The Devlins still have a few photos up their sleeves from Fantasyland, and the first one is from the area below Cinderella’s Castle, June 1969. Here is a contemporary shot for comparison; other than the color scheme, this area seems virtually untouched.
From the 1950’s, we have this Devlin shot of Pinocchio’s village:
Flash forward to the Devlin's trip in 1969; it is also interesting to compare the Skyway overhead and the change of bucket design.
Compare to 2004:
One more Storybook shot from this collection is also from Pinocchio’s Village, circa 1950’s. No Skyway floating overhead, but Casey Junior instead:
...and the comparison shot from 2006; bright accent colors and fewer painted details:
To see more vintage & current Disneyland Storybook Land photos, visit my Storybook Land web page.
I sometimes get jaded when I see a bunch of slides from Storybookland. "Oh no! Not more of those!". But I do love that attraction, it is really charming. I love to ride it at night especially.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that really stands out in this particular vignette is the magnificent Matterhorn mountain in the background. It's so nicely incorporated into the scene.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post, love the comparison shots. Nice mood in this set, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am a miniaturist, and the photographs from the 50s and 60s of Storybookland are very interesting to me, as I had a vision in my head that I could never make work with the current Storybookland look. NOW I understand...it was the original look I that locked in back in '57! It's really a shame that the people in charge of repairs and renovations on this feature don't seem to have read any of the data supporting the use of detail in miniature work. Although we may not *see* the tiny detail work, it registers with our psyche as more real, thus enhancing the experience and feeding our sense of wonder. I suppose the Powers That Be sport a different Object and Vision regarding the purpose of Disneyland from that of Walt. I can (mostly) overlook the crass commercialism , but the loss of wonder really irks me, and I think it would Walt, too.
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