I completely understand if you pass through Cinderella Castle and are unable to stop and appreciate the tile mural along one of the walls. Not only is this area an unofficial waiting area for Cinderella’s Royal Table guests, but this part of Fantasyland is very heavily traveled.
Luckily, I was able to take photos of each mural depicting the story of Cinderella in 2021 shortly after the parks reopened after the Covid shut down. Thanks to extremely low crowds, this area of Cinderella’s Castle had very little foot traffic so taking pictures was extremely easy.
But you don’t want to hear my story of how this happened, you want to see the pictures. The tile murals were designed by Disney Imagineer Dorothea Redmond. The murals were assembled by Hanns-Joachim Sharff and his team. The tile murals were all hand-cut using over 300,000 pieces of glass. This project took nearly 2 years to complete. 2 years!
Anyway, on with the story.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….
oops. Wrong story.
Once upon a time…
Can you spot all the animals in this mural? 6 doves (I think those are doves?) a cat, a dog, a horse, a rabbit, a snake, and a mouse.
Good things happen to good people.
True to the story, in the background to the right you will see the horse and carriage.
Oops, gotta go! Pumpkin’s on a timer!
Take a close look on the red carpet, near the top of the stairs and you will find the glass slipper that Cinderella leaves behind during her hasty exit.
If the shoe fits…
When you take a closer look at this panel of the mural, be sure sure to notice the faces of the evil step sisters. One is red with anger, the other is green with envy. Even the cat is mad!
And they lived happily ever after.
If you are able to, take a look near the bottom right side of this mural and you will find where Dorothea and Scharff signed their work.
Disney Rover 