Monday, May 21, 2007

A castle is a castle?

As most of you know there are 5 Disney theme parks now. Disneyland being the oldest and Hong Kong being recently completed and open for business. I plan on visiting them all. Chase recently had this great idea to visit one Disney park every 2 years till we see them all. I can honestly say i was overjoyed by this idea. :) So I was thinking about the Disney castles at each park and decided to take a look and see who's castle is where. And I noticed something interesting. out of 5 parks, there are only 2 different castles but 3 different architectural styles. I always knew that the Castle at Disneyland was Sleeping Beauty's. Well, thats not entirely true. When Disneyland opened in 1955, the movie Sleeping Beauty was still in post production so for a very short time the castle was actually Snow Whites castle. As we all know, poor Snow White never had a castle in the movie. She lived with 7 creepy dudes in a hut made of mud. Personally I think she deserved a castle, but after Sleeping Beauty was released the castle was renamed.
Then in 1971 a second castle was completed in Disneyworld Florida. This Castle was Cinderella's. Sorry Snow White, no love for you there either. But lucky Sleeping Beauty got herself a second castle when Disneyland Tokyo opened April 15th 1983. This one matching the same design as the Florida castle. Again poor Snow White got the short end of the rampart.


In 1992 Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant was completed in Paris France. This castle also belongs to Sleeping Beauty. It has a newer updated design. It is much larger than her first castle in Anaheim and is home to a sleeping dragon.
Snow White loses again. But she had yet another chance to have a castle to call home when work began on Disneyland in Hong Kong. Would she be lucky this time? Alas no. September 12th 2005 the park in Hong Kong opened with a 3rd castle dedicated to Sleeping Beauty matching the exact design of the first castle in California. Poor Snow White. Perhaps someday. But not today. I honestly think she deserves a castle. She was the star of the first Disney full length feature animated film Disney made, came back from the dead, had to live with 7 grubby midget miners each with their own unmedicated social disease, and got robbed of the castle in Disneyland! What did Cinderella do? Lost a slipper. Sure she had 2 crappy stepsisters, and dancing in glass can't be super comfortable, but at least she had a house, and a driving pumpkin. She didn't have it that bad. And what did sleeping Beauty do to deserve not one but THREE castles? Thats an awfully good haul for a teenager who's claim to fame was napping all day don't ya think? Sure an evil fairy was trying to kill her, and she'll never try to spin yarn again, but isn't that what servants are for? Well just so you know Snow White, I'm still rootin' for ya'. And a 6th Disney park would make a nice round number. And besides, it would probably be nice to have a castle that isn't a copycat of all the others. Maybe something with a few flying buttresses!

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