It's inevitable: Take an interest in Disneyland trivia, and sooner or
later (probably sooner), you're bound to come across this little
tidbit:
Walt Disney's family crest is on the front of Sleeping Beauty
Castle.
This factoid is impressive for its sheer density of misinformation—no
fewer than three errors or partial errors in only twelve words! The
falsehoods are corrected as follows:
- The design in question is not a crest (though it includes one).
- Designs of this type do not represent families per se, at least traditionally.
- This particular design is probably not directly associated with Walt Disney's specific family at all.
Thus we enter the often murky but always fascinating world of
European heraldry!
