At the end of Main Street, U.S.A. sits the iconic Sleeping Beauty Castle which has been behind large walls and under renovation since January. This morning, Disneyland revealed a photo of the completely finished castle in all its glory.
With the renovation comes a new coat of paint, the finial ornaments received some fresh gold leaf, a brand new roof, and a sprinkling of star-shaped Pixie Dust above the drawbridge.
Walt Disney Imagineering art director Kim Irvine had the following to say during an interview with the OC Register:
People when they come to Disneyland they expect something that’s different than what they would see on their city streets or in their downtowns. We have to push the color, we have to push the fantasy.
People get used to seeing it faded. Even if we painted it the original colors, it would look strikingly different. These are not far off of the original colors at all. The only thing that’s quite a bit different is the roof. The pinks are all very much the same and the trim colors are exactly the same.
She is the first. She is perfect just the way she is. She’s Walt’s castle so she will always stay the same.
All our other castles keep getting bigger with more towers. Even our sister castle in Hong Kong, they’re adding onto it and making it gigantic. We’re never going to do that to our castle. It’s always going to be this little castle. It’s the charm and the centerpiece of Disneyland. But what we can do is push the colors a little bit more and add a little pixie dust.
The OC Register reported that “Irvine climbed the scaffolding surrounding Sleeping Beauty Castle daily during the renovation to work with painters and craftspeople to ensure the new touches and flourishes stayed true to the castle’s original 1955 appearance.”
News Source: OC Register
Feature Image Source: Rob Sparacio
