Fairy Tale Forest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fairy Tale Forest ( “Sprookjesbos” in Dutch) is a wooded part (of approximately 15 acres) of the amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands, where a number of well-known fairy tales and fairy tale figures are depicted by (moving) statues and buildings. Most of them are inspired by fairy tales of the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Charles Perrault.
[edit] Founding Fathers
For the birth of the Fairy Tale Forest, three people were most important. In 1992, a monument in the form of a triangular pillar was raised in honour of the three founding fathers of the Fairy Tale Forest, who were then past away.
[edit] Van der Heijden
Early 1950’s, mayor Rein van der Heijden of Kaatsheuvel was convinced that tourism would be the future of “Nature Park Efteling” and the municipality invested 400,000 guilders (160,000 euros) to dig ponds and make footpaths through the park, where fairgrounds and sports fields where already present at the time. Plans for a restaurant and a swimming pool were also made. However, Van der Heijden wanted something extra that would draw bigger crowds to Efteling.
[edit] Peter Reijnders
At a family gathering in 1951, Van der Heijden’s wife asked her brother Peter Reijnders, a celebrated filmmaker and amateur inventor from Eindhoven whether he had any ideas for Efteling. As it happened, Reijnders had developed a temporary fairy tale park full of technical novelties in honour of the sixtieth birthday of Philips. His idea was to do the same in Efteling, except bigger, better and not temporary. But although he was technically very inventive, he needed a real artist to design what he would build.
[edit] Anton Pieck
Reijnders wanted to combine his technical insight with the modest esthetics of Anton Pieck, illustrator of dozens of books, including many fairy tale books, famous for his romantic, “Old-Dutch” style. Pieck was not at all enthousiastic about the idea, thinking the realisations of his designs would be temporary, made of cardboard and with bright colors, as would be expected in a park full of modern playgrounds and such. Reijnders didn’t give up and convinced Pieck he didn’t want to make buildings that just looked like Pieck’s drawings, he wanted the buildings to look so authentic that it would seem as if they were there first, and Pieck’s drawings were pictures of them. He promised Pieck they would only work with real bricks, real wood, real roofing tiles, and no cardboard. Reijnders promises to go for high quality and his ideas convinced Pieck, and soon Pieck had made hundreds of drawings of possible fairy tales, but also benches, lamp posts, toilet buildings, etcetera. Ten of his fairy tale scenes would ultimately be depicted (with real bricks and no cardboard) for the opening May 31 1952.
[edit] Opening
In the spring of 1952 another 600,000 guilders (240,000 euros) were invested by the municipality in the realisation of the Fairy Tale Forest. It was a hard and last-minute job to make the deadline of May 31 and even a few days before the opening there were a lot of defective and unfinished things. Later, Anton Pieck confessed that he had serious doubts on whether the forest would be a succes and feared he would not be able to return to Kaatsheuvel without a sense of shame about the failed ideas. However, after an opening without further ceremony, both press and public were lyrical about the very authentic looking scenes and creative technical finds and at the end of the season 222,941 people had visited the park, a number big enough to ensure that the park would certainly become profitable after an investment of about a million guilders.
[edit] The Fairy Tale Forest
Nowadays, there are somewhat 25 fairy tale scenes or characters depicted in the forest, which are described below. There are roughly two categories of scenes: scenes from existing fairy tales (such as Little Red Riding Hood ringing the doorbell, while the wolf is in her grandma’s bed) and general fairy tale-like figures that are not part of a particular existing fairy tale (like the Dwarf Village). Also, the way the scenes are realised are divisable into roughly three groups: a group of fully conditioned indoor scenes, often with a voice-over telling the fairy tale itself (like The Indian Waterlillies), a second group of scenes depicted in little houses one cannot enter, but look through the windows (like Little Red Riding Hood), and a third group of figures in open air (such as the fountain with the Frog King, or the Talking Parrot). Sometimes a voice-over will tell the tale of which the scene belongs to, sometimes the story can be read from a book near the scene (usually in Dutch, English, German and French). Nowadays, to walk the main route through the forest, watch all scenes and listen to (or read) all tales would take about 90 minutes.
[edit] The First Scenes
It took roughly two years to develop and build the ten fairy-tales, being the Chinese Nightingale, the Talking Parrot (or "the Naughty Princess"), the Castle of Sleeping Beauty, the Dwarf Village, “Number One” (referring to the toilets), the Frog King, the Magic Clock, Mother Hulda's Well ("Vrouw Holle" in Dutch), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Long-neck (one of the Six Servants).
Through the years, Efteling has remained faithful to the concept of bringing fairy tales to life. The fairy tales have been regularly renewed, some fairy tales have been replaced by others. Nowadays, the Fairy Tale Forest consists of roughly 25 fairy tales, although sometimes it is not evident whether a figure is inspired by any fairy tale, such as Holle Bolle Gijs or “Number One”.
[edit] Origin Of The Scenes
There are nine scenes tracing back to the brothers Grimm, who collected hundreds of fairy tales, some of which had never been written down, in the early 1800’s in Germany (The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstilskin, Mother Hulda’s Well, The Six Servants (Long-neck), Rapunsel, The Frog King and Table, Get Laid!). Three scenes are fairy tales from the famous collection “Mother Goose’s Fairy Tales” by Charles Perrault (Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty). Four scenes are from tales by Hans Christian Andersen (The Red Shoes, The Little Mermaid, The Chinese Nightingale and The Girl with the Match Sticks). The tale of the Indian Waterlillies is written by Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, who would later become the Belgian queen by marrying Baudouin I of Belgium. The rest of the scenes either don’t have a matching tale (such as the Flying Fakir, the Dwarf Village and Holle Bolle Gijs) or a tale was made up afterwards (such as the Magic Clock). Moreover, there are also figures from tales depicted elsewhere in Efteling, outside the Fairy Tale Forest (such as the Puss in Boots (story by Perrault) at one of the Trainstations and the Goose Girl (Grimm) on the Anton Pieck Square).
[edit] Description of Fairy Tale Scenes
[edit] The Castle of Sleeping Beauty
Designed originally by Anton Pieck with later contributions of Ton van de Ven. In 1952 the castle was built; in 1953 the rooms were decorated and Sleeping Beauty, a sleeping guard and two sleeping cooks were introduced. In stead of climbing roses (as in the fairy tale), the much faster growing evergreen ivy was used to partly cover the castle. The castle was completely renovated in 1981. The poles and chicken wire with plaster out of which the castle was largely built were replaced by bricks. Moreover, an extra scene of an animatronic of a wicked witch spinning yarn was added. Also in 1981, the sleeping guard was renewed, and again in 1997. In 2003 the ivy that had partly overgrown the castle was cut away. One cannot enter the rooms of the castle, but look through the windows to see the various scenes. Also, since 1999 a book with the tale of Sleeping Beauty can be read near the entrance in Dutch, English, German and French.
[edit] The Dwarf Village
Designed originally by Anton Pieck with later contributions of Ton van de Ven (from 1980 onwards). In 1952 the village consisted only of some large toadstools through which children could walk, (a rhyming text on a sign said that parents were not allowed) and some tiny accessories, like little chairs and dwarf laundry hanging from a wire. There were additions of a large inhabited dwarf house in 1972, a hollow tree with a dwarf playing a clavichord (also with audible music, see the Music Mushrooms) in 1974. The village was completed by a toadstool with a writing dwarf and a house with a waterwheel belonging to a dwarf-couple in 1980. Somewhere during the 1980’s the man of the dwarf-couple got spoken lines. Since 1999 these lines are replaced during winter in spirit of Winter Efteling. One can walk through the village, enter some toadstools and look through the windows of other toadstools to watch the dwarf-scenes. The woman of the dwarf-couple is doing laundry outside with a washboard. There is no particular fairy tale attached to the village, although Martine Bijl wrote one especially for Efteling inspired by this attraction.
[edit] The Six Servants (Long-neck)
Designed originally by Anton Pieck (after Peter Reijnders came with the idea) with later contributions of Ton van de Ven. The original Long-neck (one of the six servants, who could see everything due to his long neck and sharp eyes) was built in 1952. In 1955 a little pond was dug round the stone Long-neck sits on. In the beginning, a bust of Bullet-eye with a wasp on his nose stood next to Long-neck. Bullet-eye was also one of the six servants, whose dangerously powerful glance he once had, had clearly withered, since he couldn’t even chase away a wasp anymore (as the rhyming sign explained). In the late 1950’s Bullet-eye was removed, and a smaller buste of a blindfolded Bullet-eye (early in the tale, a blindfold constrains his powerful glance) was placed upon a kiosk near Long-neck. Somewhere during the 1950’s Long-neck was completely renewed; during the 1970’s he again got a new head and in 1979 his body and neck where also renewed again. In 2006, safety-fences were placed near the pond. The scene contains a large figure sitting on a rock, his hands firmly placed on the rock. As his neck grows to about 4.8 meters, Long-neck can (almost) look over the Fairy Tale Forest. The tale is voiced by Peter Reijnders but can also be read from a book in Dutch, English, French and German.
[edit] Little Red Riding Hood
Designed by Anton Pieck, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf entered Efteling in 1953, made of wood, as an outdoor scene. Little Red Riding Hood kneeled inj the midst of flowers while the wolf looked at her from behind a tree. In 1960, the scene was replaced by granny’s house, with the wolf lying in bed and Little Red Riding Hood at the front door, ringing the bell. The wooden Little Red Riding Hood would return later in the Fairy Tale Forest as a road-sign. In 1993 and again in 2004 Little Red Riding Hood was renewed, but the scene basically stayed the same. One cannot enter granny’s house, but look through the window and listen to the story, told by Wieteke van Dort (earlier, the story was told by Theo Hochwald. On August 15, 1998 she was stolen, but was found the next day at the Dominicus Church in Tiel. For that one day, an actrice acted as Little Red Riding Hood in the Fairy Tale Forest. On 4 October 2006 she was stolen again and found at a retirement home in Kaatsheuvel.
[edit] The Dancing Shoes
Designed by Anton Pieck, the Dancing Shoes entered Efteling in 1953 (note that the fairy tale originally was called "The Red Shoes"). The scene contains a little dance floor with two red shoes dancing, covered by a porch roof. Visitors can listen to the story, told by Wieteke van Dort, after which the shoes start dancing to the music "the Clog Dance" by Jan van Oort. The original story by Hans Christian Anderson has been adapted to be more suitable for young children. In the original story, the girl's feet get cut off to stop her dancing, in the adaptation the straps of her shoes get cut, after which the girl can stop dancing, but the shoes keep on moving. The shoes are moved by two rotating discs with magnets, a mechanism developed by Peter Reijnders. It is said that the red shoes are the most often stolen objects from Efteling.
[edit] The Troll King
The animatronic Troll King entered Efteling in 1988, for a total cost of about 2.6 million guilders (1.6 mln euros). Although trolls are a widespread phenomenon in Scandinavian mythology, no particular tale is attached to the Troll King. The Scandinavian myths inspired Ton van de Ven, who had already illustrated a Norwegian fairy tale book in 1974, to create this old, somewhat confused human looking creature, sitting in a hollow tree, predicting the future of his visitors. On a stone in front of the king, one can point at one of the twelve astrological signs at which the king will wake up and mumble some words. Together with Hugo of Villa Volta, the king is the most complex animatronic in Efteling. It was a collaboration of Ton van de Ven (idea and design of the scene), TNO (technical development) and Spitting Image (design of the face and facial movement). The animatronic can move 26 parts of his body, including eyebrows, eyes, jaws, back ans wrists. His voice is that of Peter van Ostade, who also composed the music for the People of Laaf. Originally, the king would only mumble unrecognizable words; later he was updated with new monologues containing some recognizable Dutch words. To reduce the maintenance-costs, his face was replaced in 2001 by a less detailed and less flexible one.
[edit] The Talking Parrot
The Talking Parrot was one of the ten original scenes from 1952, designed by Anton Pieck. It wasn't inspires by a fairy tale, rather it was the other way around. The tale, after an idea of Peter Reijnders, is about a naughty princess who used to copy people's voices and movements to make fun of them. She was turned into a parrot by a an old fairy whom she made fun of. Then, the naughty princess could no longer speak for herself, but only copy other people's voices. This scene is depicted by the parrot, who records the sounds around it for a few seconds (as long as its eye is red) and then plays back whatever was said to it. Later in the tale, when the girl regrets her sins, the fairy makes the spell undone and "they live happily ever after". Although the scene was titled "The Naughty Princess" in the early years, it has been known as "The Talking Parrot" since a long time and the tale is hardly advertised by Efteling in any way. It was included in a book on Efteling's fairy tales by Truus Sparla, but it was not included in the (more well-known) book of fairy tales of the Efteling by Martine Bijl in 1974 (still in print today), nor on the fairy tale CD's containing the Efteling fairy tales. This makes it one of the least known tales in the Fairy Tale Forest. The technique of using two tape recorders to be able to directly play back what was recorded was developed by Peter Reijnders, but the heavy usage of the tapes made them wear out very fast, making it most sensitive for failure. Later, this was of course replaced by analogue and digital recording respectively.
[edit] Rapunzel
On May 18 2001 Rapunzel made her appearance in Efteling, in a tower of 10 meters height. A witch climbs up Rapunzels long hair 7 meters before she climbs down again. The scene was designed by Ton van de Ven who was inspired by (probably Southern German) towers dating from the Middle Ages. Although the technique of climbing animatronics already existed, Efteling found that the movements were not fluent enough. Therefore Efteling, together with BOM Engineering from Fijnaart developed a more fluently moving figure. The story is told by Wieteke van Dort; the witches sounds are by Robert-Jaap Jansen, an Efteling designer. To create some publicity for the official opening, Efteling organized a contest to find the girl with the longest hair from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK. The winner was Patty Gisbers-Jenniskens from Heteren with a braid of 172 centimeters. De Flemish winner, Katalin Willems, cut her 134 cm long braid later that year and donated her braid to Efteing. Due to the climbing witch, Rapunzels hair got so dirty that her braid had to be replaced in 2003.
[edit] The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid made her appearance in Efteling in 1970, although the fountain she makes part of exists since 1954. At first the fountian was a Magic Love Spring. Lovers would kiss each other, leaning towards each other over the water, at which the water would be coloured red, the colour of love. This attraction however suffered from failure a lot and was replaced by a dolphin who "danced" in the fountain. In 1970 the dolphin was replaced by the mermaid, designed by Anton Pieck. She holds a fish out of whom's mouth the water flows. The music is the Allegro Briljante by François-Adrien Boieldieu. The worn off mermaid was completely renewed in 2001. Although the scene is called "the Little Mermaid", it is not completely certain whether it is inspired by the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, since the fairy tale is not included in any fairy tale books or CD's of Efteling. It was however included in some Efteling shows and musicals and the scene certainly resembles the Little Mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen.
[edit] The Touchy Dragon
The Touchy Dragon, designed by Anton Pieck and Ton van de Ven, was supposed to appear on the spot where the original version of the Chinese Nightingale was on April 6 1979. However, the movements of the dragon’s neck and wings weren't fluent enough, so the presentation was delayed till June 20 1979. The dragon is about seven meters long, its wings have a span of four meters and it weighs about 1000 kg., making it the largest animatronic dragon of its time. If one tries to steal a crown from the treasure chest in front of the dragon, the dragon starts growling and moving fiercely. The dragon’s sounds are a mix of the sounds of an angry gorilla and those of a hissing snake, taken from "Essential Death And Horror Sound Effects Vol. 1", by BBC sound designer Steven Brown. Although the dragon also was supposed to blow smoke out of its nostrils, this special effect wasn’t realised until 2000. Also in 2000, some illuminating gems were added to the treasure chest. There is no specific tale attached to the Touchy Dragon. On an Efteling’s fairy tale LP from 1985 a fairy tale about a dragon and a treasure chest is added, but this tale cannot be found anywhere else in Efteling books or CD’s. The wall on which the dragon sits is a remainder of the original scene of the Chinese Nightingale. The four Chinese looking, golden, metal dragon-ornaments on the roofing-tiles and the branch on which the nightingale sat also remained at the scene. The Chinese Nightingale returned to the Fairy Tale Forest in the late nineties.
[edit] The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats
The "Seven Little Goats" is the last fairy tale to be added to the forest by Anton Pieck himself, in 1973. One can look through the windows of the house of the goats, which consists of a living room and a playing room (the playing room was added in 1975). Six of the little goats are playing the Game of the Goose on a special Efteling-board, designed by Anton Pieck, that could also be bought at Efteling stores (see for example an online Dutch version of this board). The youngest little goat is already hiding in the big wandclock, that is decorated by three scared looking dwarf’s heads with eyes moving from left to right. The big bad wolf, dressed in a smart looking black suit, is at the front door. Mother goat stands at some distance of the house, clearly going to some market place with her shopping bags. Since the addition of the playing room in 1975 the scene has hardly changed.
(Descriptions of the remaining list of scenes are to come.)
[edit] Hansel and Gretel
The scene of Hansel and Gretel has been designed by Anton Pieck and was presented to the public June 20 1955. The scene consists of the witches' house with candy on the walls, pancakes as roofing tiles and a cake on top and in the garden a fountain of red limonade. Also in the garden, Gretel sits by the cage in which Hansel is held. The witch's face can be seen through a little window in the front door. There was supposed to be a scent of gingerbread with the scene, but the effect was not effective enough outdoors. In 1999 the effect of scent was succesfully realized in the Fairy Tale Forest at the Snow White scene and "Herberg de Ersteling", but not at the Hansel and Gretel scene. At first, Hansel and Gretel were made of wood. Late seventies these were replaced by moving animatronics. An interactive element was added by Peter Reijnders: when one moves the front gate, a crow on the roof caws, smoke comes out of the chimney, a black cat with yellow eyes comes out of a hole in the wall and the witch (voiced by Wieteke van Dort) says "Knibbel, knabbel, knuisje, wie knabbelt er aan mijn huisje?" (Dutch translation of "Nibble, nibble, mousekin, who's nibbling at my housekin?"). In 2000 the house was repainted with a more glistening paint.
[edit] Muther Hulda's Well
- Number One
- Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel und Knüppel aus dem Sack
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Genoveva’s Bridal Gown (colored pigeons)
- The Frog King
- The Magic Clock
- The Indian Waterlilies
- Tom Thumb
- Rumpelstilskin
- The Girl with the Match Sticks
- The Flying Fakir
- The Chinese Nighingale
- The Music Mushrooms
- Holle Bolle Gijs
Since 1998, at the exit of the Indian Waterlilies there is an open-air theater, where performances for children can be attended.
