Fantasyland: the land of Disney fairy tales

Fantasyland is one of the five lands of Disneyland Park, opened on 12 April 1992. It sits beyond Main Street U.S.A., behind Sleeping Beauty Castle. The concept, originally Walt Disney’s idea for Disneyland in California, takes visitors into the world of fairy tales and Disney animated films.

For the Paris version, the Imagineers, led by Tom Morris (the land’s art director) and Tony Baxter (the park’s art director), decided against drawing on the Loire Valley castles to theme the land, as European visitors already knew them well. They chose to base it on the Disney films themselves. The land has a feature found in no other Disney park: its layout recreates the home countries of the tales. South of the river are France, Germany and Italy, to the north the UK, and to the side the Benelux with the Netherlands (the Old Mill area).

Sleeping Beauty Castle is the centrepiece. Inspired by Mont Saint-Michel and the Loire castles in a more stylised take, it is painted pink and blue to stand out against the often grey Paris sky. It faces due north so that visitors’ photos are never taken into the sun. The building has 16 towers (Aurora was 16 in the film). Its golden spires are decorated with snails as a nod to the Burgundy region. Its Galerie features stained-glass windows made using a twelfth-century technique by a specialist who came out of retirement. Beneath the castle lies La Tanière du Dragon, home to the largest Audio-Animatronics figure at Disneyland Paris (27 metres, 2,500 kg).

The land’s main attractions are Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Peter Pan’s Flight, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, Alice’s Curious Labyrinth, Le Carrousel de Lancelot (its 70 horses are arranged in the colours of the rainbow, around Big Nelly, a central organ taken from an early twentieth-century fairground ride), it’s a small world, Casey Jr - le Petit Train du Cirque, Le Pays des Contes de Fées and Sword in the Stone. Le Théâtre du Château, Princess Pavilion and Meet Mickey Mouse round off the line-up, along with a Disneyland Railroad station.

Dining centres on the Auberge de Cendrillon (table-service restaurant, French cooking), Au Chalet de la Marionnette (Pinocchio theming), Pizzeria Bella Notte (Lady and the Tramp theming, with a terrace mosaic containing fragments that Tom Morris rescued from an original Mary Blair work destroyed at Disneyland in California in 1985), Toad Hall Restaurant (English countryside, fish and chips), The Old Mill and March Hare Refreshments. The shops include La Boutique de Merlin l’Enchanteur, La Boutique du Château, La Chaumière des Sept Nains, La Confiserie des Trois Fées, La Bottega di Geppetto, Sir Mickey’s Boutique and La Petite Maison des Jouets.

The land is presented as a way into the pages of the classic Disney tales. Sleeping Beauty Castle is the gateway that invites visitors into the world of each story: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Dumbo and many more.

The common thread is an animated picture book: visitors move from one tale to the next as if turning the pages of a storybook, meeting the heroes on themed rides or story-driven dark rides.

The land in numbers, pulled together from across the site for a super quick visual summary.

The land opened with the park on 12 April 1992 with Sleeping Beauty Castle, Peter Pan’s Flight, Snow White, Pinocchio, "it’s a small world", Le Carrousel de Lancelot, Dumbo and Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups.

Casey Jr. - le Petit Train du Cirque and Le Pays des Contes de Fées (originally Storybook Land Cruise) were added on 26 March 1994. La Galerie de la Belle au Bois Dormant opened in 1993. Princess Pavilion opened in July 2011 and Meet Mickey Mouse in April 2012.

Les Pirouettes du Vieux Moulin closed in 2002 because its loading capacity was too low. Two projects originally planned opposite it’s a small world, one based on Beauty and the Beast and the other on The Little Mermaid, never came to life. The carriage on display in the courtyard of the Auberge de Cendrillon was a gift from the Walt Disney World Resort for the park’s opening.

To find out more: all the secrets and stories of Fantasyland

The land is inspired by Fantasyland at Disneyland in Anaheim (1955), Magic Kingdom in Orlando (1971) and Tokyo Disneyland (1983). The Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle is one of a kind, and its architecture draws on Mont Saint-Michel and the Loire Valley castles.