Originally Posted By ALopezBL Can anyone help me understand the origins to the different Park Castles? What movies they came from? are they modeled after real castles? ect. ect.
Originally Posted By Roger55 Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland are all Sleeping Beauty Castle (to be exact DLP castle is named Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant). WDW Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland are Cinderella Castle. DL and HKDL castles are based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. DLP is based on several different structures and styles combined together by WDI. Cinderella Castle was inspired by several French castles. Wikipedia has some nice articles on each. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_Castle" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S leeping_Beauty_Castle</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chateau_de_la_Belle_au_Bois_Dormant" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L e_Chateau_de_la_Belle_au_Bois_Dormant</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_Castle" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C inderella_Castle</a> Now remember it IS Wiki, so what is written there may not be 100% accurate, but in general they are good descriptions.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros While the castles are named after princesses, they really have little to do with how they looked in the movies. DL's castle (later copied for HKDL) was based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, built by Mad King Ludwig. The real castle is much larger than the DL version (one of the biggest castles ever built), and the construction costs basically ran his kingdom into poverty. It was never finished on the inside, but is said to be one of the most beautiful castles on the outside. An early concept sketch showed the castle looking more like Neuschwanstein, but this was determined to look too realistic, so the plans called for the middle section to be turned around so the back looks more like the front of the real one. It was named Sleeping Beauty Castle since the movie was set to come out 4 years after the park opened, and who doesn't like a little synergy at Disney. Other than the squirel downspouts added in the late 90's, there really isn't anything about the exterior of the castle to tell you that it's from SB. Cinderella Castle at WDW (copied for TDL) seems to be based more on the one in the movie, but there is still a ton of artistic freedom taken. Part of the problem with basing them on the movies is that at that point in time, the backgrounds were drawn to look good in each scene without much consideration for basing it in reality. So as you watch either Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, the look of the castle changes drastically depending on who painted the background, what angle it is, and how they were feeling at the time. Cinderella Castle seems to at least be somewhat inspired by the look of the one in the movie, but it's an amalgamation of many different castles, with the styles ranging from gothic and medieval to more current castles and modern taste at the time of construction. Sleeping Beauty Castle in DLP was designed with a fairytale look in mind. Since EuroDisneyland was in the middle of Europe, castles weren't nearly as exciting there as in the US. In order to make the castle stand out against the real ones scattered around the continent, they dsceided to take a more whimsical approach inside and out. The cartoonized roofs of the turrets and pink color make it stand out right away, and the details inside help carry out the whole theme. Some more info on the different buildings: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_Beauty_Castle" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S leeping_Beauty_Castle</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_Castle" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C inderella_Castle</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Ch" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L e_Ch</a>%C3%A2teau_de_la_Belle_au_Bois_Dormant <a href="http://www.neuschwanstein.de/english/" target="_blank">http://www.neuschwanstein.de/e nglish/</a>
