Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall

In 2011, a new attraction opened inside the Cinderella Castle at Tokyo Disneyland.  Formerly the area had been host to the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour which featured elements from a number of different Disney films and focussed quite heavily on the villains.  I'll look at that attraction, briefly, in another post.  The current attraction, however, is 100% Cinderella.

Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall is a walkthrough attraction.  Guests are welcomed into a lift by cast members dressed as page boys.  The lift is simply decorated with pale colours.  On stopping, guests emerge into a large antechamber, the walls of which, on one side, bear artwork depicting the prologue of Cinderella including familiar images such as Lady Tremaine, along with Anastasia and Drizella looking down on Cinderella and her father.  On the other wall, we see Cinderella in her life of servitude to her stepfamily - one picture has a great depiction of my personal favourite character, Lucifer, after he has just put muddy pawprints all over Cinderella's freshly-washed floor; his expression is priceless.  Each picture has a short passage telling the story (in both English and Japanese).

Leaving this chamber through a curtained doorway, guests advance down a short passage (passing under a simple chandelier), through another curtained doorway and into a larger, hexagonal room with a beautiful blue ceiling.  A stained glass window lets natural light into the room and on some of the walls are small displays of scenes from Cinderella.  What's odd about these, is that they bear no relation to the style or depiction of characters from the Disney film.  Rather they seem like various artists interpretations of elements of the story, such as Cinderella sitting with Jaq and Gus (neither of whom look anything like their movie counterparts).  One display is based more closely on the film and this one shows the mice and birds creating Cinderella's pink dress for the ball.  This display is really rather sweet with a mechanism which allows bluebirds to fly around the dress with swirling ribbons whilst Jaq and Gus moving up and down on threads either side.  It's a lovely 3D representation of a fun scene from the film.

A second hexagonal room continues to hold small displays in varying styles, including one rather sombre piece depicting the fairy godmother and a kneeling Cinderella and a sharp, angular piece showing Cinderella arriving at the ball.  A third display, again matching the original's film artwork as with the dress scene, uses mirrors to show the fairy godmother transforming Cinderella, the pumpkin and mice into her beautiful dress and horse-drawn carriage.

A third hexagonal room continues the story in small displays, including one showing the Prince and Cinderella twirling around the dance floor (with the King and Duke watching from above) and a piece of metallic sculpture showing Cinderella trying on the glass slipper. 

Visitors then move into yet another room, this one adorned with huge paintings of scenes not seen in the film such as Cinderella arriving at the palace after the slipper fit her foot and then being crowned by the King.  There are also depictions of the closing wedding scene from the film including a wedding party painting with the Prince and Cinderella in the middle, flanked by the King and Duke on one side and the Fairy Godmother and mice on the other.  This room leads into a larger, even more impressive chamber with a higher vaulted ceiling, impressive chandelier and curtained alcoves around the room.  Against one wall stands a canopy and a throne for guests to sit in and have photos.  There's also a small stool in front of which sits a glass slipper to try your luck on.

Most intriguing in this room are a couple of paintings which have hidden images in them which, apparently, only appear if you take a photograph of them - the hidden image will appear in your photograph.

After this room, guests exit back into the park.

Visiting Tokyo Disneyland is a bit of a pipe dream for my wife and I but if we're lucky one day I'll get to visit Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall.  It looks beautiful and as Cinderella has become a Disney film for which I have a bit of a newfound appreciation, its an attraction I think I'll enjoy.  I also like the fact it's walkthrough meaning that, within reason, you can take your time to absorb all the details unlike the rides such as Snow White's Scary Adventure or Pinocchio's Daring Journey where details whip past so quickly you don't have time to appreciate them.