Fantasyland is host to some of the most popular rides in the park. From King Arthur's Carousel to Snow White's Scary Adventure, there's something for everyone. Nostalgia plays a part in the enjoyment of these attractions, where children and adults can remember days gone by and stories they've heard since childhood.
The other parks in Disneyland include Adventureland, Critter Country, Frontierland, Main Street, Mickey's Toontown, New Orleans Square, and Tomorrowland. Let's look around Fantasyland and learn the background and inspiration for the attractions.
Alice In Wonderland
This brightly colored ride lets you ride in a caterpillar car as you travel the world of Alice. Based on the Disney animated film from 1951, of the same name, the film was based on the books by Lewis Carroll. The teacups is another attraction in Fantasyland based on the same film. It's three minutes long.
Casey Jr. Circus Train
This happy little train is based on the train in the Disney 1941 animated film Dumbo. You can ride in an animal cage or an open air car as you go around the track and view all the miniature scenes from Disney classics. These trains are from the original carousel in Disneyland, which eventually became the King Arthur Carousel.
The miniature scenes that you get to see are from animated Disney films such as Cinderella and Aladdin. These are the some of the same scenes you see on the Storybook Land Canal Boats.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
This is one of the most popular rides, with huge line-ups for a spin on the flying elephant. This ride is from the animated movie Dumbo from 1941. The other attraction from this movie is the Casey Jr. Circus Train. This ride includes an authentic Gavioli band organ from 1915 that plays the music for the guests.
The original version of this ride only included 10 flying elephants, but in 1990 they installed a new version with 16 Dumbos. The original 10 elephants in the ride were supposed to be pink and based on the hallucinated dream Dumbos from the movie. Walt Disney didn't like the idea, and instead had them painted grey.
it's a small world
Most famous for it's music, this boat ride takes you through the world to look at all the different cultures. It was originally built for the 1964 World Fair in New York in honor of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and was a huge success. They then built the ride in Disneyland. It was designed by Mary Blair, who also worked on the art direction for animated Disney films such as Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella.
Each of the doll's faces is identically shaped and the same size, enhancing the idea that "it's a small world after all". The song played during the ride was deliberately not copyrighted by Disney, so that children everywhere can share it's message. In 2008 the ride was updated with figures from popular Disney films such as Ariel, Stitch and Cinderella.
King Arthur Carousel
This antique carousel has 68 horses for you to choose from. It was shipped from Philadelphia in 1955 but originally had all sorts of animals for children to ride. Walt Disney wanted a carousel that was King Arthur themed, so he replaced them all with horses and moved some of the animals to the Casey Jr. Circus Train.
You'll see that one of the horses is gold, which was done during the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. As well, the horses were all originally different colors but in 1975 were all painted white.
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