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News Disneyland to give Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride a major facelift in 2020
- Thread starter Communicora
- Start date
waltography
Well-Known Member
The moment the sun rays hit Snow White and the lights burst out of that vignette while the golden age chorale starts singing "Someday My Prince Will Come" is perhaps my new favorite moment in all of the FL dark rides. I don't care how I get there, that sequence is absolutely perfect to me.
PB Watermelon
Well-Known Member
Now bring on the challenge of trying to overhaul Pinocchio, the real problem child of Fantasyland's dark rides. They can save Toad for last, Pinocchio is one of the crown jewels in Disney animation, the ride does it no justice. As soon as they can allocate money for it in the operating budget, get the sledgehammers out.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
A day late with this Halloween related post, but I remembered this particular quote from The Magic Mirror in the 80s TV special Disney's Halloween Treat (recycled from an older, similar episode of Disneyland called "Our Unsung Villains"). Hans Conried's delivery of the following is great, especially in the later special:
"Even in classic fairy tales, it's the villain who gives suspense to the story. Take away the villain and what do you got? Boredom.
Let's take the famous classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Once upon a time there was a little girl who was adopted by seven kindly dwarfs...and they all lived happily ever after. Pretty dull, isn't it?"
That mirror really was magic! Who knew he'd predict Snow White's Enchanted Wish 40 years later? Too bad WDI never watched this.
"Even in classic fairy tales, it's the villain who gives suspense to the story. Take away the villain and what do you got? Boredom.
Let's take the famous classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Once upon a time there was a little girl who was adopted by seven kindly dwarfs...and they all lived happily ever after. Pretty dull, isn't it?"
That mirror really was magic! Who knew he'd predict Snow White's Enchanted Wish 40 years later? Too bad WDI never watched this.
dlr74
Well-Known Member
Have you ridden the ride? The Evil Queen is still very much in the ride. She can be seen peering into the Dwarf’s cottage window. She is seen again in her very own scene at the mirror with the transformation effect, again at her cauldron poisoning the apple. She’s seen a final time being pushed off the cliff at the end before the new Happily Ever After scene. They didn’t remove the villain from the ride at all.
Have you not ridden it? Or do you just like complaining?
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
She's still there, but the drama is gone. Rather than being a ride fleeing from the witch, we see her and then are told to immediately forget about her and enjoy the dwarves. Then remember her, watch a TV mirror under a bridge, watch her die, and then immediately be happy again in this ending that feels both too abrupt and too drawn out. The new ride is souless.
waltography
Well-Known Member
Difference of opinion, I guess, but I hardly think the new iteration is soulless. With Scary Adventures I felt merely whelmed at the end, and I'd only ride it when I had time to kill; the golden age chorale at the end of Enchanted Wish is peak Disney, and I find myself riding it far more often to hear that rendition again.
Dear Prudence
Well-Known Member
Far from soulless. Scary Adventures was in my top 5 Disney attractions, and the refresh is better than the original. I couldn't believe how much I loved it.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
I mean, it’s your right to that opinion, so I respect that… but I think you are way off here.
The ride has been greatly improved.
Dear Prudence
Well-Known Member
And it's still scary. My friend who was literally terrified of the original still won't ride this version of it.
It's just more balanced between scary and beautiful now, with an actual plot now.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
It had a plot before. You're evading the witch. Then she dies. It was tonally consistent with the opening scene's happiness being turned on its head as we discover they are being watched. We try and turn away from the witch's castle and go down the mines which are nicely pretty without being joyous. Then we stumble into her lair, we see too much, and flee for our lives until we are saved. It used to be one of the strongest Fantasyland Dark Rides. Now, its kind of generic and bland. I enjoyed the refresh of Alice, but Snow White went from my #1 to my bottom. It reminds me of the recent Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast dark rides. Pretty, but bland.And it's still scary. My friend who was literally terrified of the original still won't ride this version of it.
dlr74
Well-Known Member
The old version of Snow White was downright embarrassing. It was old, tired, and confusing. The plot, if there even was one, was not at all clear to the average rider.
The new version goes through each step in the actual plot of the Snow White film and resolves with the happy ending it sorely needed. The update took Snow White from the bottom of my list to the top. Alice and Snow White are now my two favorites. I hope they can do Pinocchio the same justice soon.
The new version goes through each step in the actual plot of the Snow White film and resolves with the happy ending it sorely needed. The update took Snow White from the bottom of my list to the top. Alice and Snow White are now my two favorites. I hope they can do Pinocchio the same justice soon.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
That’s not a positive and was deliberately avoided.
Okee68
Well-Known Member
This. Fantasyland dark rides should never be book reports. The best ones use the settings and characters of their respective film while doing something at least mildly original story-wise.
Dear Prudence
Well-Known Member
I love the Pinocchio attraction 
dlr74
Well-Known Member
These are your opinions. Valid ones, but not everyone necessarily agrees. I especially don’t think the average guest agrees. If you’d ask the average guest which version they prefer, I’d almost guarantee they’d all say the new one. Average guests are Disneyland’s target audience, not us.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
The “average guest” is a bumbling idiot who could find his hand based on all of the exercises made based on the “average guest”.
Okee68
Well-Known Member
If you ask me, the most prominent appeal of the Snow White dark ride is that it's always been "the scary one." Ideally, you should be getting lost in a series of cold, atmospheric places; winding through gruesome dungeon corridors populated by tortured skeletons, weaving through a gnarled mess of grasping branches and horrid, monstrous forms in the forest, and venturing through dark, claustrophobic mineshafts about to cave in. And of course, you're escaping the grasp of the mad, bloodthirsty Witch the whole time. It's an incredibly effective way of putting riders into the role of Snow White herself, as well as making for a highly immersive and fun experience.
As long as you have your Peter Pans and your small worlds and a general whimsical atmosphere in Fantasyland, then there's nothing wrong whatsoever with Snow White being a light horror attraction. The only problem is that you can't market that kind of attraction as "Snow White" at all, because that genuinely is misleading. If WDW's 1971 Snow White ride had been called something like "Escape from the Wicked Witch," and had been given appropriate queue theming, we could very well have the pleasure of riding that garish nightmare of an attraction to this day.
As long as you have your Peter Pans and your small worlds and a general whimsical atmosphere in Fantasyland, then there's nothing wrong whatsoever with Snow White being a light horror attraction. The only problem is that you can't market that kind of attraction as "Snow White" at all, because that genuinely is misleading. If WDW's 1971 Snow White ride had been called something like "Escape from the Wicked Witch," and had been given appropriate queue theming, we could very well have the pleasure of riding that garish nightmare of an attraction to this day.