Fantasyland

Fantasyland is the themed land devoted to Disney's animated fairy tales that stands at the heart of every Disney "castle park". Guests enter through the park's castle and find dark rides, carousels and spinning rides drawn from films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Fantasyland was one of the original lands of Disneyland in 1955, and versions have opened with every castle park since: the Magic Kingdom in 1971, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, Disneyland Paris in 1992, Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005 and Shanghai Disneyland in 2016. The two American versions have their own articles at Fantasyland (Disneyland) and Fantasyland (Magic Kingdom).

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Concept and design

Fantasyland was Walt Disney's most personal land, built from the animated features on which his studio's reputation rested. In Disneyland's dedication he addressed it to the young and the young at heart.

The layout established in 1955 has barely changed in principle. The castle, Sleeping Beauty Castle in California, Paris and Hong Kong, and Cinderella Castle in Florida and Tokyo, forms both the park's icon and the land's gateway. Behind it, a courtyard of dark rides retells individual films in miniature, while the carousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant and the Mad Tea Party teacups fill the spaces between.

The dark rides

The dark ride is Fantasyland's defining invention. Disneyland opened in 1955 with three: Snow White's Adventures, Peter Pan's Flight and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Peter Pan's Flight, in which guests sail in suspended ships over a miniature London, has remained among the most popular attractions in every park that has it. Alice in Wonderland followed at Disneyland in 1958, and Pinocchio's Daring Journey completed the classic set in 1983. Not every version survives everywhere: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride closed in Florida in 1998 for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Snow White's ride in Florida closed in 2012. It's a small world, created for the 1964 New York World's Fair and installed at Disneyland in 1966, stands at the edge of most Fantasylands.

Disneyland

At Disneyland, Fantasyland opened on July 17, 1955, dressed as a medieval tournament fair, its ride entrances hung with bright tents and banners because time and money had run out before opening day. A generation later it was comprehensively rebuilt. In the project led by Imagineer Tony Baxter, the tents gave way to a storybook village of facades modelled on each film's setting, the carousel, Dumbo and the Mad Tea Party were moved to relieve congestion, and Pinocchio's Daring Journey was added. The rebuilt land, promoted as New Fantasyland, was dedicated on May 25, 1983; for the ceremony the castle drawbridge was lowered for only the second time in the park's history. Snow White's ride there was reimagined again in 2021 as Snow White's Enchanted Wish.

Magic Kingdom

Florida's Fantasyland opened with the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971, reproducing most of the California dark rides and adding two originals, the Mickey Mouse Revue and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. For forty years it changed comparatively little, then underwent the biggest expansion in the park's history. Announced in September 2009, the project, also called New Fantasyland, nearly doubled the land to about 21 acres, building over the filled-in submarine lagoon and the former Mickey's Toontown Fair. Storybook Circus, built around a doubled Dumbo, opened in stages from March 2012; the Enchanted Forest, with Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid, Enchanted Tales with Belle and the Be Our Guest Restaurant inside Beast's Castle, followed on December 6, 2012. The expansion was completed on May 28, 2014, when the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opened at the land's centre.

Other parks

Tokyo Disneyland's Fantasyland, opened in 1983, closely followed the rebuilt California model and later gained Pooh's Hunny Hunt, a pioneering trackless dark ride. Paris built the most elaborate of the European-storybook versions, with a dragon beneath its castle. Hong Kong's smaller Fantasyland leans on character experiences and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Shanghai replaced the traditional canal boats with Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, a boat ride past film scenes staged along a river beneath its castle.

See also

• Fantasyland (Disneyland)
• Fantasyland (Magic Kingdom)
• Sleeping Beauty Castle
• Cinderella Castle
• Storybook Circus
• Peter Pan's Flight