From our toy blog: Presley's Little People Blog: Welcome to the Playroom Theme Park Resort!

Over at our toy blog we have the story of our current toy collection playroom:

Presley's Little People Blog: Welcome to the Playroom Theme Park Resort!: What happens when you combine Fisher-Price toys with Disney Magic? You get the Happiest Playroom on Earth! 

Sketch: Christmas Castles at Disneyland & Walt Disney World

The Christmas lights on Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland are an enchanting holiday spectacle that inspired this sketch. It has been nearly 10 years since we have seen Disneyland in it’s Holiday decorations.

We have been fortunate enough to be able to visit Walt Disney World during the holidays the last 4 years. At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Cinderella Castle is adorned in the “Dreamlights” and at nearly 200’ tall the castle decked out head to toe in lights is a remarkable sight and inspired the following sketch.

Sketch of Cinderella Castle in dreamlights

Sketch: Magic Kingdom entry plaza at night

Nightfall over the Magic Kingdom just before the fireworks. Can you hear the music and smell the popcorn yet? Last chance for a grand circle tour on the Walt Disney World Railroad.

Sketch: Cinderella Castle

Toddler Son enjoys sitting at our kitchen bar drawing, while he does that he insists that Dad join him. While drawing Toddler Son will make requests of what he wants Dad to draw for him and most of the time the subjects are Disney attractions. Usually Dad will doodle very loosely but sometimes he will take the opportunity to spend a little more time on a drawing.  This time Toddler Son asked for a drawing of Cinderella Castle, with a balloon. So Dad obliged and drew it using color pencils on xerox paper; Dad ended up drawing Toddler Son in the "It's A Small World" inspired balloon. 

Sketch: Kiss Goodnight at Magic Kingdom

Have you ever been at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom at the end of an operating day? Then perhaps you have received a "Kiss Goodnight". The "Kiss Goodnight" is a wonderful selection of classic Disney music  playing (A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, When You Wish Upon A Star, a little sampling of Zip A Dee Do Dah, etc.) accompanied by a narration about Walt Disney, and the mission of the Disney Parks. As the music & narration play the castle then goes through a changing series of lighting profiles. It usually starts playing at some point after closing and then incrementally until Main Street ("with shops open 1 hour after park closing") finally closes, sort of like a very polite, magical way of saying "go home already!". This sketch tries to capture a little bit of that magical quiet and isolation of the "Kiss Goodnight" in those times after a full day in the Magic Kingdom.

One Man's Dream at Disney's Hollywood Studios

On our last trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios Toddler Son surprised us by how thrilled he was to tour this museum exhibit on Walt Disney. Of course we all love it, but really had no idea how excited the 2 1/2 year old would be to look at the models and displays of Disney art. At only 4 rides (only 1 of which a Toddler can ride) Hollywood Studios is not the most fun place for a little guy. When combined with the lack of an icon that engages the very young (say Cinderella Castle or Spaceship Earth) we could sort of tell he was left without a really strong point of reference. We were there for Star Wars Galactic Nights so missed the toddler programming. But he was beyond excited upon discovering this exhibit and from then on he started having the attitude of someone who found the Walt Disney at this Disney Park. Toddler Son loves old Walt Disney Small World & Carousel Of Progress videos on YouTube so he knows who "Wal Dis" is, and he immediately recognized Walt Disney from the classic photo of Walt & Mickey in a car at Disneyland.

Toddler Son loves castles, having been raised on a generous diet of Disney films/TV and Disney Channel/Disney Junior. So he would get excited at seeing the castle logo before movies. At some point between Disney World commercials and our visits he made the connection that the castle is a real place which only made him more of a fan. He has started to make the distinction between Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland and Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World.  

Disneyland Display - 2018

The exhibit gives some background to the life of Walt Disney and Disneyland, Walt Disney World and beyond. The exhibit used to lead to a film on the life of Walt Disney, but now it is usually a film preview instead (we saw the first scenes of Incredibles 2). Over the years the exhibit has been truncated and an unrelated meet and greet has been added(Starlord & Groot from Guardians of the galaxy were there). Still what is left is still something worth seeing and it certainly made Toddler Son's night.

Disneyland Castle Model- 2015

Walt Disney World Castle Model- 2015

Disneyland Paris Castle Model - 2015

For Toddler Son he loved the castle displays and the It's A Small World exhibit as that is his all time favorite ride. He also was very intrigued by the Jungle Cruise model. At home we have a lot of toys of castles and monorails so he likes to recreate the Disney experience at home in between visits.

Small World Exhibit -2018

Small World Exhibit- 2015

World's Fair/Small World Exhibit- 2015

We've been to this exhibit 3 times (photos have the date they were taken), although it has shrunken in size over the years we are very glad it remains in some form. Highlights are always the castle art and the wonderful Imagineering models. 

Disneyland Concept Rendering- 2018

Spaceship Earth- 2015

Peter Pan's Flight Model- 2015

On our first visit there was a wonderful mockup of Walt Disney filming the EPCOT film, but sadly this has been removed.

Walt & EPCOT- 2015

Years ago we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and there was a large mural of the Ryman concept painting of Sleeping Beauty Castle...the one before the castle had been "turned" around. Dad took a picture with Teenage Son when he was a toddler in front of this mural like we were "walking" into the mural. A few years ago we recreated the photo at this exhibit...and on this trip we recreated the picture again this time with Toddler Son joining the fun.

At the Ryman Sleeping Beauty Castle Concept Art Mural, Hollywood Studios- 2018 

At the Ryman Sleeping Beauty Castle Concept Art Mural, Hollywood Studios 2015

At the Ryman Sleeping Beauty Castle Concept Art Mural, Disneyland Hotel Lobby- 2006

Vintage Artwork from Disneyland Little Golden Books

Who doesn't love a Little Golden Book? The little board books with the bright illustrations and the foil binding were a big part of Mom & Dad's childhood and we have shared that love of these books with our boys. 

Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle usually looks enormous in vintage illustrations

Recently we found two old "Disneyland" Little Golden Books from 1955 at a Toy Show and thought it would be fun to look at some of the Disneyland Artwork inside.

The first book is called "Walt Disney's Little Man of Disneyland". Apparently a Leprechaun lived on the Anaheim orange grove that would become Disneyland. Mickey, Donald & Goofy run into him during the demolition of the site. They take him to Imagineering and show him all of the plans for the park. He is so impressed by what they plan to do that he agrees to relocate to another location of his choosing in the park. Rumor has it he lives there to this day in the roots of an old tree in Adventureland. The book has wonderful illustrations of Imagineering and of Disneyland under construction. There is also a great drawing of the finished Jungle Cruise. 

Not sure what they are building behind Main Street Station

Mickey and Goofy with all the great plans for Disneyland at Imagineering in 1954. One of those sketches even looks like California Adventure's California Screamin' (soon to be Incredicoaster) and the Funwheel!

Jungle Cruise

Enormous castle at the end of Main Street USA, from a 1955 storybook

The second book is "Walt Disney's Disneyland on the Air". It tells the story of a grand premiere television special filmed live from the Main Street USA Opera House. We have included a very striking image from the book of the Main Street USA Opera House being used as a premiere venue for the live television special. Sleeping Beauty Castle looms over Main Street in a fashion that is not particularly realistic and that frankly feels more like Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom than the original Disneyland. Its been written that Walt Disney wanted the Disneyland Castle to be scaled in a way that was "less intimidating" than a real medieval castle. When they started planning the Florida park it was pretty much established that the castle would be much larger. The first concept sketch for Magic Kingdom Cinderella Castle is dated January 1967...just a few weeks after Walt Disney's death in December of 1966. But there are lots of fanciful illustrations that portray Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle at a scale that is much closer to what Walt Disney World ended up with. While it would be a travesty to remodel or replace the original Disneyland Castle...Dad often wonders if its size was more a factor of budget and schedule than what was really desired given how often it was depicted in illustrations at the heroic scale in which the Florida Castle was ultimately built. Just an observation really. 

The scale of Disneyland's Castle looming over Main Street in this 1955 illustration looks more like what Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom would achieve in reality