A Dragon in the Basement

With the updated Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough opening this holiday season at Disneyland, I wanted to take a moment to highlight another cool attraction housed in one of Walt Disney's castles. But for this post, we have to take a trip across the Atlantic to an area just outside the wonderful city of Paris and one of my all-time favorite parks, Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland Paris, without a doubt, has the most impressive castle of them all, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. When building the park, the Imagineers decided that in a country where real castles exist, Disneyland Paris' icon should take on a slightly different tone. The result is a structure that looks like it jumped straight out of a fairy tale, complete with the square foliage seen in the animated film "Sleeping Beauty."

Upon entering Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, you can take a walk upstairs and see the story of Sleeping Beauty told through stained glass windows and various other effects — which is a little bit like the original Disneyland attraction, but not as linear. Or you can gather up your courage and enter the dungeon, where an 88-foot-long dragon resides. At the time it was built, the dragon was one of the largest Audio Animatronic figures ever created for a Disney attraction. Of course, now that title belongs to another imaginary creature.

Not a spectacular photo, but this dragon hides in the dark with lots of fog.

While Tony Baxter and the Imagineers aren't promising a dragon in Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland this holiday season, I'm still excited to see what they've done with the walkthrough. Until then, we have Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant.