Disneyland Paris original castle drawing from 1986

[KentB3]

I found a GREAT of the original architectural drawing for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Paris on page 91 in the book Designing Disney's Theme Parks (the yellow one, with Cinderella's Castle on the front), which was dated March 12, 1986. Here is the pic, in case anyone has never seen this drawing before:

http://photoalbums.wdwmagic.com/showphoto.php?photo=13237

The original design was basically an overgrown version of Disneyland's castle. If you look closely and very carefully at the drawing, a to-scale size-comparison of the then-proposed Euro Disneyland (the then-proposed theme park's name at the time) castle to Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and Cinderella's Castle at WDW's Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland. Disneyland's castle is represented by a red line drawing over the arcitect's drawing (same shape as the artciect's EDL castle drawing, only smaller!), and Cinderella's Castle (WDW & Tokyo DL) is represented by a black line drawing completely shaded in!

I caculated the height of the castle to be about 110 feet tall, compared to Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle at 77 feet, and approximately 180 feet for Cinderella's Castle at WDW's Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland.

However, this dseign for Sleeping Beauty Castle never was used, perhaps due to the fact that France has literally hundreds of castles within a 100 mile radius of Paris, so another design was needed-- to look more fairytale-ish and unreal! This gave Disneyland Paris perhaps the most colorful and awe-inspiring of castles from Disney's theme parks around the world! :sohappy:

 

[ImaginEAR]

Hmmm... wow... I must admit I like the current one more.

 

[marni1971]

If you look in `From Sketch to Reality` there are quite a few DLP castle designs.

 

[KentB3]

If you look in `From Sketch to Reality` there are quite a few DLP castle designs.

I looked all over the Internet for this book; Borders, Barnes & Noble, several local libraries, etc., and NONE of them have this book in their database! Does anyone carry this book at all?!

 

[stitchcastle]

Isn't the Tokyo Cinderella Castle shorter than the Florida Castle?

 

[jrriddle]

I looked all over the Internet for this book; Borders, Barnes & Noble, several local libraries, etc., and NONE of them have this book in their database! Does anyone carry this book at all?!

It's really hard to find. Check the stores at Mouse Planet & Laughing Place they used to carry it. I'll try to find the author's email. That's how I got a copy. Pretty expensive but well worth it in my opinion.

 

[jrriddle]

Here you go:
dghez@hotmail.com

 

[Jorn2005]

Hi there,

as far as I know the publisher from the book does not have the official agreement to sell the book in public bookshops. So you will find "From Sketch to Reality" only in the Disneyland Resort Paris. I believe they are allowed to sell it in France only, but don't pin me on that one. If you want to get the book in America I suggest to use the options mentioned previously.
It's a great book, so I would absolutely recommend it!

Jorn

 

[arcsbite]

Isn't the Tokyo Cinderella Castle shorter than the Florida Castle?

Interesting...can anyone confirm this..and why?

 

[stitchcastle]

Interesting...can anyone confirm this..and why?

An article I read a while back said that when the original Cinderella Castle was completed, they threw away the blue prints which then required the imagineers to re-do Cinderella Castle from scratch when building the Tokyo version, it ended up some 13 (I'm not sure how much but my memory is saying 13 right now ) feet shorter than the Floridian version.

 

[KentB3]

An article I read a while back said that when the original Cinderella Castle was completed, they threw away the blue prints which then required the imagineers to re-do Cinderella Castle from scratch when building the Tokyo version, it ended up some 13 (I'm not sure how much but my memory is saying 13 right now ) feet shorter than the Floridian version.

Where did you read this article? I never imagined Tokyo's castle would be shorter than Orlando's, especially since both parks use Cinderella Castle.

 

[stitchcastle]

I'm not sure if it was an article or a thread somewhere around here (I did a huge castle research spree a couple of months ago) but I did read it that the Tokyo castle ended up shorter because the original blue prints were lost.

My theory thoough is that since the Floridian Fantasyland is elevated, in order to connect the hub to the main door the base of the castle should be much taller than the Tokyo Castle's which doesn't need this feature. That's just my theory since I kind of noticed as well that the lower part of the Cinderella Castle in Orlando looks larger than Tokyo's. again, this is just my theory

 

[KentB3]

I'm not sure if it was an article or a thread somewhere around here (I did a huge castle research spree a couple of months ago) but I did read it that the Tokyo castle ended up shorter because the original blue prints were lost.

My theory thoough is that since the Floridian Fantasyland is elevated, in order to connect the hub to the main door the base of the castle should be much taller than the Tokyo Castle's which doesn't need this feature. That's just my theory since I kind of noticed as well that the lower part of the Cinderella Castle in Orlando looks larger than Tokyo's. again, this is just my theory

WDW's Fantasyland is elevated? I thought everything was pretty much on level ground in the Magic Kingdom, but then I guess I'm wrong! Also, why would this require the castle building itself to be taller?

 

[marni1971]

C`mon Kent, think Utilidors! Florida`s MK is unique in that hardly any of it is at ground level.

I doubt the plans for the castle were lost - when you can pick them up on the net, several books have them, theye are everywhere! The height theory is interesting though regarding utilidors... although where is the castle dungeon tour in Tokyo? Is it beneath or to the side of the castle (in other words would it use the Floridian utilidor space?) - the Paris Dungeon is cleverly concealed in the grassy hill to the South West of the castle, does Tokyo do the same somehow or is it in the utilidor space (which could make them the same height)

 

[DisneyFan 2000]

I looked all over the Internet for this book; Borders, Barnes & Noble, several local libraries, etc., and NONE of them have this book in their database! Does anyone carry this book at all?!

Disneyland Paris holds plenty both in French and English! :wave: