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

[RescueTheDay]

Something is wrong, very wrong:

$445k to do a "major facelift" of a Disney ride ???????

Someone be takkin dum!

$445k to remodel/'facelift' your larger home, yes .....

..$445k to remodel a Disney ride, WHAT!!!!
So this tells me that there will be no appreciable changes coming, none whatsoever.

Permits are often for far less than the project actually cost.

 

[PiratesMansion]

probably because Snow White is one of if not the most important and historical films of its kind and for Disney?

I think the bigger issue is that Snow White has always had the greatest gulf between what guests expect the ride to be and what the ride actually is. There are several aspects of this, including but not limited to:

Most people only half-remember the majority of Disney's films anyway (why else would all these awful remakes be so well-received? People get to get all the feels and nostalgia without actually having to seek out the original!) People remember Snow White's characterization and voice, the cute animals, the dwarfs, and they remember that the hag is the villain. What they DON'T remember is just how dark those early Disney movies were, Snow White included. I'd wager it's been 10 years or more since most adults have seen the film. So you're inherently fighting this disconnect the entire time, and the fact that IQ points famously plummet inside theme park gates. For whatever reason (advertising? historical importance? cultural pervasiveness?), Snow White is not remembered as scary or traumatic in the same way that Pinocchio, Fantasia, or Bambi are. So you have mismatched expectations.

And of course, Snow White is a Disney Princess. Notice how in the article it was described as the only Princess ride. There are a whole slew of expectations that brings to modern audiences accustomed to THE DISNEY PRINCESS BRAND, some of which (like tone) aren't appropriate for Snow White AT ALL, but Disney's not going to remind you in case it means they sell one less Princess dress. This contributes to the above mismatched expectations.

Finally, marketing for the parks in general is to blame. Maybe on the West Coast it's different, but in the Midwest all the advertising for the parks is targeted towards families with young children; preschoolers and people young enough to think the characters in the parks are real. And so lots of people bring their young ones before they're old enough to truly appreciate the parks, assuming that because it's Disney everything will be appropriate for their little snowflake, not realizing that the parks are primarily designed for and better appreciated by older children.

All of these factors mean that this perception problem is one the ride is always going to have on some level unless they just flat-out start over from scratch. You can tell people the ride's history and concept, that it's Disney's take on an old spookhouse rides, whatever you want. It won't help. Perception is reality. And if Disney is still hearing that the ride is too scary, or doesn't meet guest expectations, it's hard on some level to blame them for responding to that demand. Maybe, they begin to reason, if we at least shoehorn in an actual ending, the complaints will go away. But I think it'll always be an uphill battle for people to appreciate this attraction on its own terms, and this renovation is unlikely to change that.

That's part of the reason why the Mine Train has gone over so well in Florida; it's everything about the film people expect, AND it's a thrill ride, so it'll keep the especially young and impressionable from experiencing it until they're able to handle it by default. But perception dictates that as long as an attraction called Haunted Mansion exists, a Snow White ride couldn't POSSIBLY be the scariest ride in the park. I'm sure that once again, things have gotten to such a point that they feel compelled to act.

 

[Kram Sacul]

I'm expecting the worst at this point.

I’m fully prepared to be Disneyppointed.

 

[Kram Sacul]

I wouldn't put it past them. Of course, I wouldn't put it past them to get rid of Toad altogether. Then again, they might be afraid of enraging every Disney fan on the planet if they do that...


If nothing else, they should change the Pinocchio animatronic at the end so that he's a real boy now instead of still a puppet.

I think he’s meant to be both. Part of him is real and the other half is still a puppet.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

They're ruining my favorite Disney ride. HM is great, but it's a part time favorite. Snow White is always open and therefore better.

 

[Kram Sacul]

I think there’s a few things in the Snow White ride that should be untouchable: the dungeon, the scary forest and the witch with the boulder scene. If any of these are removed then this thing is a failure. No amount of cutesy animals will make up for their loss.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

This is so disturbing. Oh well. I guess the Goofy ride is my new favorite ride.

 

[Rich T]

To make it more timeless, more family friendly and, most importantly, more “Disney”.

The reason “Disney” and Disneyland became so popular in the first place was because the original animated classics and DL weren’t afraid to be scary. Walt Disney wanted the Snow White Ride to be scary. But, oh gee, maybe Walt wasn’t “Disney” enough.

 

[Rich T]

The only way a happy ending scene would’t ruin the ride would be if it happens after the boulder scene in a more enclosed remodel of the final turn to the unload.

 

[ObscurityPoint]

I’m fully prepared to be Disneyppointed.

....I fear screens and awful 3-D (not scary) animation like they use at the Snow White walkthrough in Shanghai Disney.

 

[Disstevefan1]

That's my favorite ride. Just leave it alone.

it mentions structural beams, so perhaps that is the whole reason to touch it and to get to the structural beams they must do a total tear down, so if you must rebuild, that is the time to make upgrades.

In my opinion, Disney wouldn’t spend the money unless they had to. And they can’t say the building is about to collapse and we need to fix it, they spin it into a refurb.

 

[Chris82]

Any time your primary creative goal is to make something that is "not X" (not scary, not offensive, not dated), it's going to be awful. You have to have some kind of positive emotional goal for your work, or you're going to wind up with a half-baked, muddled mess.

This is how Stitch's Great Escapes get made

 

[Disney Analyst]

I think there’s a few things in the Snow White ride that should be untouchable: the dungeon, the scary forest and the witch with the boulder scene. If any of these are removed then this thing is a failure. No amount of cutesy animals will make up for their loss.

I don't fully agree. The ending is laughable and has been a complaint by many if not all for eons.

If they can restructure it to retain a bit of the forest, and the boulder scene, with a proper ending, I think they'll have finally perfected it.

 

[Phroobar]

They need to make the skeletons talk again.

 

[TROR]

Any time your primary creative goal is to make something that is "not X" (not scary, not offensive, not dated), it's going to be awful. You have to have some kind of positive emotional goal for your work, or you're going to wind up with a half-baked, muddled mess.

This is how Stitch's Great Escapes get made

Good point. They made PotC “not sexist” and now the auction scene sucks.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

But, oh gee, maybe Walt wasn’t “Disney” enough.

We know the Bobs don't think so.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Good point. They made PotC “not sexist” and now the auction scene sucks.

And those same people might be in charge of this "enhancement".

 

[RobWDW1971]

Good point. They made PotC “not sexist” and now the auction scene sucks.

Exactly. The biggest mistake was to not tear out that scene (if they must) and completely start over. What is there now is just embarrassing - pirates bidding for chickens while burning down the rest of the town? Good lord.

 

[Kram Sacul]

I don't fully agree. The ending is laughable and has been a complaint by many if not all for eons.

If they can restructure it to retain a bit of the forest, and the boulder scene, with a proper ending, I think they'll have finally perfected it.

I agree that the ending has always been silly. A proper ending is all it really needs but there’s just not any room for it without screwing up the rest of the ride somehow. Sigh.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I just have no problem with the ending. There's massive resolution to the witch being killed just like at the end of the movie and that's the whole thing since the ride is mainly centered on the, uh, scary adventures, not the little people or Snow White even though they briefly appear. Snow White doesn't even eat the apple in the ride, so what's the point of showing her being revived by a strange man? You know I'm right.