14 So-Little-You'd-Never-Noticed-Them Facts About Disneyland That Genuinely Surprised Me

I'm a pretty big Disney person, but recently, I got a tour of Fantasyland at Disneyland from Disney Legend Kim Irvine, and I couldn't believe all of the little details I've been missing.

Her mentor, John Hench, worked directly with Walt Disney and designed Disney parks for 65 years. Kim herself has over 30 years of experience being an Imagineer for Disneyland, her mom was Disney Legend Leota Toombs (Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion ), and Kim is the voice and face of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay. Here are 14 really fascinating things she pointed out on our tour.

1. There is one solid gold spire on Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. This is a direct copy of one of the spires at Notre-Dame Cathedral in France .

2. Kim said Notre-Dame Cathedral was one of Walt's favorite structures. Disney actually donated $5 million toward its restoration when it burned down in 2019.

3. The castle is darker on the bottom and lighter on the top on purpose. The castle uses "atmospheric perspective" to give it the illusion of height.

4. And the back of the castle was actually supposed to be the front. When Walt looked at the model of the castle, he flipped the top spire around, liked it better that way, and that's the way it was built.

5. One day, Walt received marble statues of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a gift from an unknown source and told Imagineers he wanted them in the parks.

6. The only problem was that Marble Snow White was shorter than the marble dwarfs.

7. Imagineers put Snow White on top of a waterfall, and the dwarfs at the bottom (again with a forced perspective) and made a marble deer to her scale, so it looked like she was just farther away and her height made sense.

8. The wishing well is there to make wishes, but also so kiddos didn't throw their money into the waterfall.

9. And the money from Disney wishing wells goes to children's charities like Give Kids the World and Make a Wish.

10. Fantasy Faire, where the theatre and princess meet-and-greets are, is inspired by Belle's village.

11. In Snow White's Enchanted Wish , there's a hidden Easter egg where if you keep your eye on the Queen's crystal ball in her laboratory, you can see the Dwarfs' cottage.

12. The Sleeping Beauty Walkthrough is original to the park and opened when the park opened in 1955. It has gone through a few remodels but has remained focused on the art by Eyvind Earle in the movies. As technology has advanced, they've been able to integrate special effects to the art.

13. Disneyland castle is 77 feet tall. While there have been times over the years they've mocked up making the castle bigger; it would ruin the height ratio of the Matterhorn directly to the right. Therefore, they've always just kept it as-is.

14. Lastly, there's a fountain by the entrance to the Sleeping Beauty Walkthrough with Phillip and Aurora dancing and the three fairies around them. The fairies originally had tiny bronze wands, but they were very fragile and guests would break them off. Now the fairies don't look like they have wands but instead look like they're whooping their fists in the air cheering on Phillip and Aurora.

Audrey Engvalson / BuzzFeed

Have you noticed a Disney Easter egg that you think is just too clever? Tell us in the comments below!