Weathervane Wednesday - Seen in Fantasyland

For the past two weeks I featured weathervanes seen in Disneyworld, Florida.  I posted some from the Animal Kingdom park, and from the Epcot Center. We found fourteen weathervanes in the Magic Kingdom park, and seven of those were all from Fantasyland.  The Magic Kingdom is the most visited of all the parks in Disneyworld, and the most popular with children.  But I'm sure that most park goers have never noticed these weathervanes as they rush around to see all the attractions! (Next week I'll feature the other seven weathervanes from other parts of the Magic Kingdom)

Here they are, in no particular order:

This two dimensional squid weather can be found across from the Little Mermaid ride in Fantasyland. This is a new area of the park, and the streets and scenery look just like scenes in the Little Mermaid movie.  This building is disguised as part of a waterfront scene, and the sign out front says "Cartographer", but it is really a sales office for the Disney vacation club. 

This is another two dimensional weathervane, looking just like the circus train "Casey, Jr." from the Disney movie Dumbo, the Flying Elephant.  This weathervane is in a new area of Fantasyland, and the train station was redesigned.  This part of the park is themed as a circus, with a Casey, Jr. ride and a giant circus tent, and a snack bar that looks like a circus train.  This area is like a "kiddy land" in other amusement parks, with gentle rides designed for small children, and a playground. 

It was difficult to photograph this weathervane since a lightning rod with large glass globes is located right in front of it! 

 This is another two dimensional weathervane, designed like a banner, over the Small World ride.  This is the most famous ride in Fantasyland, and it is either beloved or despised by park goers.  This scrollwork weathervane has a stylized rooster, which is a common theme in weathervanes around the world.

One of the entrances to Fantasyland is through the middle of the iconic Cinderella's castle.  This castle features umpteen banners (we had a hard time counting the exact number).  These banners may not be weathervanes exactly, since they might be fixed in place instead of rotating with the wind.  The very first weathervanes were based on actual cloth banners flying from castle turrets.  That is why so many weathervanes look like banners.  

This two dimensional elk weathervane (being visited by a friendly cardinal) can be found on the cupola above a snack bar themed after Gaston's tavern from the Beauty and the Beast movie. In the movie, Gaston decorated his tavern with lots of antlers and taxidermy from his hunting.  It is appropriate that this weathervane features one of his hunting trophies! 

This little banner weathervane has a crown cut into it.  It flies above the Peter Pan's Flight ride, which simulates a pirate ship flying over London and the island of Never Never Land.  I suppose the royal looking weathervane reminded the park designers of something you might see in England.  It looked very appropriate above the fake castle walls around this ride. 

Here is the last weathervane we found in Fantasyland, and it was right across the street from the Peter Pan ride.  It was above a fast service restaurant called Pinochio's Village Haus.  This is another scrollwork, banner style weathervane, with a strange figure on one end.  This little figure is dressed in medieval garb and he has a long nose.  So perhaps this little guy is supposed to be the puppet Pinochio?  This weathervane was popular with song birds, too. 

Click this link to see the entire Weathervane Wednesday series of over 400 weathervanes:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/search/label/Weathervane%20Wednesday 

-----------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday - Seen in Fantasyland", Nutfield Genealogy, posted April 3, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/03/weathervane-wednesday-seen-in.html: accessed [access date]).