News Disneyland to give Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride a major facelift in 2020

Castle Cake Apologist

Well-Known Member
Here are a couple more videos I found that include that tunnel that were posted within the last 18 hours. Neither of them has any better resolution, but it's something. (The people in the second one are annoying, so watch at your own risk lol)




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Here are a couple more videos I found that include that tunnel that were posted within the last 18 hours. Neither of them has any better resolution, but it's something. (The people in the second one are annoying, so watch at your own risk lol)







And a bonus (which doesn't show that shaft), an 8K wide-screen low-light video. It's too bright though and you see more than you should, but the wide-angle lets you see more of the sets.



Listen to how people are amazed by the tunnel! I need to know more!

That 8k video is everything. Hands down the absolute best we've had.

You can see the markings on the floor under the bridge where the track for the witch in a boat was. 😭

Also, at least one scary tree survived! His face has been covered in moss and his arms have been decommissioned and just raised up, but he's there!

Screenshot_20210429-190840_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
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George Lucas on a Bench

Well-Known Member
I've been watching various Snow White attraction youtube videos from the other Disney parks, and I am really sad that I missed out on the original 1971 WDW version. Dark, demented, horrific, humorless, almost perverse. I would have loved to experience it first hand.

I liked it, but heck, I also liked the redone version until they destroyed it.
 

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
But that wasn't the ending, that was a mural. The ending was the evil witch who was trying to kill us being stopped. Its straightforward storytelling. Queen in spooky castle. Queen is actually evil Witch with poison apple. Witch is trying to feed you poison, chasing you. Witch is killed, the end. I honestly don't get why people complain about the ending. It makes more sense than the added extra scene in Alice with the Unbirthday Party and nobody complains about that.
What people fail to realize is that in the previous version of the ride, The Witch is the star. the main character. we enter the queue through her castle and dungeon. it follows her spying on snow white then turning into the hag and chasing us with the apple, chasing us through the forest until she dies at the end and the ride ends. perfect ending. now its a book report of the snow white movie. they took the fun out of the ride.
 

Sharon&Susan

Well-Known Member
What people fail to realize is that in the previous version of the ride, The Witch is the star. the main character. we enter the queue through her castle and dungeon. it follows her spying on snow white then turning into the hag and chasing us with the apple, chasing us through the forest until she dies at the end and the ride ends. perfect ending. now its a book report of the snow white movie. they took the fun out of the ride.
I've never been that bothered by the original ending, but it really could've used have a bit more of a transitional tunnel (like in the '71 WDW version) to the unload to make the necessary happy ending mural feel less whiplashy.
 

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
So listened to this podcast yesterday. Tony drops a few nuggets of wisdom as usual but I think he leaned too far into the whole “the land will evolve with the public’s desires” thing. While true, I think he was avoiding some of the other issues with the land. Not sure the point he made about waiting for the land to evolve by making comparisons of Galaxies Edge to opening day are really valid. I’m curious to see what he would say now being that the interview is over a year old and ROTR had not opened or perhaps just opened. I think he was kind of under the impression that ROTR would change peoples perception of the land. It’s an impressive experience in many ways but personally it doesn’t change how I view the land or make me want to spend any more time there. Ironically, the point he made about NOS and how Disney undersold the land and over delivered in the 60s seems to work against him as it highlights the strength of NOS and how it can stand on its own without the rides. He is right about Disney over promising with GE but that point and the land being a little underwhelming are not mutually exclusive.

Also listening to Tony during this last interview kind of made me realize that he’s human and our opinions and what we like evolve as we experience life. If it’s true that the new Snow White is a jumbled mess of emotions at the end it kind of goes against his opinion on what makes the FL dark rides so strong - how they focus on one feeling or emotion. Yet he’s now saying Snow White is better than ever. I’m not saying he’s not being genuine but maybe he’s excited to just be at the park again or see a few neat special effects. Or things don’t always fit in the “box” we like to place them in. Maybe the new Snow White shakes up the narrative of what makes a strong FL dark ride.
I think people give Tony Baxter more credit than he is actually wroth and put him on a pedestal too much. guy was decent don't get me wrong but he comes across as a Disney puppet these days. 'Well if Tony says its good we must trust hm" crap is getting old for me.
 

mharrington

Well-Known Member
I've been watching various Snow White attraction youtube videos from the other Disney parks, and I am really sad that I missed out on the original 1971 WDW version. Dark, demented, horrific, humorless, almost perverse. I would have loved to experience it first hand.
I've been on the original WDW version in 1991, but it was so long ago, I barely remembered how it went until I saw it on YouTube. The only one I haven't been on was the original 1955 original, as I was born two years after the Fantasyland overhaul.

Now that I think about it, this new version reminds me of the old Disney On Parade show from 1971 (which predated the Disney On Ice shows). During the "Snow White" segment, after the Witch gives Snow White the apple and she falls over from eating it, it jumps to Snow White in her coffin and the Prince waking her up. Mind you, I'm just going by a televised reairing of the show (from 1998), which just shows snippets of it, so it's probably longer than that, but here you go (the "Snow White" segment starts practically at the end of the program, at 54:46):


In the show (or at least the TV airing thereof), after Snow White falls over from biting the apple, the Witch cackles... and then the Prince comes by and kisses Snow to wake her up.

Incidentally, is that June Foray voicing the Queen in the video? It clearly sounds like her as the Witch, as her cackle sounds EXACTLY like Witch Hazel's (the Looney Tunes version, anyway).
 
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chadwpalm

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
What people fail to realize is that in the previous version of the ride, The Witch is the star. the main character. we enter the queue through her castle and dungeon. it follows her spying on snow white then turning into the hag and chasing us with the apple, chasing us through the forest until she dies at the end and the ride ends. perfect ending. now its a book report of the snow white movie. they took the fun out of the ride.

I think people give Tony Baxter more credit than he is actually wroth and put him on a pedestal too much. guy was decent don't get me wrong but he comes across as a Disney puppet these days. 'Well if Tony says its good we must trust hm" crap is getting old for me.
I do find it interesting that your top post is defending the 1983 version which was headed by Tony Baxter, but then in the bottom post you basically call him overrated simply because he likes the changes that were made to it.

I've listened to enough podcast interviews with him over the past 8 years to know he is not a Disney puppet. He's not afraid to say if he doesn't like something, but he also doesn't kneejerk hate every change that's made in the parks either.

You're not obligated to agree with everything he says, but for me I find our tastes and thoughts about Disney and the parks align pretty well.
 

Sharon&Susan

Well-Known Member
I've been on the original WDW version in 1991, but it was so long ago, I barely remembered how it went until I saw it on YouTube. The only one I haven't been on was the original 1955 original, as I was born two years after the Fantasyland overhaul.

Now that I think about it, this new version reminds me of the old Disney On Parade show from 1971 (which predated the Disney On Ice shows). During the "Snow White" segment, after the Witch gives Snow White the apple and she falls over from eating it, it jumps to Snow White in her coffin and the Prince waking her up. Mind you, I'm just going by a televised reairing of the show (from 1998), which just shows snippets of it, so it's probably longer than that, but here you go (the "Snow White" segment starts practically at the end of the program, at 54:46):


In the show (or at least the TV airing thereof), after Snow White falls over from biting the apple, the Witch cackles... and then the Prince comes by and kisses Snow to wake her up.

Incidentally, is that June Foray voicing the Queen in the video? It clearly sounds like her as the Witch, as her cackles sounds EXACTLY like Witch Hazel's (the Looney Tunes version, anyway).

How the prince is dressed reminds me of the one in the Looney Tunes short, Foney Fables more than Snow White:
 

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
It's crazy how the tide turns so fast in this sub. It's not even 2 days old and people are already turning super negative about it. If you read the backstory, this was some intern's passion project that Disney actually green lit. Disneyland is investing in improving their dark rides which is a huge win. I know it's been awhile, but if you remember the Snow white ride was forgotten by the general public. They have breathed new light into it and better captured the spirit of Snow White. The dwarves dancing with Snow, Jewel mine, magic mirror, and castle on the clouds ending are iconic and the ride really focused on bringing to life those moments. Yeah I personally would have changed a few things, but this is a huge home run overall
Who are you again?
 

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
They removed the skeletons because it's just too macabre for modern Disney. These macabre attractions just aren't appealing to guests anyway. They absolutely want nothing macabre. Not at all. It's not popular with Disney guests. At all. Get rid of 'em. More funny books, princesses and Star Wars.
I don't understand how in the same park, little kids can ride Pirates of the Caribbean, a ride that has or still has real skeletons on it and it be considered fine family fun and not macabre, but later those same kids go to fantasyland and ride snow white and the fake plywood skeletons are too much for them to handle and very scary. I don't get Disney's skeleton logic here. Don't tell me the skeleton's in Pirates are next to go?
 

Sharon&Susan

Well-Known Member
I don't understand how in the same park, little kids can ride Pirates of the Caribbean, a ride that has or still has real skeletons on it and it be considered fine family fun and not macabre, but later those same kids go to fantasyland and ride snow white and the fake plywood skeletons are too much for them to handle and very scary. I don't get Disney's skeleton logic here. Don't tell me the skeleton's in Pirates are next to go?
I think the biggest problem is that Snow White has been lumped in with the rest of the Disney Princess movies all of which post-Snow White have pretty much zero scary parts. Plus people misremembering Snow White the movie as it being about a woman laughing and playing through the forest with her little dwarf and animals friends when there's more to Snow White than that.

Meanwhile Pirates has become associated with a PG-13 film franchise so it has a little more room to breath with its content in Disney's eyes (as long as the scenes aren't sexual in nature).
 

1HAPPYGHOSTHOST

Well-Known Member
I do find it interesting that your top post is defending the 1983 version which was headed by Tony Baxter, but then in the bottom post you basically call him overrated simply because he likes the changes that were made to it.

I've listened to enough podcast interviews with him over the past 8 years to know he is not a Disney puppet. He's not afraid to say if he doesn't like something, but he also doesn't kneejerk hate every change that's made in the parks either.

You're not obligated to agree with everything he says, but for me I find our tastes and thoughts about Disney and the parks align pretty well.
I never said I didn't like Baxter or his work. Guy is good but overrated and people around here throw his words around like gospel too much.
 

mharrington

Well-Known Member
I think the biggest problem is that Snow White has been lumped in with the rest of the Disney Princess movies all of which post-Snow White have pretty much zero scary parts. Plus people misremembering Snow White the movie as it being about a woman laughing and playing through the forest with her little dwarf and animals friends when there's more to Snow White than that.

Meanwhile Pirates has become associated with a PG-13 film franchise so it has a little more room to breath with its content in Disney's eyes (as long as the scenes aren't sexual in nature).
"Sleeping Beauty" had some relatively scary content. Maleficent's goons, for instance, were pretty creepy.
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
"Sleeping Beauty" had some relatively scary content. Maleficent's goons, for instance, were pretty creepy.
While that's true, I'd say that it's less intense than what's in Snow White, and it's also more jarring in Snow White because it happens so suddenly. The intensity in Sleeping Beauty mostly at the end when the Prince and Maleficent are having their final battle. People expect that. They DON'T expect intense hallucinogenic forest scenes in the first ten minutes of the film.
 

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