Sleeping Beauty Castle was meant to be taller?

[MrHatboxGhost]

I was googling "Magic Kingdom vs Disneyland rides" when I came across this really off topic post in the thread I was reading.

In regards to SBC:

It is squatty. It is not even complete. Nearing the opening of the park, Disney decided to put the top portion of the castle on top of the bottom portion because he ran out of time to make the middle. The castle actually should have been taller. Everytime I see it all I can think of is it looks squatty and incomplete.

I was confused by this, because out of everything I've ever seen, even the first concept art with the flipped top part of the castle, I've never noticed a missing middle piece.

Can anyone clarify what this person is talking about?

[DoppelV]

All I've ever heard is that the original concept model of the castle originally had the top half reversed from what we see in the finished product. Depending on who is telling the story, either Herbert Ryman or Walt Disney turned the top of the model and saw that it was better, thus, the castle we have today. Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that it was Ryman that changed the model. I get a sense that he liked to shake things up. In both stories, though, the model was simply switched around at its midpoint, no sections were taken out.

As far as the height is concerned, the castle was supposedly built with many architectural elements that were designed for use in movie sets, which would put some restrictions on how high it could go and still look believable. I think it is exactly the height it was designed to be. Granted, I think its possible that originally a larger, taller, castle may have been desired, but due to financial limitations, the concept had to be cut back.

[Asylim]

Well if I recall it uses forced perspective and some people have a hard time with that. Personally I think it looks fine considering it's only 77 feet high (according to Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever)

It is the smallest of the park castles though.

[explodingboy]

It is also way better looking than Cinderella's castle too, IMO. Cinderella's looks too tall, pointy, and squeezed together.

[FigmentJedi]

It is also way better looking than Cinderella's castle too, IMO. Cinderella's looks too tall, pointy, and squeezed together.

I think that's actually keeping a little with the source material. Sleeping Beauty castle in the film is kinda wide while the Castle in Cinderella is a little thinner and taller. Even though the park castles are definitely drastic departures from their film counterparts

[DLRaddict]

It is the smallest of the park castles though.

Isn't Hong Kong's the same size.

[hyperskreem]

The concept art for Sleeping Beauty Castle In my Inside Disneyland Book shows the castle as is...IMO DLP has the best castle

[MarkTwain]

Isn't Hong Kong's the same size.

Yep.

It might be possible the castle was once intended to be taller, but not in the way the source article describes. One of the earliest renderings of Disneyland shows a much more monumental, Cinderella-style castle in the center of the park, but its possible its scale was deliberately exaggerated.

[DLRaddict]

The concept art for Sleeping Beauty Castle In my Inside Disneyland Book shows the castle as is

I have a few Disneyland/Imagineering books and most of the renderings have it look the way it is today. But the Herb Ryman aerial Disneyland drawing shows a huge castle but that was because they were trying to get ABC to fund Disneyland.

...IMO DLP has the best castle

Yes it does. It is so Fairy Tale like. And I can't wait to see the Shanghai castle, hopefully they just don't clone DLP's castle. Then no castle would be unique.

[Diznygrl]

Sounds to me like some WDW-lover making crap up just to rip on the size of DL's castle.

Bigger isn't always better.