Real-life places that inspired Disney movies
Movie lovers can’t begin a Disney movie without seeing the famed Cinderella Castle. And tourists can’t step foot inside Walt Disney World without seeing it. Originally portrayed in the 1950’s film, the palace, with its shimmering white-stone façade, deep blue turrets, and signature ramparts, is a combination of styles found throughout Europe. It closely resembles the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany (pictured), as well as France’s Chateau de Chenonceau and Chateau de Chaumont. The Neuschwanstein Castle also inspired Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (seen in the 1959 film and in California’s Disneyland).
Disney films have taken us under the sea with a mermaid, through the sky on a magic carpet and dancing across a ballroom in glass heels. But what if we could step into these movies to make our own happily ever after? Sometimes the stories of Disney movies already have a real place: London in “101 Dalmations” and “Peter Pan,” Greece in “Hercules,” Paris in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the North American wilderness of “Pocahontas.” But other tales don’t have a real-world setting so animators need to find their own inspirations. These real-life locations let you travel to the places where classic Disney characters could have found a new dream, saved China and let it go, according to Travel + Leisure. No pixie dust required.
