for Disneyland began to take shape in 1953, the year in which the artist Herb Ryman began to draw the sketch dreamed of by Walt Disney of an amusement park that would please both children and adults, which would necessarily include a large castle, which would become the symbol of the place.
As explained on the official Disney blog, Ryman designed the building and positioned it at the back of the Park, surrounded by walls and inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle, in Germany. “I did this to help sell my friends idea Dick Irvine It is Marvin Davis — base it on the king’s Bavarian castle Ludwig“, he said.
However, when Imagineer Fred Joerger created a model based on sketches of Rymanhe realized that the castle would look better if it was centralized, and seconds before showing the project to Waltchanged the position, without the approval of his colleague.
Happily, Walt approved the idea, in addition to suggesting that the ceiling be painted blue, as well as making its objective with the construction clear, as in addition to being a symbol, the castle should be used as a location point, where people could use it. it as a lighthouse to move around within the park — and that’s how the building was built!
Still, one detail remained to be defined: who owned that castle? The author Jim Korkis recalls that several names emerged until Aurora was defined as the owner of the place. “In initial planning and written material, it was designated as ‘Medieval Castle’ and then ‘Fantasiland Castle’, and even ‘Robin Hood Castle,’” she explained.
Additionally, the Disney blog states that in the first few episodes of ABC’s weekly television program Walthimself Disney suggested that the castle would belong to Snow White, but the decision ended up being changed as a marketing strategy, given that there were just a few years left before the release of ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
Source: Recreio
