Fairy Tale Forest

About

The Fairytale Forest (Sprookjesbos in Dutch) is a 15-acre (61,000 m2) wooded section of the amusement park Efteling in the Netherlands, where a number of well-known fairy tales and fairy tale figures are depicted by animatronics and buildings. Most of the figures are inspired by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault.

The Fairytale Forest was founded on the work of R.J.Th. van der Heijden, Peter Reijnders and Anton Pieck. Van der Heijden conceived the idea in the 1950s to boost tourism. He asked his brother-in-law Peter Reijnders, a filmmaker and amateur inventor from Eindhoven, to recreate a fairy tale theme park that Reijnders had built. Reijnders chose artist Anton Pieck, whose visual style had been inspired by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, to add the artistic elements.

It took roughly two years to develop and build the first ten fairy tales: The Chinese Nightingale, The Naughty Princess, Sleeping Beauty, The Gnome Village, "Number One" (referring to the toilets), The Frog Prince, The Magic Clock, Mother Holle, Snow White and The Six Servants.

The Fairytale Forest has 25 scenes. Some include specific events, such as Little Red Riding Hood at the door of her grandmother's house, while others are more general, like The Gnome Village. There are three types of fairy tale scenes: indoor scenes with a commentary telling the tale (such as The Indian Water Lilies); structures too small to enter but which can be viewed by visitors through the windows (Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's house); and open-air attractions, such as the fountain for The Frog King or The Naughty Princess.

There are ten scenes based on Brothers Grimm fairytales: The Wolf and the Seven Kids, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstilskin, Mother Holle, The Six Servants (Long-neck), Rapunzel, The Frog King, The Wishing-Table and Sleeping Beauty. Three scenes are fairy tales from Mother Goose's Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault : Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Five scenes are from Hans Christian Andersen tales: The Emperor's New Clothes, The Red Shoes, The Little Mermaid, The Chinese Nightingale and The Little Match Girl. The tale of The Indian Water Lilies was written by Fabiola de Mora y Aragón. The remaining scenes either do not have a matching tale (such as The Gnome Village and Holle Bolle Gijs) or a tale was created afterward (such as The Gardener and the Fakir and The Magic Clock).

The Fairytale Forest was founded on the work of R.J.Th. van der Heijden, Peter Reijnders and Anton Pieck. Van der Heijden conceived the idea in the 1950s to boost tourism. He asked his brother-in-law Peter Reijnders, a filmmaker and amateur inventor from Eindhoven, to recreate a fairy tale theme park that Reijnders had built. Reijnders chose artist Anton Pieck, whose visual style had been inspired by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, to add the artistic elements.

It took roughly two years to develop and build the first ten fairy tales: The Chinese Nightingale, The Naughty Princess, Sleeping Beauty, The Gnome Village, "Number One" (referring to the toilets), The Frog Prince, The Magic Clock, Mother Holle, Snow White and The Six Servants.

The Fairytale Forest has 25 scenes. Some include specific events, such as Little Red Riding Hood at the door of her grandmother's house, while others are more general, like The Gnome Village. There are three types of fairy tale scenes: indoor scenes with a commentary telling the tale (such as The Indian Water Lilies); structures too small to enter but which can be viewed by visitors through the windows (Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's house); and open-air attractions, such as the fountain for The Frog King or The Naughty Princess.

There are ten scenes based on Brothers Grimm fairytales: The Wolf and the Seven Kids, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstilskin, Mother Holle, The Six Servants (Long-neck), Rapunzel, The Frog King, The Wishing-Table and Sleeping Beauty. Three scenes are fairy tales from Mother Goose's Fairy Tales by Charles Perrault : Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Five scenes are from Hans Christian Andersen tales: The Emperor's New Clothes, The Red Shoes, The Little Mermaid, The Chinese Nightingale and The Little Match Girl. The tale of The Indian Water Lilies was written by Fabiola de Mora y Aragón. The remaining scenes either do not have a matching tale (such as The Gnome Village and Holle Bolle Gijs) or a tale was created afterward (such as The Gardener and the Fakir and The Magic Clock).

The park's cleanliness is maintained with the help of an ingenious waste disposal system designed by Anton Pieck and Ton van de Ven, and originally conceived by Henk Knuivers. There are 11 talking waste disposals. Children take trash from the ground and stuff it into the disposals to hear the gobbler talk. The most popular gobbler, Hollow Bulging Gijs, makes a gobbling sound when ‘eating’ garbage and thanks the donor politely, whereas Captain Gijs fires a cannon to illustrate his enthusiasm for the guests' tidiness. However, Captain Gijs and the cannon have been removed to make space for the fairytale Pinocchio.

For each scene, the fairy tale can be read from book plaques provided nearby (usually in Dutch, English, German and French). In some cases, the tale is also presented via electronic voice-over in Dutch only.

Castle of......Sleeping beauty Designed by Anton Pieck & Ton van de Ven as Doornroosje.

Sleeping Beauty 's castle was built in 1952. The rooms were decorated and Sleeping Beauty, a sleeping guard, and two sleeping cooks were introduced the following year. Instead of climbing roses, faster growing evergreen ivy was used to partially cover the castle. The castle was completely renovated in 1981. The poles and chicken wire with plaster were replaced by bricks. An extra animatronic scene of the wicked witch spinning yarn was added. Also in 1981, the sleeping guard was renewed, and again in 1997. In 2024 the castle was again renovated, which lead to minor upheaval as sleeping beauty's breast were enlarged, according to the park to be closer to the original (1950's) design.

Visitors cannot enter the rooms of the castle, but instead look through the windows to see the various scenes. Both the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault have written versions of the tale. The story is about a young maiden; who has been cursed by an evil fairy at birth and fell into an enchanted eternal sleep, and awaken by the kiss of a prince.

Herald Square is the beautiful central square of the Fairy Tale Forest, built in 1952. The nostalgic gate, the magic clock and the fountain create a picturesque environment. The original name was ‘Castle Square’, but the stone princes blowing their horns were confused with heralds, so the name was changed to ‘Herald Square’.

Based on The Frog Prince, the scene was designed by Pieck as de Kikkerkoning. Where four frogs created a fountain and a hologram of a ball appears.

Snow White first stood in a cave with a hole so you could watch it from outside, with seven stone dwarfs crying over her sleeping death. Then later, the cave was renewed, and the stone dwarfs were replaced by moving animatronics. Snow White remained the same, sleeping in a glass box. In 1999, the castle's stepmother appeared in a mirror, with her holographic reflection. In 2018, the cave went down for a major refurbishment, the dwarfs got new clothes, the scenes were renewed and the lighting was updated.

Designed as De Magische Klok, it depicts one of Efteling's own fairy tales. Every quarter of an hour, the magic clock comes to life and its characters tell us the story. The six princes are animatronics.

- the Dwarf Village Yanking the dwarf's chain Dwarf Village was originally designed by Anton Pieck with later contributions by Ton van de Ven. In 1952, the village consisted of three large toadstools, through which children could walk, with miniature adornments, such as little chairs and dwarf laundry hanging from a wire. Later additions included a large inhabited dwarf house in 1972, and a hollow tree with a dwarf playing a clavichord 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. During the 1980s, the male dwarf received spoken lines.

In 2017, the three large toadstools were rebuilt with modern materials.