Disneyland Paris - Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle) Walkthrough.mpg

Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant/la Galerie de la Belle au Bois (Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough) Dormant in Disneyland Paris in September 2009. Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle is quite a bit different than the one found at Disneyland in Anaheim. According to Tony Baxter, "Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle in Southern Germany. This European influence was fine for building a castle in Anaheim, but the fact that castles exist just down the road from Disneyland Paris challenged us to think twice about our design." So instead Le Château de la Belle au Bois was fashioned after illustrations from Book of Hours Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry and the Mont Saint Michel monastery in Normandy. It is also quite apparent that the original castle from the Walt Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty and the surrounding grounds were used as inspiration as well. Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant stands 167 feet tall or 50.9 meters. It also is the home for an audio-animatronics dragon that is meters long. At the time of the opening of Disneyland Paris it was the largest audio-animatronics figure ever built.