Update on Beast's Castle...

In my last post about the new Fantasyland expansion, I mentioned that I was unsure of what would be taking place within Beast's new castle in Magic Kingdom.
Thanks to the Disney Parks Blog, I've got an answer now...

NOTHING! 

That's right, the new castle uses forced perspective (a common theme in Disney parks to help make structures seem larger than they are, or to direct your eye to certain details) to appear massive, while its really a miniature castle!
The castle will be sitting atop the Be Our Guest Restaurant, which will keep guests separated from the castle just enough to not realize how miniature it really is. Check out these photos, courtesy of Disney Parks Blog, to see the true size and scale of the new castle:

Let the Disney Magic do its work here, and take in the view of a large Beast's Castle

And now for the reality - either this Imagineer is a giant...
or this castle uses forced perspective in an impressive way!

Imagineer plays King Kong??

In case you aren't aware of it, forced perspective is used ALL over Disney World, but its most evident in the Magic Kingdom. Forced Perspective is a trick used on tv and movie sets to give the appearance of larger buildings. The easiest place to see this in action is on Main Street USA:

You may have noticed, this photo is actually from Disneyland in California...
They use the same forced perspective and it was a great photo showcasing the storefronts

Sure, this looks like a normal street of buildings, but there is Disney Magic at work here! Only the first story of the buildings are regular size, each story going up gets progressively smaller! This allowed the imagineers to help give the illusion of taller buildings, without having to actually BUILD three story buildings along the whole street.
This trick is also used on Cinderella Castle, which only stands 189 feet tall. Part of this height is because at 200 feet, structures are required to have Aircraft warning lights (the blinking white/red lights on buildings and powerlines) and the Imagineers felt the flashing strobe would ruin the effect of Cinderella Castle!

We'll leave you with a big of fun trivia today...
How many bricks were used in the construction of Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World?
(leave your answers in the comments below - no Googling!!)

Have a Magical Day, today!
°o°