Forced perspective castle in Disney World's new Fantasyland

A Disney blogger writes, "The Disney Parks Blog has a backstage look at the creation of Beast castle at Magic Kingdom Park, a huge milestone in the Fantasyland expansion. Imagineers are using forced perspective architecture to make the structure look more grandiose in size than it appears in reality."

Beast Castle: Behind the Scenes With Walt Disney Imagineers

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

jja

Should that not be “…more grandiose in size than it is in reality”?
Donald Petersen

“Magic Kingdom Park”? Do they really call it that? sigh… well, it’s not like “Disneyland Resort” is so much better.

Anyway, they use a lot of forced perspective in them thar Happiest Places on Earth. On Main Street U.S.A., the second floors of all the storefronts are shorter than the first floors, and the third floors are smaller still. Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland and Cinderella Castle at WDW use the same trick.
- Brainspore
  
  Don’t forget the dwarf pines planted near the top of the Matterhorn.
Anonymous

That’s not forced perspective. It’s just a detailed model. At least, the photo doesn’t demonstrate the forced perspective. If it showed a work-man (um… “Imagineer) that looked in scale with the building but was actually a normal sized man in the distance – THAT would be forced perspective. Right? Confusing myself…………
- EeyoreX
  
  Yeah, it’s a model AND it uses forced perspective: “As it becomes taller, its proportions get smaller”. So, say, the window frames at the top are even tinyer than the windows at the bottom, but our brains assume that they are the same relative size. And that, in turn, gives us a (false) frame of referrence for the relative distance between those windows, wich adds to the illusion.
  
  Disney as well as other theme parks use this trick quite often in their architecture. The most recent example would be Hogwarts castle at Universal Orlando.
  
  The real trick is that you mustn’t have other fixtures showing up behind it, or the illusion shatters. I’ve seen some less famous theme parks attempt this kind of stuff when surrounded by a dense forest on all sides; it just looks pathetic.
  - Anonymous
    
    actually this problem has occured at Disneyland Anaheim as well in the past couple of years
    
    (trees showing up in shots behind the Castle ruining the intended look)
endymion

Sorry for being OT, but why has boingboing been crashing my browser the last couple of days (Mac 10.6.6, Firefox 4.0)? It’s the only site that crashes….
- spriggan
  
  It can’t handle the *forced perspective*
Anonymous

They used forced perspective for the original Disneyland Magic Castle too. I remember them saying this in my training when I worked there in the late 80′s.
millrick

forced perspective or really large construction workers?
tuvaorbust

I too look more grandiose in size than I appear in reality. This is the most beautiful catchphrase I’ve heard all day. It could only come from Disney, and I think “America the Beautiful” should be rewritten to include it. Sort of a 21st Century version.
JonStewartMill

Didn’t I read about this in Makers?
Jake0748

I don’t get it.
jonw

I think fantasy theme parks should be more realistic.
Anonymous

The Disney Blogger should have used “grand” and not “grandiose”. They do not mean the same thing and I’m seeing that mistake frequently.