Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Princess Aurora, August 1958

Sleeping Beauty Castle's original walk-through made its debut in April 1957, and featured dioramas of scenes from the upcoming movie, "Sleeping Beauty Vs. Godzilla". For those of you who have been living in a cave, the dioramas have been restored to their better-than-original glory thanks to Imagineers like Chris Merritt.

This lucky girl had a chance to meet Princess Aurora herself. At least I assume that's who this tiara-wearing woman is supposed to be! Aurora is looking splendid in her pumpkin-colored gown, and is handing out those wonderful souvenir booklets that are fairly plentiful on ebay. They must have given away zillions of those beautiful, full-color booklets!


Here's the front of the familiar castle... the girl and her dad pose before heading through archway into Fantasyland. Notice the sign for Columbia on the light post!

8 comments:

Chris Merritt said...

Wow! That's great! Now if they had just taken pics inside...

Greetings from Singapore!

Anonymous said...

That sailor look is so not working for that young lady, but as ebay proves, "Aurora" (late of Miss Small Town Nebraska?) put in her hours handin' out them guidebooks.

Greetings Chris Merritt, but I can't top a singing pore!

Katella Gate said...

With all the dust that got thrown up over the It's a Small World reconfiguration, I'm glad Major brought up the excellent work done for the Sleeping Beauty Walk-thru. The vignettes are closely styled after Earle's original artwork and the warmest complements are in order for art direction.

The additional interactive moments like the peep-holes and Maleficent's cameo at the end really spice up the attraction in a way that's in keeping with the spirit of the original.

And oh yeah... it's a few years down the road but the work done on the connecting passage between the Sword in the Stone Courtyard and Sleeping Beauty's Grotto was done well too... The slope in the walk way was too steep for people in wheelchairs, so it had to be re-graded. You'd never know the work was done at all, and that's the best kind.

Learning Spanish at 41 said...

Aurora's dress looks like it came straight from a Butterick pattern. They sure put a lot more into the costuming now to make the characters look more authentic to the films.

Can't wait to see the new walk-thru in the castle!!

PTA Transit Authority said...

Major, I got to tell you.. the castle pic with the Columbia Banner is awesome.

P.S. I wouldn't wear the Roy Rogers sweater either. LOL.

Chris Merritt said...

Thanks Katella - I appreciate the kudos. We did all work really hard to match the Eyvind Earle style, while still retaining the original Ken Anderson designs. There was a lot of love for original Disneyland design ethos poured into this project...

Nancy said...

this is an especially lovely picture of the castle...

even tho my "home castle" is Cinderella Castle (being an East Coaster) i feel that the Sleeping Beauty Castle is more ?? (cant think of the word, comfortable maybe? but you may know what i mean)....and this picture for some reason really conveys that feeling for me

the lighting is really pretty as well...an all around beautiful image :D

Sleeping Beauty wearing a Butterick pattern...thats great! i had that same feeling, having made many of my clothes as a teen in the late 60s-early 70s

Anonymous said...

Chris, kudos from me too! Let me say it's an example-setter for how to "plus" an attraction. It gains from the resto and the creatively valid reworking and additions. Why, with attractions crafted like that, it might have me thinkin' there's a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day. :)